After Him (Après Lui)
Could there be anything worse for a parent, than to outlive his or her children?
In Après Lui (After Him), Catherine Deneuve plays Camille, a chic mother of two young adults, and manager of a stylish bookstore in Lyon, whose life is turned upside down by the death of her son.
Surprisingly, in many respects, it’s not the scenes in which there is an outpouring of grief that are the most agonising to watch: it’s the scenes in between, and the ones that follow.
While others shun the son’s best friend, whom they believe to be responsible for the son’s death, Camille becomes practically obsessed by him.
Much has been postulated about this unusual relationship: is she using her son’s friend as some sort of surrogate? Is she looking to him for an answer to her son’s death; or, more disturbingly, does she covet an unhealthy desire for him?
Perhaps most telling is Camille’s behaviour towards other people. She baulks at the idea of her new grandchild ever calling her “grandma”, “nanna”, or any other such traditional nomenclature. We see her loitering in places where youth gather. Her presence is somewhat uncomfortable for others to bear, not only because she is a bereaved mother, and they don’t know quite how to handle her; there’s something more.
Without her son as an intermediary, her presence in their lives, and her interaction with them, have become redundant. They know it, but Camille has yet to realise it.
And what are we to make of her pushing boundaries even further by pursuing strange young men, with intentions that seem devoid of any form of salaciousness?
Gaël Morel has devised a fascinating study of a woman’s unconventional journey through loss and grief, but it’s more than that: it is a portrayal of a woman desperately clutching to vestiges of her own youth, that appeared to have vanished without her quite realising.
Is she being brave in defying her advancing years, or is she being foolish?
It’s not an entertaining film, but a challenging and fascinating one, and well worth seeing.