“Finally”, a film that is both tender and blunt, questions the longevity of a couple

Les Films 13

The day of his 87th birthday, the tireless Claude Lelouch presented his latest film in preview at the Grand Rex. His 51th opus “Finalement” will be released on November 13. This contemporary fable is an opportunity to question the midlife crisis even when everything seems to be going well.  

“The Grand Rex is the first cinema I went to, I was three years old”, confided Claude Lelouch as his new film was presented to the public and his friends in a packed and enthusiastic 2,800-seat theater on October 30. The film will be released on November 13, because the number 13 is the lucky number (like Les Films 13) of the director.  

Could “Finalement” be the end point after sixty years of hard work and passion dedicated to cinema? Could this 51st feature film be an “Au Revoir” from Claude Lelouch? Of course not! “A sequel to the story is in preparation. I must not stop. At my age, I don't turn off the ignition or I won't start it again. Like classic cars,” he told his audience.   

For this exceptional evening, there was a preview!  

From a legendary scene from the film “Les uns et les autres” and to the music of Ravel's Boléro, Claude Lelouch created a patchwork of the best extracts from his films. Encounters, chance, love, karma, drama…  We found the director's favorite themes. Here we are, immersed in the atmosphere.  

A musical fable written and brought to life by Claude Lelouch 

In the credits, the filmmaker presents “A musical fable written and brought to life by Claude Lelouch”. It is nicely said.  

“Our unconscious directs our lives and music is the irrational part that is in us. Music has always held a very important place in my films”, he emphasizes in the introduction to the evening.   

It is true that the director of the cult film “A Man and a Woman” has the music for a film composed before shooting it in order to be able to draw inspiration from it.   

Let us recall that for his 85th birthday, Claude Lelouch had made a point of paying a vibrant tribute to the music composers who accompanied his filmography – including Francis Lai and Michel Legrand – during a grand symphonic show at the Palais des Congress.  

“Finally”, isn't that the beginning of a love story between a trumpet and a piano? In this new feature film, the duo Ibrahim Maalouf and Didier Barbelivien are at the helm for the musical composition and the songs.  

A road movie» on the roads of France totally in the Lelouchian atmosphere 

Kad Merad and Claude Lelouch on one of the filming locations, Mont-Saint-Michel, in the film «Finalement» ©Les Films 13  

From the very first images, we are taken into an atmosphere like no other that is characteristic of Lelouch's films. A vagabond in his fifties wanders on the road. He is the central character of the film played by the charismatic Kad Merad (his name is Lino in homage to Lino Ventura).  

Lino is depressed, he throws his phone in the water and hitchhikes. He tells each driver a sordid story. Sometimes he is a wanted criminal, sometimes a former priest who raped and then defrocked him, sometimes a porn film director. His interlocutors are not very friendly. They tend to be more of a collaborator, quick to report him to the police.  

Our anti-hero sleeps in a barn. To Manon, a charming farmer played by Françoise Gillard, he recommends “On the Road to Madison” and, with his trumpet, accompanies her on the piano. Before disappearing, he slips a check for 5,000 euros into her mailbox to buy a new tractor. A lightning strike without a future?  

We follow Lino's random journey from Normandy to Mont-Saint-Michel via the surroundings of Béziers, Burgundy, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Avignon Festival… and of course Paris. So many beautiful landscapes of our “Sweet France”… still sweet for how much longer?  

This kaleidoscope reminds us that Lelouch loves the Normandy countryside, actors, cars… The filmmaker pays homage to sporting and cultural events, but also to the traditions of our country. There is not an ounce of wokism in his feature film. He spares us the minority ideologies of our time. Thank you Mr. Lelouch.  

«Finalement» was filmed in emblematic places of our country.  

«It is a film about France, but also about the French, both wonderful and grumpy at times. Whether they are farmers, antique dealers, hunters, musicians, actors…», summarizes the director who could not resist offering a “small role” to God. God appears on a café terrace, but also Jesus and his disciples (including a very jovial Judas), pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela and a healer who performs miracles.  

Lelouch slips in a few philosophical considerations as usual. “What is most important is health, love, friendship (love without the hassle), the money that allows us to afford all that.” “Everything that happens to us is for our own good! » is the supreme lesson that appears on the film poster.  

No filter: Lino no longer knows how to lie to those around him… and to himself  

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Lino (Kad Merad) and his mother (Françoise Fabian, now 91 years old) married to the crook Simon (Lino Ventura) in “Finalement” ©Les Films 13 

But who is this Lino, this singular man who wanders aimlessly through France at a time when everyone is hyper busy, connected to the rest of the world ?  

There are never any highways in Lelouch's films, but many side roads. The filmmaker excels at breaking up the chronology of a story. The flashbacks placed at the right moment enlighten us on the crux of the plot. 

In fact, Lino Massaro is a leading lawyer (a resemblance to Dupont-Moretti?, you had to think of it…) who has a health problem. He is suffering from the beginnings of frontotemporal dementia. What is that? Lino no longer has a filter, no longer knows how to lie to those around him… and even less to himself. It is the madness of feelings that invades him! 

Married to a movie actress (Léa played by Elsa Zylberstein), he announces, during a family meal with his mother (Françoise Fabian), his two children, his best friend lawyer (Michel Boujenah), that he no longer has any desire for her. Boom badaboum… In the middle of pleading, he takes off his lawyer's robe. In short, he resigns on all levels and runs away from this life that seems so perfect, so successful.  

Mal du siècle? 10,000 people disappear each year in France.  

The illness seems only a pretext for the filmmaker's narration.  

We think of “Itinerary of a Spoiled Child”, one of Lelouch's great films that we loved, watched and rewatched with emotion at the time of Jean-Paul Belmondo's death. There are many similarities. But “Finally” does not take us to Zimbabwe to see Victoria Falls, it takes us on a journey to France and the past.     

The rhythm, the atmosphere catch us in passing to embark us on the madness of feelings.  

 

Claude Lelouch has made fifty-one films that together make up a large family. His films fit into each other, respond to each other. He loves them, doesn't let them go and willingly uses the script digression, one of his old tricks.  

On the screen, we find Lino Ventura courting Françoise Fabian (extracts from “La Bonne Année” made in 1973).  

Françoise Fabian (now 91 years old!) plays the role of Lino's mother whose father was a crook… hence the son's vocation to help desperate causes. Sandrine (Lino's half-sister played by Sandrine Bonnaire) comes straight out of the previous film “Love is Better Than Life”. Accused of pimping, she counts on Lino's talent to defend her.  

Kad Merad, a newcomer to the clan, can thank Lelouch for having a truly great role (beyond the romantic bad boy) which gives an additional dimension to his acting. He dares to improvise, be spontaneous, and humor beyond the text of the very written script. And it rings true.  

Telescoping of the main story with the darkest hours of the Gestapo. It is a tangle of puzzles dear to Lelouch (with a mixture of eras, genres and tones) that makes emotions waltz. It seems a little messy, convoluted, chaotic, like the upside-down brain of the suicidal fifty-something lawyer. But we follow the thread of the plot without difficulty.  

The rhythm and the atmosphere grab us as we pass by and take us into the madness of feelings.  

This feature film takes us back to our own history, to our existential questions. Lelouch is filming with his best friends and we feel like we are participating a little in these family reunions.  

“Finalement” is a film that is both tender and blunt, which questions the longevity of the couple. “It's a film about solitude, which in a certain way necessarily accompanies freedom”, Lelouch comments. The film was produced by Les Films 13, France 2 Cinéma and Laurent Dassault Rond-Point (Laurent Dassault plays the role of the bank manager escorted by a large brown pole).  

Long live French cinema! Will the troubadour of the seventh art, shunned by the New Wave, dethrone Truffaut among film buffs in a few years? ?  

For the time being, a heavy burden of professional, financial and personal responsibilities weighs on the man. With “Finalement”, one might wonder if the filmmaker has not addressed a message to himself.  

This father of seven children (and many grandchildren), married four times (his last wife is Valérie Perrin, a novelist, 57 years old) would he not like to answer the absent subscribers, to escape this life too full ? To this, he replies: “I prefer troubles to boredom”.  

At the end of the screening, the film's joyous cast gave Claude Lelouch a standing ovation in front of a superb birthday cake accompanied by a shower of golden streamers. “I don't know what else to say, except that we're going to try to share this cake”, he said. And Kad Merad picked up his trumpet again to lead the audience into the party.  

Poster for the film “Finalement” by Claude Lelouch in theaters from November 13, 2024

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