GUEST POST: Why French cinema is fascinated with dying

Mia Hansen-Løve’s 'One Fine Morning' is the latest – and the best – of a stream of movies inspired by dementia, decline and euthanasia

Poster for One Fine Morning. Copyright: Les Films du Losange.

Currents in French cinema tend to follow demographic trends. This should not be a surprise: in any industry or art (and film is both), you want to cater to the greatest number.

Thus the nouvelle vague was all about being young in the 1960s — appealing to a large customer base at the time. The cinéma d’auteur of the 1970s and 1980s captured the mood of thirtysomethings who thought their glory years were behind them. After dreaming of changing the world, they found it hard to adjust to normal society. Young adults have always felt that way, but the sheer size of the baby boomer generation gave their Weltschmerz an outsize impact.

In France this mood infuses films by Alain Tanner (Swiss, but who counts as French, like Godard), Jacques Doillon, Bertrand Tavernier — and, in ironic form, the comedies of manners of François Leterrier, Jean-Marie Poiré, Patrice Leconte, Michel Blanc and Gérard Lauzier.

Decades on, the boomers are seein…