It’s Only the End of the World, 2016.
Directed by Xavier Dolan.
Starring Gaspard Ulliel, Nathalie Baye, Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard and Lea Seydoux.
SYNOPSIS:
After 12 years away from his family, a terminally ill writer returns home to break the news. But, as he struggles to re-connect with them, old wounds and frustrations rise to the surface, making it even harder for him to tell them the real reason for his visit.
Meet the family. Fractured, dysfunctional and belonging to writer Louis (Gaspard Ulliel) who hasn’t seen them for 12 years. During that time, older brother Antoine (Vincent Cassel) has married Catherine (Marion Cotillard) and had two children. Sister Suzanne (Lea Seydoux) is increasingly stoned and hippy-like, while mother (Nathalie Baye) has become increasingly garish in her choice of clothes and make-up. Louis might have a tenuous attachment to all of them – he keeps suggesting a visit to the previous family home – but he doesn’t really know any of them. That applies especially to Catherine: he didn’t attend the wedding, so this is the first time he’s met her. It works both ways, because his family don’t know him either. He’s close to being a stranger.
That distance is emphasized by the way Catherine talks to him. Even though she’s a member of the family by marriage, she still addresses him by using the formal “vous” rather than the more familiar “tu”. It creates a distance, but it’s also consistent with her difficulty in selecting the right words. The assumption is that it’s a symptom of her self-confidence being in tatters, the result of marriage the belligerent Antoine. But it’s almost as if French isn’t her first language, as her words are hesitant, awkward and often bad choices.
Everybody’s behaviour points to underlying issues, but only some rise to the surface. Louis is gay – or, as Antoine apparently calls them, “you people” – but, apart from that one mention, the subject isn’t talked about. Given their behaviour, you wonder how – if ever – he came out to his family. It’s one of the many holes in the narrative with go frustratingly unexplained in a movie that’s crying out for a back story. The reason’s for Antoine’s vicious spite, directed not just at his wife and younger brother but at everybody else within range, is a mystery. He’s permanently angry with everything and everybody, as if he believes that the world has set out to make his life difficult deliberately. Jealousy comes into it as well – he’s a toolmaker but younger brother Louis is a successful writer – and there is a moment when it looks like the real reason is emerging into the daylight. Yet all he can manage is to shout about it not being his fault. What “it” was or is, we never know.
Based on Jean-Luc Lagarce’s play of the same name, the film’s stage origins are clear, with the action hardly ever straying from the confines of the house and garden. This intensifies the claustrophobic atmosphere, as does Dolan’s insistence on shooting his characters in almost constant, forensic close-up. And the structure of many of the scenes also brings the stage to mind, offering us a variation on the soliloquy: head-to-heads, with one person talking almost constantly and the other hardly saying a word. And the quiet one is often Louis.
We’d all love the ideal family – supporting, loving and tolerant – and some are lucky enough to have one. Louis doesn’t. His is more like a bad dream built on a sadness that’s never discussed and which never goes away. They shout at each other, but never really talk. Perhaps they would have been happier – and quieter – if things were just left unsaid. And maybe that’s what happens when Louis isn’t around.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Freda Cooper – Follow me on Twitter, check out my movie blog and listen to my podcast, Talking Pictures.
Originally published February 23, 2017. Updated November 14, 2019.
