C'est La Vie (2016) User Reviews

that's life!

[Fernando-Rodrigues · 7/10 · 9 December 2020]

Ari's mind's just so fantastic. I loved the dark humor here and the way it satirizes society.

Dreams that will make you cry

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 14 July 2019]

"C'est La Vie" is an American English-language short film and according to imdb this is from 2016, but I am not really sure about this. It could be older. What is safe, however, is that this was written and directed by Ari Aster, the filmmaker who has his big international breakthrough with Hereditary not too long ago. This is also why some of his older works like this short film here have attracted some more attention and the almost 8 minutes we got here certainly deserve to be seen by more, mostly because of the pretty impressive display by lead actor Bradley Fisher. He is really really good, one of the best short film performances I have seen in quite some time. The film starts with him (his character a homeless man) begging for money and then he randomly rambles about those who don't give anything as well as how full of themselves those are that give something to him as if they are some irresistible samaritans. Then the film and narration moves forward to how things turned out so badly and how he became the man he is today, what went wrong in his life in terms of health (physical and emotional) as well as his love life with the woman that meant the world to him and clearly also the other way around. How much can one man take. Eventually, there is somewhat sweet closure despite all the depressing from before. I would not call it a happy ending, but it is slightly uplifting at least. Or is it even more sad because she maybe did not recognize him? For you to decide. It was also not too necessary to inform us she is his daughter. Also would have been alright if it was just a random girl/child showing an act of kidness that refutes his theory from very early on and it could have made for some nice framework overall. I think this was a pretty good film we have here. I was not too blown away by Hereditary like everybody else and also I would not have recognized Aster as the man in charge here honestly in terms of his style, but that may also have to do with how there are many still camera positions and it is much more about the main character moving wherever he is recorded at that moment. I was closer to giving this one 4 stars out of 5 than 2 stars out of 5 honestly, but the ending alone is not enough to say this was a really great watch. A pretty good one it is without a doubt though. Go see it!

We Basically live in a society.

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 7/10 · 1 October 2023]

Functions perfectly as a companion short film to Ari Aster's 2014 short Basically. That one followed someone who was incredibly wealthy and privileged, whereas C'est la Vie centers on a homeless man who's downtrodden and angry at the entire world. He rants at the viewer for the entire short film, and he makes some good points throughout, to be honest.

It's neat that these two short films exist to show two different perspectives but both people seem equally unhappy and angry at the world around them. Both speak to Aster's clearly pessimistic view of the world, but to his credit, he does make the presentation of that viewpoint interesting and oddly entertaining.

C'est la Vie is dark, but quite good. He started making feature films after this, starting with 2018's Hereditary. It'll be interesting to see if he ever returns to making short films again in the future.

One of my favorite short films ever

[harryhoustonastros · 9/10 · 18 June 2019]

I'm not sure where to begin or how to even properly review this, but I'll say this is one of my faceoite shorts I've been able to see. I've been needing to rewatch but I haven't been able to find a way to see it again?