Sentimental Value

People on the Air France flight from New York to Paris got to watch a live therapy session today. ⚠️Spoiler-filled notes on said therapy session: I watched this with French subtitles, so I can't be sure whether the original uses the same wording, but I loved Agnes's line, "c'est beau," to describe her father's script. We say art is beautiful when it moves us, when it is able to translate even the saddest experiences. The prayer analogy, and the way it conveys what it's like to feel that kind of pain, that level of understanding, just beautiful. Now let me gush about how brilliantly the film blends scenes where Nora is acting with scenes from her actual life. As she says at the beginning, they are often one and the same. You act to feel other people's emotions so that you can also feel some of your own, perhaps the ones you don't normally allow yourself to experience. And every single time they used that technique, I was surprised to realize I was watching a scene. Such a great example of technique serving a film's thesis. The father coming to see his daughter perform becomes all the more significant. Whether he is present or not communicates to her how much he is trying to understand her. That is why the ending is so impactful. I kept thinking, oh no, please don't let the ending be that the dad dies and it's too late to reconcile. Then I thought, oh no, please, I'm not strong enough for the ending to be that she kills herself. But all of those possible endings, that rollercoaster, are the ending. The final shot of them working on the movie ties everything together. They used to carry their pain alone, but now, through hard-earned understanding of each other, they don't have to do that anymore. I loved how the film allows you to understand every character equally. The film itself is as emotionally intelligent as the title suggests. It never judges. It makes space to tell everyone's story with the same level of depth and compassion. Anyways, I cried. A lot. So, per my usual pattern, new favorite unlocked. Letterboxd, I beg you: a top 4 is not roomy enough.