The last things in life

"Clara s'en va mourir", BFC Productions/Arte France

Clara Lilt iis a 43-year old actress on the top of her carreer. And then the evil strikes out at her - lung cancer. She learns that she has two more months to live. It is a short and narrow path she knows well: Her father has died of the same disease before. She decides to put an end to her life out of her own free will.

A plot that might easily tip over and become whiningly melodramatic. It doesn't. Clara's life on stage, as a mother, daughter and sister closely intertwine, and "Clara's Off to Die" ("Clara s'en va mourir", BFC Production/Arte France) is kind of a chamber drama about the last things in life. Even though the plot remains quite linear, the film is straightforward and powerful, yet somewhat distant, maybe overacted and strangely aphoristic, occasionally even shrill and hasty.