La Vie des morts

After the 20 year old Patrick shoots himself and lies critically in a coma, four strands of his family, some who barely know each other, convene at the local family house and wait in hope. As the days pass, tensions inevitably mount within the claustrophobic atmosphere… Arnaud Desplechin’s first film (a medium-length feature) signals the debut of an acclaimed body of work, which includes My Sex Life…, Kings and Queen and A Christmas Tale. The director has become the master of the family drama, and this opening piece testifies to his unique ability to expose the closely knit unit in all its states. The family is haunted by unresolved issues of the past and face an uncertain future. The film is intelligently written and skilfully filmed in its exposition of the doubts of its multifarious characters, who must come face to face with the most challenging truth: our mortality. Desplechin came to embody a new generation of filmmakers in France in the 90s; one that captured the new intellectual posturing of a people confronted with an ambiguous millennial horizon. La Vie des morts adroitly reflects this malaise and points to the director’s ability to manage large casts and disparate character arcs with sophistication. He is ably abetted by a splendid troupe of actors, many of whom would become regulars for the director, including Emmanuelle Devos, Marianne Denicourt and Emmanuel Salinger. An auteur whose trajectory merits wide discovery, La Vie des morts is the place to start.