At first, the family drama Everything Went Fine seems like a departure for French filmmaker François Ozon. He is best-known for thrillers and sexy films like Swimming Pool or Young & Beautiful, not stories about elder care. Dig a little deeper, though, and you will see that Ozon based his screenplay on an autobiographical novel by Emmanuèle Bernheim, who co-wrote Swimming Pool with him. Bernheim passed away in 2017, and so on top of being a surprisingly lively film, Everything Went Fine is a fitting tribute to his longtime collaborator. By accepting the macabre premise on the same terms as the characters, Ozon finds something universal – even mordantly funny – on the other side.
The former child actor Sophie Marceau plays Emmanuèle, and when we meet her, she just learned her father, André (André Dussollier), suffered a major stroke. She rushes to the hospital, where her sister Pascale (Géraldine Pailhas) greets her. Unable to move and barely able to speak, André feels his body betrayed him and lashes out accordingly. Although he receives excellent care and his condition gradually improves, that is not enough. He tells Emmanuèle he wants to end his life, to her immediate objection, except she observes that André always gets what he wants. She looks into the options available to him, and discovers an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland. The procedure is not as simple as jumping off a bridge or putting a gun in his mouth, which gives the family ample time to discuss and adjust to André’s stubborn desire for death.
Ozon wisely avoids the temptation of making the material too morbid. This is not a slow-burn drama like Amour where characters decay with unwavering inexorability. Sure, there are some scenes where André faces humiliations like being hand-fed and soiling himself, and while his new lifestyle depresses him at first, it only hardens his resolve. Despite his limited movement, Dussollier gives a lively performance, the sort of man whose prickly personality does not soften with age. Sometimes that is at the expense of his children, to whom he can lash out, but mostly he observes his surroundings or conditions with a wit that puts him squarely in “lovable scoundrel” mode of classic French characters. An important contrast to his performance comes from Hanna Schygulla, a soft-spoken Swiss woman who explains the requirements from the clinic with a mix of legalese and empathy. By presenting herself as a voice of reason, she gives Emmanuèle a context to understand her father.
It is around this point that Everything Went Fine shifts into something more fascinating, and heartfelt, than the typical film about care for an elderly parent. Now that André makes up his mind, it is up to Emmanuèle and Pascale to make peace with his decision. Pascale is the less practical sister, and she expresses some denial that maybe, just maybe, he will not decide to go through with it. He decides to delay the appointment for his death, which requires an ambulance trip to Switzerland, because he wants to see his grandson perform a classical music recital. Maybe that means he’s found a reason to live again? In fact, the opposite is true: André finds heightened significance now that there is a finality to his experience. He relishes a dinner at his favorite restaurant, and remarks with warmth about the attractive men who come to care for him (we learn more about André’s bisexuality throughout the film, something the sisters both come to tolerate). The film is not pro-assisted suicide, exactly, and yet it does see wisdom and dignity in someone who gets to choose.
Emmanuèle and Pascale become reluctant advocates for that dignity. In a clever twist, the sisters find themselves in a complicated legal bind. André’s toxic former lover calls the cops on them, setting up the potential for them to be charged with criminal negligence – France and Switzerland have differing attitudes on this matter – so they negotiate through a legal grey area to get André out of the country. This is a family matter to them, damn it, and they won’t let some idiot with a grudge stop their father from getting what they want. But that goal must end with his death, which means there is an ironic, bittersweet tinge to these complications. Marceau and Pailhas give nuanced, brittle performances, the kind that do not exactly win awards, although they should. The sisters have different breaking points, only so much they can tolerate from their father’s bullshit, and yet they come around to his side almost invisibly. Ozon also leaves plenty of room to explore the personal lives of the sisters, using incidental scenes like trips to art galleries to add to the film’s overall verisimilitude. The real Emmanuèle’s experience helps deepen the emotional journey of this film, as these characters must keep living even as their father chooses to stop.
In the inevitable final moments, Ozon avoids histrionics. There are tearful goodbyes, although this family quietly agrees they don’t want to spend their last moments together as a blubbery mess. Indeed, the dynamics among this family have a lively sense of specificity, including flashbacks where we see how Emmanuèle had a frosty early relationship with her father. Sometimes that specificity loses its momentum, like the frequent scenes where one or both of the sisters storm away from André in anger or disgust. Then again, maybe Ozon is onto something by ending so many scenes this way. It is credible, even probable, that daughters would deal with their obstinate father in a similar manner. That is the advantage of talking to someone bedridden: it is not like they can follow you. Maybe that sounds a little cruel, and yet in the lens of this film, practical solutions are an inevitable substitute for moral objections, however well-meaning.
Photo courtesy of Cohen Media Group
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