Review by John Adams

Americans don't go to cemeteries to have a good time. We are not as a rule a contemplative people. But in Paris, France, where culture is not a bad word, they have the Père Lachaise Cemetery, an elephant's graveyard of genius and talent.

Consider some of the artists in residence: Balzac, Bernhardt, Callas, Chopin, Delacroix, Méliès, Moliere, Piaf, Proust, Wilde (his memorial is peppered with kiss-marks). If all of that draws a blank, Père Lachaise is the place where Jim Morrison of the Doors is buried. If people still come to Jim's grave 100 years from now then he too can join this elite club.

Though this is a documentary set in a cemetery, it is the living that are the real story in Forever. Honigmann's method is to show a grave and then the people who come to pay their respects. The Japanese piano student who visits Chopin, the Iranian ex-pat paying his respects to the Iranian author Sadegh Hedayat. Of course not everyone buried at Père Lachaise is a star and Honigmann does not neglect the relatives and loved ones of the un-famous who also come to visit. It is through their interpretations and explanations that we understand why this pilgrimage has been made.

reviews • videos • recommended • home