Le cimetière du Père-Lachaise

If you have ever visited a cemetery and thought about the life story behind a particular gravestone or wondered what was going on inside the minds of visitors, Heddy Honigmann's haunting documentary Forever may shed some light. Honigmann is not a name that comes immediately to mind when we think of the world's great documentarians, but this work by the obscure Dutch director may place her in that elite category. Shot at the world famous Pere-Lachaise cemetery, the largest in Paris, the film explores the thoughts and feelings of those who have come to the gravesites to pay tribute to famous people such as Chopin, Modigliani, Apollonaire, Balzac, Proust, and Oscar Wilde as well as ordinary folks who lived and loved and have been remembered. It is a moving experience that engages both the mind and the heart.

The film opens with the story of pianist Yoshino Kimura, a young Asian woman who performs the work of Frederic Chopin as a means of connecting with her deceased father who loved his music. Scenes of Ms. Kimura playing the pensive melodies of Chopin's Nocturnes in concert are shown as the camera offers loving close ups of the pianist, the emotion revealed in her eyes. Another segment is about an Iranian taxi driver who tends to the grave of Persian poet Sadegh Hedayat. Quoting from Hedayat's "The Blind Owl", he says that he left home because of he was weary with his life in Iran and now aspires to be a singer of Persian classical songs, though he drives a taxi to stay alive.

Persuaded by Honigmann to sing before the camera, the man provides a tune based on the poetry of Hafez and the mournful melody seems to embody all the sadness in the history of Pére-Lachaise. Although some connect with the work of great artists like Modigliani, stories of ordinary people are shown as well. An elderly Spanish woman speaks at the gravesite of her husband, telling how she and her husband fled Spain because of Franco and his murderous priests. A young man from Korea explains how he came to appreciate the novels of Marcel Proust but can only tell us what they mean to him in his native Korean language. An older woman talks about her husband's death from a bee sting and how their three years together were the happiest of her life.

One of the most moving sequences is that devoted to an obscure poet named Elisa Mercouer whose story is told by Bertrand Beyern, a guide who leads tours through Pére-Lachaise. When Mercouer died in 1835 at the age of 26, her mother had her poems imprinted on her gravestone, yet now the letters have faded and with it Elisa's claim on immortality. Although the stories weave a web of nostalgia and loss, Forever is not a depressing film but a celebration of life, a poignant tribute to the people who lie buried beneath its exquisite grounds and an appreciative paean to the enduring power of art.

Forever (2006), directed by Heddy Honigmann, is an unusual documentary about the famous Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris. The cemetery contains the graves of many famous artists (Ingres), singers (Piaf, Callas), and writers (Proust). Most notably for U.S. tourists, Jim Morrison is buried in Lachaise. (Someone asks how to find Morrison's grave. The answer is, "Follow the signs." Morrison fans have written "To Jim" with arrows on other tombs to guide people to the grave site.)

Honigmann does much more than guide us through the cemetery. She interviews people who are visiting. Some have come to pay homage to the famous artists. Most, however, are visiting the graves of loved ones. Honigmann speaks to them in a friendly, non-invasive way, and they respond in kind. She's not afraid to let the camera linger while people think and consider. Often, after a while, they share their thoughts with her and with us.

The director takes a surprising and interesting detour during the film. A young Japanese pianist--Yoshino Kimura--visits Fredric Chopin's grave at Lachaise. Honigmann takes us to Kimura's studio, where Kimura plays a lovely Chopin piece. Although physically apart from the cemetery, this scene works because the calmness of the artist and the beauty of the music remind us of the calmness and beauty of Chopin's grave and of the Lachaise itself.

We saw this film at Rochester's wonderful Dryden Theatre. I think it would work well on DVD. It's probably hard to find, but it's worth seeking out.

This film portrays the famous Parisian cemetery of Père Lachaise through the stories of a dozen of its visitors. Thought there is no actual plot to the movie as a whole, the stories of the visitors provide a moving background to some of the graves.

The film focuses on some famous graves (Chopin, Proust, Maria Callas amongst others) as well as paying attention to some "ordinary" graves. In all cases, a portrait of someone connected to that grave is given, ranging from the Japanese girl who loves the music of Chopin so much she moved to Paris to study the piano, to the woman who at 54 found the love of her life, only to lose it again when her husband died unexpectedly.

The stories are supported by footage of the private life of the visitors, and also by beautiful views of the cemetery and the graves.

Remember this is a documentary, so there's no plot, no acting, let alone explosions and effects. What you get is a couple of beautiful filmed, moving portraits of people who mourn a loved one. In the end, the film is about love more than anything else.

That it is possible to find so much signs of life in a cemetery is something striking in the carefully composed film of Heddy Honigmann. And so much consolation in beauty is also something I'll never forget from seeing the film. Beauty in the form of art, but also in the form of mementos left for the beloved death ones. Human voices telling stories are in this film sometimes as beautiful as a piece of music by Chopin!! Most of the characters in the film are very special and at the same time you feel a connection with almost all of them, as if they were your friends telling you a personal story while you're sitting with them in a park. Forever should be in the cinema for a long time, as long as all my friends can see it, and as long as they can tell their friends to see it and so on and so on...

I have just seen 'Forever' at the Palm Springs Film Festival, and Pere Lachaise is not only a special place in Paris, but a monumental place on Earth. This film allows us to see both the direct and indirect connections that Life and Death provide us, should we choose to see them and respect them. We are Art, but most times the relics of our corporeal selves is better represented by our stories, all informed by our incredibly particular experiences. By balancing the extraordinarily noteworthy inhabitants of Pere Lachaise with the simply extraordinary (and those of us left behind who acknowledge and respect them) 'Forever' reminds us that the democracy of death has startling and profound connections to all who live - you are alive if you feel pain, joy, inspiration, and love. And perhaps Death's best attribute given back to the living is Love.