De son vivant (Peaceful), the ravages of illness at the heart of a mother-son relationship

In 2015, Emmanuelle Bercot opened the Festival with Standing Tall (La Tête Haute), a hard-hitting film about the journey of a young delinquent from educational centres to juvenile courts. Alongside the moving Rod Paradot, winner of the César for Best Newcomer, she directed Catherine Deneuve and Benoît Magimel, in the roles of the judge and the educator. The French director reunites with her two favourite actors in De son vivant (Peaceful), a melodrama that she wrote "directly with them in mind".

In this, her third collaboration with the director, Catherine Deneuve plays a mother suffering because of her son – Benoît Magimel – condemned by illness and in total denial. In the midst of this conflictual relationship, a doctor and a nurse try to steer them towards acceptance and tolerance.

As the disease spreads, mother and son are confronted with the different phases traditionally experienced by patients and their families: denial, anger, depression, negotiation, resignation. An ordeal that pushes them, as well as the audience, to question the meaning of existence, the relationship with death and what is left behind.

By focusing on the emotions and psychological experience of her protagonists, without exposing the physical ravages of the disease, Emmanuelle Bercot signs a luminous film, where the polished aesthetics of the settings take precedence over the degradation of the bodies. A decision taken from the outset "to stick to the melodrama genre", as the director points out.