Quelques heures de printemps (2012) Reviews

• Things are the way they should be

  guy-bellinger2013-04-08

  Sandwiched between the Cannes Film Festival screening of Michael Haneke's "Amour", the May 2012 Palme d'Or ceremony and the much acclaimed October release of the Austrian director's last film, "Quelques heures de printemps" (A Few Hours of Spring), Stéphane Brizé's masterpiece, shown in September and dealing with approximately the same theme (a person's end of life experience and its consequences on a close relative), paled in terms of box office but not at all as a work of art. For, even though it has been seen by only 300,000 people in France (nothing to be ashamed of but this outstanding movie certainly deserved better), it will doubtless become a classic that will be seen and seen again profitably by the future generations. If "Amour" concerns an old woman who gradually descends into death, "A Few Hours of Spring" (a fine title paying homage to another classic, Claude Sautet's "A Few Days with Me") describes the last months of Yvette Evrard (Hélène Vincent in an amazing César-winning performance), an aging mother who has decided to die in order not to suffer the indignities of the terminal stages of a brain tumor. And where Anne's close relative in "Amour" is her husband, the one in Stéphane's Brizé's film is Yvette's middle-aged son Alain (played by Vincent Lindon, more tormented, blunt and withdrawn than ever). Both films show that accompanying a terminally ill patient is at once one of the most frightful ordeals a human being has to go through and a unique self-revealing experience. What distinguishes them may be the empathy (or the lack of it) that emerges (or not) from Brizé's and Haneke's respective works. For, if all agree on the high quality of the two films, most of the viewers have been moved by Yvette and Alain Ménard's lot whereas a significant number of those who saw "Amour" thought it too cold and unsympathetic. To concentrate on "A Few Hours of Spring" solely, it should be noted that Yvette's dramatic choice is not the only issue examined by the director. In the first half, the question is not even alluded to. In this part of the movie, Stéphane Brizé does in fact what he is a past master at : providing a faithful description of ordinary people in contemporary France. Two persons in a small detached house, a dog and a neighbor are enough for the filmmaker to capture the way modest people (i.e.: most people) live nowadays. Yvette, Alain and their benevolent neighbor Monsieur Lalouette's every move (the instant coffee they drink, Alain taking the dog out, Lalouette giving Yvette the apples of his orchard, a.s.o.) are scrutinized and ring wonderfully true. In the same respect, the words they exchange never give the impression to have been written before being uttered. To complete the picture, the viewer is specified what the characters' jobs are or were, which is not always the case in current cinema: Alain was a trucker but he is now jobless after serving a prison sentence ; the neighbor was one too but is retired now. Likewise, part of the running time is devoted to Alain getting through the Employment Agency and subsequently trying his hand at an unskilled job (in what other mainstream French film can you see the "hero" working in a recyclable sorting plant side by side with a Balck emigrant?). To put it briefly, social reality is depicted in a straight accurate manner in "A Few Hours of Spring" just the way it was in Brizé's former works (from "Le Bleu des villes" to "Mademoiselle Chambon"), which makes the characters all the closer to us. Another feature of Brizé's oeuvre, also present in this film, is his awesome ability to represent non-communication without boring the audience. Many of his characters (Florence Vignon in "Le Bleu des villes", Patrick Chesnais in "Je ne suis pas là pour être aimé", Vincent Lindon in "Mademoiselle Chambon") are loners who are unable to express their feelings and accordingly find it hard to connect with others. In "A Few Hours of Spring", Yvette et Alain join the club, by taking refuge in words left unsaid and unexpressed resentment, which is bound to result in misunderstandings and in occasional violent rows. The same is true when Alain finds requited love in the person of the beautiful and sensitive Clémence : he spoils the whole thing by clamming up as soon as his lover wants to know more about him. As for the main theme, the right of any individual to end their lives when all hope of recovery has vanished, it is presented clearly but without dogmatism or oversimplification. All the options are expressed (notably that of Yvette's cancer specialist, favoring palliative care over assisted suicide) and Brizé solicits the viewer's reflection without manipulating them. And when it comes to Yvette's last moments, the director finds the right tone in filming them, a real exploit in itself. This is actually one of the most pared down (and one of the most moving as a result) agony scenes ever shown on a screen. Uncannily indeed, like Alain himself, you feel appeased in the scene Yvette's death rather than distressed. Things are the way they should be. My conclusion will come as no surprise : at once sensitive, thought- provoking and a work of art crafted to perfection, "A Few Hours of Spring" is a milestone you just cannot miss out on.

• English Disease

  writers_reign2014-11-13

  Could it be we ask ourselves that what Terence Rattigan described as - and exploited in his plays - the English Disease, by which he meant an inability to express emotion and/or repression, has crossed La Manche and is now living happily in La Belle France or is it perhaps more likely that Stephane Brize admires and is influenced by Rattigan, just as, for example, another fine French director, Alain Resnais, admired the English dramatist Alan Ayckbourne. No matter, however he arrived at it Brize has made a magnificent film virtually plot less with two actors who should, by rights, have taken every award open to them but did, of course, wind up with nothing. Like Louis Jouvet Helene Vincent's first love is the theatre, in which she has distinguished herself many times, unlike Jouvet she has not had the good fortune to appear in a string of classic films but if A Few Hours Of Spring were her sole appearance on film it would be more than sufficient to secure her place in the pantheon. Co-star Vincent Lindon has appeared in some very fine movies and does so yet again as the middle-aged son who, on his release from prison, is obliged to live with his mother thus reigniting a lifetime of bitterness. He soon discovers that his mother has a terminal illness and has made arrangements to enter a Swiss clinic and end her life peacefully. Still there is no overt emotion and when Lindon acquires a girl friend of sorts in the shape of Manu Seigner he is unable to communicate with her also on anything remotely resembling an emotional level. Brize is not afraid to tell his tale slowly with long takes and cutting at a minimum - when, for example, Lindon spots Seigner in a supermarket car park and walks over to her their entire conversation is in mid shot from a fixed camera position where other directors would have been cutting back and forth between them. Until now I had thought that Brize had peaked with Not Here To Be Loved - another film which was little more than a two-hander with supporting roles - with an honourable mention for Madmoiselle Chambon but this one is light years ahead of both. Not for everyone but highly recommended just the same.

• A whole life of solitude

  roland-scialom2013-11-09

  Alain Evrard cannot stand with his mother's simple habits, which are the habits of someone used to take care of herself and of her household. The way she cooks, put the food on the table, eat methodically etc. He can not stand the worry of his mother with his person, when she asks him about his job and plans to get a job. He cannot stand with the worry of someone who wants to take care of him. He cannot deal with a spontaneous relationship with a girl friend he meets at the bowling club. In other words, he is unable to exchange feelings with another person. His mother is not particularly effusive, yet she is a good person and seems to the spectator as a person with whom it is perfectly possible to cohabit. His girl friend would like to improve the relationship with him, but fails because of his attitude of refusing to do the steps which would lead to the improvement of the relationship. This situation lasts until the very last moment of the life of his mother: when she is dying, both cry, sobbing, embracing each other strongly and confessing that they have always loved each other. The title suggests that those moments where a springtime. I don't think so. I think that it's rather the sad awareness of what they missed during their lives, and I think that this is the whole meaning of the story: how to live a whole life of solitude not developing love relationships with those who are close to you and are ready to correspond. So, I would put the title "a whole life of solitude".

• My choice.

  dbdumonteil2016-08-29

  This difficult subject was also treated in Germany the following year: a terminally -ill young girl chooses assisted suicide in Switzerland...."Und Morgen Mittag,Bin Ich Tot" (Tomorrow at noon,I'll be dead" ) It's interesting to compare the two movies :in the German work,the heroine is Still young and pretty ,and we see her dither over the final decision,make the best of the little time she has left to live :it's not easy to leave for a so called better world when you should have your whole life ahead of you. In "Quelques Heures De Printemps" ,the situation is different ,because we deal with a woman nearing seventy who has seen her son grow ,and who refuses pointless sufferings ;during the whole movie,Yvette ,played by highly talented Helene Vincent,is calm ,serene ;she has prepared herself for weeks for this death,after careful consideration.Matching her every step of the way is Vincent Lindon's son ,who finds it hard her mom should leave this world (and him) that way . The place where IT is going to happen is a patch of peaceful clear country land ,which sharply contrasts with the lugubrious last great journey. Like the German movie,recommended ,but to be avoided if you are down in the dumps.

• Sincere

  christophe923002013-10-29

  Stéphane Brizé didn't fall into the melodramatic trap which always needs to be highlighted especially when dealing with such sensitive subjects as euthanasia and the end of life. The performances of Hélène Vincent and the ageless Vincent Lindon are absolutely accurate and truthful, and if the two are very good, it's clear that the introverted, very sober, almost silent role of the latter didn't allow him to fully express his potential. Moreover, and even if it's poignant, this is a "spectator" movie that won't please everybody. There is not much of a plot, it's pretty slow, everything is in the details and suggestions, and it even sometimes resembles a documentary because it adopts a strong observant posture, and this passivity is probably what serves the film badly and will leave a part of the viewers on the side of the road.