GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

"My heart is like an upside-down flame." Those are the words of the poet Apollinaire. In Heddy Honigmann's documentary FOREVER these words are read to us by a short, grey-haired woman named Leone Desmasures. They are carved on the top of his tomb the largest cemetery in Paris, Père-Lachaise. Located in the 20th arrondissement, it is not merely the size of the cemetery which brings it notoriety, but the large number of artists, musicians and writers buried there. (I have a very distinct memory of my first visit there: the old man sitting by the entrance selling maps which showed where the tombs of the well-known were located. I felt as though I were entering Paris' "cemetery of the stars".)
Ms. Honigmann's film, which will run for two weeks at Film Forum in Manhattan starting September 12th, is a beautifully realized meditation on life & death, art & legacy. From the opening shots of graves being dug, stones being carved, and monuments being spray washed, the film allows the viewer into a world where the living and the dead mingle in a refined delicate pas-de-deux.
Ms. Desmasures is a "regular" to the cemetery, visiting the tombs of artists she knows and respects, giving the viewer mini-lectures on the entombed as she scrubs down their marbles, waters the plants, and picks off any unwanted debris. We are introduced to a range of "celebrities" by Bertrand Beyern, a Père-Lachaise guide, from the more fully-lived, such as Simone Signoret, to Elisa Mercoeur, a poet who died in her early 20's. For us Americans, Mr. Beyern provides a "continental" view of death, relating stories of walks with his grandfather in the local cemetery where he was born, learning his letter and numbers off of tombstones, as well as an early encounter in his life with a young woman in Père-Lachaise which changed his entire view of life. He also reminds us how modern society has cut itself off from its inevitable encounters with death. Later in the film we meet David Pouly, an embalmer, at the grave of Modigliani, who discusses the artist's paintings and their serene melancholy. We then get to see Mr. Pouly at work, continuing his discussion of the artist's work and its influence on his.
Ultimately, this is a film about life; the ties that the living have with the dead as well as the influence the past has on the present. This is probably best summed up by Stéphane Heuet, an illustrator who has produced graphic novel versions of Proust's Remembrances of Things Past. He tells the film-maker "Take Leonardo da Vinci. Go to the Louvre and you'll find 4 Cubans, 10 Chinese, 15 Dutch and 20 French people all staring at the gaze of a woman who has returned to dust. The painter is no longer with us, but both continue to move us. Isn't this eternity? Isn't that the power of art?"
Go see it!!