I have no idea how Eden got on my radar. I must have decided to watch Eden for three reasons: French film, Greta Gerwig and French house-music. Eden is loosely based on the director’s brother’s experiences as a DJ from the early 1990s until 2013.
Unlike most French films, Eden is quite predictable because it is based on a person’s life. Paul goes from living for the music to using the music to get money, girls, drugs, but never gets completely awful, irredeemable or obnoxious. Greta Gerwig only appears in a handful of scenes. I thought that I knew French house music because I’m a fan of Daft Punk and DJ Stéphane Pompougnac who mixes the Hôtel Costes’ compilation lounge music CDs, but I was unfamiliar with the soundtrack.
Eden feels more like cinema verite because there are long takes, characters are not really introduced, but appear and disappear without explanation so it takes awhile to determine who everyone is, including the main character, and there is less of a cohesive narrative or focus, but more of a slice of life movie, but that slice consists of twenty years and only focuses on when music dominated that life.
Eden is ambitious, but uneven. Eden rewards viewers who notice details. When Paul reunites with an ex-girlfriend, her life has changed dramatically, but he is still the same Paul. There is no judgment, but there is. If he became as successful as Daft Punk, had different taste in music (garage versus electronic), remained devoted only to music instead of the trappings, had a different music or romantic partner, would not changing be a badge of honor instead of implicit condemnation? Eden does not analyze, but simply presents. He starts off as a teen who scoffs at the idea that raves are a place for drugs, but later is teased as an adult who snorts cocaine like a vacuum cleaner then goes straight and works with vacuum cleaners.
Eden is two hours and eleven minutes long. It feels longer. Twenty years of the average person’s life is not going to be riveting even if it is condensed into movie length. I struggled to finish it. I usually describe a film’s pacing as deliberate when it is slow, but I enjoyed it. I would not describe Eden as deliberate, but slow. Visually Eden experimented with animation and live action in the initial scenes, but dropped it soon thereafter.
I was relieved when I was finished with Eden. Director Mia Hansen-Løve obviously adores her brother and made her version of a worldwide epic to memorialize his devotion, but I don’t think that Eden works for a broader audience even if you love deliberate French films where nothing much happens.