Une vie après

Saw this movie before the 2020 pandemic and - even though I really liked it - was not planning to review it, as it is a very deep and nuanced piece of art and to do it justice, one would need to write quite a bit to at least begin to convey the impressions, feelings and memories this movie makes permanently stick with you.

However, saw in the news that Émilie Dequenne passed away yesterday, at the age of 43, and was compelled to leave this review. Her performance in Une vie après (as practically in every single movie I have seen her) is nothing short of breathtaking. She doesn't play the role of Marion, she simply lives it and does it brilliantly! Amazingly, it all comes very naturally, without any visible effort on her part. A fantastic performance and a fantastic actress. What a loss!

Returning to the movie, I am not going to belabor the point and will just say that the last scene, with Dequenne's Marion on the bus, is, probably, one of the best and powerful ending scenes I have seen in any movie. In the past 5 years or so I have recalled it countless times.

Emilie Dequenne is absolutely exquisite, fantastic, in this role of a sensitive and so convincing young woman who tries to survive after a split with her mate. But has Emilie Dequenne been bad in a character? I guess no. She is here as her very very best. Her main problem is to get the partial custody of her child, she has to find a job. This a so close to reality feature. It could have been a theater releasing movie.

A bitter - sweet film about radical but fair decisions, about love and options, about a chance offered to a woman discovered in a pub and about beautiful science to build, in precise manner, exploring each nuance defining her character, of Emilie Dequenne.

Not so easy, because her character seems selfish, loveless, a cold mother and indifferent to the love for her from her husband.

But she has right.

This is the essence of story, completed by another three versions , in whic three men are front of leving of wife, the cure being a concert in pub, the fear about a new relation for other and the divorce after a cold affection period and illusion of new relation.

Poetic and precise crafted, honest, so, realistic, maybe just useful.