Forever

The Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris is one of the most famous ones in the world, not only because of the beautiful gravestones and the lovely street plan of this necropolis, but also because of its occupants. Famous artists like Georges Mélies, Oscar Wilde, Amedeo Modigliani, Edith Piaf, Maria Callas, Simone Signoret, Yves Montand and Jim Morrison are united in eternity here. The numerous visitors seek solace and reconciliation with mortality at the graveyard. Forever shows how the dead live on, like ghosts in the imagination of the living. Ultimately, a cemetery is above all a product of the human mind. "If we showed the graveyard in its true nature, it would be unbearable," someone says. "Someone left a pen, so he can keep on writing in the hereafter," an old woman observes as she cleans Marcel Proust's grave. A devotee of À la recherche du temps perdu states, "If your life is fulfilled by Balzac's novels, Musset's poems and Chopin's music, you will never be alone." The film also pays attention to forgotten talents who never made it to their prime. And to the more anonymous deceased, only cherished in their next of kin's memory. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)