More Than Ever - a film review
Part of Life was invited to the 2022 Bath Film Festival, to review Cannes Film Festival award nominee, More Than Ever.
Due for UK release on 20th January 2023, French language film, More Than Ever (Plus Que Jamais) is bound to provoke difficult but essential discussions about death and dying.
Directed by Emily Atef and featuring the acting prowess of Vicky Krieps, Gaspard Ulliel and Bjørn Floberg, the film navigates the raw demise of a young woman, Hélène, to a rare, but terminal lung disease (idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis). Sounds like a grim watch? Well, truth be told, it is. But, not in an overtly distressing way. Atef deftly uses silence, stillness and gaps as an alliterative tool to allude to the implied absence of Hélène, making the tragic aspects of the film rehearsed and less overwhelming for the viewer.
Want to know what it was like to take on such a tragic, but important role? Watch our interview with lead actress Vicky Krieps here.
Social Death in all its ugliness
Anticipatory grief is palpable on the lips and body language of those in Hélène’s social circle. From the hushed whispers about happy pregnancy news at a dinner party, to the pity-filled glances of her friends and her mother’s inability to stop crying, More Than Ever brilliantly shines an ugly light on social death.
The dinner party is a turning point in the film, with Hélène’s anger and frustration a valuable mirror to anyone struggling to support a friend or loved one with a life limiting illness. Hélène’s desperation to escape their awkwardness, suffocating secrets and her growing sense of isolation is the catalyst to her clawing back control over her last days.
Whose death is it anyway?
As a viewer, you are repeatedly pulled between the desperation of her husband Mathieu’s and Helene’s own desire to exert some control over her impending death. Having given up work and struggling even with the physical strain of making love with her doting husband, Hélène spends her days cocooned in the darkness of their apartment, searching for something real to connect with online. This is where she stumbles across ‘Mister’ - a photographic blog of a Norwegian cancer sufferer, Bent.
Far from the overwhelming tiredness and the suffocating four walls of her flat, Hélène discovers someone who is laughing in the face of his cancer treatment and with it she finds a new source of oxygen.
Adding life to days.
After the news that she could be eligible for a lung transplant is swiftly followed by the 50% odds of organ rejection and the brutal surgery it could entail, Hélène takes action and decides to take a solo trip to Norway despite her increasing reliance on nasal oxygen. The achingly raw anguish this decision invokes in Mathieu is hard to watch, but brutally realistic.
Valhalla
After four trains and a ferry journey, Hélène’s newfound resolve brings her to Bent’s boathouse ready to embrace the fresh air and icy cold Fjord water.
Throughout points of crisis in the film, Atef uses sub-marinal imagery. It is as though Hélène finds refuge in the white noise of the underwater realm. So, despite the 24-hour sunlight and loud silences - so starkly different to the nest she had made for herself in Bordeaux - when Hélène reaches the lapping edge of the Nordic Lake, it is as though she has already crossed the divide between life and death. Far away from the awkward social stigmas and Mathieu’s eyes pooling with grief, here, high up in the clear air, Hélène is at peace.
When Mathieu descends ready to take over the reins after Hélène’s over-ambitious hike almost suffocates her, even he can see his grief and need is suffocating her all over again. Facing the agony of her physical decline, his jealousy of Bent and his fury at the loss of all expectation and hope, Mathieu’s punches Bent. This laid-back Norwegian fades into the shadows of the film at this point, but his absence is deliberate. The final minutes of the film chart the therapeutic renewal of the love between Mathieu and Hélène, culminating in a deeper understanding and acceptance of one another.
The final scene is a masterpiece of the power of silence to convey emotion. To avoid any spoilers, we suggest you discover for yourselves the resolution to More Than Ever which premieres on the 1st December.
Too impatient? Check out our interview with lead actress Vicky Krieps and watch the trailer below.
