Set in a pastoral hideaway in the lush countryside of France, three siblings must decide what to do with the house and art collection of their deceased mother. Though business and new families have led them astray, the house is the last testament to their childhoods and their lineage.
A film like this is troubling for me as I am both a historian and someone who tries to avoid romanticism. The latter seems like something unavoidable that we all face, but it seems to me to be silly and garish. This is a movie about the romantic way in which we view the past but through art, which makes it tricky for me personally to navigate.
Opening on a birthday party we meet Helene (Edith Scob), whose 75th marks a turning point in her life, finally seeing the inevitability that she is approaching death. She still seemed spry to me, but her faithful housekeeper Eloise (Isabelle Sadoyan) tells Helene's son, Frederic (Charles Berling), that his mother is depressed, tired and forgetful. With her husband and especially her uncle dead, and with her family seeing her so infrequently, her will to live seems to wane.
In a jarring jump the film now resumes at her death. There are very touching moments from all three siblings in their acceptance of the passing, but the film is not at all about grief. Rather, it is about the ways in which we remember; do we sacrifice material gains for the sake of sentimentality? We are taken through Helene's house on several occasions and shown her collection of priceless, and very rare pieces. Writer/director Olivier Assayas is quite clever in this respect, doing his best not to talk down to the audience and instead showing us the collection as the mother's will is gone through step by step.
There is life, vitality, memory in the house. Those treasures tells stories and are far more than ornamentation. This is how Frederic sees things. It is how he thinks of his family--it is the nerve center of their bloodline. His brother Jeremie (Jeremie Renier) and his sister Adrienne (Juliette Binoche) see things quite differently. Economics, business, modernity have scattered the family to the winds. The two no longer feel attached to the house or to France. They vote to sell the estate.
The film could easily have turned, at this point, into a battle of wills and a family crumbling. Instead, the sales go through and it simply watches as the memories of a family are removed, piece by piece. In the end it becomes more prudent for them to pay to keep Jeremie selling Puma shoes in China and help fund Adrienne's wedding, then it does to serve as that focal point of the family. Without Helene there is no common bond.
A very beautiful line is spoken towards the end of the film at the Musee d'Orsay, where much of the art has gone to. Frederic is regarding a vase which the family believed was of no value and thought to be quite ugly. He says that in order for this glass to mean anything it needs to hold flowers and be seen in natural light, otherwise it is disenchanted. I think that's true. Museums are odd places where some of the most breathtaking works are displayed in rooms with white walls, white floors and harsh lighting to protect the colors. Everything is sterile. The building itself may be beautiful, but inside it feels cold and lifeless. The color of history is sucked out of the canvass leaving nothing but dust. Can we see the story that that painting or that cabinet or that vase wants to give when we try to capture it on our phone or our camera? Do museums fulfill their intended purposes?
I said that the film was complicated for me as I am inspired by the past. There is a way to preserve it without sucking history dry, but is it possible to do so without romanticism taking hold and preventing us from moving forward? That is my struggle and I am not sure that the ending gives a proper answer. This film is delicate like a Degas and respectful like a Renoir. It is not especially good entertainment and there is no extreme conflict. However, it has made me think, and one can ask no more from a film like this.
3/4
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