Film Review
Like so many highly respected auteur filmmakers before her, Mia Hansen-Løve
served a term as a critic on the Cahiers du cinéma before embarking
on her own career as a film director. With two promising short films
under her belt -
Après mûre réflexion (2003) and
Offre Spéciale (2005) - she made her feature debut with
Tout
est pardonné, a gently captivating portrait of the reconciliation
of an estranged father and daughter. With her first film, Hansen-Løve
shows a sensitivity for her subject that betrays a profound understanding
of human relationships, the very quality that will make her a supremely adept
chronicler of the human condition in subsequent films, most notably her highly
acclaimed
Le Père de
mes enfants (2009) and
L'Avenir
(2016).
Tout est pardonné is a modest film that deals with a fairly
banal subject, but in a way that is blisteringly direct and humane.
Tacitly avoiding the kind of forced emotionality and tiresome histrionic
excess that have marred similar films in recent years, Hansen-Løve
focusses on the essentials and imbues her film with a delicacy of feeling
that compels us to sympathise with each of the protagonists in this all too
familiar tale of relationship breakdown and nervous reconciliation.
Understated performances from the three lead actors - Paul Blain, Marie-Christine
Friedrich and Constance Rousseau - strengthened by Hansen-Løve's sensitive
writing and unobtrusive but incredibly effective mise-en-scène, allow
us to see the family trauma from three contrasting angles and appreciate
the full extent of the emotional crises that ensue. Heartwarming but
never slushy, meaningful without seeming intellectually contrived,
Tout
est pardonné is an extraordinary work for a first time director.
It was a worthy recipient of the Prix Louis-Delluc for first feature
in 2007, revealing a talented new auteur filmmaker of immense charm and power.
© James Travers 2007
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Film Synopsis
In the mid-1990s, Victor, a journalist, lives with his partner, Anette, and
their six-year-old daughter, Pamela, in Vienna. Their life together
is far from idyllic and gradually the couple find they are drifting apart.
Bored to distraction by his lacklustre career as a writer, Victor abandons
his work and spends his empty hours in idle pursuits, frittering away the
little money he has on futile pleasures. Despite the gulf that is opening
up between them, Annette still remains attached to her husband and is confident
that when they move to Paris things will improve for them both. It
soon becomes apparent that Annette is once again deluding herself.
The couple have barely been in France a few months before Victor is back
to his old ways, taking drugs and failing to keep up with his work.
By this stage there can be no doubt that the relationship is over.
The couple end up rowing ferociously and Victor moves in with a drug addict
he has taken a fancy to. Unable to take any more, Annette walks out
on her husband, taking her little daughter with her. For the next eleven
years, the estranged husband and wife hear nothing of each other. Now,
Pamela is 17 and is living in Paris with her mother. By chance, she
discovers that her father is in the neighbourhood. How can she resist
seeing him again...?
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.