One Fine Morning

A French film set in Paris. Sandra is an interpreter. She works at conferences, has an eight year old daughter, and lost her husband years ago. Her father is ill. Georg used to teach philosophy; now he cannot see and cannot tell apart the faces he knows. The illness affects the brain rather than the optic nerve. He cannot read, cannot find his way, and gets lost in his own library. From there the film is a search for a place. A hospital, a care home, a waiting list, an application and a move. Sandra manages it with her sister and her mother. All three are tired and explain the same thing from the start at every institution. The library is the film's most affecting section. Her father's books are dispersed and Sandra says it is a funeral: the man is still alive but the books are what is really left of him. Something else is happening at the same time. Sandra meets an old friend. Clément is married and says so from the start. The affair begins, stops, begins again, and Sandra cannot decide about it. What the narrative is interested in is not loss but living both at once: the film sets losing a person beside attaching to a new one and does not separate them. Her daughter Linn is inside the narrative. The child's daily life, her school and her relationship with her grandfather are shown completely. The narrative is divided into seasons. The passing of time is given through the light of the city and the film never tries to make anyone cry. The director wrote it starting from her own father; his illness and last years are its origin. Léa Seydoux, Pascal Greggory, Melvil Poupaud and Nicole Garcia are in the cast. Mia Hansen-Løve wrote and directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes calm, everyday French drama. Who it is not for: anyone expecting incident; the narrative is deliberately without event and neither line reaches a conclusion.