Alles ist gutgegangen

"Everything Went Well" is a feature film by French director Francois Ozon, which premiered in July 2021 at the Cannes Film Festival. The main roles in the film were played by Sophie Marceau, Hannah Shigulla and Charlotte Rampling.

The screenplay of the film is based on the novel by Emmanuel Bernheim. The central characters are two women (one of them is a famous writer) who find out that their father is terminally ill and wants to commit euthanasia The beginning of work on the film became known in March 2020. Francois Ozon wrote the script of the film himself , filming began at the end of 2020. The premiere took place at the Cannes Film Festival in July 2021,the film will be released in wide distribution in France on September 22, 2021.

"Everything went well" is another film by one of the recognized masters of European cinema, Francois Ozon. The film is based on the autobiographical novel by French writer Emmanuelle Bername. The film is based on the family story of a woman whose elderly father, a well-known art collector who was half paralyzed after a stroke, asks his daughter to help him pass away. However, since euthanasia is prohibited in France, it is not so easy to do what you have planned. And some of the hero's relatives are extremely negative about his decision.

Despite the rather serious topic and the declared genre of drama, the picture looks much easier than you expect at first. The main reason for this is the personality of the main character - the elderly Andre, who was brilliantly played by 75-year-old Andre Dussollier. Not the most positive husband and father, with a stubborn and selfish character, the hero does not always cause sympathy - despite the severity of the situation in which he found himself. You sympathize more with his family members - two daughters (played by Sophie Marceau and Geraldine Paya), for whom the fulfillment of the father's wish is fraught with possible legal problems and is associated with difficult moral responsibility. And also their mother (played by Charlotte Rampling), who suffers from Parkinson's disease, for whom marriage with Andre turned out to be a complete failure. After all, the hero of the film, on top of everything else, is also an open homosexual.

However, despite the complicated family relationships of all four, Francois Ozon does not seek to deeply explore the past of the heroes. There are several episodes in the film dedicated to the youth of the heroine, played by Sophie Marceau- but they look more like random memories or hints to the viewer, which can be interpreted in different ways. Ultimately, the director is more interested in the present, not the past. And the story shown in the film is, first of all, about what can wait for some of us or our parents in old age, about human choice and how this choice affects the closest ones. A magnificent acting ensemble, tragicomic situations in which the characters sometimes get into, witty dialogues and a very dynamic narrative for such films make the picture of Ozone quite interesting for the general public. At the same time, it's not worth waiting for something outstanding from this tape. There are a lot of bureaucratic details related to the process of euthanasia, a fairly predictable plot development and probably not the characters closest to Russian viewers. Nevertheless, Ozone in his film tells about the elite stratum of French society: the main character is a writer, her husband is a film critic, her father is a collector and businessman, her mother is a sculptor, her sister is a musician. The life of the heroes, despite some family grievances, is generally quite prosperous and secured. And therefore death does not look so terrible. No wonder, in one of the episodes, Andre, having found out how much you need to pay for the procedure of passing away, involuntarily asks a question: "Then how do the poor die?" "Oh, Dad, they're just waiting," the daughter replies.

Restrained in emotions, quite simple, but not devoid of touching and memorable moments, the story should appeal to those who love a calm, vital movie, and fans of Francois Ozon's work. In general, this is a well-made picture with a well-thought-out script, decent camerawork and excellent performance by all actors without exception.