C'est la vie (2001)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Améris

Film Review

With his fourth full-length film, director Jean-Pierre Améris broaches a sensitive and thought-provoking subject - how we should live when we know that our time is nearly up.  Sensibly, Améris eschews mawkish sentimentality for realism, and so, whilst the film's uncompromising approach makes it at times painful to watch, it does leave a profound impact and does cause the spectator to reflect on his own mortality and on the value of life.   The film was shot in a real hospice, whose residents (some in the last stages of a terminal illness) made up much of the supporting cast.

The film's power lies in the quality of its performances.  Lead actors Jacques Dutronc and Sandrine Bonnaire bring truth and genuine pathos to a film which might otherwise have been almost too austere and depressing to watch.  Contrary to what you may think, the film is not about dying.  It is more about how we should make the best use of the little time we have - looking out in wonder at the beauty of a sunset, rejoicing in the untidy companionship of others, or relishing the thrill of a romance.  C'est la vie is not a sad film, but rather a strangely uplifting one. Améris would touch an emotional nerve with his next two films, Je m'appelle Elisabeth (2006) and Les Émotifs anonymes (2010).

Film Synopsis

Dimitri is not yet fifty when he is diagnosed with an incurable disease.  Reluctantly, he gives up his comfortable home in Marseille and takes up residence in a hospice, where he will live out the last few weeks that remain to him.   The presence of so many sick and dying people around him makes it hard for Dimitri to want to stay, and sometimes the urge to run away is overwhelming.  On one of his flights he meets Suzanne, a young volunteer helper who persuades him to return with her to the hospice.  Suzanne has her own share of grief to contend with.  It isn't that long ago that her husband died prematurely.  She forms an instant bond with Dimitri, who has no one else to take an interest in him, having lost touch with his wife and son.   As Dimitri's illness starts to take its toll he realises how precious life is and he begins to make friends with the hospice's other residents.  He suddenly acquires a new zest for living...