Mr. Nobody

Jaco Van Dormael’s 2009 film opens in 2092, where humanity has renewed itself out of death and Nemo Nobody is the last mortal. He tells his life to two listeners: Dr Feldheim, a psychiatrist working by hypnosis, and a journalist. The two accounts do not agree. The branches split at three ages: at nine he must choose which parent to follow when they separate, at fifteen he falls in love, at thirty four he is married. The three women are coded by dress colour, Jean in yellow, Elise in blue, Anna in red. The film is tangled, but it hands you the key. Shooting ran 120 days in 2007 in Montreal, at Babelsberg outside Berlin and in Belgium; the BFI records a French, German, Canadian and Belgian co-production. The score is by the director’s sibling Pierre Van Dormael, who died of cancer at fifty six before the film was shown and took the Magritte posthumously. Venice gave it a Golden Osella in 2009; the United States waited until 2013, then four screens. A good fit if you will note the splits at nine, fifteen and thirty four and the dress colours. Not for you if you want to be told which life actually happened, and the 141 minute theatrical cut here is not the longest; a longer director’s cut exists.