Forever
by Heddy
Honigann, Director
First Run / Icarus Films, Brooklyn NY,
2006
VHS/DVD. 97 mins., col.
Sales, DVD: $440; rental/DVD: $150
Distributors website: http://www.frif.com.
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens
Department of Art
University of Northern Iowa
Website: www.bobolinkbooks.com
ballast@netins.net
This is a thoughtful, informative film
about one of the most interesting places
on Earth: A centuries-old, 118-acre cemetery,
the largest burial area in the City of
Paris. Established by Napoleon in 1804,
it is officially known as the Père
Lachaise Cemetery, in homage to the Catholic
priest who was confessor to King Louis
XIV and who had earlier lived on the land.
When the cemetery first opened, it was
promoted as a site in which the famous
(along with the unknown) would be eager
to be buried in, and that is precisely
what happened. It now houses more than
300,000 graves, including those of Oscar
Wilde, Edith Piaf, Georges Melies, Eugene
Delacroix, Frederic Chopin, Gertrude Stein
and Alice B. Toklas, Isadora Duncan, Marcel
Proust, Maria Callas, Georges Bizet, Georges
Seurat and scores of other celebrities.
Among its most popular "interns"
is American rock musician Jim Morrison,
whose tomb is so heavily visited by star-struck
admirers from all over the world that
it has to be constantly guarded. Along
the paths and alleys in Père Lachaise,
on benches and other fortuitous spots,
are graffiti arrows that direct (or impishly
mislead) doe-eyed devotees of "Jim"
to his final resting place. If this film
were only a factual account of the cemetery
and its history, it wouldnt be half
as compelling. Instead, without narration,
it provides us a sense of "being
there," an impression of what it
is probably like to wander about at Père
Lachaise, observing and chatting with
those who show up, including women who
faithfully come to take care of the graves
of their loved ones. The films most
vivid moments are fragments of conversation
with people whom the film crew encountered
at this or that setting: A taxi driver
in exile from Iran (but a singer at night),
who regularly visits the monument of a
major poet from his own country, and who,
after coaxing, sings one of the poems
by the poet; a young Japanese pianist,
who comes to the grave of composer Frederic
Chopin, whose music she plays, and whose
grave is a stirring reminder of her father,
who died prematurely; the hauntingly beautiful
daughter (now middle-aged) of an Armenian
craftsman, who for years has devotedly
cared for (and talked to) her fathers
resting place. But there are others who
are equally interesting. This film, endless
in its fascination, is comprised of astonishing
insights about how people behave toward
the buried remains of those they might
consider as kineven if they were
never related.
(Reprinted by permission from Ballast
Quarterly Review, Volume 21 Number
1, Autumn 2007.)