Japanese author Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s first French-language film, “All of a Sudden,” premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday to a seven-minute standing ovation, the longest ever at the festival.
The more than three-hour drama about two terminally ill women who come together moved the audience at the Palais, with many openly crying during the end credits. Starring Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto wiped away tears, while Hamaguchi looked visibly moved. Other celebrities who attended the preview included Riley Keough and Eric Cantona.
As the applause subsided, Director Hamaguchi addressed the audience through an interpreter, saying, “Thank you for sticking with us for this long film.” “This film would not have been possible without our wonderful actors and staff.”
In “All of a Sudden,” Efira plays the director of a Parisian nursing home that operates on the philosophy of “Humanitude,” a French approach to care that centers the dignity of each patient. Okamoto plays a terminally ill Japanese theater director whose arrival at the facility brings the two women closer together and changes the other woman’s understanding of what it means to truly care for others. Marie Bunel and Jean-Charles Cliché appear in supporting roles.
The film is loosely inspired by the actual published correspondence between Makiko Miyano and Maho Isono, You and I – My illness suddenly worsens. Hamaguchi, who co-wrote the script with Lea Le Dimna, spent two years developing the project in France, traveling between Tokyo and Paris and conducting actor workshops to familiarize himself with how French actors approach the text. The film was shot on location in both Paris and Kyoto.
In a previous interview with Variety magazine, Hamaguchi said that he first met Efira while working with Paul Verhoeven, specifically on “Benedetta,” and that he was “really eager and happy” to be able to work with her. He said the original text was the only material that really moved him enough to pursue it in the years since “Drive My Car.”
This is Hamaguchi’s third time to submit a film to Cannes, following “Asako I & II,” which was submitted to competition in 2018, and “Drive My Car,” which won three awards at the 2021 film festival: Best Screenplay, Best Fipresci, and Best Ecumenical Jury. It was subsequently nominated for four Academy Awards and won the award for Best International Feature Film. All of a Sudden is his first French-language film and his first film set primarily outside of Japan.
North American rights are held by Neon, who will release the film theatrically. Bitters End will be in charge of sales in Asia. The movie will be released in Japan on June 19th and in France on August 12th.
