Sous le Sable

Web Therapy is hilarious.

I saw the traumatic event in the movie as being somewhat displaced. One would think that it would be at the beginning when Jean goes missing and it is implied that he is dead. While Marie is clearly stricken by this we do not see her grieve or really react in any way. She goes home and goes back to her life. She is in denial and won't accept that he is dead because that makes it easier for her to deal with the pain. As long as there was no solid evidence that he was dead, she was able to pretend that everything was fine and he was still around.

The truly traumatic event, for Marie, comes when she asks to see the distorted body they find in the fisherman's net. The visual effect traumatizes Marie, partially because of it's horrific nature but also because it is evidence that Jean is truly dead. Although she cannot recognize his face, it is more than likely that by looking at the body she had to realize that it was him. The body destroys her defense mechanism because she can't deny it anymore. And yet she does. When she sees the swimming trunks and watch, she claims that the watch is not his so this cannot possibly be her husbands body. In all likelihood it is his watch and now she is blatantly lying to herself about the situation. Whether or not she admits it, she knows now that he is really dead and this is when she finally breaks down.