If you thought Drive My Car was a marathon, buckle up. Ryusuke Hamaguchi is back at the Cannes Film Festival competition with a three-hour-and-16-minute French-language debut that proves he is still the undisputed king of the "slow cinema" flex. In this All of a Sudden Ryusuke Hamaguchi review, we’re breaking down why this 196-minute odyssey into the ethics of care is the most radical thing you’ll see in 2026. It’s a film that asks a heavy question: in a world obsessed with efficiency, what does it actually mean to treat someone like a human being?
What is the movie All of a Sudden about?
All of a Sudden (Soudain) is a 2026 drama directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. It follows Marie-Lou (Virginie Efira), a director of a Paris nursing home, who implements the 'Humanitude' care method. Her life is transformed after meeting Mari (Tao Okamoto), a terminally ill Japanese playwright. The film explores themes of dignity, capitalism, and the power of human connection.
The Plot: A Chance Encounter in a Paris Park
The All of a Sudden movie plot summary begins at the Garden of Freedom care home (Jardin de la Liberté), a facility on the outskirts of Paris where Marie-Lou Fontaine is trying to revolutionize eldercare. Marie-Lou isn't just a bureaucrat; she’s a former anthropology student who spent years in Japan and is now obsessed with a methodology called Humanitude.
Her life takes a sharp turn during a chance encounter in a Paris park. She helps calm Tomoki, a severely autistic teenager who has wandered away from his family. This leads her to Tomoki’s grandfather, Goro, and Mari, a luminous Japanese theater director who is staging an experimental play titled Up Close, No One Is Normal. The play is a one-man monologue inspired by Franco Basaglia, the radical psychiatrist who led the movement to close Italy’s mental hospitals.
Marie-Lou and Mari hit it off instantly, leading to a "Before Sunrise" style night-long walk through the streets of Paris. They talk about everything: art, anthropology, and the crushing weight of modern life. But there’s a ticking clock—Mari has Stage IV lung cancer and has been told she has mere months to live. This terminal cancer drama isn't about the tragedy of death, but the intentionality of living.
Decoding Humanitude: The Care Method at the Heart of the Film
One of the biggest content gaps in early coverage of this film is a real explanation of the Humanitude care method film enthusiasts are buzzing about. Developed by Yves Gineste and Rosette Marescotti in the late 1970s, Humanitude is a clinical methodology designed to restore dignity to patients with dementia and decreased autonomy.
In the film, Marie-Lou faces massive pushback from her staff, specifically senior nurse Sophie, who views the method as a time-wasting liability. The Humanitude methodology is built on four primary pillars:
- Gaze: Maintaining direct, horizontal eye contact to establish equality.
- Speech: Constant, gentle verbal communication, even if the patient is non-verbal.
- Touch: Using palm-to-palm contact rather than "grabbing" or "handling" the patient.
- Verticality: The most controversial pillar in the film. It insists on helping patients stand and walk for at least 20 minutes a day to maintain their "human" posture, despite the risk of falls.
The Humanitude training for caregivers portrayed in the film highlights a systemic conflict. In a capitalist healthcare system, a bedridden patient often generates more state funding than a mobile one. Marie-Lou’s fight for "verticality" is a direct strike against a system that profits from stagnation. Medical professionals watching the film have noted that Hamaguchi captures the grueling reality of Humanitude training with eerie accuracy, showing that "nurturing" is actually hard, disciplined work.
From Letters to Screen: The True Story Behind the Script
While Soudain feels like a spontaneous creation, it is actually adapted from a profound 2019 book titled When Life Suddenly Takes a Turn (or You and I – The Illness Suddenly Gets Worse). The book is a collection of 20 letters exchanged between Makiko Miyano, a philosopher facing terminal cancer, and Maho Isono, a medical anthropologist.
Hamaguchi uses these letters as the intellectual spine of the film. The dialogue between Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto mirrors the real-life correspondence, specifically the tension between "Nowhere" and "Now/Here." Maho Isono medical anthropology background provides the film with its skeptical edge—it questions why we treat the elderly as "other" and how the "gift" of time is stolen by economic demands. For those looking to dive deeper, the book is a must-read for understanding the "vertical" philosophy of the film.
Performances: Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto’s Luminous Connection
The chemistry between the leads is the film's secret weapon. Virginie Efira All of a Sudden performance is a career-best; she actually learned Japanese for the role, allowing the dialogue to slip between languages with a natural, bilingual fluidity that avoids the "clunky translation" trope.
Tao Okamoto Cannes 2026 buzz is well-deserved. As Mari, she brings a serene, almost ethereal quality to the screen that never feels like "sick-girl" melodrama. The "whiteboard scene"—where Mari delivers a mini-lecture on how capitalism steals our free time—is already being compared to the town hall scene in Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist. It’s a daring, intellectual moment that could have been cringe but ends up being the film’s thesis statement.
The Verticality of Dignity vs. The Weight of Capitalism
Hamaguchi doesn't just make "nice" movies about people being kind. All of a Sudden is a stinging critique of how we’ve commodified the end of life. The Paris nursing home film setting serves as a microcosm of society. When the board of directors complains that "Humanitude" is too expensive because it requires more staff-to-patient time, they are essentially saying that human dignity has a price tag that is too high to pay.
The film’s filming locations in Paris and a brief, moving detour to a Kyoto hospice emphasize the universal nature of this struggle. Whether in the heart of France or the mountains of Japan, the struggle to remain "vertical"—both physically and morally—is the same.
Key Takeaways
- Runtime: At 196 minutes, it’s a commitment, but the 3-hour runtime is necessary for the film's "languid rhythm."
- Humanitude: The film is the first major cinematic exploration of the Gineste-Marescotti care method.
- Source Material: Based on the 2019 book of letters between Makiko Miyano and Maho Isono.
- Language: A seamless blend of French and Japanese, with Virginie Efira performing in both.
- US Distribution: Neon has acquired the rights, making it a major Palme d'Or contender and a likely Oscar hopeful.
Conclusion: Why This Film Matters Now
All of a Sudden isn't just a movie; it’s a manifesto. Hamaguchi has managed to take a niche medical methodology and turn it into a universal story about what we owe one another. By the time the credits roll, you realize the title is a bit of a prank—nothing in life happens "all of a sudden." Our deaths, our connections, and our systems are built slowly, one gaze and one touch at a time. It’s a film that demands you slow down, look your neighbor in the eye, and stand up straight. In 2026, there is no more radical act than that.
