This story could be compelling but it is not. More than ever by Emily Alef celebrates life and love by focusing on the last moments of a couple played by Vicky Krieps and Gaspard Ulliel, for whom this is the last film with Coma by Bertrand Bonello also in theaters this week. “I would like us not to come out of the screening feeling dejected,” explains the director to 20 minutes. Admittedly, it is sad to be suffering from an incurable disease at 33, but it is important to discuss the subject of the end of life with those close to you. »
This story of love and death, discovered this year in Cannes, chooses an original point of view: that of a young woman who decides to leave her husband in order to go alone to Norway to face what awaits her. “We are all faced with the death of a loved one one day or another, insists the director of 3 days in Quiberon and The stranger in me. I became interested in this subject at a very young age when I lost pets and understood that they were trying to get away from us to die. »
A matter of choice
It is the difficult choice that the heroine of the film makes, a decision that her husband accepts badly. “We humans can have the same desire, that of leaving alone, with dignity and we never talk about it, it’s taboo”, specifies the filmmaker. The young woman’s desire for freedom is carried by a vibrant Vicky Krieps in the face of the hostility of her overly caring entourage. “It’s amazing the violence that we inflict on the dying,” insists Emily Atef. The arrogance of healthy people hides under a form of benevolence that shocks me. They decide on their own that the sick person should stay with them and call them selfish if they rebel and want to decide on their end of life. »
In Norway, the young woman sympathizes with another dying, older, whom she met on the Internet. Their platonic and powerful relationship gives them a burst of life that also thrills the viewer. Like the neglected spouse, he ends up understanding that the best proof of love is sometimes to let people go. “For me, birth and death are moments that we live alone,” says Emily Atef. More than ever illustrates this idea with as much modesty as force.