From the reviews I gathered that the 2008 Afterwards is an adaptation of the novel in French, Et Apres. This explains the theme of us not knowing the hour of our own deaths, and even more importantly, not knowing before then, which of the people we know well and who are well, will die and how. But the interest of the story doesn't explain why the director handled the theme the way he did. What are the images of the Quebec countryside, summer and winter, in direct contrast with? After all, Claire is a photographer of nature who is insisting on photographing in the snow at night a plant that only blooms one day a year. She thinks husband Nathan is a creep for being a natural at his job as a New York City lawyer. Cinematographer Pin Bing Lee and film editor Valerie Deseine have filled a large number of earlier frames with office building windows. All this is woven together by the music of Alexandre Desplat. Surely an intention was for all of us to see a bright white light surrounding each of us, in preparation for not knowing when the next NYC 9-11 will be and how.
Review of Afterwards
