No. 21 (2023) ONE FINE MORNING March. 22nd.

 

Film No. 21  (2023)  March 22nd.  3:20 PM PALACE Raine Sq, Cinema 3, Perth City.

"Georg Kienzler's daughter yeah? I was a student of his. He was amazing. I just wanted to tell you." (Sandra is stopped on campus and gets an emotional reminder of what her ill father meant to an ex-student).

WINNER: (Mia Hansen-Love), Label Europa Cinemas; Cannes Film Festival (2022). NOMINEE: (Lea Seydoyx) European Actress; EUROPEAN FILM AWARD. 

Mia Hansen-Love is a very unique film-maker. Her style is understated and at the same time, quite remarkable. Hansen-Love created a wave of interest in her work, recently, with BERGMAN ISLAND. A film within a film, so totally understated that each scene held the audience in a trance of meditative calm. ONE FINE MORNING has similar qualities with its own inbuilt beauty.

Lea Seydoux plays Sandra, a thirty something single mum  (her husband has died 5 years earlier).  We spend two to three years with her as she lives her life. She is an international interpreter, she is there for her daughter between caring for her father, Georg (Pascal Greggory)  who is slowly dying of a degenerative disease and socialising with her sister, Elodie (Sarah Le Picard). Sandra is easy company traverses through life; so where is the drama?

The magic of Hansen-Love films come in the form of rounded characters, living full lives with no melodrama. But this is not to say Sandra does not get bruised by the fluctuating fortunes of life. Sandra falls for a married man, in a relationship  which starts as a fling, then "grows legs." This occurs while she is taking the majority of responsibility for her father, ferrying him first from home then to care facilities.  The experience is emotionally draining for her. Sandra is so likeable we are putty in her hands, and hope she will find happiness. 

In the hands of Hansen-Love and Seydoux, ONE FINE MORNING is a fine film. With themes of desire, infidelity, heartbreak, love and empathetic care for the elderly; shot always with a unique naturalism, this film experience is one to savour. If you loved THINGS TO COME and/or BERGMAN ISLAND this film will please as well. 10GUMS.