Les Hôpitaux meurent aussi

Hospitals represent a kind of theatre, where a play of ancient rituals is acted out, set against a daily backdrop of endless life and death dramas. This parallel is even more striking when the hospital in question is a historical monument dating back some three hundred years?and more to the point, is on the verge of closing down. This film follows the final year in the life of the Laënnec hospital in Paris, revealing the spirit of the place and bringing to life through the settings of the chapel, vegetable garden, staff waiting room, offices… the memories of all those? doctors, nurses, ambulance workers?who gave life to the hospital. Through this very specific «death» of a hospital and the imminent move to other premises, which the staff live through as a period of mourning, the film opens a door onto the hidden, unspoken life of a typical modern hospital.