Standing Witness to the Everyday in One Fine Morning

The French writer–director Mia Hansen-Løve calls Un beau matin/One Fine Morning (2022) her most autobiographical film. Set in Paris, the film presents 30-something-year-old Sandra (Léa Seydoux)—a single, widowed, working mother—who is tending to her ailing father while also going through a tumultuous love with Clément (Melvil Paupaud), who is not just married but is also a father. A special bond binds Sandra to her father, Georg (Pascal Greggory), a brilliant professor of philosophy, who is losing his grip over the world because of a neurodegenerative condition and is being shifted from one care home to another as Sandra attends to him. Unfortunately, Georg is not even cognisant of her presence and is instead constantly pining for his companion Leila, who has other obligations and cannot be available.

Sandra’s coming from a broken family and having had a difficult childhood, with a looming sense of abandonment, can be sensed in some tense moments between Sandra and her mother. Widowed young, the emptiness of her married life surfaces as no mention of her husband is ever made with any fondness. She is a professional translator with a demanding job and singlehandedly cares for her daughter. A predictable set of events puts her in a strange, passionate illicit affair with Clément, an old friend, leaving her in this in-betweenness, as he oscillates between her and his wife and son.