Everything Went Fine
Once again François Ozon delivers with a perfectly pitched and magnificently acted drama set in the arena of medically assisted suicide.
Géraldine Pailhas and Sophie Marceau
In 2018 François Ozon made an impressive film entitled By the Grace of God which adopted a tone quite different from what we had come to expect from this master of French cinema. Now we have Everything Went Fine which brings that earlier film to mind in that this piece, the story of an octogenarian who asks one of his daughters to help him arrange an assisted suicide, is another work of real quality which bears few personal imprints of its maker. There is, nevertheless, a link with Ozon’s earlier work. That's because the late Emmanuèle Bernheim collaborated with him on the screenplays of two of his films (Swimming Pool and 5×2) and Everything Went Fine is an adaptation by Ozon with Philippe Piazzo of her autobiographical novel Tout s’est bien passé published in 2014.
Ozon is on excellent form here, but it is the performances which lodge in the memory. The film takes place over a period of eight months starting when Emmanuèle (Sophie Marceau) hurries to the hospital on hearing that her father, André (André Dussollier), has had a stroke. Her sister, Pascale (Géraldine Pailhas), is already there and their mother, the sculptress Claude de Soria (Charlotte Rampling) looks in too although she has her own health problems and her relationship with André has long since become frosty. Although the situation looks bad, André does in time show some progress despite having made it clear to Emmanuèle, his favourite daughter, that he wants her to contact a body known as The Right to Die with Dignity. She soon learns that because of prohibitions in French law any arrangements for euthanasia would have to be made secretly and that, if settled, her father would then have to travel to Switzerland to die in Berne. But, while she looks into this and meets a representative of the organisation (Hanna Schygulla), she hopes that André will change his mind. Later, when it becomes apparent that despite further improvements he still wants to proceed, there is the question of whether or not the plan to get him out of France will be disrupted.
Any risk of the story becoming too melodramatic is totally avoided by pitching it on a totally naturalistic level and supporting that with an effective use of piano music by Brahms, Beethoven and Schubert which underlines the film’s poignant but not sentimental tone. The acting is as quietly detailed as the screenplay is subtle. Dussollier has a role that might seem limited in scope but he finds a real range within it while Marceau is wonderful in such details as expressing Emmanuèle’s bond with her sister and in showing so clearly all that is inherent in her description of her relationship with André (“A bad father but I love him”). Even more complex is the character of Gérard (Grégory Gadebois) who had been her father’s lover and whose actions show him in more than one light. However, in the excellent supporting cast the ones who stand out despite their roles being brief are Rampling, Schygulla and Jacques Nulot, the latter as a fellow patient with André in the hospital.
Everything Went Fine is splendidly alert to all the issues around assisted dying while avoiding any overt propaganda one way or the other. But, if it encourages viewers to draw their own conclusions, it does nevertheless tend to be a depressing work. However, while that seems an unavoidable limitation, Ozon eventually overcomes it by creating a genuine climax to his film. This is achieved by bringing in two fresh elements. One lies in making the last scenes more dramatic without losing the sense of realism, although it must be admitted that one late incident, believable as it is, does momentarily disrupt the flow as the tale draws to its close. The other stems from Ozon’s ability to retain the film’s subtlety while yet revealing his own feelings about euthanasia. From early on in the film one can feel that he believes in the individual’s right to be able to choose, but the last scenes go further: they express the satisfaction of something achieved and this ends the film on a note of positivity. A fine work.
Original title: Tout s’est bien passé.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Sophie Marceau, André Dussollier, Géraldine Pailhas, Charlotte Rampling, Éric Caravaca, Hanna Schygulla, Grégory Gadebois, Judith Magre, Jacques Nulot, Daniel Mesguich, Nathalie Richard.
Dir François Ozon, Pro Eric Altmayer and Nicolas Altmayer, Screenplay François Ozon with Philippe Piazzo, from the autobiographical novel by Emmanuèle Bernheim, Ph Hichame Alaouie, Art Dir Emmanuelle Duplay, Ed Laure Gardette, Costumes Ursula Paredes.
Mandarin Films/Foz/France 2 Cinéma/Scope Pictures/Playtime Productions/Canal+/Ciné+-Curzon.
113 mins. France/Belgium. 2020. UK Rel: 17 June 2022. Cert. 15.
