Ryusuke Hamaguchi made Drive My Car and won every award that matters. The Oscar, the Golden Globe, the critics circles, the whole sweep. Then he did something nobody expected. He went to France, spent five years learning to tell a story in someone else's language, and came back with a film that might be better than the one that made him a household name in cinephile circles.
All of a Sudden premiered at Cannes this year and received a seven minute standing ovation. If you have never been to Cannes, seven minutes is an eternity. People stand, they cry, they refuse to sit down. It is the festival's way of saying "we just witnessed something." And by all accounts, they did.
Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto shared the Best Actress prize, which is notable for a couple of reasons. Efira has been one of France's most compelling actors for years, someone who can carry a drama with a look. Okamoto, who most American audiences know from The Wolverine, has been doing quieter, more textured work in international cinema for the last decade. Putting them together, under Hamaguchi's direction, clearly produced something extraordinary. Sharing the prize means neither performance could be separated from the other. They were that intertwined.
The film is based on published correspondence between a philosopher and a medical anthropologist. That sounds academic, and maybe in lesser hands it would be. But Hamaguchi has always been drawn to the space between what people say and what they mean. Drive My Car was built entirely on that tension. A man listening to his dead wife's voice on a cassette tape, driving through Hiroshima with a stranger, slowly learning how to feel again. If that same sensibility is applied to real letters between two intellectuals trying to understand each other across disciplines, I can see how it would become something devastating.
Hamaguchi told Variety that when he first read the correspondence, "my body shook." That is not the kind of thing a filmmaker says casually. That is someone describing the moment they found their next film, the way a composer describes hearing a melody they know they have to chase.
Five years is a long time between features. In that span, Hamaguchi learned French well enough to direct native speakers in their own language. The patience that requires, the humility, tells you everything about the kind of filmmaker he is. He does not rush. He does not cut corners. He waits until the thing is ready.
If you have not seen Drive My Car, watch it before All of a Sudden arrives. You will understand what five years of patience looks like when it finally pays off.
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