More than two years after “Love is better than life”, Claude Lelouch is back with “Finally”: a 51st feature film first announced as his last, right down to the title. Unless…
What is it about?
In an increasingly crazy world, Lino, who has decided to give up everything, will realize that ultimately: everything that happens to us is for our own good!
The never-ending story?
Has retirement time come for Claude Lelouch, who celebrated his 87th birthday on October 30 and whose first film (USA in bulk, a short fifteen-minute black and white film) was released in 1957?
In the idea, yes, and the title of his 51st feature film supports this idea. Finally, as if to say that everything led to this “musical fable brought to life” by him, as we can read in the opening credits.
A story of headlong flight for the character played by Kad Merad, which can obviously be understood if one has never seen any feature film by the director of A Man and a Woman, even if the presence of images of Lino Ventura and young Françoise Fabian may raise some questions.
Car Finally presents itself as the point of convergence of its author's filmography in many aspects.
Failing to wear the hat that was Jean-Paul Belmondo's in Itinerary of a Spoiled Child (but a jacket belonging to its director), the protagonist is presented to us as the son of the man played by Lino Ventura in Claude Lelouch in Adventure is Adventure and Happy New Year.
Which creates a small inconsistency because it was not the same character in the two films, but that doesn't matter, because it reflects the desire to link several eras of his cinema.
Metropolitan FilmExport
In the same way that a sequence is filmed near Mont Saint-Michel, where the opening of Days Ago… and Moons took place, or that a subplot around a priest, left aside when preparing the Voyou, is reused here. Or even that one of the last sequences, in a court, recalls the end of Tout ça… pour ça!
When Claude Lelouch does not openly refer to films directed by others than him, such as On the Road to Madison by Clint Eastwood or The Great Illusion by Jean Renoir.
As often, the filmmaker signs a generous opus. About life, love, cinema, family, music (with loud trumpet blasts), France (the story passes through Avignon, Beaune, Le Mans, Paris, etc.), religion.
A free film therefore, even in certain improvisations. And ultimate? For a long time, Finally was presented as the end point of its author's abundant work, even in its title.
But, at the end of this lovely final duet, on the piano, between Kad Merad and Barbara Pravi, a card invites us to meet: “And soon, the continuation of this musical movement…” Without further details.
“I pray every day for this last film”
Is Claude Lelouch teasing the release of an album containing songs from his film? Stage performances? Or another latest feature film? “More and more often, I think about my departure”says the main person concerned in the press kit. “I think about it every day. It becomes obsessive. I'm not afraid of death but I have stage fright.”
“I don't know if I would have the strength to make a 52nd film to complete what life has given me, but I dream of achieving the final bouquet. I pray every day for this last film , I would really like to shoot it…
I'll try to do it, if only to thank those who trusted me and say goodbye to the grumpy people! The time to say goodbye has perhaps not yet come.
