The Final Chapter - Review

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The one and only certainty of human kind... is that it will gonna die.

We live with the knowledge that we will meet death sooner or later, but what does it look like? Does it have a look? Is it tangible? Or does it simply come like a gust of wind and take us away?

Ingmar Bergman in 'The seventh seal'  depicted it as a disturbing man dressed in black, Bob Fosse in 'All That Jazz' gave it the splendid face of Jessica Lange... but the truth is that we can only imagine or idealise something that we have never seen personally.

The Final Chapter, written, directed and produced by musician and filmmaker Erik Dreng Jacobsen, offers us the opportunity to see how the dead are experienced, celebrated, honored or exorcised depending on the place, customs and culture.

Jacobsen's main gift is that of being able to travel the viewer far away and accompany him to parts of the world that perhaps he will never be able to see in person; his friendly baritone voice leads us to discover the most disparate places: we see the astonishing and catastrophic Pompei, the classic architecture of Italian cemeteries,  Egyptian sarcophagi, embalmed corpses,  skulls, bones... we feel amazement and a hint of disgust.

The editing of photos and videos shot by the director himself, and the perfect choice of background music, manages to convey an interesting, informative and engaging short film focused on the greatest human fear... perhaps making it more acceptable to us.

200 pages of charm and mystery, the story takes place in Rennes-le-Château,  the favourite destination for all the curious and passionate about the Templars and hidden treasures.

The heart of the story, which rides between present and past, is the desperate search for the Holy Grail, one of the most coveted and talked about treasures of all time.

Dan Brown opened the doors of curiosity about the Priory of Sion with his acclaimed 'Da Vinci Code', but what Florence Cazebon-Taveau gives us with The Priory of Sion published by editions edilivre in france is a screenplay fulfilled with suspense, esotericism and espionage. 

A thriller where good and evil  compete with each other, challenge each other.

Excellently written, the plot the plot develops between 2022 where Florence and Patrick, two young friends passionate about Occitan history, go in search of the  Holy Grail and will have to deal with the inquisitorial eyes of Opus Dei who quite fear the young woman's clairvoyance; and 1896 where everything turns around two couples and their domestic life : Abbot Bérenger Saunière and his trusted housekeeper and lover Marie Denarnaud; and Abbot Henri Boudet and the young Manon. 

Saunière personifies greed, avarice, the thirst for wealth, power, lust.  

On the contrary, Boudet reminds us of the meaning of altruism, generosity and the importance of passing down knowledge and wisdom to his young apprentice - who we will discover is also a medium and pranotherapist.

Six main characters - described in such an effective way that you can see them clearly - around which  we can meet iconic names of the caliber of Baudelaire, Verlaine, Victor Hugo, Emma Calvè and Wagner , who not only belonged to the Priory of Sion but had in common the same desire to protect their important documents from the esoteric Society of Brouillard . 

Fascinating and flowing, the screenplay - with all its  places, names and flashbackst -   requires for sure attention and a very good memory.

There is life, and there is death. 

There is reality and there is fiction. There are twists and special effects.

There is everything a screenplay needs to become a great film.