For example, when someone asks how she can aid in her father’s death, she replies, “It’s hard to refuse him. The emotional toll results from those actions, not the act itself.Įmmanuèle does feel, of course, but she’s more concerned with honoring her father. Ozon doesn’t express a particular point of view-that is, of being a family member’s personal Jack Kevorkian-but instead focuses on the tedium of finding a way to carry out the plan and of wading through the bureaucracy and legal snafus that follow. (That’s a relief, because I hazard to guess that an American filmmaker would dive into the moral implications.)

The story is set in present-day Berlin and it potters about in the company of Richard, a widower and recently retired classics professor. Thus begins French screenwriter and director François Ozon’s almost procedural treatment of ending a life by choice. Jenny Erpenbeck's Go, Went, Gone was first published in 2015 and it appeared in English, translated by Susan Bernofsky, last autumn. When André recovers enough to talk with Emmanuèle about it, he says, “I want you to help me end it.” Novelist Emmanuèle (Sophie Marceau) is living her life when she receives news that her father André (André Dussollier) has had a stroke, and the prognosis is bleak. If ever there was a case to be made for not being a parent’s favorite child, Everything Went Fine makes it. One of the great contemporary European writers takes on Europes biggest issue Richard has spent his life as a university professor, immersed in the world. To order a copy for 12.74 go to or call 03. Best of Chicago 2022: Sports & Recreation Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Susan Bernofsky, is published by Portobello (14.99).Best of Chicago 2022: Music & Nightlife.

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