Only 30 years old, the prodigiously talented writer-director Mia Hansen- Løve follows her assured 2007 debut, Tout est pardonné (All Is Forgiven), about a drug-addicted dad, with an even more wrenching look at another troubled, charismatic patriarch in The Father of My Children. Inspired by the life and death of French film producer Humbert Balsan, Hansen-Løve’s graceful movie follows the chaotic daily routine of Grégoire Canvel, whose production company, Moon Films, is near bankruptcy. Grégoire, completely overwhelmed, tries to hide his burdens from his wife and three daughters, whom he absolutely adores, consistently projecting a charming, sunny disposition. But mid-way through the film, as the pressures escalate, he feels he has no choice but to commit suicide; his family must try to save his company while coming to terms with their own grief and anger. The Father of My Children is as precisely detailed in its depiction of the stress and bureaucracy of how movies get made as it is of the emotional fallout of incomprehensible loss.