Mehr denn je
Director: Emily Atef
Writer: Emily Atef, Lars Hubrich
Cast: Vicky Krieps, Gaspard Ulliel, Bjørn Floberg
Seen on: 14.12.2024

Plot:
Hélène (Vicky Krieps) and Matthieu (Gaspard Ulliel) were happy until Hélène was diagnosed with a fatal disease. Now they are both reeling. Matthieu wants to support her, but Hélène finds that she needs distance. She finds solace in the blog entries of a Norwegian (Bjørn Floberg) who writes about his experiences with a fatal disease. She decides that she wants to visit him, leaving Matthieu behind.

Mehr denn je is a tender film that approaches a difficult topic: how can you come to terms with your own mortality when you’re still young and it is not a far-off specter, but something close? The result is intimate and both sad and reassuring in its peacefulness.

The film lives and breathes (no pun intended) with Krieps‘ performance that is both unbending and vulnerable. Hélène doesn’t accept her fate quickly but for the most part, she would rather accept than fight. She would rather continue as if she wasn’t sick, while at the same time upending her entire life. She doesn’t want to hold on to her life as she has known it until her diagnosis, but to herself, her sense of personhood.

It is a solitary quest and one where Matthieu seems to bother her. Or at least that’s what she thinks at first. It’s in the relationship between Matthieu and Hélène that the film shows the most warmth and heart, despite many abrasive and hurtful moments between the two. There is nevertheless infinite understanding and love between them.

In the film’s best part, it’s final act, Hélène seems to realize, though, that one isn’t a person without other people. What makes us human, what makes us who we are, includes our connections to others. And so she is able to let Matthieu (who keeps on trying and insisting) back into her lfie. There is still something separate, a certain loneliness in Hélène, a gap that Matthieu cannot bridge. But the connection is real and it is there.

Mehr denn je is an impressive and thoughtful film, probably the best of Atef’s movies I have seen. It is not perfect and it sometimes drags a little, but it has a lot of strength and wisdom.

Summarizing: absolutely worth it.