In this fatalistic portrait of a dysfunctional family, everyone is weighed down by a great secret. Protagonist Gaspard Ulliel is fascinating as the vulnerable and yet stubborn 19-year-old student Simon, who returns for the Christmas holidays to his childhood home on the coast of Brittany. Apart from his suitcases, he has also brought along a girl he has just met in the night train: Louise. The relationship between Simon and Louise is unclear; they sleep together, talk and quarrel, but they are not lovers. Gradually, Louise spends more and more time with a childhood friend of Simon, who is now a lighthouse keeper on the island. The tension in the household rises. Simon and his mother - beautifully played by Nicole Garcia - get on well together, but his father is a stranger to him. Father and mother share long silences, as often happens when people have been married for a long time, but when they talk, it's more a question of screaming. And then there is the alcoholic writer who stays in a local hotel and adds his own contribution to the suspense. The continuous threat of inevitable conflict is tangible - already a trademark of Marconi as a director, in this case accentuated in a virtuoso way in the art direction, the music and the acting. (SdH)
- Director
- Rodolphe Marconi
- Premiere
- International premiere
- Country of production
- France
- Year
- 2004
- Festival Edition
- IFFR 2005
- Length
- 110'
- Medium
- 35mm
- International title
- The Last Day
- Language
- French
- Producers
- Gemini Films, Paulo Branco
- Sales
- Gemini Films
- Screenplay
- Rodolphe Marconi
- Cast
- Mélanie Laurent, Nicole Garcia
- Website
- http://www.gemini-films.com