REVIEW: New Theatrical Release, Peaceful, Starring Catherine Deneuve and Benoît Magimel, Explores What It Means to Say Goodbye

Cannes 2021 Official Selection, Out of Competition, Peaceful, directed by Emmanuelle Bercot and starring Catherine Deneuve and Benoît Magimel, heads to theaters this fall. The film is a powerful story of a man (Benoît Magimel) dying of cancer with less than a year to live and his mother (Catherine Deneuve) and caregivers’ attempts to help him navigate the pain, his regrets, and his very impending and inevitable passing.

Peaceful, which premiered at Cannes to rave reviews, explores the uncommon reversal of when a mother loses a son. Of course, many understand the natural order of things when adult children lay their parents to rest. Yet, in this unique story, Catherine Deneuve stars as Crystal Boltanski and Benoît Magimel as Benjamin Boltanski in this emotion-stirring and thought-provoking melodrama of loss that feels like autumn leaves stirring in the wind only to disappear upon seasons end. 

The stage set for Peaceful is of Benjamin, a theater professor learning of his incurable stage four cancer in an oncologist’s office, foreshadowing that his mother has already met with the doctor to discuss his son’s terminal illness. We learn Crystal has a strong influence over Benjamin and has controlled most of his life up to the age of 40, including him disowning his son he had at a very young age, as he discovers his life will end sooner than he could have ever imagined. 

Benjamin struggles with the emotions of fear, anger, and sadness as he’s forced to come to reckon with the very few people in his life and how he feels he has served no purpose. He states, “It’s my illness. Not yours,” when addressing his at times overbearing mother. After the two of them disowned the mother and child he had as a teen, his mother is his only family, never to know his son and his success as a musician. Benjamin’s relationship with his students, he feels, is limited to just one young female student’s crush on her professor, negating the deep love and sadness that his class may have for him. He and the film counter the stages of dying when it’s not sudden, including denial, anger, depression, negotiation, and resignation, which compares to the pattern in Living With Our Dead, Editions Grasset, by Delphine Horvilleur, one of the first female rabbis in France.

The film’s portrayal of caregivers and hospice workers was layered. The film’s director, Emmanuelle Bercot, stated that Peaceful sparks a debate on whether you would want to know how much time left you have or not. Benjamin’s doctor was played by the real-life oncologist, Dr. Gabriel Sara (Dr. Eddé), who had to quickly take a crash course in acting to take on the role. Dr. Sara is more than just hand-holding Benjamin as the chemo stops working and his tumor grows; Eddé profoundly affects him as he struggles with coming to terms with his life. 

The film also touches on truth. For Dr. Sara, the principle of truth is fundamental, and Bercot discussed how in many countries, it varies. Emmanuelle stated, “In fact, the question of the truth (on the conviction and on the survival time) has been central from the start of this project. Marcia Romano, the co-writer, and I were divided on the matter: she said she would not want to know, and I said that I would like to know. So we wanted people to come out asking the question: “In this situation, would I like to know or not?”

Dr. Sara stated during the press campaign last year at Cannes, “As an oncologist, I feel that we have to heal the souls of people,” he shares. “We treat their cancer with chemo, with surgery, with radiation and all of this stuff. They may work. But who is trying to heal the soul of that person? Are we thinking about it? It’s a patient, not a machine or number. We have to really look at the whole person. I can’t treat a breast. I treat the patient and then the family as well.”

The hospital where Benjamin loses his life becomes his “home,” and the way the film captured many emotions and scenes displaying the dedication these caregivers have for their patients was beautifully shot, directed, and scored. The film could have easily become very clinical and cold, and the film breathed with beautiful lighting and echos of words shared that take on so much more meaning when the fear of saying them for the last time haunts these characters. Instead, the film focuses on some of the joy brought through music therapy, someone on guitar was a part of hospice care, and Tango dancing was happening in the chemo room. There are round table discussions for the caregivers and the doctor to find ways not just to relieve pain but the fine line of helping human beings transition to, for many, the unknown.

Actress Cécile de France stars as Eugénie, Dr. Sara’s real-life assistant, who shares more than tender moments with Benjamin and, at times, crosses the line of professionalism to bring him comfort. There are these individuals that, in the most secret moments, side with their own version of humanity and bring comfort during transitions and even, at times, save lives. It happens more times than one can imagine.

Bercot cast many doctors and staff in the film from real-life caregivers. He noted, “I always prefer to split between half actors, half people from real life; but there, almost all of the hospital staff are real people, with one or two exceptions. It was important because, in the gestures of care, in the way of moving through the corridors, when they are actors, one feels that something is not quite right; hence the interest in casting real caregivers.”

When one begins an end-of-life journey, there are many special requests, despair over family rivalries, unreckoned events, or dreams not fulfilled. It’s incredible to imagine the power in someone not wanting to see someone before they die. Yet, the power of forgiveness and being forgiven is so incredibly strong that one simple act becomes too much to bear for some in giving someone who has hurt them one final bow of peace. This film explores that as it relates to Benjamin and his estranged son. 

Catherine Deneuve and Benoît Magimel both have incredible chemistry and capture the anger, irritation, sadness, loss, and love that looms in the life of these characters as we wait for even the tiniest hidden rainbows in this very moving story of loss and healing. The real-life cast complimented the film, and the ending may leave you in tears. Peaceful ignites those feelings of living life to the fullest and how loved ones can hold on to pain so long, lifetimes, but in a flash come to regret it or release it at just the right time. 

Peaceful is set for its theatrical premiere in NY and LA this fall and will be released at the Quad on October 28, courtesy of Distrib Films. Click here for showtimes.