Word: patricias
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...first dinner with in-laws, she trips up on questions about vineyard:-- that she studied in California with her late husband--about his work, about how they met. "I was staring down into the Grand Canyon when he touched me on the shoulder." She stammers trying to recall what Patricia had said on the train."...no, we were in an art gallery: he didn't like it much...", after which she rushes out, in tears, before the baffled in-laws...
...usurper, named Helene. As in Guerre, she starts out as the victim--this time, eight months pregnant, abandoned on the roadside by a villainous boyfriend. Desperate, Helene invests what money she has in a ticket to "the train to the sun," on the train she meets another pregnant woman. Patricia Meyrand and her husband, who are on their way to meet his parents in Bordeaux Loud, kind, and as aggressive as Helene is retiring. Patricia tries to look out for the abandoned woman, regaling her with memories of California--"Where dames take no guff"--and tales of the in-laws...
...next thing Helene knows, she wakes up in a hospital ward. The train has been derailed, the Meyrands killed, and Helene become mother to a healthy boy. What is more. Helene soon learns that she, found asleep in the Meyrands compartment, has been mistaken for Patricia. The old M Meyrand, obviously wealthy, infinitely benevolent, and accompanied by Pierre, a handsome, younger son, shows up to invite the new Patricia--Helene to join the family at its Chateau. At first adamant about recovering her identity. Helene begins to waver: there is, after all, nowhere else for her to go--the scheme...
...Helene-Patricia makes the switch from rags to riches, settling down among people and sweeping scenery of enormous charm, we find it hard to believe she will be able to pull it oft. She is, it seems, simply too vulnerable, sweet, and above all, guileless, to survive under the circumstances...
...later scene, the Meyrands are posing for baby Bernard's baptismal picture when Helene herself gets confused about her identity. Near the photograph session, a group of schoolchildren is playing. Suddenly, a teacher calls out "Helene" to one of them and Helene-Patricia automatically swirls around. Pierre casts a cryptic stare...