Room and bored, but deeply loved
Noé (Grégoire Collin), left, and Joséphine (Mati Diop) ponder their future.
(The Cinema Guild Inc.)
35 Shots of Rum
Running time: 102 minutes
No MPAA rating: (profanity, smoking)
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We see a train yard, which turns out to be in or near Paris, and a solemn man smoking a cigarette. He's watching metro trains come and go.
"35 Shots of Rum," in French with subtitles, sets its own schedule, just like the trains.
Deliberate and quite revealing in its own quiet way, this character study co-written and directed by French filmmaker Claire Denis revolves around a small ensemble of lives coupling and uncoupling.
Denis, who directed the well-received drama "Chocolat" in 1988, worked as an assistant to filmmakers Jim Jarmush ("Broken Flowers") and Wim Wenders ("Paris, Texas") earlier in her career.
It's no surprise, then, that the audience is asked to work a little to fully appreciate a story bursting with bridled emotions pulsating just below the surface.
The man at the train yard turns out to be Lionel (Alex Descas), a metro train conductor. He's a widower of very few words, but also a man who transmits humility and dignity through his silence. Lionel has lived for a long time, it seems, with his daughter Joséphine (Mati Diop), who now attends college.
They're surrounded by long-time neighbors. Gabrielle (Nicole Dogué), a cab driver, longs for a closer relationship with Lionel, and, in fact, may have had one at one time. Noé (Grégoire Collin) is a mystery man who lives alone with his fat cat. He's trying to decide whether to move on with his life.
Denis manages to entwine these lives in an intriguing manner that's fascinating, to say the least.
Lionel and Jo, for instance, enjoy a special closeness; a loving bond brought to the surface with fascination rarely realized on a movie screen.
It's also time for Jo to uncouple from her dad and forge a life of her own. One of the things I admire most about this screenplay co-written by the filmmaker and Jean-Pol Fargeau (they also collaborated on "Chocolat") is that Jo is in no hurry to abandon the special bond with her father.
"35 Shots of Rum" reminds me of "O'Horten," the Norwegian import of late July about a train operator wandering through life after forced retirement. "O'Horten" was quiet and quirky, though.
This one is quiet, intriguing and deeply moving.
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