“If you want to be his friend, help him.” Even when it comes to helping his father die? Everything went well by François Ozon adapts the
delivered by Emmanuèle Bernheim where the novelist told how her sister and she supported their father, suffering from an incurable disease, in his desire to go to Switzerland to end it.
This beautiful film presented at the Cannes Film Festival manages not to be overwhelming despite its painful subject. “Emmanuèle Bernheim was my friend, explains François Ozon to 20 minutes. I wanted us to find his life force in the film. This is why it was absolutely necessary that the treatment remains luminous. “
Sophie Marceau plays the novelist who collaborated as a screenwriter with the filmmaker for Swimming Pool (2003), 5X2 (2004) and Ricky (2009). Between
André Dussollier as a tyrannical daddy half paralyzed after a stroke and
Geraldine Pailhas in the role of her sister, the actress radiates the film paying a vibrant tribute to the writer who died of cancer in 2017.
A family affair
“What interested me in this true story is not only the theme of assisted suicide, explains François Ozon. Above all, I tell a love story between a father who is not always comfortable and his daughters who have to deal with his character. Humor often points its nose in their reports because the fact of being physically diminished does not prevent this man from being able to be charming and authoritarian or even in absolute bad faith. He goes so far as to claim that his daughters want to get rid of him in front of a family member shocked by euthanasia.
There are also touching moments when the heroine keeps a sandwich with the mark of her father’s teeth or during the farewell of the dad, who did not hide his homosexuality, to his last lover embodied by the always impeccable. Gregory Gabebois. “The book was also strong of these changes of tone that I wanted to transmit to the film, specifies the director. What the father undertakes is not sad: it is a choice he makes freely. So the story clearly takes a stand in his favor with as much vigor as modesty. The end almost has the air of suspense as the spectator hopes that he will achieve his ends.
Invite to debate
“I would like the spectator to leave the room wondering about life, death and what he would do if he were in the place of the characters,” insists the director. This is one of the great qualities of Everything went well than to invite debate without ever falling into the slightest melodramatic effect.