helplessness in the face of illness at the center of a luminous family drama

For her eighth feature film, Mia Hansen-Løve was inspired by her personal story and chose Léa Seydoux to interpret the double of herself: a woman disoriented both by her father’s illness and by the arrival of a complex love in her life.

Sandra, a single mother raising her daughter alone, finds herself helpless in the face of the progressive deterioration of the state of health of Georg (Pascal Greggory), once a scholarly professor of philosophy. In this shared suffering, the young woman is helped by Françoise (Nicole Garcia), her mother who has been separated from Georg for years, and by Clément (Melvil Poupaud), a married man with whom she will fall in love.

This double plot mixing the drama of a degenerative disease and the passion of a forbidden affair constitutes for Mia Hansen-Løve “a way of showing that life can at certain times confront us with situations very opposite.”I could never make a movie that only went to the dark side of life.”explains the 41-year-old director. And this is surely what strikes the viewer the most in A nice morning : this propensity never to become burdensome, even when he broaches a subject as tragic as the irremediable loss of a loved one.

There is enough modesty to be touched in the heart by this tender relationship between a father who is dying and his daughter who is trying to rekindle the flame of her existence without cutting corners. A delicate balance embodied by a Léa Seydoux with perfect restraint and a staggeringly self-sacrificing Pascal Gregorry. “He literally disappeared to make way for the character, we forget Pascal”commented Mia Hansen-Løve, whom we met during the presentation of the film at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. Behind its title which inspires a joyful awakening in front of a superb sunrise, A nice morning distills melancholy and light to make us love life beyond the fear of losing it.

Gender : drama, romance
Director: Mia Hansen-Love
Actors: Léa Seydoux, Pascal Greggory, Nicole Garcia, Melvil Poupaud, Camille Leban Martins.
Country : France
Duration : 1h52
Exit : October 5, 2022
Distributer : Diamond Films

Summary: Sandra, a young mother raising her daughter alone, often visits her sick father, Georg. While embarking with her family on an obstacle course to get him treated, Sandra meets Clément, a long-lost friend…

> Read also our interview with Hansen-Love