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Tout s'est bien passé (2021)
"Everything Went Well"
"Everything Went Well" is a feature film by French director Francois Ozon, which premiered in July 2021 at the Cannes Film Festival. The main roles in the film were played by Sophie Marceau, Hannah Shigulla and Charlotte Rampling.
The screenplay of the film is based on the novel by Emmanuel Bernheim. The central characters are two women (one of them is a famous writer) who find out that their father is terminally ill and wants to commit euthanasia
The beginning of work on the film became known in March 2020. Francois Ozon wrote the script of the film himself , filming began at the end of 2020. The premiere took place at the Cannes Film Festival in July 2021,the film will be released in wide distribution in France on September 22, 2021.
"Everything went well" is another film by one of the recognized masters of European cinema, Francois Ozon. The film is based on the autobiographical novel by French writer Emmanuelle Bername. The film is based on the family story of a woman whose elderly father, a well-known art collector who was half paralyzed after a stroke, asks his daughter to help him pass away. However, since euthanasia is prohibited in France, it is not so easy to do what you have planned. And some of the hero's relatives are extremely negative about his decision.
Despite the rather serious topic and the declared genre of drama, the picture looks much easier than you expect at first. The main reason for this is the personality of the main character - the elderly Andre, who was brilliantly played by 75-year-old Andre Dussollier. Not the most positive husband and father, with a stubborn and selfish character, the hero does not always cause sympathy - despite the severity of the situation in which he found himself. You sympathize more with his family members - two daughters (played by Sophie Marceau and Geraldine Paya), for whom the fulfillment of the father's wish is fraught with possible legal problems and is associated with difficult moral responsibility. And also their mother (played by Charlotte Rampling), who suffers from Parkinson's disease, for whom marriage with Andre turned out to be a complete failure. After all, the hero of the film, on top of everything else, is also an open homosexual.
However, despite the complicated family relationships of all four, Francois Ozon does not seek to deeply explore the past of the heroes. There are several episodes in the film dedicated to the youth of the heroine, played by Sophie Marceau- but they look more like random memories or hints to the viewer, which can be interpreted in different ways. Ultimately, the director is more interested in the present, not the past. And the story shown in the film is, first of all, about what can wait for some of us or our parents in old age, about human choice and how this choice affects the closest ones. A magnificent acting ensemble, tragicomic situations in which the characters sometimes get into, witty dialogues and a very dynamic narrative for such films make the picture of Ozone quite interesting for the general public. At the same time, it's not worth waiting for something outstanding from this tape. There are a lot of bureaucratic details related to the process of euthanasia, a fairly predictable plot development and probably not the characters closest to Russian viewers. Nevertheless, Ozone in his film tells about the elite stratum of French society: the main character is a writer, her husband is a film critic, her father is a collector and businessman, her mother is a sculptor, her sister is a musician. The life of the heroes, despite some family grievances, is generally quite prosperous and secured. And therefore death does not look so terrible. No wonder, in one of the episodes, Andre, having found out how much you need to pay for the procedure of passing away, involuntarily asks a question: "Then how do the poor die?" "Oh, Dad, they're just waiting," the daughter replies.
Restrained in emotions, quite simple, but not devoid of touching and memorable moments, the story should appeal to those who love a calm, vital movie, and fans of Francois Ozon's work. In general, this is a well-made picture with a well-thought-out script, decent camerawork and excellent performance by all actors without exception.
Silent Night (2021)
"Silent Night"
"Silent Night" was filmed on the now popular theme of the apocalypse, but the genre is not so much fiction as a tragicomedy with a rather vague plot and not the most pleasant characters. There are few funny episodes in the film, drama too - but there are a lot of verbal fights, profanity
Production began in January 2020, it became known that Camille Griffin will direct the film (her directorial debut), and Keira Knightley, Roman Griffin Davis, Matthew Goode and Annabelle Wallis will take part in it. The following month, they were joined by Lily-Rose Depp, Kirby Howell-Baptist, David Mackenzie, Sope Dirisu, Rufus Jones and Lucy Punch; filming began on February 17. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 16, 2021. The film premiered in the United States and the United Kingdom on December 3, 2021.
A kind of Christmas movie. There is little romance and sweetness here, but there is a strong reason to think about what is most likely waiting for the planet. The motto of the film could be the phrase of the hero of the film, a little boy - "Greta warned!".
University friends, rich, successful and beautiful, gather in a country house with one of them to celebrate Christmas. It all starts as an ordinary family drama, when close people gather at a large dining table and old grievances, quarrels, etc. Begin to emerge. But soon the audience is waiting for an interesting twist that will shift all the accents of the film.
Excellent actors (even Lily Rose-Depp is very organic and natural in her role), there are funny moments, but first of all there is sadness from understanding that most likely everything will happen like this, by some kind of global and rapid cataclysm, which everyone knew and talked about, but did not do anything in the hope that it would not happen soon, but it just came.
But "Silent Night" rests on the fact that it is always worth behaving in a human way. This is especially important even on the threshold of Armageddon. After all, what is the point in various conspiracy theories, insults, omissions, if you have to take the last pill in the evening? Why is that. We just have to pay our last debt to our loved ones and the old world, which is dying right before our eyes. And it's better to do it humanly.
Along with these aspects, you get into the characters of the film, which are decently revealed here, showing the common ambiguity of people and how they can change quickly realizing that today is their last Christmas.
But, not everything turned out exactly. The work with a whole bunch of heroes was carried out with dignity and confidence. But, there are irregularities in the characters, inappropriate too comedic notes slip through. Directing sometimes doesn't keep up. The abundance of matyugs can be on the ears.
In the film there are a great many explicit and hidden arguments characteristic of post-apocalyptic films. Is it worth believing the government, is it worth stopping fighting for life, and is it worth giving up a more or less humane escape from disaster, for the sake of a ghostly prospect, it is unclear what?
These thoughts were clearly written out and voiced through the characters; they were conducted through different situations, for example, related to unusual family troubles that became critically important due to the catastrophe of the whole world.
However, they visibly led to an inappropriate unexpected feint at the end, which, due to the unevenness of the film in some places, looks nothing. There is no unexpected confirmation of the guesses of one of the heroes of the film, nor evil irony designed to plunge you into the abyss of despair and darkness. The preparation for the final twist of the plot was poorly carried out.