(Credit: TIFF)

The films of acclaimed French director Mia Hansen-Løve have a characteristic flavour that is unique to her. Her work tends to be centred on characters rather than the plot; the people, their feelings, their struggles, and their interactions with others drive the action, not a storyline or a need for dramatic conflict. What happens flows naturally from who people are and what they experience, letting the characters all but escape the normal boundaries of plot structure.

This is especially true for the many impactful and complex female protagonists she has developed on-screen – a skill that inspires great dedication from the actresses Hansen-Løve has directed. Vicky Krieps, who worked under the director in the 2021 drama Bergman Island, once declared in an interview, “Anything for Mia!” while veteran French star Isabelle Huppert has praised the director’s “precision and sensitivity”. Hansen-Løve has admitted she finds it far easier to direct women and, since 2015, has made films exclusively with female protagonists. 

Her latest heroine is Léa Seydoux in the Cannes award-winning One Fine Morning. This film might be categorised as a romance, a family drama, or a simple portrait of one woman and her world. Seydoux is sympathetic and charming as Sandra Kienzler, a young widow and professional translator with an eight-year-old child. Sandra’s life is as intense and challenging as it is mundane. Along with balancing work and motherhood, she also looks after her frail and elderly grandmother. She deals with the tragic and increasingly difficult management of her father, a retired professor with a progressive neurological disability.

Sandra copes with all her responsibilities with confidence, tact, and compassion, but she is also often drained and exhausted. Although convinced that any kind of love life has become impossible and that romance is all in her past, Sandra finds herself in a part-time affair with a scientist (Melvil Poupaud). It’s a relationship that reveals new facets of Sandra’s personality but also serves to reinforce just how complicated and exacting her life is.

Few films have captured so well the pressures of single motherhood and of the protracted, typically female responsibilities of caring for the ill and elderly, often dismissed as simple domestic chores. Like many women in her situation, Sandra simply makes room in her life as needed, even if it means giving up non-essentials like adequate sleep and companionship. Sandra’s efforts at work and her affectionate interactions with her daughter and grandmother reveal a great deal about her.

Still, her efforts on behalf of her father (veteran film star Pascal Greggory), which make up a good deal of the story, are emotionally painful. The pathos of the situation is shown in small ways: Sandra reluctantly packing away her father’s philosophy books, the items closest to his heart; taking in the depressing interior of a nursing home she is considering once his symptoms become unmanageable at home; unobtrusively finishing her father’s sentences when he begins to struggle with language.

The script allows Sandra to express herself on all these matters, sadly and beautifully but without self-pity or melodrama. Most touching of all is a scene of Sandra going about her busy day, with a voice-over reading from her father’s diary, describing the degradation of his disease and the loss it represents.

As mentioned, the film is character-driven, with no real climax, no suspense or high action to speak of, and no conventional happy ending. The conclusion is, however, optimistic, allowing Sandra to remain true to herself and yet receive some reward for her patience and dedication. The unique approach of a talented director provides a moving and entirely relatable character study based on little more than the obligations of ordinary people, made lively and watchable by the fine work of lead actor Léa Seydoux.