IFFR 2009: 35 RHUMS Review
As the saying goes: "There are no opportunities without change". Therefore, change is important. Don't count on living your life without it.
That is also the central theme of "35 Rhums" a.k.a. "35 Shots of Rum", the new film by renowned director Claire Denis who was one of the guests-of-honor this year at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
The synopsis in the festival program made this film sound like a rather sedate affair, and it is. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect Claire Denis to write cannibalistic sex addicts into every one of her scripts (I understand that "Trouble Every Day" sort of stands out in that respect), but this time there aren't even any flawed humans plotting against each other!
But "sedate" is not necessarily the same thing as "boring", and "35 Rhums" falls on the good side of that difference. Compulsive thrillseekers may need to go elsewhere but the rest is in for a treat, as this movie delivers on some fine acting of a very good cast, who show that sometimes a story doesn't need to be larger than life to get its point across.
More after the break...
The Story:
Train driver Lionel lives in a Parisian suburb together with his daughter Josephine. The two are very close and share a friendship with two other residents of the same building: the almost ridiculously flashy Noé who inherited his apartment from his parents, and cab driver Gabrielle who loves Lionel.
The four of them are shown living together in what comes very close to perfect harmony. But things always change, for better or worse, and everyone is slowly but surely preparing (or being prepared) for something new.
The Movie:
I've given up trying to predict what to expect from a Claire Denis film, bar two things: the pacing will be deliberately slow, and the music will be fantastic. "35 Rhums" scores on both counts, but apart from that I had no idea where she wanted to go with this story.
And given just a quick glance, it seems the movie goes nowhere. A few things happen with a few people, there are some realizations, there is an ending but all in all no one gets hit by proverbial lightning. Yet the devil sometimes truly is in the details, and as the end of the movie nears it becomes clear that Claire Denis has woven an intricate web of tiny things here.
Oftentimes I say that you should see movies with big spectacular action in a cinema instead of at home, because you gain so much more from seeing it at a big screen with big booming sound and a reactive audience. The counterpart of this is that smaller-scale pictures focusing on acting and emotion would be more fit for showing on television.
Yet it is remarkable how much a film like "35 Rhums" gains from being seen on the big screen. It's not just that you can better make out the subtlety of the acting here (although that is certainly part of it), but cinemas also allow you to concentrate fully on what is happening, without being distracted. At home I might have started zapping after awhile, or have watched the movie in several sittings. And I would have lost the film's momentum and have failed to catch a lot of what makes it interesting.
There is a scene halfway through the movie where the main characters are all stuck in a bar, and there is such a fascinating wealth of facial expressions, of almost unnoticed movements... It's amazing how much is being told here without using words, with a choreography rivaling that of any martial arts or car chase movie.
All of this is of course only possible when the actors are performing well enough, and indeed they do. Alex Descas brings his usual subtle, almost regal dignity to his role as Lionel, and it took some time before I recognized Grégoire Colin as the same guy who played the killer in last year's "Le Tueur", which is impressive as he has a very distinctive face. New to me was Mate Diop who plays the young Josephine but she is good too, and Nicole Dogue is quietly heartbreaking as the unfulfilled Gabrielle.
The acting together with the non-flashy story gives the impression at times that you're watching an actual family, yet that would not give proper credit to the cinematography which could be described as non-tricky yet extremely solid: there is not one ugly shot in the whole film.
And then there is the soundtrack, which I already briefly mentioned. One thing that stuck to me after having seen "Trouble Every Day" was not so much Béatrice Dalle tearing some teenager into pieces while having sex with him, but the melancholy music accompanying the film's quieter moments. I couldn't shake that music, and was glad I saw that movie on DVD as it allowed me to re-listen to the end-credits again and again.
To my delight, the music in "35 Rhums" had the same effect (only I couldn't do the re-listening). Indeed, the person responsible for the music is the same: Stuart A. Staples, and "The Tindersticks" are once again the group performing it.
In the end "35 Rhums" managed to move me and presented a well-thought out case for both the inevitability and the sheer necessity of change in the relationships between humans, and how tragic it is if you cannot adapt. Unlike most other films at this festival it does so without reaching for the obvious tools like racism, murder or (other) abuse: when used carefully, kindness can be just as interesting.
Conclusion:
Although the 2009 edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam didn't have one film which totally blew my mind (I haven't given a single "5 out of 5" this year), there sure was no shortage of movies which featured amazing acting and "35 Rhums" definitely belongs amongst them.
It's a remarkably nice picture, with people who are for a change not out to make each other's lives deliberately miserable. This doesn't stop it from being very serious though, and it sure tells something about humans and the nature of change without stereotypically resorting to either sex or violence.
Not for the restless, but for all other people "35 Rhums" comes very much recommended.
And the IFFR audience thought so too, rewarding the film with a 4.0 out of 5, as did I.
