In the early 1920s, Georges Laffont (Romain Duris), traumatised by the horrific trench warfar, decides to leave his life behind and travel to West Africa into the vast territories of Upper Volta in the company of Diofo, artist and also survivor of the Great War. From village to village, Georges uses Diofo's talents as a griot to recruit the villagers as labour for plantations in Ghana. But his adventure leads him to a dead-end, and he comes back to Paris where is brother Marcel (Grégory Gadebois), a war invalid, lives with their mother's. After the war in Europe, life went out without him. Georges will desperately try to find his place, with the help of Hélène (Céline Salette), a sign language teacher with whom he will have a tumultuous relationship, and his family, that he selfishly left behind. He will finally attempt to heal their wounds, and his.
英国王室的成员因为一次意外,全部去世了。皇室后继无人,却惊喜发现民间还有一名皇室后裔。这个人就是拉尔夫(约翰•古德曼 John Goodman饰),他热爱摇滚,喜欢无拘束的生活。然而让他去当国王,却有点违背他本性——果然,进入白金汉宫后,拉尔夫完全不了解各种礼仪仪式,闹了不少笑话,幸得老勋爵薛杜尔相助教导。
议会会长对拉尔夫极为不满,收买了脱衣舞女米兰德来勾引拉尔夫企图破坏拉尔夫声誉,迫其退位。果然米兰德却与拉尔夫相谈甚欢。有外国来访,拉尔夫忘记礼仪大出洋相,不料外国元首却偏偏喜欢这种自由的风气。英国政府希望拉尔夫与芬兰公主成就一桩政治婚姻,拉尔夫却因为米兰德的出现搞砸了这个计划。或许,拉尔夫根本就无心这个宫廷内。
When the film begins, it is all over. “We know it’s terminal, and that’s all”, says Juliane of her mother Kerstin, who is in great pain and about to die aged just 64. Although the young doctor she consults acknowledges on a personal level that everyone has the right to manage their own death, he nonetheless reminds her that euthanasia is still illegal in Germany. This is even more the case at the Catholic hospice where Kerstin is staying. As relatives come to say goodbye to her mother and the emotions of memories mingle with the anticipation of grief, Juliane finds herself having to do battle with time – unbending, apathetic and monochrome – and this is superbly reflected in the convulsions of the handheld camera in wide shots.
Based on personal experience, Jessica Krummacher’s second feature film vividly relates the painful story of losing a parent. There is no violence or morbidity, rather the director describes the most important of events via the smallest, most fragile of details – the exchanging of words, texts and tender gestures that remain with us and get under our skin.