La Gueule ouverte

Birth, childhood and youth, adulthood, falling in love, old age, death: few elect to depict the last of the various stages that constitute our lives. And virtually no-one has succeeded in capturing those final moments in a film – what they mean for the person who is dying and also for those gathered round the deathbed. Pialat's work, hovering between a raw portrayal and a quasi-metaphysical contemplation, is simply a masterpiece. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)