User reviews

A tour-de-force by Eddie Marsan, in the quietest possible way. This is a poignant, thoughtful look at a man out of step with the modern world, who still holds to the (outdated) values of treating others with dignity and respect, in their last journey. He plays a British civil servant whose job is to organise funerals for those who have died alone, and locate their friends/relatives to advise them of their bereavement. After 22 years, he still pursues each new case with understated vigour, diligently seeking out anyone who may have had a connection to the deceased, but often being the sole attendant at the funeral.

It is a beautifully filmed slice-of-life on the themes of loneliness, loss and the disconnection of human beings in modern urban life. Marsan's performance is very authentic and affecting, and one is drawn in by his compassion and humanity. But then his Council decides it is inefficient - as a cost-cutting measure, you understand - to maintain his job, as "once they're dead, they don't care"... Marsan, battling till his final day in the face of bureaucratic indifference, finds some genuine connections and a ray of hope appears on his horizon...

This movie had lots of small moments of humour - a scene with two homeless men, and another with a Corrections officer are subtly amusing. But mostly, it is a thought-provoking homage to our humanity, and a reminder that social contacts with those we care for, are often the most positive, important and joyous moments of our lives. The movie sneaks up on you, and reaches into your soul, and I will remember it for a long time.

This is a movie that centers on loneliness and living a passive, uneventful life. The setting of the story is a bit unusual but simple, so what makes the movie interesting is the exaggerated sensibility of the main character. The main character is so compassionate and pitiful at the same time that viewers can't help caring about him and wanting to know what happens to him. The acting from all cast is convincing, the main actor especially did a superb job. The movie is slow paced but the mood is so nicely built that I didn't feel bored, on the contrary, I was amazed by the small details and the directors' sensitivity. There are many beautiful still shots of very ordinary things throughout the movie, like the title of the movie suggests. Some scenes are so pathetically real that they become funny. It is overall a good movie and it makes you want to do something about all the loneliness there is in the world.

A great movie about discipline, responsibility and the importance of performing at your best whatever task you have to carry out. An important message in times of complain, protest and nihilism. The director powerfully uses images more and better than the dialogue. In this respect, he stands aside the great masters of the past (one name: Alfred Hitchcock, quite explicitly quoted in the movie) and won't fail to please all the true movie lovers. All actors are great, but it is the compassionate eye of the director that wins the scene. The soundtrack is also adding to the atmosphere and does its job remarkably well. Should I add that I truly enjoyed this little masterpiece?

For me this was a film of two halves. The first half is setting the mood and pace. The music is lilting and swirls around the slow, deliberate focus on the lead charactor. This film is about attention to detail and compassion. What we are reminded of is how what may seem pointless or insignificant can be the a life's work for others. We are reminded of loneliness and contemplation. Our own families, connections and purpose. We follow John May in his journey, and we feel his heart.

About halfway through the emotion starts to build. The whimsical desperation of uncovering truth and trying to reach broken hearts and broken families. The stories that lie behind every person. The layers of charactor and how they present, to some a scoundrel to others a saint.

Finally, as the end of the movie approached, I cried.

Actually, I sobbed.

What was initially just something in my eye turned into streams of tears.

Although it could've stomped on my heart less, I loved the attention to detail, the acting and the cinematography. This film is one to remember for many reasons.

This is a great film, absorbing from start to finish. The lead actor Eddie Marsan (playing John May) is outstanding.

Let me first say that this is not a comedy. It has a dark theme, loneliness and death. May works for the council and his delightful job is to track down relatives of people who have died alone. Sometimes though these people die alone for a good reason and so May is often the sole attendee at the funeral. May is so compassionate that he tries to replace the missing family and friends by writing obituaries based on what he finds at the deceased 's residence. It's really touching and sincere. May himself is also a bit of a loner. The scenes of how people live and the way they talk about each other is beautifully done and so English - fish and chip shops, the pub, the banter with old colleagues of victims. Marsan is just superb. The other characters are minor compared to him but still make excellent contributions (Jumbo makes a few serious comments about war, Mary in the chip shop helps us see a better side of a tough guy, the same guy's daughter gives us another view again). I really like the way the story develops and found the ending very satisfying and fitting. Go see it.

Inherent in the very title of the film Still Life lies its biggest challenge – how to convey a sense of stillness in a medium that by its very name is supposed to, yes, move. And yet, Uberto Pasolini, who wrote and directed Still Life, rivals the Flemish masters of old. What a triumph. What layers of plot intertwined with those images to tell the story of a man who will break your heart a thousand times in each still life moment he creates in his very, very, very deliberate life. I am grateful to have seen this movie.

I named some of the still life images that were seared in my mind. Man in Kitchen with Plate on Drainboard. Man at Bus Stop… Alone. Safe Office Prison. Happy Death. Train Ride with Meat Pie. They go on and on. Two Drunks on Steps. Each and every scene is a moving still life that speaks to a life of safe deliberation that turns to moving outside the net of safety, that is punishable by death. We all know the dangers of leaving safe plodding behind. Those moments outside the box of life's monotony will be worth it in the end – and they were.

The acting is perfection. I'm sure even Lucian Freud would want to paint the actors Pasolini gathered for this film. How can we thank Eddie Marsan for bringing Mr. May to life with such dignity, charm and humor? Does he utter more than fifty words in the entire film? I don't think so, and yet, I heard his voice through the entire showing. And, Joanne Froggatt, (yes, from Downton Abbey), gifts us with a portrayal of Kelly Stoke that is the perfect answer to Marsan's May.

I have to confess when I went to the film I didn't realize that Pasolini was the producer of The Full Monty, The Emperor's New Clothes, and The Closer You Get. Producer? No way. Stick with writing and directing, sir. You are surely one of the best in the business.

Death will come to us all. It is our hope that we never die alone, with no one to celebrate our lives afterward. In fact, few of us think about those that do die without anyone to put them to rest. Still Life will change a lot of things for you if you can take it in as if it were a museum tour of a great exhibit. I think it's a 'see it more than once' film for sure. And yes, forgive the pun, it is an incredibly moving experience.

This might be The Hampton Film Festival's best sleeper this year. Congratulations. Oh, and thank you.

"Still Life" (2013) (UK, Italy), expertly written, directed and produced by Uberto Pasolini, tells an exquisite, rather poignant story about John May (excellently played by Eddie Marsan in his minimal, but distinguished and moving portrayal of this superficially emotionless, seemingly lonely, occasionally humorous character), a Londoner--living his life of, as it appears to be, not so uncommon solitude within multitude of UK's most populous capital--who is a funeral officer. If somebody dies and there's no obvious close relative, friend or anybody who knows the deceased, the funeral officer steps in and finds out as much as possible about the departed. Funeral officer is, literally, a detective for the dead, deceased, departed.

In greater remainder of this review I'm letting the two most powerful creative forces behind the movie, director, writer and producer, Uberto Pasolini, and leading actor, Eddie Marsan, express their views, expertise whatsoever, on the subject in certainly well inspired words taken from their interviews included in additional features of the film's DVD edition.

As the one who's been working on the project a good number of years, Uberto Pasolini elaborates extensively: "I did read an article about funeral officers or people who work for local councils and are in charge of finding the relatives of people who have died alone, and in the absence of relatives they take charge of the funeral arrangements. What struck me was the idea that there are, literally, in this country thousands of funerals every year that are not attended by anybody. Many of the people who do this job, organize funerals and do attend the funeral of their clients. But some people are so busy, or so distracted by other problems in their work, that they arrange the ceremony but then do not attend. And therefore, you have churches, chapels, crematoria where coffin is alone, and, furthermore, if coffin is buried in a funeral, nobody is around it, nobody is there to witness the last moment on earth of the person in question. And... the thing that struck me more than anything else was this image of a grave, a forgotten grave, a grave abandoned, a grave that has seen no one around it at any point, the idea that there's somebody there under that mound of earth, but there was nobody there to witness that passage from life to death. And... it really did strike a very powerful cord, the idea that in a society like ours, and in most western societies in fact, people can not only be forgotten in life, but, even more so, forgotten in death. And the idea that there are people who are in charge of those lost moments, and how some of these people can handle their work with humanity, with the sense of the value of the individual, with the sense of the importance of every single life, in spite of the fact that they know very often very, very little about the life of the person who has died. And I was fortunate enough to meet some of the people in London who do this job... and indeed they did have that extraordinary sense of value of lives forgotten... They had a sense of the importance of every single life, no matter how little impact it seemed to have had on the world around them... At the end of the day it provided me with an excuse to make a film about loneliness, a film about solitude and loneliness in particular. A film about how, in general, we can be alone in a big city, but in particular many people end their lives, and not unfortunately always as old people, but sometimes young people, too, end their lives without any form of communication with the outside world, forgotten, forgotten by the system, forgotten by their relatives, forgotten by people who, you would consider, could've been their friends, and die alone... I was not particularly interested in witnessing the death of somebody alone - I think that is the corollary to our story - but I was interested in telling how often this happens, and in showing how our society has arrived at a situation where people fall through the cracks and are literally forgotten.

So, it is a film about loneliness, but it's also film about, to me, the importance of every single life... The fact that lives are forgotten, the fact that people are forgotten, does not mean that, first of all they should be, and secondly that even in lives that are forgotten, at the end of their journeys, those lives have had an impact on people, the world, society, individuals... along their course.

... As a portrait of our society... it is very damning portrait in... the notion that our world enables us to forget individuals, to allow people to have no communication with the outside world, to allow people to become so isolated that at the moment of death they are alone, and after the moment of death they remain alone... that is terrible indictment to our society...

... Whether the story is compelling or not I'll leave (to) others to decide... The way I made it compelling to myself is to turn the issue of loneliness in to a personal story, and... the central character, who is himself a lonely character, who is himself the kind of character that could end up not only dying alone, but being buried... with nobody present at the funeral has a lot of me. And I'm not suggesting that I'm alone... but... one questions oneself how close relationships are, how truthful they are, how long lasting those relationships are, how meaningful your presence is to the people that are around you throughout your life. And... to me the notion of loneliness in life and loneliness in death are very much linked in the story, and therefore, our central character, the central character we have created, is character who in his own life is a very lonely man, he's a man who doesn't feel the loneliness, doesn't know about how to live a fuller life, a complete life, a life of relationships, a life of interchange between the personal and the work that he has. He dedicates his whole life to his work, and if he has a family, then his family is made up of his clients, the dead people he ends up burying and at whose funerals he's always, always the only person present. And he dedicates not only his time and his efforts to the lives of his dead clients, but also his emotional life and his imagination, he attempts at creating, recreating ideas, notions of the lives of the dead by the small fragments of lives... that he witnesses in the places of their death, in the places of their life, where they were living when they were found dead. And he writes eulogies for these people, for the priests, for the celebrants to read out at the funerals, at the services, and very often these eulogies are imagined, or certainly have a very great deal of imagination in them to flesh out, to show how he needs to give them a bigger past... a complete, a fuller life than he could gather strictly from the remnants that they have left behind. And... these people are his life, these people are the people he cares for and... in that way he's the example, the best example of a humane society, a society deep in the understanding of the value of lives. No life should be forgotten, and that is what he does, he doesn't accept the notion that simply because someone has died alone, and might have nobody connected, friends, relatives at their funeral, they should be forgotten at that last moment, at that last official moment on earth... Audiences have different needs when it comes to pleasure. I've seen, obviously, audiences enjoying laughing, and enjoying good time out... and enjoying action, and enjoying speed. This is on the hole something that this film will not give them, not speed, not a great deal of action, some amusing moments, because life in truth has lots of amusing moments on a daily bases... if you give yourself the time to observe it. But, it is a film that moves, and I have seen audiences wanting to be moved, wanting to be emotionally transported, wanting to be reminded that they have humanity in them that can be reawakened or can be prompt a bit in cinemas. I have seen films where people wanted to cry, and cried, and were happy to cry. The film, although it deals with sad issues, it deals with weaknesses in our society, it is not... the pressing film at all, in spite of its subject... It has some sad moments, but it is a film that... leaves you with the great deal of love for your fellow human being, and with a very positive sense of the value of life and your neighbor... "

As another one who understands the main character certainly better than others, because he had to identify with him in order to bring him to life on the big screen, Eddie Marsan offers additional cleaver observations: "Character of John May is a man who lives on his own. He's not lonely man, he's just an isolated man and man who lives on his own and within the development of the story he researches the life of a man who lived opposite him, in a block of flats, who died alone and in researching this life it opens up John May's life... I would describe the movie as being a study on mortality, and loneliness and the importance of sharing your life... It's about living on your own, and it's about people who die on their own and lonely. And because of that it's also a film about values, your family and the people around you. So, it explores one thing by showing the absence of another... It shows the absence of belonging in order to make a film which is... about promoting belonging, really."

Joanne Froggatt appears in a short, but remarkably subtle supporting role (as Kelly Stoke), and her interaction with the main character leads to a well fitting and uplifting ending.

Great drama, Subtle acting by Eddie Marsan. Heart warming and a must see. Some of the Brit movies make real sense. and i would say Still life is wonderful drama. It touches heart. Uberto Pasolini made a point to get the story simple and straight to heart.

This is my first-ever review on IMDb (and my first movie review as well), but while watching this superb gem of cinematography I couldn't help but think that it deserved the effort.

I will not go into details as for the plot, which is quite simple and linear, yet very peculiar. The movie is about the everyday life of John May, who works for his borough council in a very special function, as he arranges funerals for people who died alone and in the meanwhile he tries to track down any relatives or friends who may want to come to the funeral.

I was intrigued by the movie as soon as I read about it, but it went way over my expectations. The plot is perfectly structured around the main character, each and every scene is deeply evocative and, even if dialogues are very short and rare, the slow pace of the movie doesn't make it boring at all.

But what makes this movie a valid 10 out of 10 rating is the bittersweet ending, that I found very touching and communicates a strong message of hope irrespective of the tragic setting. This shows how directors can make a great movie without forcing viewers to a 3-hour marathon of twisting plots or leaving them with a sense of unfinished business with ambiguous endings.

In conclusion, I recommend this movie to anyone who wants to enjoy a short, but poignant reflection on loneliness and human bonding.

If I had to pick the most underrated actor in the whole of the movie business I would go for Eddie Marsan . A prolific actor who everyone has seen in one film or another and who never gives a bad performance and Still Life is the perfect example.

In this , Eddie plays a employee who dedicates his life to tracking down the next-of-kin and arranging funerals for his community's unclaimed dead.

It's a performance that is understated yet brilliant . You totally believe this man , who seems a little bit OCD and loves his job , that he will do what he can for these dead people and their families even though his own life outside of work is pretty non existent.

It's a very British film but I have no doubt it will appeal to any audience. It's obviously sad at times but it's also uplifting and thought provoking.

It's the best film I've seen in quite a while and I highly recommended it.

Still Life is not a movie to watch when you feel lonely or are a bit down because this movie oozes loneliness. There is not much happiness or joy, not in the characters nor in the job the main character has. Eddie Marsan did a good job playing the lonely meticulous civil servant, looking for relatives of deceased lonely people. He arranges the funerals of those ones that have nobody anymore in their lives, resulting in most cases in being the only one attending the funeral. The story is a bit monotone, but it fits the story well. Nothing wrong about the acting, you couldn't play loneliness better than this. The best part of the movie to me was the ending, very touching, and makes you think about how some people just have nobody in their lives.

Brilliant, emotional, thought-provoking movie.

The story of a man whose job it is to trace the relatives and friends of deceased people. A dour, methodical, deliberate man, the movie deals mostly with a particular case of his, and the effect it has on him and other people concerned.

From the start the movie makes you think about loneliness and mortality, in particular your own, and what you leave behind. Emotional too, in that you see how people are affected by other people's lives.

Despite all this, the movie seemed to be heading for a predictable and possibly lacklustre ending. However, the final few scenes are among the most powerful, emotional and thought-provoking I've ever seen. Certainly not predictable.

Superb work by Eddie Marsan in the lead role. He was perfect for the role. Good support from Joanne Froggatt.

An understated masterpiece.

Absolutely brilliant little film that holds on to the small things in life in every aspect with superb subdued acting, colours and sound. Almost as a mime John May shows his compassion with his fellow human begins, no matter who they are, or rather were. There are several superb surprises along the way, among them fascinating encounters with relations to the deceased. For me as a Dutch Anglofile it is wonderful to see and recognize so many aspects of British life, London, brickwork, the sea, fish & chip shops, trains and many more. Just for that it is a joy to watch. For me it has an impact that couldn't be greater thanks to so many little gems. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!

This is no film with crashing soundtracks, wild rides and fast dialogue. But it still packs a punch. Tremendously moving look at lonely lives and people who are left with no one, during, and at the end of life.

How one solitary man can care for those who have died and have no one there for them at the end, makes for quiet watching. Yet, as this very cleverly constructed movie takes you forward, you are drawn and tugged by his silent, heroic dedication and caring. And it goes quite a way beyond the call of his job.

The very end is extremely touching and wonderfully moving.

It is not often I would give a movie 10 out of 10 but this one really deserves the rating.

A movie that seemingly starts off as a rather ordinary piece of work becomes a truly fascinating insight into an aspect of life we all miss because it occurs under our noses.

An ordinary man is not an ordinary man at all. He is a very dedicated public servant attending to an aspect of life that we are seldom aware of, always sympathetic toward when it is brought to our attention, but generally ignored on the whole.

This movie totally gripped me. It fascinated me in terms of what some people do to keep our lives orderly and it raised my feelings of compassion toward the "faceless" people doing seemingly ordinary housekeeping jobs.

The development of the principal character, the job, and also the extent to which many, many other "faceless" or unseen people become involved was a masterpiece of scripting and acting.

Underneath all this was a soundtrack to die for. Probably not a soundtrack you would buy to listen to, but one that matched the movie and its moods at a level seldom found in any cinematic offering.

The story development and the ending were tremendous and the surprise ending (which is not a surprise if you pay attention to all the nuances and subtleties of the script and acting) blew me away.

I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.

The movie is super boring. It has very little story and it is not exciting.

Some movies have as their purpose to excite, to amaze, to intrigue or to provoke laughter. Others are there to make you think and feel and care. Still life is one of those. Although it is described in the promos as a comedy/drama it is not. It is a gentle and moving visual elegy for human beings. The plot has been well described by other reviewers on IMDb. A seemingly solitary middle-aged man goes about his punctilious duties of researching contacts and connections of people who have died all alone.What made this movie so particularly different and affecting for me was the punctilious and affectionate attention to detail by the director. This detail is in both the fine nuances of the performances, particularly by Eddie Marsan playing the lead character, John May and in the visual richness such as the buildings in which people live and work and the photographs that John May finds and carefully works through. The photograph researcher for the movie alone deserves an Oscar. The interiors and exteriors of buildings, with such things as the rooms in which people have lived and died are so evocative and realistic it is hard to believe it is not a documentary at times. All these glimpses are perfectly paced in the slow flowing narrative which proceeds to involve us and then move us to smiles and tears, caring about all the people in the story except the horrible boss. Through the subject matter of aloneness, estrangement, kindness, friendship and lost love Pasolini has given us an experience to be cherished.

Truly moving and compassionate story of a quiet, lonely, and friendless public servant in London, daily laboring diligently in a thankless job that few would want, but he did it so well that his efforts might be called almost "heavenly". To him, his job was important to the point of critical accuracy in documentation, and was much more to him than mere service, it was a passion approaching art. It was his life to sort what remained to be done for those who had died without friends, relatives or anyone who might want or care to know. In that chore he was a Rembrandt, as he was just like those forgotten, meaningless people for whom he tried so hard to give at least some final care. To him, even if not to others, they were worthy.

Whether out and about trying to connect the dots of a deceased person's past, or compiling the found details of same in a little storeroom office, cloistered away every day he carried on, trying to give some level of final dignity to those who may never have had any in life. A proper church funeral, with only him attending, was his way of sending them off with someone looking on, someone knowing and caring that they had lived but were now gone.

This story was very small, as it had to be, and it was perfectly told and acted, with the great Eddie Marsan as the public servant and Joanne Froggatt in a small role as a deceased man's daughter. An excellent and fitting musical score accompanied. The ending was surprising, but as rewarding as an ending could be for a man such as he. Although unrealized to fruition, he did finally find a friend who cared to know him. And, there were others. You will not have a dry eye when you leave the theatre, but I trust that you will have a better heart for it.

We saw 'Still Life" on Sunday- a truly beautiful film that is a wonderful and heart-churning lesson in how we relate to others in life and the reminder to connect with people. When the effort of not trying to cry causes such gut-wrenching anguish, you know that the film-maker has said what needs to be expressed. Talk to your neighbors, the person on the bus or really anyone: the lesson learned: who will grieve, miss you and be there when your time ends. Beautiful performances by Eddie Marsen and Joanne Froggatt. A wonderful elegy on connection: get yourself to the cinema. I guarantee that you will call someone you love/ care about after seeing this and hopefully re-think how you live your life. Just think of the old Bette Midler song "Hello in there" and then you'll get it......

Best film I have seen in years - not usually inspired to write reviews

Genuine - observant - considered - human - respectful - slow enough to focus on what really matters - exposes some of our modern attitudes for their shallowness and small mindedness. Sometimes you have to slow down and enter into someone else's world to see the value in it.

A triumph for the value of individual action - what you do in the world matters - even if it seems to go unnoticed.

Brilliant acting, directing, music... Brilliant all round! Only heard about it after I asked a film buff relative for her top 5 films of 2015 This was her number one - I agree!!

This is one of the most impressive films I have seen. Not only in the last year but in the last 10 years. Eddie Marson brings a quiet resolve to a role he was born to play. A supporting cast that perfectly fits in with the pace and mood of the film.

The premise is unpromising. A civil servant in a dead end job doing a job not appreciated by most. Seen as an anachronism in a modern world he does his job with pen and paper in a computer age. He shows more compassion to the dead than they received in real life. He documents and adds a small meaning to lives otherwise forgotten in a city full of people where people slip through the maelstrom of the frantic world and end up alone. At the end of the film I sat and stared at the blank screen thinking about what I had just seen. The last time I had felt as moved by a film was nearly 10 years ago. I certainly did not expect it to happen last night.