One Fine Morning at Luna

Melvil Poupaud (as Clément), Camille Leban Martins (as Linn), Léa Seydoux (as Sandra), One Fine Morning
Photo Credit: Palace Cinemas

On a coolish Monday evening, my partner and I headed to Luna Leederville on Oxford Street to watch the much awaited movie One Fine Morning (Un Beau Batin) starring Léa Seydoux (as Sandra).

The plot follows the story of Sandra’s life – holding a career as a translator, a single Mum with a young daughter and visiting her ailing elderly father Georg (Pascal Greggory) on a regular basis. Her love life is non existent until she reconnects with old friend Clément (Melvil Poupaud) and a passionate affair blossoms, with the added complication that he is married with a young son.

Director Mia Hansen-Løve’s semi-autobiographical movie is reflective, portraying the fragilities of life and the passage of the generations through the cycle of birth and death.

Léa Seydoux is effervescent in this role and even though Sandra’s life is not an easy one – the bursts of happiness and of taking joy in the simple pleasures of life are illuminated on screen through Seydoux’s beautiful expressions and classic features. We see her childlike nature as she engages with her daughter Linn – one fun moment is when she teases her daughter by stealing her ice cream and running off with it.

The film is just a delight in the manner of beautiful reflective French movies that are often their signature style. It is simple yet complex in that it explores the daily grind of a family in Paris confronted by a elderly rapidly declining father, with the family and Sandra doing their best to hold it all together.

The film explores with much sensitivity and depth the feelings of love and relationships and our ability to adapt when the people that we care about are no longer in our lives due to a change in circumstances.

It is heartfelt, it is poignant.

Winner of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival for Best European Film (Directors Fortnight)

I eagerly await the next movie that stars Léa Seydoux, and also the next movie that Mia Hansen-Løve directs.

Lovers of fine French cinema will enjoy the drama One Fine Morning.

Advanced screenings are on this Friday 2 June to Monday 5 June.

It opens at Luna Palace on Thursday 8 June. 

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