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35 Shots of Rum (2008)

Director: Claire Denis

Time Out rating

Average user rating

25 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

French director Claire Denis’s marvellous latest feature is a portrait of the close relationship between widowed Parisian train driver Lionel (Alex Descas) and his affectionate student daughter, Joséphine (Mati Diop). Critics have welcomed it as both her warmest movie and, with its quiet observation of small ritual, her most affirmative and Ozu-esque. But though it’s true that ‘35 Shots’ demonstrates an extraordinary reflective ease and contains possibly more hugs and smiles than Denis’s entire oeuvre to date, that is not to say it is a film free of tribulations, tensions and taboos.

The story is simple, a collection of scenes from the life of this small family who live in a flat in the Rue de la Guadeloupe, a little nest where Lionel escapes from the loneliness of his cab and the memory of his losses, and from which Joséphine, inhibited from fullly developing her relationships with her neighbours, surrogate ‘mother’ Gabrielle (Nicole Dogue) and ‘suitor’ Noé (Grégoire Colin), must soon fly.

From this, Denis magically evokes a liberal meditation on family, harmony, loyalty and belonging and their corollaries – loss, transgression, loneliness and separation – and achieves a sweet unity, not least through a beautifully discreet use of symbols, motifs and metaphors. Thus as cinematographer Agnès Godard’s artful visual correspondences (an RER train and a block of flats shot at night) deepen an understanding of social context, the film’s various vehicles – Lionel’s train thundering into north Paris, his motorbike, the bicycle blocking the hallway – suggest not only specifics of occupation or class, but also journeys of different speeds. The film’s extraordinary economy is typified by a lovely, spontaneous café scene where the principles dance to the Commodores’ ‘Nightshift’, a mini-ballet touchingly evocative of their separate feelings, relationships and destinies.

Author: Wally Hammond 2009-07-07 11:21:56

Time Out London Issue 2029, July 9 - 15, 2009

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User reviews of this film

naomi said...

Posted on Aug 07 2009 00:37 outstandingly beautiful! subtle understated but totally genuine with the audience having to fill in what remains unsaid. Abig thank you to clair denis!

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JP said...

Posted on Aug 04 2009 20:21 Possibly the most tedious film I have ever seen, it was slow obscure and self absorbed and seemed to have no point. The girl's expression seemed to be limited to an occasional unconvincing smile. The obscurity of the relationships wasn't artful but felt to me like lazy film making. However I
would recommend it to trainspotters

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DL said...

Posted on Aug 03 2009 13:03 If you found the film boring, you might take a look at Peter Bradshaw's review from the Guardian newspaper. I found the way he describes the film's slow unravelling of its plot more revealing than other reviews. Of course, the film is slow, but another word for that is contemplative, requiring concentration on character and relationships rather than seeking fresh events. Thinking that way, makes the film full of life, trying to guess what the history of the relationships is about. It's a bit like a jigsaw puzzle soap. I left feeling in awe of the actors too. Watching their eyes makes the film very moving. Hope that helps the detractors think about the experience differently.

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JB said...

Posted on Jul 31 2009 16:41 Wally Hammond needs to get out more. 5 stars Wally??? What the heck? This film is everything I hate about french film making at its worst. Melancholic, meandering, ponderous, pointless and DREARY DREARY DREARY DREARY DREARY. I will hesitate about Time Out's pick of the week in future. As far as I'm concerned Claire Denis owes me ten quid. No. Twenty. I paid for my girlfriend.

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sissy said...

Posted on Jul 30 2009 22:32 I loved it. Beautiful.

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Julie Jones said...

Posted on Jul 30 2009 18:07 Very boring. I usually love french films and the way they can show just a slice of life and make it somehow interesting and uplifting. But this is just dull, dull, dull. It has got great reviews but I don't understand why. Maybe because it's arty and a little pretentious and so people daren't admit that it's just a bit rubbish. Lots of stories seem to start and then go nowhere. Lots of rice is eaten. And then father and daughter go off on a road trip to visit grandma ( played by a well known but very bad german actress ) Pourquoi ? And eventually, who cares ? I saw this at the Gate in Notting Hill, and the best bit by far was the two minute short film, "The Hobbyist " that they showed before the main feature. See this online for free and skip the tedious french twaddle.

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stiani said...

Posted on Jul 24 2009 13:55 veronique, i think i saw u walk out.. i stuck it out to the end, u missed them make some rice!!! as my mate said, ti could have done with 35 shots of espresso, lay off the rum. sacre-bleu!

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Veronique said...

Posted on Jul 23 2009 09:55 The most boring film I've seen in the cinema for many years; I actually walked out after an hour of watching bad actors doing their laundry and exchanging 2 words every 5 minutes. Can't believe I paid for that.

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Oli said...

Posted on Jul 14 2009 12:53 Beautiful film.

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andrew said...

Posted on Jul 14 2009 11:03 I don't understand: this film gets rave reviews and nobody's going. Last night at the Barbican's discounted Monday screening the room was almost empty!
It's absolutely brilliant. Don't even read the review: go see it knowing nothing about the plot - like I did - and enjoy how gradually and subtly everything is revealed. There's no need to suspend any disbelief: the excellent direction and downplayed performances just suck you into the characters' emotions and the rhythm of their lives. Merci Claire Denis et tous les acteurs !

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