5 min readMay 16, 2026 11:27 AM IST To say that Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ‘All Of A Sudden’ (Cannes competition) is a long film – it weighs in at a solid 3.15 hours – is stating the obvious. The Japanese auteur doesn’t do sudden – the title is a nice little touch of unintentional irony; a leisurely unfolding of events is much more his thing. In fact, he doesn’t do events either; capturing moments like no one’s looking is more like it. Here, his deeply observant style suits the central thrust of the film, which is mainly set in a home for the elderly, where the big themes accompanying end-of-life scenarios are a natural outcome. Marie-Lou (Virginie Efira) is an empathetic doctor who runs this Paris establishment, less as a hospice than a home, for those individuals who have diminished use of their faculties or have fallen in the grip of dementia. She’s just been promoted as director and is pushing for an attitude which is more people-centric rather than patient-centric, which would add more dignity …