We Will Be Left Without Purpose - The End of Vacation

Ioana Satmari • 11/1/2024

With 4 suitcases trailing behind, you reach the last home you’ll live in. A cold hotel in a warm world. Too-smiley and disturbingly kind nurses wait around every corner. In 25 minutes, the documentary La fin des vacances / The End of Vacation, directed by Raphaël Venayre and Antoine Guerci, introduces us to this world, which isn’t that far from our own.

It’s a world where we too might grow old. We too might end up somewhere with a warm breeze, under a straw umbrella. We too might take strolls down empty streets and do balancing exercises. We too might dance, absurdly stiff, if we’re not already doing so.

“When you get there, you know it’s your last home (…) You’ve summed up your entire life into four suitcases.” You hear this peacefully. The voice isn’t exactly serene, but we’re looking at a blue sky. The voice lingers. The whole film is built on the idea of serendipity and languor. Inertia and drowsiness spin together. We keep looking at still clouds, branches in the wind, and the empty hotel. On one floor is this residence for the elderly, while the other two are for tourists. The still frames wait. Nothing happens on its own. It’s a continuous languor meant to create a mood. If anything happens, it’s because the nurses are hustling to thaw out the elderly.

You wake up, animated by the nurses, cared for, walked around, and listened to. After 25 minutes, you’re left with an emptiness. On one hand, it feels like nothing’s happening; it’s calm, lukewarm, and sleepy. On the other hand… you could spin your thoughts in a new direction. From a utilitarian perspective, it doesn’t sound great to stuff more elderly people together to make it easier to care for them. But that’s where we end up when careers come first. It’s simpler to relinquish responsibility for someone, allowing another to earn a living by caring for those you should have cared for. One person’s trash is another’s treasure.

This is a film many might take at face value, avoiding the weight of considering it as a possible future. The perspective is so easily bypassed by our brains. The axis on which we see ourselves blurs when we finish what we have to do. As in, what then, I’m not good for anything anymore? We live for the idea of purpose, which finances our drive to wake up and get things done.

Although I felt it was elusive and inconsistent, the idea of blur stuck with me. Our minds are blurred by tasks, while theirs seem blurred by the present itself. They’re living their last vacation. An endless summer. The End of Vacation makes a gradient from the blue sky (us, who perhaps can’t imagine ourselves without purpose) to the cream walls of the hotel (us, who perhaps can’t imagine ourselves without the morning juice). So what if it’s like that?