Paris' famous Père-Lachaise cemetery is the setting for Heddy Honigmann's elegiac, affecting documentary, in which the camera travels among the tombstones as she interviews people who come to visit loved one's graves or see the final resting-places of famous figures such as Oscar Wilde, Amedeo Modigliani, and Jim Morrison. Forever offers a meditation on the immortality of art, celebrating the posthumous influence that composers, painters, writers, singers, and actors still have on devoted fans and admirers. It's uplifting to meet a man so devoted to Remembrance of Things Past that he created a comic-book guide to Proust's masterpiece, or to hear an Iranian refugee sing a classic Persian poem at the tomb of expatriate writer Sadegh Hedayat, and the periodic return of a young Japanese pianist mastering a work of Chopin—whose music serves as a connection to her dead father—is quietly compelling. Conversations with people who come to tend the graves of cultural icons they treat almost like personal friends or to serve as cemetery guides are both amusing and moving, while archival footage of the deceased and a few illustrative episodes filmed away from the cemetery (including one involving two blind friends screening a film to hear Simone Signoret on the soundtrack) add to the richness. But Honigmann also talks with other visitors whose reminiscences concerning relatives underscore the fact that their memories live on, as well. A gently touching film that is also beautifully shot, Forever is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
Forever
(2006) 95 min. DVD or VHS: $440. First Run/Icarus Films. PPR. Volume 23, Issue 1
Forever
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