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Film Review: All is Forgiven

Ok…I developed a huge crush on Mia Hansen-Løve last night.  If she really is still engaged to Olivier Assayas, I might as well just go throw myself off a cliff.

I saw All is Forgiven at the San Francisco International Film Festival last night.  Hansen-Løve took a story which isn’t extraordinary isn’t even all that compelling, and she personalized it.  She turned into a beautiful story.  It was a very well-made grass roots debut.

Reasons why I have a crush on Mia Hansen-Løve:

  • Her eye for casting is unbelievable.  With the exception of Marie-Christine Friedrich, the rest of the cast was made up of virtual unknowns.  In fact, as she stated in Q&A, she found Constance Rousseau on the street and brought her whole family into the film…and she was unbelievable.
  • Her taste in music was awesome.  She clearly stated that she did not appreciate film scores, that she preferred to take traditional songs as the backdrop for her film.  She made a very unique choice by picking two Irish songs and two Scottish songs for the film’s music, and they fit so appropriately, even though the film was Franco-German in language.
  • She is an artist of conviction and principles.  Every choice she made was a deliberate one, and it shined through in every shot of the film.  During the Q&A she very explicitly stated that every decision was made for a reason and she made no apologies for them.  It was then that I knew I was in love.  :)

The story follows a man and woman who have a child together (a story based on Hansen-Løve’s real-life uncle).  The man, a writer, played by Paul Blain struggles with his eccentricity as a creative mind and turns to drugs.  The drugs take a toll on his relationship with his Austrian wife, Annette, played by Marie-Christine Friedrich.  A catalyctic event takes place and she is forced to leave him with their child, Pamela.

Fast forward 12 years, and we see Pamela as a beautiful, young woman.  She’s given the opportunity to reunite with her father…

The story was well-told.  The French have an uncanny knack of making the most seemingly plain story so beautiful, through the use of subtle but very profound acting, simple film technique, and beautiful scripts, and All is Forgiven is no exception.  Paul Blain was so amazing that he really made an impression on me.  I hope to see him do more films. 

Hansen-Løve’s ability to manage the camera and to use it to pull the most of the characters on the screen was awesome.  She used close-ups, silences, and it made the film flow so smoothly.

It’s obvious that Hansen-Løve’s experience working for Cahiers du Cinema gave her a good grounding and allowed her, as a critic, to put her money where her mouth is by producing a brilliantly made film.  I look forward to so much more from her.