To deal with the dying process without being maudlin or falling into cliches is a feat to be lauded in itself. This film not only accomplishes this, in my view, but demonstrates how redeemed filial love and the deep affection of friends can bring profound meaning to a dying man who has spent a lifetime of philandering and self-deprecation.
Denys Arcaud is a writer/director of no small proportion. While those on the political far left criticize the shallowness of the comments of the dying professor and his friends relative to the "isms" and lost ideologies of the world...there are undertones in these comments of a much larger consideration, a humanity that has a universal reach beyond, that recognizes that there are no hard and fast solutions to the socio/economic ills of the world..but willing to grant the need to continue searching. Even the wealth and privilege of the professor's son, who brings his father benefits beyond the medical deprivations of an underfunded system point subtly to the unfairness, to the need for such benefits to be available to all. For some these sophisticated people are smug or cynical. To me they are flawed people in a flawed world & I found them provocative and a cut above the usual pap. Their talk of sex expresses a fundamental life-force in the presence of death.
The performances on the whole are fine & convincing. Marie-Josee Croze was deservedly singled out for an award at Cannes.
Rarely have I seen a more human, more rewarding film.
Denys Arcaud is a writer/director of no small proportion. While those on the political far left criticize the shallowness of the comments of the dying professor and his friends relative to the "isms" and lost ideologies of the world...there are undertones in these comments of a much larger consideration, a humanity that has a universal reach beyond, that recognizes that there are no hard and fast solutions to the socio/economic ills of the world..but willing to grant the need to continue searching. Even the wealth and privilege of the professor's son, who brings his father benefits beyond the medical deprivations of an underfunded system point subtly to the unfairness, to the need for such benefits to be available to all. For some these sophisticated people are smug or cynical. To me they are flawed people in a flawed world & I found them provocative and a cut above the usual pap. Their talk of sex expresses a fundamental life-force in the presence of death.
The performances on the whole are fine & convincing. Marie-Josee Croze was deservedly singled out for an award at Cannes.
Rarely have I seen a more human, more rewarding film.