All Is Forgiven

Victor is not exactly the picture-perfect partner and father. Although he plays affectionately with his six-year-old daughter Pamela, his partner Annette repeatedly notices that he starts drinking as early as eleven in the morning. The unlikely couple – she is a working woman from Vienna from a middle-class background, he is French and is trying his hand, with little success, at being a writer – move from Vienna to Paris. Here, the situation that was already a concern takes a turn for the worse: Victor slips into drug addiction. The signature style of French director Mia Hansen-Løve is already evident in her debut feature film: she sketches out and observes relationship dynamics in her works in a gentle and precise manner, yet with a certain emotional distance that rules out any sentimentality or tragic pathos. Her characters remain somewhat private and keep their secrets to themselves. (S.Z.)