Film Review: Everything Went Fine

Director: François Ozon
Starring: Sophie Marceau, André Dussollier, Géraldine Pailhas
Running time: 113 minutes

The title of Everything Went Fine (‘Tout s’est bien passé’) implies that the film’s issues are resolved at its end – that some sort of emotional closure is reached by its characters. However, this film only leaves us to ponder a multitude of moral anxieties about the family, illness and death after its conclusion. The overwhelming feeling it left me with was not sadness or sympathy – although these two emotions were still very present – but almost an awkward unease. This is what makes it so powerful.

In this film, François Ozon brilliantly captures the dilemmas families face when a loved one goes through the process of euthanasia or assisted dying. The film hints at wider issues and debates in Europe surrounding assisted dying, but it is still rooted in the context of the family it was inspired by. Emmanuèle or ‘Manue’ (played by Sophie Marceau and modelled on Emmanuèle Bernheim, whose book this film is based on) is working in Paris as a writer when she is suddenly informed that her father André (André Dussollier) has suffered a severe stroke. The stroke leaves the 80-year-old former art collector bed-bound, the right side of his face sagging. In accordance with his wishes, Manue must organise the euthanasia of her father in Switzerland where it is a legal medical practice, all while tending to her own childhood traumas, as well as the wellbeing of her distraught sister Pascale (Géraldine Pailhas), and depressed mother Claude (Charlotte Rampling). 

The film centres around the ethical dilemmas Manue comes up against when fulfilling her father’s one last wish. One challenge she faces is the societal and sometimes religious taboo surrounding assisted dying. It is still an illegal medical practice in France and has many political opponents, and so in the film Manue’s father must travel abroad to Bern, Switzerland to go through the procedure. This involves many logistical challenges in the form of people trying to halt or prevent André travelling to have it done, which only augments Manue’s trauma. 

The bigger challenge Manue faces, however, is reconciling her own relationship with her father. The film gives us a few flashbacks of her childhood where we find out she was mistreated by him and even at one point wished for his death, which of course is ironic considering she is now the one responsible for organising it. In one short but powerful shot, we see Manue dreaming that herself as a child is holding up a gun to her elderly father. The violent collision of these two times in Manue’s life speaks to the inner turmoil and confusion she goes through at the end of her father’s life.

One big drawback of the film for me is that it does not delve deeper into the history of Manue and André’s relationship. The flashback scenes that we do see are essential because they explain so much about why Manue and her father’s relationship is so complex. Manue at one point even describes André as a “bad father”, but also says that she loves him anyway. I just wish Ozon fleshed these parts out more. 

Nonetheless, the film is still a raw and uncompromising exploration of serious illness and its effect on families. It refuses to leave out all the complex emotions that arise when dealing with the death of a family member. Manue is not just saddened and distraught by her father’s wish to end his life, but angry at him at times for having neglected her needs for so long, and frustrated at him for having placed such a moral burden on her in organising his euthanasia. These emotions would usually provoke guilt in a family member, but Ozon deals with them head on. 

It reminds me of the 2012 Michael Haneke film Amour, which follows the relationship of an elderly Parisian couple after the wife has a stroke. Amour, like Everything Went Fine, brings to the forefront the disparate and often unpleasant emotions felt by families during the illness of a family member, and explores how an almost claustrophobic domestic space can heighten these taboo emotions. If you liked Amour, Ozon’s new film is a must-see. 

Did you know? François Ozon first saw Sophie Marceau in the 1980 French film The Party when he was a teenager. He asked her to star in a number of his films – including his 2004 divorce drama, 5x2 – but she did not accept a role until Everything Went Fine, after Ozon sent her a copy of the book on which it is based.

Everything Went Fine is available on Curzon Home Cinema