Forever.

"Death, beauty and the persistence of art are the vast topics addressed in Forever, Heddy Honigmann's frustrating documentary set mainly in Père-Lachaise, the cosmopolitan Paris necropolis where artists including Proust, Chopin, Ingres, Maria Callas and what's-his-rock-star from the Doors are buried," writes Rachel Saltz in the New York Times.

Updated through 9/19.

Honigmann "belongs on the short, short list of documentary filmmakers whose work has the richness and ambiguity of the best narrative films," writes Salon's Andrew O'Hehir. "Out of this apparently simple and even trite subject - the evanescence of human life; the supposed permanence of art - Honigmann develops, with deceptive casualness, a few unforgettable character studies and one of the purest, most moving motion pictures of the year."

"[W]hile it's unmistakably sad and bittersweet, it's seldom depressing," writes Nathan Rabin at the AV Club. "As many of the subjects talk about the writers, musicians, and icons they love, they're also talking about themselves, solidifying and expounding upon their emotional connection to the art and artists in their personal pantheon."

Earlier: Stuart Klawans in the Nation.

Update, 9/19: "The ambient camera work can be obvious in groping for the beauty of moldering pathos (not for nothing are cemeteries the classic go-to for amateur photographers), but interludes of the sublime and unexpected are never far off," writes Nick Pinkerton in the Voice.

Posted by dwhudson at September 14, 2007 9:20 AM