This is very sad movie that you have to see in a appropriate time of the day. This is very quiet film although its story is about death and illness. But nevertheless, it is full with love and soft human feelings that are seem to be the remedy for all the bitterness and problems of the humanity everywhere. Russian immigrant come to a end his life in a hostel and met there an art teacher who help to the crew, in the house, to treat the patients.She,also,has her own private problems' after her husband died in Paris. The strong feeling you get after the sad end of this little movie is what one of the old lady explain her nephew: "the death is not an ending, but like a little ship that going far away. you never see the ship again but you know she is there".
4 Reviews
There's a lot of good things you can say about this film
jaapparqui19 April 2003
There are a lot of good things you can say a bout this movie. The subject - the impossible love of a dying person - is important and not so common in film. The film is told in a slow but not in a dull pace. The emotions are present but stay below the surface and therefore never become sentimental. But despite of that, the film failed to move me. Why? I really don't know. Maybe it's the predictability of the story. From the very beginning you know those two people will love each other and this love will be impossible. Or maybe it's just missing this magic thing that some films seem to have and others don't.
Very uncommon film
shatguintruo22 January 2008
Warning: Spoilers
"C'est la vie" is one of these films that touches deep in our hearts from beginning to end. What can be expected when a person is undeceived by Medicine? When the word "HOPE" becomes just a Dictionary's description? With no sense to the rest of this person's life? The story is summarized in a "Maison" ("House") where are reunited people in the same conditions of the main character (Dimitri), portrayed with vivid intensity by Jacques Dutronc. By his side, accompanying him, we find Suzane, young mother who decided to offer part of her time in assistance of terminal patients interned in that institution, portrayed by Sandrine Bonnaire. Jean-Pierre Améris, the Director, takes the spectator to face an astounding contrast: one full of life - Suzane - versus the bitter Dimitri. However, she manages to lift Dimitri's spirit, taking him to situations where the roles are inverted, such as that small plane's flight which he pilots himself and then for a few seconds he loses conscience... In the end of that "madness" Dimitri says something like: "Now you've seen what it feels like to fear dying..." Poignant movie - NOT for the average spectator - in which we are given a truthful learning on how to treat people, relatives or not, in a terminal phase of life. In a scale of 1 to 10, I vote: 8 (excellent).
Good drama to watch with your retired parents
evgueny13 April 2002
Wow, it seems like I am going to be the first to comment on this movie... Well, I saw it in Los Angeles and it was followed by the meeting with the director Jean-Pierre Améris. In a middle of this meeting, the French interpreter suddenly broke into the tears and quit. Do I sound like it is a depressing film? Actually, it is not a miserable morbid melodrama, when you may take it to the heart as long as you watch it, but you forget it after it is over and go home happy. Instead of playing the traditional role of the cinema as a total escape from reality, C'est La Vie is inevitably perceived as a story of your own life. The screenplay, the direction and acting are very good and by the way, there were excellent amateur actors playing in this movie and some of them must have already passed away... Life consists of years, days and seconds - and you don't want to waste time. If you spend a couple of hours of your life on this drama, you will feel like it was worth it!
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