In his debut directorial effort, French director Laurent Slama joins forces with Alex Lawter and Agathe Rousselle to deliver a story about a woman on suicidal watch in A Second Life. Set on the opening day of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, we follow Elisabeth (Rouselle), who is living the worst day of her life. She is recovering from a heartbreak while trying to find work to secure her visa renewal and stay in France. Meanwhile, she is a hostess in a luxury flat rental service. As she tours the apartments for the guests and lives a chaotic day in the crowded city, she hosts Elijah (Lawter), a hypnosis coach who is performing mental coaching for some athletes on Team USA. The desperate sentiment for Elisabeth clashes with Elijah’s feel-good philosophy, who follows her in her side quests as he intends to explore the city.
Slama narrates about a woman on the verge of distress in a disorderly capital. Besides the heartbreak, Elisabeth deals with hearing loss. It is another element of the multiple hardships in her daily life. In this sense, A Second Life tries to balance a suicidal character with her loaded routine and responsibilities in a meaningless world to her. Before heading to work, she compiles multiple meds, leading her to an overdose. The film assumes a bleakness in her presence, representing her overall feelings towards life. She is not interested in having a family or achieving success in her career; Elisabeth wants the worst to disappear soon. Then, her current situation promptly obstructs Elijah’s view of the world. He befriends people effortlessly and is willing to connect with the world around him. Dramatically, both main characters could not be more opposite to each other. It is the basic terrain of the script that develops the drama around them.
The director evolves Elisabeth’s lowlight into a kinetic portrayal of her in the streets of Paris. Visually, he chooses steady-cam shots and long takes to provide a dash of realism and tension. An effortless comparison is to Richard Linklater‘s approach in the Before trilogy. However, the style of the American director became a blueprint for scenes with long takes and monologues. Contrary to the intricate and fascinating dialogues of the beloved trilogy, Slama is not as successful as Linklater in the conversations and chemistry between the characters. It lacks a consonance in the shortage of interest in Elisabeth and the world around her. Suddenly, she is keen on experiencing what Paris may provide to her.
Furthermore, behind the blocks of superficial dialogue and arcs, Agathe Rouselle delivers a substantial performance of someone who is suffering and giving up on life. Consequently, the script does not help her when it flips her state of mind, and she leaves the bleakness in a day. It is an unbalanced development of the occasional, nuanced, and fascinating character. This trait brings the most impressive aspect of the film, a sophisticated sound design by Olivier Volsin, Vincent Cosson, and Cesar Mamoudy. The sound fades when she is not wearing her hearing aid, and there are multiple layers to the imperfections in what she is hearing. The audience hears the frequencies differentiating and presenting a representation of the disability. The experimentation in the sound design presents the most immersive moments in a majorly bland technical film.
A Second Life presents a straightforward approach to loneliness, pain, and depression during a period of happiness and joy for people around you. The city erupts in emotional exchanges between individuals worldwide in a historical event, the Summer Olympics, which happens every four years. Besides the macroscale of enjoyment and positive experiences for most of the involved, we do not see individual desolation. Every day, people struggle to make ends meet, and when a prominent event is happening, it does not change. Laurent Slama examines the contradiction between collective delight and personal ruin. The director aims to construct the drama through his lead character’s disability and immigration status. However, it lacks more visual outcomes for the dramatization of this story, instead of a bland use of steadycams and long shots. An effortful Agathe Rouselle is not enough to expand beyond limited directing.
Ultimately, A Second Life analyzes the exploring of the depression and despair of someone while guaranteeing their stay in France and dealing with the work she despises. However, first-time directing lacks more visual exercise to expand the dramatic potential of this story, and the solid performance by Agathe Rouselle. It presents glimpses of fascinating moments, such as its experimentation with sound design and its take on deafness. But it is an uneven effort on the hollow experience of a human being.
A Second Life recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Learn more about the film at the Tribeca site for the title.
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