Vicky Krieps & Gaspard Ulliel: More Than Ever Scene (2022)

A couple jumps into the water, climbs out and goes to bed. It’s the happiest stretch of More Than Ever, and knowing what comes next makes it hard to watch.

More Than Ever (2022): Hélène and Matthieu strip, jump into the water and climb out up the ladder (50s)

More Than Ever (2022): the long love scene with Matthieu (105s)

What happens in More Than Ever

Emily Atef’s film follows Hélène, 33, who lives in Bordeaux and has been happily married to Matthieu (Gaspard Ulliel) for years, until she’s diagnosed with a rare lung disease. Looking for a way to think about it, she finds a Norwegian blogger called Mister who is also seriously ill, and eventually she travels north to Norway on her own, leaving the man she loves behind.

The film opens on what she stands to lose. Early on she strips, jumps into the water with Matthieu and climbs back out up a ladder, then a long, tender love scene follows. It’s fully nude and completely unshowy, two people who’ve been together a long time and still like the view.

Ulliel died in a skiing accident in January 2022, four months before the Cannes premiere. It wasn’t technically the last film he shot, but it’s the one most people remember as his goodbye. Atef has said it was Krieps who suggested him for Matthieu. She shot it in the spring of 2021, at 37, the same year she made Corsage. It’s seventh on the whole Vicky Krieps page, and for the colder side of marriage, see the empress’s bed in Corsage.

Vicky Krieps and Gaspard Ulliel by the water, More Than Ever (2022)

Vicky Krieps as Hélène after a swim, More Than Ever

Film: More Than Ever (Plus que jamais, 2022) · Cannes Un Certain Regard, May 21, 2022; France (Jour2Fête), November 16, 2022 · directed by Emily Atef · Vicky Krieps as Hélène, Gaspard Ulliel as Matthieu