Forever (2006)

Directed by: Heddy Honigmann | 95 minutes | documentary | Starring: Yoshino Kimura, Reza Khoddam, Valérie Bajou, David Pouly, Bertrand Beyern, Bruno Douchet, Christophe Menez, Stéphane Heuet

Who has not been to the famous Père Lachaise cemetery when visiting Paris? The overviews with the location of the ‘important’ graves are already handed out at the entrance, many complete the standard tourist route with the graves of well-known personalities. It is also historically important that the great revolt of the anarchists was suppressed here in 1871, which cost about 1,000 human lives. As a cemetery, Père-Lachaise has been in existence since 1804 and has been a prestigious final resting place since its inception with many, almost grotesque, funerary monuments. Fortunately, director Heddy Honigmann has managed to avoid the obvious trap to also extensively portray the grave of the famous Jim Morrison (singer of The Doors). So much has already been filmed about everything that takes place around this grave that this would give little added value to this documentary. It goes without saying that references to this famous grave appear on several occasions. In addition, this cemetery is home to so many celebrities that the visitors to Jim Morrison’s grave are no more than a connection to the many other, sometimes very interesting visitors to the graves in this film.

Lightly and subtly, the cheerfulness of old widows visiting the grave of their husbands buried in the Quarter Jim Morrison has been filmed. As a result, there is still a lot of visitors who muse over the good old days of The Doors with drink and music. They believe that this brings a lot of excitement in the ‘life’ of their deceased husband, but of course also for themselves. The documentary is a beautiful mixture of images about grave monuments, sometimes meticulously cared for with a lot of love and dedication, which sometimes radiate a lot of splendor. Fans and loved ones, as well as anonymous carers, manage the memory of their loved ones with great dedication. The director manages to get their feelings and thoughts out. They make candid statements about what keeps them returning to this cemetery. Their inspiration and the images of splendor are subtly interspersed with moody images of funerary monuments where time does its work and where due to the absence of loving care the gravestones groan under the debilitating effect of nature.

Yet it is not a gloomy documentary, there are many moments when humor and inspiration also make the film lighter. It is certainly not all sadness and melancholy to the graves and to the visitors and they draw inspiration from what they themselves experience at the grave or from the life course of the deceased. ‘Forever’ is a highly honest mixture of reflections and emotions of people who at some point in their lives have been literally touched for the rest of their lives by, for example, a chance meeting with another visitor to the grave or reading a book, for example. of the deceased.

It is moving to see the way in which some people meticulously clean the graves and, for example, provide them with instruments so that they can make the stay of the deceased in the ‘afterlife’ more pleasant. A paintbrush left at Modigliani’s grave and a pen with Marcel Proust. People who initially found “A la recherche du temps perdu” illegible and only at a later age gained insight into what Proust actually wrote and meant here. The serene tranquility and peace they radiate when reading a book at a grave. In some visitors’ musings, their memories are beautifully interspersed with old film recordings of the deceased, such as Maria Callas and Simone Signoret, but also with old trick films by film pioneers from the early days of cinema history, who are also buried here. The Japanese pianist who venerates Chopin and at the same time pays tribute to her deceased father, provides a wonderful piece of visual and musical support to this documentary with her piano playing. The documentary is built up at a slow pace that is appropriate for this contemplative film and has exactly the right speed and duration. Magnificent transitions between the visitors to the graves and the sincerity of their answers make this documentary a gem. Their subdued emotions let them go and their memories and emotions come to the fore.

Heddy Honigmann has once again succeeded in delivering a high-level documentary about the vital power of art, about a place where beauty lives on “eternally”, where love and death coexist. A ‘must see’ for the serious film buff and of course indispensable if you plan to visit Paris and Père-Lachaise (again).