A film by Emily Atef, Drama, 122 min, Color
FR/DE/LUX/NOR
© Eaux Vives Productions / NiKo Film/ Samsa Fim / Mer Film/ Bayerischer Rundfunk & ARTE France Cinema in Zusammenarbeit mit Arte &
Arte France, Ciné+
Funded by: Luxembourg Film Fund, Eurimages, Norsk filminstitut, Filmförderungsanstalt, Centre du cinéma et de l'image animée, Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, La Nouvelle-Aquitaine en partenariat avec le CNC, Mediafondet Zefyr, Département Gironde en Partenariat avec le CNC
German distributor: Pandora Filmverleih
World sales: The Match Factory
SYNOPSIS
Hélène and Mathieu have been happy together for many years. The bond between them is deep. Faced with an existential decision, Hélène travels alone to Norway to seek peace, an act that will test the strength of their love.
CAST
Vicky Krieps, Gaspard Ulliel, Bjørn Floberg (a.o.)
CREW
Producers | Xénia Maingot (FR), Nicole Gerhards(DE), Jani Thiltges (LUX), Maria Ekerhovd & Ragna Nordhus Midtgard (NOR) |
Director | Emily Atef |
Script | Emily Atef, Lars Hubrich |
Production manager | Cécile Remy-Boutang |
1. AD | Guillaume Bonnier |
Camera | Yves Capes |
Set Design | Silke Fischer |
Costume Design | Dorothée Guiraud |
Make-up | Nathalie Tabareau |
Editing | Sandie Bompar, Hansjörg Weissbrich |
Original sound | Nicolas Cantin |
Sound Design | Capucine Courau |
Music | Jon Balke |
Postproduction Supervisor | Christian Vennefrohne |
Commissioning Editors | Bettina Ricklefs, Carlos Gerstenhauer (BR), Claudia Tronnier (Arte), Olivier Père, Rémi Burah (Arte France Cinéma) |
Festivals & Awards
75. Festival de Cannes - Section Un Certain Regard
39. Filmfest München - Official competition
Presse
The Hollywood Reporter
„More Than Ever’s power is understated and controlled. It’s a film about life despite death, and a woman desperate to control her fate. (…) Silence is Atef’s strength. The director impressively uses quiet moments to great effect, often telling us more than her workaday screenplay. (…) This third act ends up being the strongest section of More Than Ever: Atef stages unfussy scenes that pack maximum emotion, and Hélène seems one step closer to knowing herself.“
„Vicky Krieps and Gaspard Ulliel are superb in this sensitive romantic drama. (…) More Than Ever persuades, rather than forces, its audience to stare death in the face, and proves surprisingly life affirming in the process. (…) That messy realism is at the heart of More Than Ever, which eschews traditional soft focus melodramatic end-of-life drama trappings to instead focus on more gritty, potentially uncomfortable questions.“
“Ulliel and Vicky Krieps are superb in a rare film that allows the cruelty of chronic disease to play out with pessimistic finality. (…) an already well-tuned film about how unbearably ill-equipped we are to say goodbye to those we’re losing too soon. (…) This is not a film that will bring comfort to the mourning, or reassure those who may be facing the same road ahead. In that sense, perhaps it’s done its job.”
“a wonderful melodrama about the approach of death. (…) Deftly exploring the process of acceptance whereby suffering becomes part of a wider well-being - even when the truth is unbearably painful - Emily Atef signs her name to a film that’s undoubtedly moving but which also says exactly what needs to be said.”