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Film: 35 Shots Of Rum
Release date: 19th October 2009
Certificate: 12
Running time: 100 mins
Director: Claire Denis
Starring: Alex Descas, Mati Diop, Nicole Dogue, Grégoire Colin, Jean-Christophe Folly
Genre: Drama
Studio: New Wave
Format: DVD
Country: France/Germany
35 Shots Of Rums is a minimalist study of love, and the sometimes inevitable separation with which love comes hand in hand. Claire Denis gently weaves a tale of intimacy between a group of people living in the same apartment building in the Parisian suburbs. The film was well received by critics after its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival.
35 Shots Of Rum follows a brief but undefined passage in the lives of Lionel (Alex Descas), a widowed train driver, and his grown daughter, Joséphine (Mati Diop), who live in a block of flats in the suburbs of Paris.
We are introduced to Joséphine's love interest, Noé (Gregoire Colin), who lives upstairs, and just as the absence of her mother is an ever-present spectre hanging over proceedings, so too is Noé's inevitable departure, as he dips in and out of the action due to work commitments. Although Noé's devotion to Joséphine is often questionable, Lionel struggles to come to terms with the fact that Joséphine will at some point fly the nest, whether it is with or without Noé. Lionel is also the recipient of what seems to be unrequited love from Gabrielle (Nicole Dogue), a taxi driver who also lives in the same building and clearly has feelings for Lionel.
The film follows the paradox of Joséphine and Noé’s blossoming romance, along with Lionel’s loosening grasp of his relationship with his daughter. As the characters' lives delicately interweave, we are introduced to minor characters that gently push the narrative along, enforcing the theme of separation which Denis skilfully keeps at the forefront of the piece. The climax of the action allows the audience to understand the true meaning of the 35 shots, and ultimately concludes the story in a vein in keeping with the piece's slow pace and minimalist style...
To put it bluntly, this film is slow. However, this is not a weakness, but rather adds weight to the film. Denis is dealing with real life, and unlike Hollywood, real life isn't lived at a frenetic pace with enough dialogue to make a script the size of War And Peace. Dialogue is sparse and no words are wasted, with Denis preferring to tell the story through her actors' demeanour, highlighted by expert camera work. For the majority of the opening ten minutes of the film, we are given subtle music set to the backdrop of trains criss-crossing their way through Paris, as well as a patient browse around the protagonists' home. This allows us to settle into the tempo of the film, and ease into the steady lives that Lionel and Joséphine lead.
Descas and Diop both play their parts in exemplary fashion. The intimacy between the two is beautifully crafted, so much so that it is at first perfectly feasible that the two are lovers. Descas finds the perfect balance between being a loving father who wants his daughter to be independent, and a man struggling with the realisation that he is about to lose his closest companion. Much of this should be credited to Denis whom, as writer, only gives Lionel a solitary line in the whole film with which to express his feelings towards his daughter's imminent departure - therefore forcing Descas to portray the emotion through body language alone. The same can be said for the rest of the cast, who play each part, no matter how small, with the level of skill required from such a thin script.
Denis shies away from informing the audience to such an extent that it affects the film in an adverse way. We never fully understand the relationship between Lionel and Gabrielle, yet both are main characters within the plot. We take a brief trip with Lionel and Josephine to visit the grave of their late loved one, where we meet a lady who is potentially a friend, or sister of Joséphine's mother. A tragedy which is important to one the central characters in the film is dealt with in a brief manner, and with no explanation whatsoever.
Along with unexplained instances within the plot, there is also a tendency for scenes to succeed each other in a rather awkward and clumsy fashion. Again, as a result of this, we are left wondering why we are now being shown a different setting, and being thrown straight into the midst of the action. This happens regularly within the film, and although this does not pose as much of a problem as the aforementioned holes in the plot, it adds a mild sense of confusion to proceedings and could have easily been avoided by adding small segments into the beginning of some scenes
35 Shots Of Rum stands out as one of the best contemporary films to deal with the minutiae of suburban life. Its main themes are dealt with by the deftest and most gentle touches, even if the overall lack of slickness to the film somewhat overshadows its many virtues. This film should definitely be seen, though, even if it is just to appreciate Alex Descas and Mati Diop giving a master class in the art of depicting subtle intimacy. CPA
Film: White Material
Release date: 6th December 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 102 mins
Director: Claire Denis
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Isaach De Bankole, Christophe Lambert, Nicolas Duvauchelle, William Nadylam
Genre: Drama
Studio: Artificial Eye
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: France/Cameroon
In Claire Denis’ White Material (shot in Cameroon), themes of colonialism and rebellion collide within the context of an unspecified African nation. The film is, at times, deeply disturbing and shocking, and marks Denis’ filmmaking return to Africa (after previously studying themes of African colonialism in films such as her 1988 directorial debut Chocolat) whilst drawing on real-life experiences of growing up in the continent.
In the midst of a growing civil war in an unstable African state, coffee planter Maria Vial (Isabelle Huppert) faces a choice between leaving behind her way of life for her own (and her family’s) safety, or facing up to the terrible consequences of staying at the plantation.
Amidst scenes of violence, gang warfare and deadly weapon-wielding child soldiers, Maria’s immovable will compels her to stay, even when all the plantation workers desert her in fear of their lives. To compound this, Maria’s ex husband (Christopher Lambert) has his own plans to sell the plantation, while her idle son’s (Nicolas Duvauchelle) humiliation at the hands of child soldiers pushes him towards madness with horrendous consequences.
As tension in the surrounding area begins to grow, Maria’s protection of a wanted rebel officer, known as The Boxer (Isaach De Bankolé), invites even more danger into her domain…
In White Material, this imprecise state in Africa is one filled with post-colonial tension and rage; where violence and aggression can flare up without a moment’s notice, and rebels urge assault on any evidence of white imperialism. Director Claire Denis is hugely successful in creating a sense of foreboding throughout the film until the inevitable destruction and despair of the finale, and creates a number of unsettling set-pieces highlighting an area entrenched in destructive civil war.
For instance, the film contains shocking scenes of children and young men committing acts of brutality and bloodshed, acting on impulse in a lawless area for desperate personal gain. In one of White Material’s pivotal moments, Maria’s son Manuel is mercilessly humiliated at the hands of machine gun toting child militia. This sets him upon a path of despair, and his own ultimate destruction, enticing a strong performance from Nicolas Duvauchelle as a son in search of a twisted and psychologically flawed form of bloody revenge for being placed in a way of life he does not want.
Maria herself is a complicated character, where her motives for staying in the plantation are rather muddied. She is a woman who is aware of the tension and destruction heading towards her sanctuary, yet chooses to ignore the blatant danger to her own and her family’s life by staying on at the plantation (even at one point hurriedly burying out of sight a goat’s head thrown into a coffee crop yield as a purposefully disturbing warning). Huppert’s performance in the central role is therefore extremely intriguing, and may leave viewers torn in their sense of sympathy for a character who longs to keep hold of an increasingly threatened and fading way of life.
The native African cast are also very effective in their roles, with the child soldiers especially chilling in their seemingly endless quest for destruction. The portrayal of unrest and lawless brutality in the unnamed state is a brave one by Denis, adding to a sense of raw realism and unbridled ever-increasing danger not always present in the romanticised cinematography of mainstream film portrayals of Africa.
Yet, conversely, the failure to provide any real background or context in relation to the reasons behind the civil war gang uprising arguably reduces the impact of Denis’ analysis of post-colonial rebellion. In contrast to the mostly strong, if not occasionally murky motivations of the film’s characters, Christopher Lambert’s role feels somewhat extraneous in relation to proceedings. Indeed the film feels like a condensed or cut down version of a larger canvas, where fully formed plot points and characters, such as rebel hero The Boxer, appear to be less than the sum of the complete film. The finale, while climaxing in horrifically brutal fashion, subsequently feels somewhat rushed; with a final character action from Maria that might be interpreted as being either highly inconsistent with the character or a clever depiction of her own descent into the madness that consumed her son.
White Material is a worthwhile and thought-provoking film, even if it does not quite reach the full sum of its parts. Isabelle Huppert is intriguingly complex and engaging in the central performance, with Nicholas Duvauchelle also shining in a difficult role as a young man descending into darkness. DB
The regular army is preparing to re-establish order in the country. To clean up. To eliminate the rebel officer also known as The Boxer and rid the countryside of roving child soldiers. All the expatriates have gone home, getting out before things turn nasty.
Of the Vials – a coffee planting family, who have lived there for two generations – Maria (Huppert) stands firm. She’s not about to give in to rumours or abandon her harvest at the first sound of gunfire.
Just like her father-in-law and her ex-husband (Lambert), who is also the father of her son, she is convinced that Cherif, mayor of the neighbouring town, will protect them. If she asks him, he will save the plantation. He has a personal guard, a private militia of tough guys, heavily armed and well trained.
Isabelle Huppert was nominated for a Golden Lion at the 2009 Venice Film Festival for her captivating performance in this both beautiful and haunting film.
Film: White Material
Release date: 6th December 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 102 mins
Director: Claire Denis
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Isaach De Bankole, Christophe Lambert, Nicolas Duvauchelle, William Nadylam
Genre: Drama
Studio: Artificial Eye
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: France/Cameroon
DVD Special Features:
•
Interview with director Claire Denis
•
Theatrical trailer
