Tag: Claire Denis

BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE – Review

Juliette Binoche as “Sara” in Claire Denis’ BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Curiosa Films. An IFC Films release

Juliette Binoche and French stars Vincent Lindon and Gregoire Colin deliver top-notch acting in a love triangle drama, in renowned director Claire Denis’s BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE. Previously titled FIRE in English, this well-acted French romantic drama’s French title is AVEC AMOUR ET ACHARNEMENT, which translates as “With Love and Fury,” which would have worked in English as well. Juliette Binoche’s character Sara certainly is playing with fire, when her eye strays to an old flame despite her better judgment, threatening her present loving relationship. Plenty of sparks fly as a result.

Juliette Binoche plays Sara, who is in a loving, long-term relationship with Jean (Vincent Lindon), Sara

had left her previous amour Francois (Gregoire Colin) for Jean, his best friend and business partner, and Sara had stuck with Jean even through his 8-year jail term. Early romantic scenes make clear the passionate feeling the couple still share. Yet when Sara unexpectedly sees Francois on the street one day, she is overcome a sudden rush of old feelings and buried longings, even though Francois didn’t even see her. Although she does nothing, the mere mention of the name of her ex, whom neither have seen in the intervening decade, to her current lover seems to electrifying the air, sending a jolt of fear through him, although he says nothing. That level of unspoken yet crackling emotion charges the air, as these two acting greats say more without words than lesser talents could, even before anything more happens. Repressed longing, smoldering jealousy and fear on both sides suffuse scenes as the couple begin playing with fire that may burn them both.

Although Sara had just glimpsed Francois at a distance on a Paris street, it turns out Jean has actually talked to him, something Sara does not yet know. Francois called Jean, out of the blue after ten years, to suggest as they start up a new business together, an agency for young sports prospects. Once a pro rugby star, Jean and Francois had once worked together after an injury ended his career. But that came to an end when Jean went to prison for eight years. We don’t learn the reason but there are hints that it may have been something both Francois and Jean were involved with, although only Jean was caught. As an ex-con, jobs have been scarce, so Jean is in no position to pass up any opportunity but, as a former pro rugby star, Jean is particularly drawn to the chance to get back into the sports world.

When Sara casually mentions that she saw Francois on the street, Jean freezes. Although he says nothing, we can see, even feel, the jolt of electricity that rushes through him when he hears this, and the air is alive with tension and fear. Yet neither Sara nor Jean say anything, and Jean does not mention the call from Francois.

Jean can’t bring himself to pass up Francois’ business offer, although it is clear there is risk for his happy home life. He delays even mentioning it to Sara, who says little about that, realizing the tension Jean is feeling. Jean becomes secretive, trying to avoid situations where the former lovers might meet, fearing what may happen. Sara is determined that nothing will happen, as she feels she made the better choice all those years ago and is sure she loves Jean, yet there is always a fear of the fire they are playing with.

The thrill of this love-triangle drama is watching these powerhouse actors at work in this fraught situation. Carefully observed, multi-layered and nuanced acting is delivered by all three but particularly from the scenes with Binoche and Lindon as the couple in crisis. Gregoire Colin’s Francois is handsome and socially smooth but a rather oily character underneath. We quickly see why Sara chose Jean, yet her attraction is like an addiction she is battling. Both Sara and Jean are hesitant to even touch this heated issue, and continually dance around it. There are telling glances, smoldering feelings, anger or fear revealed through looks, sometimes even contradicting the words they speak. All these half-buried sparks threaten to burst into full flame as this tense romantic drama unfolds.

The unspoken tension between them is complicated by the fact that Jean is so hungry to take the business offer Francois holds out, so much that he is willing to take risks. There is also another problem pressing on Jean, his bi-racial teen son Marcus (Issa Perica), who has been raised by Jean’s mother Nelly (Bulle Ogier) in a small town outside Paris, but who has become difficult for her to handle as he entered his teen years. Periodically she calls Jean to beg for his help, pulling him in another direction.

These gifted actors do an excellent job keeping this pot boiling and Claire Denis, who won the Silver Bear for director at the Berlin Film Festival, and co-writer Christine Angot keep things tense and percolating along. Yet as fabulous as it is to see these actors work and as skilled as the director/writer is gripping an audience, this is still a romantic melodrama, with not larger socially meaningful commentary, despite the subplot about the bi-racial son, Sara’s job as a radio host on a Arab-centric program or scenes illustrating the difficulties of ex-con in finding work. Those topics are touched on, rather than explored at depth, so while worthy, they are but grace notes to the main plot.

This high-wire, electric romantic drama is a treat for audiences who relish fine acting and a gifted director putting those artists through their paces, but offers less for audiences seeking a more significant story or one with deeper meaning.

BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE, in French with English subtitles, will be shown July 16 at the Webster Film Series and is now playing in select theaters.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE Theatrical Poster

HIGH LIFE – Review

Robert Pattinson in a scene from Claire Denis’ HIGH LIFE. Courtesy of A24.

For her first English-language film, renowned French director Claire Denis sends Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche into space on a mission to a black hole. Beautiful yet bleak, HIGH LIFE is more contemplative and ambitious than the typical space drama, but it perhaps does not rank among the best works of the 72-year-old innovative auteur director who gave us BEAU TRAVAIL and 35 SHOTS OF RUM.

The director co-wrote the script with Jean-Pol Fargeau. HIGH LIFE opens on a spaceship far out among the stars, with a man (Pattinson) and a baby as the sole survivors. We know there is a backstory to this, and eventually it is revealed in flashback. The film has moments of violence, bursts of sometimes graphic sexuality, and maintains a creepy tension, but it also moves slowly for most of its running time, meditating on the human condition.

The people on this journey through space are certainly not living the high life. They are convicts who have been offered service on a space mission to a distant black hole, as an alternative to their life (or death) sentences. The mission is to gather and transmit back information that might give Earth access to unlimited energy. The trip is long and while a few will serve as crew, most will be test subjects in experiments during the long trip. The convicts have been told they will return after the mission, although that is a lie.

The film grapples with that central deceit early on, in a flashback to Earth where a professor (Victor Banerjee) struggles with society’s guilt over the lie. The truth is that the convicts on the spaceship are traveling near the speed of light, which means they will age very slowly. As they make their very long journey, decades will fly by on Earth. Even if they could return, everyone they know will be long dead.

The science touches are among the film’s most interesting aspects. Besides addressing the way time slows as one approaches the speed of light, HIGH LIFE also depicts what might happen at the black hole’s event horizon.

The creepy side of the script is in what happens along the way, as the convict passengers are subjected to unsettling experiments by the ship’s doctor, also a convict, played chillingly by Binoche.

People going mad in space is not a new idea but Claire Denis uses it in a different way. There are hints of Andrei Tarkovsky’s SOLARIS and the 1973 PAPILLON, as Denis combines commentary on society’s treatment of prisoners and a story about on the resilience of the human spirit. It is ambitious stuff although not all of it comes together.

The cast also includes Mia Goth, as an impulsive woman who is unraveling after years in space. The ship is self-sufficient, growing food and recycling air, water and waste, and largely runs itself, with a little help from crew. These convicts never were the most stable people to begin with but the long journey has taken its toll. They are coping, or failing to cope, in various ways. Andre Benjamin plays Tcherny, a gentle man who prefers to spend his time in the shipboard garden, which provides food and oxygen. Other strong performances are provided by Agata Buzek as pilot Nansen and Lars Eidinger as captain Chandra.

In the lead role, Pattinson gives one of his better performances, tamping down his highly emotive style for something a bit more restrained. Pattinson has chosen roles mostly in indie and art-house films since leaving his TWILIGHT film days, with mixed results. This role is a more successful one for him, although it is too far from mainstream for his remaining fans of his early days.

HIGH LIFE has a moody, eerie visual beauty, thanks to cinematographer Yorick LeSaux, and a haunting score, which adds to its sense of tension. The film has a creepiness to it, and it does not quite find the right balance between that element and its more meditative side.

Still, the story about human minds coming undone in space and about about human resilience is admirable and ambitious. The film is full of unexpected twists, just like life, and features a surprisingly satisfying ending.

Fans of art-house films will find this thought-provoking drama more satisfying than mainstream audiences, although it is not Claire Denis’ best. HIGH LIFE has its moments but its mix of slow meditation on the human condition does not entirely gel, and that aspect does not mix as well with the thriller/horror aspects of the story as one might hoped. It is a thought-provoking film but not Denis’ most successful. Mainstream audiences expecting a thriller, as the trailer suggests, will likely be confused by the film’s focus on the passengers’ inner human journey and its social commentary on society’s treatment of prisoners.

HIGH LIFE opens Friday, April 19, at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater and Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche Star In Trailer For A24 Films Sci-Fi Drama HIGH LIFE

From director Claire Denis, starring Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Andre Benjamin, and Mia Goth, watch the trailer for HIGH LIFE.

The film, a staggering and primal film about love and intimacy, suffused with anguished memories of a lost Earth, premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival and was met with overwhelming praise from the critics.

” “High Life” can’t be separated from Pattinson’s omnipresent performance, and he seems perfectly attuned to the uncanny demands of Denis and Jean-Pol Fargeau’s challenging script, which is so precise, almost deterministic in its details, yet so elusive in overall effect. With few words of dialogue, but a great deal of screen time, he also carries this foreboding, dissociative film’s slender thread of connection in the relationship between Monte and the baby (named Willow, according to the sinister lullaby that is the closing track, written by Staples, performed by Tindersticks, and sung by Pattinson). But we shouldn’t overstate: His presence, plus the loosely familiar genre, and the English language dialogue, might make you believe this is a more accessible Claire Denis film than we’ve seen. It is not.” – Variety

“Claire Denis Takes Robert Pattinson on an Erotic Space Odyssey in This Mesmerizing Look into the Void.” – IndieWire

“Every day is a battle to stay sane (less apparent among Denis’ feats here is that she has casually constructed a remorselessly honest look into the psychological ramifications of incarceration), so extreme, bizarre measures must sometimes be called on. With an achievement of this calibre it’s hard to resist hyperbole: High Life contains the single greatest one-person sex scene in the history of cinema.” – The Guardian

“haunting score by regular composer Stuart A. Staples (of the Tindersticks) and production design by Francois-Renaud Labarthe (Personal Shopper) that gives the ship a very dirty and dysfunctional sheen, mirroring the lives of its turbulent passengers, who can only remain in peace for so long.” – The Hollywood Reporter

From A24 Films, HIGH LIFE opens in theaters April 12, 2019.

LET THE SUNSHINE IN – Review

Juliette Binoche as Isabelle in Claire Denis’ LET THE SUNSHINE IN. Courtesy of Sundance Selects. A Sundance Selects release.

Legendary French director Claire Denis teams with legendary star Juliette Binoche for a tale of Parisian artist who is searching for true love at middle age, in the French-language LET THE SUNSHINE IN (Un Beau Soleil Interieur).

Claire Denis takes us on as emotional journey with Binoche, one that leads more to self-discovery and insights than romance, as her character explores romantic possibilities. Surprisingly, this is the first film collaboration of these two giants of French cinema. The film is billed as romantic comedy but the comedy is both subtle and very French. Also very French are the conversations, which often tend towards the philosophical and world-weariness, but with a dash of idealistic hope.

Along her journey in search of true love, Binoche’s Isabelle tests the romantic waters with a varied series of men, each with his own flaws and appeal. In some ways, it is the kind of romantic quest we are more used to seeing in movies about men looking for “the one” yet it is specifically a woman’s story.

Beautiful, sophisticated Isabelle (Binoche) has a successful career as an artist, and lives in Parisian apartment with a studio where she paints. She seems to have it all but after divorcing her husband Francois (Laurent Grevill), she now is hoping to find true love. With her natural beauty, Isabelle has no trouble attracting male attention but love is another matter. The frustrating thing for her is that she keeps meeting men who aren’t emotionally available or are just looking for a fling at most.

Binoche is so gorgeous, it is a little hard to believe she doesn’t have men constantly falling in love with her, but maybe it is that Isabelle keeps focusing on the wrong ones. Binoche inserts a kind of desperation to be loved in this artist’s search, even reconsidering the ex-husband she left at one point. But she is looking for something authentic, something real and lasting. In her romantic quest, she encounters several men who, in an initial romantic glow, seem to offer that possibility but roadblocks appear quickly.

Binoche is very touching in the role, showing us all her character’s emotional vulnerabilities, her tendency to jump in too quickly at the illusion of love, and her dignity in picking herself up to try again. Binoche’s tender, honest exploration of Isabelle’s emotional roller coaster will resonant deeply for many women.

The cast also includes Nicholas Duvauchelle, Paul Blain, Xavier Beauvois and the legendary Gerard Depardieu, as a psychic Binoche’s character consults in an effort to resolve her love life.

LET THE SUNSHINE IN is a very French film, which will please Francophiles but maybe not all American audiences. Not surprisingly, the ending of LET THE SUNSHINE IN is typically French, leaving Binoche’s artist still on her quest for love but perhaps more comfortable with her journey towards the true love she deserves.

LET THE SUNSHINE IN opens Friday, May 25, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

Review: 35 SHOTS OF RUM

When all we have is each other, what are we suppose to do when they leave?

Directed and co-written by French filmmaker Claire Denis, 35 SHOTS OF RUM is a study on human separation. Denis (CHOCOLAT) delicately introduces the audience to a father and daughter. We first meet them physically separated by distance, each of them making their journey home for the day to settle together in their small apartment.

Lionel (Alex Descas) makes his living conducting a subway train through the city. Lionel is a quiet, reserved man, always with something on his mind. Lionel’s depth of thought, his emotional anguish about the life his daughter leads and the guilt he feels for her confining herself to his life, is apparent in the heavily non-verbal performance on Descas.

Lionel’s daughter Joséphine (Mati Diop) is a thin and beautiful young woman, pursues university study and works at a small local Virgin record store. She insists on taking care of her father, who is perfectly capable of caring for his self. Lionel feels as though he is holding her back and attempts, reluctantly, to nudge her out of the nest and live her own life, for her sake.

Diop’s performance captures the internal torment Joséphine lives with, torn between keeping her only surviving parent company and venturing out with Noé (Grégoire Colin), an attractive young man interested in developing a relationship. Joséphine keeps Noé at arm’s length, fearing what will happen if she allows herself to explore beyond her father’s reach.

Gabrielle (Nicole Dogué) is a neighbor to Lionel and Joséphine. She holds a deep desire to be with Lionel and his daughter as a family and Joséphine has a strong maternal bond with Gabrielle. Lionel maintains his distance from Gabrielle, perhaps in respect for his deceased wife, or perhaps the result of lacking a mutual interest in her, adding tension to his relationship with Joséphine.

35 SHOTS OF RUM, originally titles 35 rhums, is a gentle and poignant look into the human need for companionship and what happens when that need is threatened by separation. In keeping with the theme of the story, the film incorporates a lovely abundance of space, both visually and audibly generating a sensory landscape of souls drifting apart.

Claire Denis has a way with conveying textural dialogue of emotion with a minimal use of dialogue. She dwells on characters in silence as their minds do the talking through their body language and facial expressions. Denis is the type of filmmaker who isn’t afraid to linger on a scene, allowing the audience to connect with the character and feel the lingering fear of abandonment.

With Lionel conducting subway trains, Gabrielle driving a taxi and Noé frequently traveling for work, transportation plays a wonderful metaphorical role in the story. The characters are perpetually moving away and returning to each other. Music is a dominant presence in the film, crucially reinforcing the moods and connecting the characters with a range of beautifully mellow styles.

35 SHOTS OF RUM is a slow-moving film, gradually building to its powerfully touching low-key crescendo. The pace of the film is to its advantage, allowing the audience to bond with the characters. The story is engaging, drawing the audience into the slice-of-life story.

Forget the reality television shows that clog prime time and give 35 SHOTS OF RUM a chance to show how well crafted narrative fiction will always present a more authentic portrait of reality.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars