Suddenly: Invigorating and surprising (review)

The Japanese filmmaker of Drive My Car installs Virginie Efira at the head of a Parisian nursing home and signs an anti-capitalist pamphlet mixed with senior hedonism. With a more than deserved double Cannes interpretation prize

It is an understatement to say that elderly people are invisible in the cinema. Place its plot almost exclusively in a Parisian nursing home as the relocated Japanese Ryusuke Hamaguchi does here (Drive my car) is in this a strong gesture. Even stronger is to make it a utopian place where taking care of others would be a way of re-enchanting a world scarred by our selfishness. Virginie Efira plays the director of an establishment with experimental methods. She sets up the “Humanitude” program around the philosophical concept advocating “ the capacity of a human being to become aware of his or her belonging to the human species as a full member. » Faced with skepticism from her management and certain colleagues, she praises the four pillars of this wisdom: look, word, touch and verticality.

Through the gentleness of its ultra-precise staging without being overbearing, Hamaguchi appropriates the space without falling into blissful exoticism. The filmmaker is riveted to his performers, embraces their rhythms, their heartbeats, listens to their thoughts against the test of their own speeches. Virginie Efira, who shared her Cannes Best Actress Prize with her partner Tao Okamoto, switches from French to Japanese with disconcerting ease. We can think what we want about this new feature from the Japanese author, know that after two hours it manages to captivate us with a “foot” orgy where mostly senile elderly people find peace by rubbing their neighbor’s toes. To achieve this absolutely invigorating senior hedonism, it was necessary to integrate the logic of a film straddling Lelouch and Bourdieu where good feelings are coiled in an acute political awareness of the world. Surprising, we tell you.

By Ryusuke Hamaguchi. With Virginie Efira, Tao Okamoto, Marie Denarnaud… Duration: 3h15. Released August 12, 2026