Title: 35 Rhums (35 Shots of Rum)
Release Date: 2008-09-01
Genres: Art House & International, Drama
High essence:
"The first sixminutes of 35 Rhums is given over to that dark opening, with characterswhose faces we can barely make out and it is not until Joséphine(Mati Diop) and Lionel (Alex Descas, Trouble Every Day, The Limits ofControl) have finished up their rice-based dinner do we learn that theyare father and daughter.""Following 2004's magnificent globe-trotting time-space oddity The Intruder , the last of Denis's films to be released stateside, 35 Shots is firmly rooted in place, several scenes unfolding in an apartment building in a rundown section of Paris's 18th arrondissement, home to Lionel and Joséphine; cab driver Gabrielle (Nicole Dogue), an ex of Lionel's who still aches for him; and world traveler Noé (Grégoire Colin), nursing a crush on Joséphine."
") Josephine has a rather tentative relationship with a neighbor, Noé (Gregoire Colin); another neighbor, the lovely Gabrielle (Nicole Dogué), is an ex-girlfriend of Lionel's who helped raise Josephine."
"Cab driver Gabrielle (Nicole Dogue) was once an item with Lionel and would like to get back with him, while Noe (Gregoire Colin, who played the pretender in Olivier, Olivier so many years ago) is something of a rolling stone but is clearly attracted to Josephine."
"Descas plays Lionel, a worker on the Paris metro system who lives in companionable equilibrium with his grown daughter Josphine (Mati Diop) in an apartment outside the city."
"Upstairs neighbor Gabrielle (Nicole Dogu ) loves her work as a taxi driver, loves the Jos phine she has mothered for years, and loves Lionel as a woman loves a man, though he remains aloof to her wishes."
"When a friend (Toussaint) retires, Lionel becomes terrified of his own old age, which opens him up to potential romance with a local cafe owner (Ado)."
Medium essence:
Laura Clifford:- Lionel's best friend and coworker René (Julieth Mars Toussaint) isrootless after retirement, making Lionel's predicament - that of realizinghe must let his daughter go - even tougher.
- The death of a family member has drawn this couple closer togetherthan they ought perhaps to be in writer (with Beau Travail and TroubleEvery Day cowriter Jean-Pol Fargeau)/director Claire Denis's 35 Shots ofRum.
- The first sixminutes of 35 Rhums is given over to that dark opening, with characterswhose faces we can barely make out and it is not until Joséphine(Mati Diop) and Lionel (Alex Descas, Trouble Every Day, The Limits ofControl) have finished up their rice-based dinner do we learn that theyare father and daughter.
Melissa Anderson:
- Amid the din, French filmmaker Claire Denis's sublime 35 Shots of Rum stands out all the more for its soothing quiet (one character is even admonished for her yelling), conveying the easy, frequently nonverbal intimacy between a widowed father, Lionel (Alex Descas), and his diligent university-student daughter, Joséphine (Mati Diop).
- An homage to both Yasujiro Ozu's similarly themed Late Spring (1949) and her own mother's relationship with her grandfather, 35 Shots is Denis's warmest, most radiant work, honoring a family of two's extreme closeness while suggesting its potential for suffocation.
- Following 2004's magnificent globe-trotting time-space oddity The Intruder , the last of Denis's films to be released stateside, 35 Shots is firmly rooted in place, several scenes unfolding in an apartment building in a rundown section of Paris's 18th arrondissement, home to Lionel and Joséphine; cab driver Gabrielle (Nicole Dogue), an ex of Lionel's who still aches for him; and world traveler Noé (Grégoire Colin), nursing a crush on Joséphine.
Kevin Thomas:
- They live in a comfortable high-rise in a suburb of Paris, where Lionel works as a train conductor.
- (Denis' film has been said to be an hommage to the Yasujiro Ozu 1949 masterpiece Late Spring and also to her mother's relationship with her grandfather.
- ) Josephine has a rather tentative relationship with a neighbor, Noé (Gregoire Colin); another neighbor, the lovely Gabrielle (Nicole Dogué), is an ex-girlfriend of Lionel's who helped raise Josephine.
Sarah Boslaugh:
- Lionel (Alex Descas) is a widower who lives with his college-student daughter Josephine (newcomer Mati Diop) and works as a motorman on the Metro.
- Cab driver Gabrielle (Nicole Dogue) was once an item with Lionel and would like to get back with him, while Noe (Gregoire Colin, who played the pretender in Olivier, Olivier so many years ago) is something of a rolling stone but is clearly attracted to Josephine.
- There's not much of a plot in 35 Shots of Rum ; Denis spend most of her time showing us the characters going about their ordinary, everyday lives.
:
- Descas plays Lionel, a worker on the Paris metro system who lives in companionable equilibrium with his grown daughter Josphine (Mati Diop) in an apartment outside the city.
- Together with Lionel's lively colleagues and their own neighbors, the two have created a sprawling, tightly knit family.
- It takes an actor of unusual charisma to make simple daily life as compelling as it is here, and Descas -- handsome, powerfully built and blessed with a deeply expressive face -- is just the man for the job.
Donald J. Levit:
- Her German mother long dead, the widower is still attractive in middle-age prime but has no inclination towards a love life or, for that matter, any outside life.
- Upstairs neighbor Gabrielle (Nicole Dogu ) loves her work as a taxi driver, loves the Jos phine she has mothered for years, and loves Lionel as a woman loves a man, though he remains aloof to her wishes.
- With an aged cat and his deceased parents clutter, No (Gr goire Colin) lives in his inherited flat.
Rich Cline:
- 09 R E V I FILM FEST TORONTO FILM FEST Quietly establishing her characters and their inter-relationships with very little dialog, filmmaker Denis uses her typically moody, vague style to explore multicultural France with dark humour and warm emotion.
- When a friend (Toussaint) retires, Lionel becomes terrified of his own old age, which opens him up to potential romance with a local cafe owner (Ado).
- Her superb cinematographer Agnes Godard lingers on the actors' faces, seeing deep beneath the skin as we follow them through everyday events that have specific meaning for each person.
Low essence:
Laura Clifford:- It may seem that way at first, but the still beautiful, middle-aged Gabrielle (Nicole Dogué) has a connection to the close father/daughter pair.
- Then there is Noé (Grégoire Colin, Beau Travail, Sex Is Comedy), the rootless young man who threatens to move away and yet seems to be doing so because of a move Joséphine refuses to make.
- Lionel's best friend and coworker René (Julieth Mars Toussaint) isrootless after retirement, making Lionel's predicament - that of realizinghe must let his daughter go - even tougher.
- In order to salvage the evening they get a local cafe to open and, in amagically choreographed sequence, Godard and cinematographer AgnèsGodard (Beau Travail, Vendredi Soir), who creates a golden glow insidefrom the rainy evening, define each relationship in a series of dancesamong the small group.
- Denis has a mesmerizing directorial style thatkeeps us watching her characters, even as they do laundry and 35 Shotsof Rum is clearly of her canon.
- The death of a family member has drawn this couple closer togetherthan they ought perhaps to be in writer (with Beau Travail and TroubleEvery Day cowriter Jean-Pol Fargeau)/director Claire Denis's 35 Shots ofRum.
- The first sixminutes of 35 Rhums is given over to that dark opening, with characterswhose faces we can barely make out and it is not until Joséphine(Mati Diop) and Lionel (Alex Descas, Trouble Every Day, The Limits ofControl) have finished up their rice-based dinner do we learn that theyare father and daughter.
Melissa Anderson:
- Elsewhere will be found at an African café close to home, where Lionel, Joséphine, Gabrielle, and Noé seek refuge after Gabrielle's taxi breaks down en route to a concert (We haven't gone out as a family in ages, the lady cab driver notes, expanding the notion of kin).
- In a scene that rightly became legendary following 35 Shots ' world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last year (one that, even after three viewings, retains all of its erotic power), Noé cuts in on a sweetly dancing father and daughter as the Commodores' Night Shift plays, nonsexual filial devotion immediately supplanted by heat and desire-an impeccably choreographed moment during which not a word is uttered.
- Amid the din, French filmmaker Claire Denis's sublime 35 Shots of Rum stands out all the more for its soothing quiet (one character is even admonished for her yelling), conveying the easy, frequently nonverbal intimacy between a widowed father, Lionel (Alex Descas), and his diligent university-student daughter, Joséphine (Mati Diop).
- An homage to both Yasujiro Ozu's similarly themed Late Spring (1949) and her own mother's relationship with her grandfather, 35 Shots is Denis's warmest, most radiant work, honoring a family of two's extreme closeness while suggesting its potential for suffocation.
- Following 2004's magnificent globe-trotting time-space oddity The Intruder , the last of Denis's films to be released stateside, 35 Shots is firmly rooted in place, several scenes unfolding in an apartment building in a rundown section of Paris's 18th arrondissement, home to Lionel and Joséphine; cab driver Gabrielle (Nicole Dogue), an ex of Lionel's who still aches for him; and world traveler Noé (Grégoire Colin), nursing a crush on Joséphine.
- As in Denis's 1996 brother-sister film, Nénette and Boni , the relationship between Joséphine and Lionel isn't immediately clear.
- And yet father and daughter live in a near-constant state of domestic bliss, reveling, like the happiest of couples, in the dailiness of their routines: Joséphine cooking rice and sautéeing onions and garlic, Lionel taking a shower after a long shift conducting RER trains, cleaning, doing laundry.
Kevin Thomas:
- For 20 years, Claire Denis has been among France's foremost filmmakers with her acute yet subtle observations of the ebbs and flows within relationships.
- Life's inevitable changes prompt Lionel and Josephine to look inward and to sort out their feelings and to contemplate the future; the film examines the important process of self-discovery and making choices.
- It is a warm, embracing work, with a flowing lyricism and a delicate poignancy, accompanied by a shimmering Tindersticks score and an evocative use of pop songs.
- Denis' childhood in Africa in the last years of French colonial rule reveals itself most directly in a classroom scene in which Josephine laments the global South being held in perpetual indebtedness to industrial countries.
- They live in a comfortable high-rise in a suburb of Paris, where Lionel works as a train conductor.
- (Denis' film has been said to be an hommage to the Yasujiro Ozu 1949 masterpiece Late Spring and also to her mother's relationship with her grandfather.
- ) Josephine has a rather tentative relationship with a neighbor, Noé (Gregoire Colin); another neighbor, the lovely Gabrielle (Nicole Dogué), is an ex-girlfriend of Lionel's who helped raise Josephine.
Sarah Boslaugh:
- All the actors are excellent, and nowhere is this better displayed than in their ability to communicate more through facial expressions and the exchange of glances than could ever be written in dialogue.
- Lionel (Alex Descas) is a widower who lives with his college-student daughter Josephine (newcomer Mati Diop) and works as a motorman on the Metro.
- Father and daughter have settled into a comfortable existence but the obvious loneliness of a recently retired colleague (Mars Toussaint) shakes Lionel into the realization that it might be time for both him and Josephine to form new relationships.
- Cab driver Gabrielle (Nicole Dogue) was once an item with Lionel and would like to get back with him, while Noe (Gregoire Colin, who played the pretender in Olivier, Olivier so many years ago) is something of a rolling stone but is clearly attracted to Josephine.
- There's not much of a plot in 35 Shots of Rum ; Denis spend most of her time showing us the characters going about their ordinary, everyday lives.
- Cinematographer Agn s Godard captures the beauty of the most ordinary Parisian scenes (who knew that long shots of Metro tracks could look so appealing?
- menu li a:hover, #mr: #004b70;} March Design 2009 Print | Written by Sarah Boslaugh Friday, 12 February 2010 11:55 35 Shots of Rum is an excellent small film, and I mean small in the nicest way.
:
- By Ann Hornaday Washington Post December 4, 2009 French actor Alex Descas provides the graceful, mesmerizing anchor to 35 Shots of Rum, Claire Denis's absorbing portrait of the love and letting go that define parenthood.
- Descas plays Lionel, a worker on the Paris metro system who lives in companionable equilibrium with his grown daughter Josphine (Mati Diop) in an apartment outside the city.
- Together with Lionel's lively colleagues and their own neighbors, the two have created a sprawling, tightly knit family.
- The pleasures of 35 Shots of Rum are no less astonishing for being so subtle, beginning with Descas's enormously attractive portrayal of the stalwart Lionel.
- It takes an actor of unusual charisma to make simple daily life as compelling as it is here, and Descas -- handsome, powerfully built and blessed with a deeply expressive face -- is just the man for the job.
- Denis maintains a sympathetic sense of discretion throughout 35 Shots of Rum, even when she sidles up to observe in minute detail the emotions that ricochet like finely tuned lasers between the protagonists.
- The film's most dazzling and affecting sequence follows Lionel, Jo and their friends to an after-hours bistro, where they drink and dance and, ever so quietly, undergo immutable transformations.
Donald J. Levit:
- Her German mother long dead, the widower is still attractive in middle-age prime but has no inclination towards a love life or, for that matter, any outside life.
- Upstairs neighbor Gabrielle (Nicole Dogu ) loves her work as a taxi driver, loves the Jos phine she has mothered for years, and loves Lionel as a woman loves a man, though he remains aloof to her wishes.
- The constant is a preference for a regular company of actors, crew and musicians.
- With an aged cat and his deceased parents clutter, No (Gr goire Colin) lives in his inherited flat.
- (Ozu is currently represented as well in Japan Society s tribute to the late Donald Richie.
- Indeed, with Tokyo Story as completion of that Noriko trilogy, their theme has been adapted to this her 2008 film along with the tatami-mat minimal movement and low placement of Agn s Godard s camera on characters who are not much of a talker [but] make me feel better.
Rich Cline:
- 09 R E V I FILM FEST TORONTO FILM FEST Quietly establishing her characters and their inter-relationships with very little dialog, filmmaker Denis uses her typically moody, vague style to explore multicultural France with dark humour and warm emotion.
- When a friend (Toussaint) retires, Lionel becomes terrified of his own old age, which opens him up to potential romance with a local cafe owner (Ado).
- Her superb cinematographer Agnes Godard lingers on the actors' faces, seeing deep beneath the skin as we follow them through everyday events that have specific meaning for each person.
Source:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-35shots9-2009oct09,0,2537674.story
http://www.reelingreviews.com/35shotsofrum.htm
http://www.reeltalkreviews.com/browse/viewitem.asp?type=review&id=5287
http://www.playbackstl.com/movie-reviews/9359-35-shots-of-rumcinema-guild-nr
http://www.shadowsonthewall.co.uk/09/fk.htm#thir
http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-09-15/film/family-drama-sans-screaming-in-claire-denis-s-35-shots-of-rum/