N’oublie pas que tu vas mourir (Don't Forget You're Going to Die). 1995. France. Directed by Xavier Beauvois. Screenplay by Beauvois, Anne-Marie Sauzeau, Marie Sauzeau, Zoubir Tilgui. With Chiara Mastroianni, Xavier Beauvois, Bulle Ogier. In French; English subtitles. DCP. 118 min.
In a reckless bid to avoid the draft, an art history student (Xavier Beauvois) fakes his own suicide. But fate has something far crueler in store for him, and as he is hurtled into an oblivion of sex and drugs, he stumbles upon Claudia (Chiara Mastroianni), a woman who seems to cast him a lifeline with the promise of love. With Don’t Forget You’re Going to Die, Mastroianni’s breakthrough performance, directors suddenly took notice of an actor who made movies come alive whenever she was on screen. Collaborations with Arnaud Desplechin, Raul Ruíz, and Manoel de Oliveira would follow soon after.