Peaceful (De son vivant)
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Benoit Magimel, Gabriel Sara, Cecile de France, Oscar Morgan
Directed by Emmanuelle Bercot
French with English subtitles
Showing nationally as part of the Alliance Française French Film Festival
Peaceful asks the question: how does a person who has made fundamental errors in human relationships confront the reality of their impending death?
Benoit Magimel plays an acting teacher in his 40s, who is carrying a sense of failure about how he has lived his life, when he discovers that he has inoperative, pancreatic cancer. Catherine Deneuve is his emotionally manipulative mother who just can’t let go.
Very delicately, they travel through all the stages of dying and grieving from denial to acceptance.
This is a compassionate and insightful film, directed with intelligence and depth and sensitively played by some of French-speaking cinema’s great actors. Alongside leading performances by Magimel and Deneuve, Cecile de France is superb as an oncology nurse.
However, where the film reaches true authenticity is in the casting of real-life oncologist Gabriel Sara as the treating medical specialist, Doctor Edde. Writer/director, Emmanuelle Bercot consulted with him in developing the script, writing in his actual treatment techniques of using music and dance to ease cancer patients’ plight.
It wasn’t until well into the casting process that she thought to use him in the key supporting role, effectively playing himself. It is through him that humanity and dignity are channelled, allowing the dying patient and his family to find peace, within the messiness of their lives.
Sara says of his work with patients: “We treat their cancer with chemo, with surgery, with radiation and all of this stuff. They may work. But who is trying to heal the soul of that person? Are we thinking about it? It’s a patient, not a machine or number. We have to really look at the whole person. I can’t treat a breast. I treat the patient and then the family as well.”
To have such values presented cinematically, conveyed by a superb cast is deeply moving and thought-provoking. While undeniably tragic, this film is inspiring and beautiful.
[Watch the trailer of Peaceful.]