Costa-Gavras’ single hyphenated trade name has been synonymous with political thrillers since Z shot from the starting gates in 1969 to win two Oscars and bring the world’s attention to the machinations of the military junta then ruling Greece. Among the numerous films he has made over the ensuing decades, based in France but working also in English, it is the on-brand political films that have been most prominent: State of Siege, Missing, Amen.
Costa-Gavras has, however, other strings to his bow. Witness Last Breath (Le Dernier Souffle), a truly marvelous film, screening in competition in San Sebastian. It’s about dying. Not at the end of a gun barrel, but in the normal course of things, whether the dying person is serenely unafraid, fighting tooth-and-nail to stay alive, or in denial. Based on a book by Regis Debray and Claude Grange, who collaborated with the director in writing the script, it follows the burgeoning friendship between a popular philosopher and a doctor who specializes in palliative care.
Denis Podalydès, an actor more usually associated with comedy, plays Fabrice Toussaint, a writer often seen on chat shows (of the intensely inquisitorial French variety), whose many books include Scourge on Seniors, a controversial essay on end-of-life care he is currently revising and which his publishers expect to be a big hit. They do not realize that Fabrice has another driving force in his revived interest in death: an MRI scan has found a dormant, but potentially deadly, spot in his heart.
Valiantly trying to hide his anxiety, he jumps at the chance when Augustin Masset (Kad Merad), a doctor in charge of palliative care, drops by to introduce himself to the famous philosopher as an admirer. They hit it off immediately, so much so that Augustin invites Fabrice to join him on his rounds. Some patients, like the young firebrand who furiously demands more chemo, rage against the dying of the light. Others, like the old woman who wants nothing more than a final plate of oysters with white wine, are drifting into death with smiles on their faces. Each is given due attention, which is what Augustin’s style of care is all about.
If that sounds dully schematic, it is the great skill of Costa-Gavras, who has, after all, woven together some of the most exciting chase scenes in all of cinema, to meld them together so that the chain structure never clunks. One idea about death and dying leads to the next: Fabrice and his firmly managerial wife (Marilyne Canto) are anticipating a fearsome television debate, but in a sense, the debate is already taking place within the film. Ideas and opinions are turned over, examined, questioned after Socratic tradition.
And if that in turn sounds dry, it isn’t. These people’s stories are fascinating. More than that, their dignity – and sometimes the lack of it — is profoundly moving. The last dying woman we meet is Romany matriarch Esmilia (Angela Molina), who arrives at the hospital in a caravan and wants the doings to finish her own life on the road. Even in dire pain, this woman turns death itself into a celebration. As she leaves the ward with her sprawling, brightly dressed family singing and dancing down the corridor, their collective courage and gift for life – never mind death – is like a starburst of joy. It is a thrill to see Molina, wrinkled and old and glorious.
The film is a showcase for many great older actors. Charlotte Rampling plays Sidonie, firmly demanding that her friend Augustin ensures she has a quick end and isn’t brought back for further suffering. Hiam Abbass is the dog-lover’s wife, refusing to let her husband go until she is confronted with the whole truth.
Last Breath is very much a film about truth-telling. Maybe it doesn’t tell the whole truth itself: these resolutions emerge as ideals, just as the idea that all the nursing staff would have read Toussaint’s many books is charming but unlikely. In a better world, perhaps, we would all find time to read philosophy. In a better world, we would die in a state of grace.
But there it is: this is also a film about ideals. It is probably misplaced to describe it as stupendous, given how softly reflective it is, but in the hour after seeing it, I feel as if my heart has been moved in my chest, something much more grandiose and emotionally explosive films come nowhere close to doing. And yet, it achieves this so methodically, without histrionics, gathering force as it goes.
As a testimony about the end of life by a filmmaker who, at 91, is clearly looking – and looking clearly – at the end of his own, it is truly a wonder.
Title: Last Breath
Festival: San Sebastian (Competition)
Director: Costa-Gavras
Screenwriter: Costa-Gavras
Cast: Denis Podalydès, Kad Merad, Marilyne Canto, Angela Molina, Charlotte Rampling, Hiam Abbass, Karin Viard, Agathe Bonitzer
Sales: Playtime
Running time: 1 hr 37 mins
