Éternité

A family saga. Or rather an inventory of births and deaths of a family spawning close to 200 descendants in the present day. It really feels like a succession from the birth and death records, the movie is filled with narration, much more so than actual dialogue between the characters.

It also idealizes motherhood, pregnancy and matrimonial love to a point that becomes uncomfortable and difficult to swallow. These women have arranged marriages, but somehow are very lucky to find genuine love with their husbands. They also experience multiple pregnancies and miscarriages and children dying very young. This is why we need contraception people. But I'm sure this is not what Tran is trying to tell us. In fact I am not sure what he is trying to tell us at all. The only thing you can always be certain about with him is stunning cinematography. And yes, everything looks gorgeous, from the period sets, the interiors, the costumes, the hairstyles, the framing to that garden where whole generations of new children play and young love is born.

It also helps that despite a lot of women becoming widows there are no financial concerns whatsoever, so this is clearly an upper middle-class family with incoming revenues and a leisurely lifestyle, but surprisingly there is no nanny in sight. These women are perfect mothers able to devote themselves to up to 7 children a piece. Well, we've clearly regressed as women since then judging by these superhuman mothers here.