In French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morning (Un beau matin), books play a significant role: as physical objects, gifts, talismans, sources of connection, works in progress. Above all, books can represent a life.

For Sandra (Léa Seydoux), the contents of her ailing father’s bookshelves express something about him that she values. She explains to her young daughter, Linn (Camille Leban Martins), why they matter. He is no longer able to live on his own, and finding a place to take care of him is important, she says, but so is finding a place for all his books. ‘His library is more than the person at the nursing home. There, it’s his bodily envelope. Here, it’s his soul.’