Mia Hansen-Love’s dance music-fueled drama Eden is an intimate film. A fictionalized depiction of the early days and evolution of the “French touch” sound of electronic music in the mid-1990s, the story is inspired by her younger brother, Sven, who dreamed of becoming a DJ and also co-wrote the script.
The narrative follows Paul (Felix de Givry), a young man who aspires to musical glory, over the course of almost 20 years. He hangs around clubs, gains notoriety, has relationships, screws up relationships, is a success, is a failure, borrows money, does a lot of blow, and learns more than a few important life lessons along the way.
Eden feels like a biopic—it’s easy to forget it isn’t—in that it attempts to examine almost an entire life over the course of its run time. While Hansen-Love’s film never completely falls into the traps of similar films that cover such an extended timespan, it can’t completely avoid them either. The eras of Paul’s life are, more than professional success or failure, defined and set apart by his romantic relationships, including a tryst with Greta Gerwig’s American expat, Julia, and an on-again-off-again affair that pops up from time to time with Pauline Etienne’s Louise.
In the way Eden follows Paul, it aims to be true to life; a big career triumph, or what feels like a horrific defeat at the moment, is rarely the end of the story. For the most part, Hansen-Love and company succeed in this endeavor, but the film goes on 15 or so minutes too long.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
