Daddy Nostalgia is the kind of film that has value we don’t realize until we’re nearly done. Bertrand Tavernier was a profoundly gifted filmmaker, a multi-generational French storyteller that could weave together the most complex plots into some of the most profoundly moving testaments to the human condition. However, this film in particular is one that is driven by its incredible simplicity, centring about its impeccable script, and the fascinating performances being given by its three principal actors, who bring to the screen a sense of authenticity that sells every moment of this film and convinces us to its worth, which is almost undeniable by the time we reach the end. Tavernier is working from a set of very impactful themes, inciting discussions on the relationship between family members, the realization that our loved ones are not going to live forever (with mortality being perhaps the most prominent theme in the film), and the importance of cherishing every moment we can spend with those closest to us, since life has a tendency to take them away at a moment’s notice, without much warning in many instances. Beautifully poetic, melancholic and absolutely spellbinding, Daddy Nostalgia is an absolutely stunning achievement from a director who could bring out the intricacies in absolutely any story, and make sure that we know how valuable these insights are, since they come from a place of genuine curiosity and insightful provocation into the realities of everyday life, and its unexpected obstacles.

As one can probably surmise from the title, Daddy Nostalgia is a film about memory. It is built on the foundation of a story of an elderly man recovering from surgery, with his daughter by his side (with whom he has not had a particularly good relationship, since he was more career-minded than family-oriented in her formative years), and the pair coming to realize they have a lot more in common than they initially imagined. The majority of the film sees the main characters of Tony and Caroline looking into the past, assessing their own behaviour and trying to reconcile their previous mistakes in the hopes that whatever time they have left together can be used to constructively repair their fragmented relationship. Tavernier has a knack for presenting his plots in such a way that the story is simple enough for us not to get lost in the smallest details, but also doesn’t tell us too much. Like a series of conversations between two relative strangers (which is how the two main characters essentially start, having grown apart to the point where they were living almost entirely separate lives), they start to reveal themselves through gradually discussing their past, in which they find common ground. Memory films can sometimes be awfully overwrought and heavy-handed in how they deal with some difficult themes – but even at its most melancholic, Daddy Nostalgia retains a sense of decorum, keeping everything relatively sophisticated and instead plumbing for only the most essential emotions, which is peppers effectively throughout the entire story, making for  a truly insightful story of family.

This is where Daddy Nostalgia truly captivates us, since we’re presented with a vibrant series of conversations between a father and daughter who are getting reacquainted, while refusing to acknowledge that there are ulterior motives, since they know that this is only a way for them to placate the feelings of guilt for not being there for one another in the past, and are now trying to rectify all their previous mistakes through looking back and bringing the past to the discussion, from which they can both glean some understanding of why things had to be the way they were, and how now is the time to correct their misgivings by solving their personal quandaries, and giving each other the space to express themselves. Living with regrets is already a difficult experience, so these characters are fortunate enough to have a few months to resolve the lingering tensions through forging a stronger relationship. Alternatively titled These Foolish Things in some overseas territories, the film is about some of the more notable follies of the human condition – the hubris that many seem to exhibit when they believe the world is their oyster, and the despair they feel later on when they realize the sacrifices they made may not have been worth it, since it caused them to grow distant from the very people who needed them at those pivotal moments. Tavernier regularly manages to draw valuable insights from such concepts, weaving them into this narrative and presenting them with a potent honesty that would be trite and conventional had it not been guided by the director’s firm understanding of both the specific material, and an overall sense of human behaviour, which has always been one of his most enduring gifts behind a camera.

My admiration for Sirk Dirk Bogarde runs deep and is almost unconditional – one of the greatest actors to work in the medium of film, Bogarde could captivate audiences like very few in his profession ever could. In his younger years, he was a firebrand of an actor, his youthful energy contrasting with his ability to play characters with a sense of maturity that weren’t particularly common for matinee idols such as Bogarde. His transition into a fully-fledged dramatic actor in the late 1950s brought Bogarde the opportunity to expand his skills, and he turned into one of the finest to ever appear on screen. Daddy Nostalgia is his final film, and while Jane Birkin is the de facto lead, this film belongs entirely to Bogarde. His impact as an actor can be summarized by simply stating that when Bogarde spoke, the world had to listen – and while he was considerably older and recovering from a variety of health issues, he commands the screen with the exact same vibrancy that made him such a compelling actor in the first place. His performance as Tony (referred to mainly as the “Daddy” of the title) is one informed by the actor’s own sense of mortality – while it isn’t clear if he set out to make this film before retiring, or if he had intended to do more work in the decade following this, Daddy Nostalgia contains one of Bogarde’s most self-aware performances, with the actor playing off his own advanced age and health issues to infuse a sense of authenticity into his portrayal. More quiet than some of his other performances, but still brimming with an insatiable, youthful charm that Bogarde never quite lost, Daddy Nostalgia is a truly magnificent piece of acting, and a poignant parting letter from one of the most important actors of his generation, bidding farewell to a long but indelible career.

A slow-burning, meditative experience that takes us on a journey into the life of a cross-national family, Daddy Nostalgia is a powerful glimpse into the trials and tribulations many of us go through, provoking some complex conversations while being intrepid enough to venture beneath the surface of the human condition in a way that hints towards its director’s masterful control of both form and content. Bertrand Tavernier, who passed away earlier this year, was an active participant in his national cinema, unveiling new sides of life through his work – and while it isn’t his most well-known work (mainly only being remembered as the final performance given by Dirk Bogarde prior to his death in 1999), it is one that feels increasingly personal as it goes on. Beautifully poetic, but with a sensitivity to the subject matter that makes its far from overwrought, Daddy Nostalgia is a poignant exploration of life and death, channelled through the conversations had between a father and his daughter, as they come to terms with the reality that both had their fair share of errors in the past, and that the only way to resolve the tension that has come about as a result of their absence from each other’s lives is to try their best to leave an impression on the other. This film manages to be both heartbreaking and uplifting, and its simple, pared-down style only helps us focus on the intricate moments of unflinching beauty that define this film, and make it such a singularly moving drama that doesn’t anticipate death, but rather boldly celebrates life.