Director

François Ozon

France | 2021 | 113 min | French

• Producer Éric Altmayer, Nicolas Altmayer
• Production Company Mandarin Production
• Screenplay François Ozon
• Cinematography Hichame Alaouie
• Editing Laure Gardette
• Sound Dominique Eyraud, Julien Roig, Jean-Paul Hurier, Charles Michaud, Johann Nallet
• Cast Sophie Marceau, André Dussollier, Charlotte Rampling, Géraldine Pailhas, Grégory Gadebois
• Contacts

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About the Film

An underlying sense of pragmatism runs through François Ozon’s gently moving adaptation of Emmanuele Bernheim’s book about the relationship with her elderly father as she helped him to die. Refusing to lapse into sentimentality, the film is driven by an honest and striking performance by Sophie Marceau as a daughter whose love for her father dictates that she helps him towards death. The fact that the story also acts as a tribute of sorts by François Ozon to his frequent collaborator Bernheim, for whom the film is dedicated and who passed away from cancer in 2017, gives the film additional resonance. Writer Emmanuele (Marceau) is shocked when her aging father André (André Dussollier) has a stroke, with the medical opinion that he will never properly recover and is due for a long hospital stay. She and her sister Pascale (Géraldine Pailhas) visit him, but André takes Emmanuele aside to tell her that he wants her help to end his life. She assumes he will change his mind, but he insists that it’s his final decision. Ozon fleshes out the backstory through staged flashbacks, which offer insight into Emmanuele’s relationship with her father and mother Claude (Charlotte Rampling). Claude has Parkinson’s and very little love for her husband, possibly because André is gay and his behaviour seemingly often hurts his family. Emmanuele starts looking into legal euthanasia, and their dark journey together offers room for insight and gentle drama as his decision takes its toll on everyone. Dussollier is suitably grumpy and determined in the role, while Marceau exudes stoical patience as she does her very best to deal with her belligerent father. When anyone gets emotional given the situation; he simply says “no crybabies” which very much reflects Ozon’s desire to keep his film from mawkishness and emotion. It is a tough call, naturally, as audiences will bring their own feelings and reflections with them, but it means the film is always balanced and gently moving.

Mark Adams