We’ve all felt depressed. It’s a fact that sometimes life will get you down, and if you let it, depression and anxiety can isolate you from having any meaningful relationships. The luckiest of us have only had fleeting experience with this, but all of us have felt it at one time or another. A Second Life is a new film from writer/director Laurent Slama and co-writer Thomas Keumurian about a young woman in such a place and how, over the course of even a single day, things can at least begin to turn around.
Elisabeth (Titane‘s Agathe Rousselle) works for a short-term rental company. Her job is to welcome guests to their new accommodations, show them the amenities, and ensure their needs are met. She clearly hates this job, but despite having a French accent, she is American, and without employment, she is in danger of being deported.
This pressure has left Elisabeth reeling. Tormented by anxiety, she is curt with customers and only finds peace in two ways: staring at Monet’s “Water Lilies” and removing her hearing aids and shutting out the world for a few minutes at a time.
The rest of the film is simply that: two people walking and talking. She, depressed and closed off to people, and he, effervescent, emotional, insightful, and able to connect with such ease as to be almost off-putting.
Link: https://thatshelf.com/a-second-life-review-a-lovely-walk-through-paris/
A Second Life Review: A Lovely Walk Through Paris | That Shelf
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