FANS OF CLAIRE Denis, the director of Beau Travail, Trouble Every Dayand other beautiful oddities, will already have guessed that, despite its jaunty title, 35 Shots of Rum has nothing to do with pirates or galleons. This touching film is, rather, a deliberately peculiar, consciously unhurried study of a reasonably happy French-African family in some unremarkable suburb of Paris.
There are a few moments of high drama and occasional outbreaks of political discourse, but, for the most part, Denis invites us to wallow calmly in the less sinister aspects of her talent. As ever, Agnès Godard's photography indulges in limpid close-ups, Tindersticks offer insidiously wheezy melodies, and the director arranges the actors in discreetly graceful tableaux. Unlike the creepy The Intruder, Denis's previous film, 35 Shots of Rumwon't disturb your sleep with uneasy dreams.
The core of the picture is the largely amicable relationship between Josephine (Mati Diop), a student, and her decent but taciturn father Lionel (Alex Descas), a train driver. Elsewhere in their apartment building we encounter Gabrielle (Nicole Dogue), a taxi driver who used to date Lionel, and a slightly lost soul named Noe (Gregoire Colin).
Over the course of an ambling 99 minutes – interspersed with mournful shots of trains and the sleeping city – the characters have minor disagreements, encounter one genuine tragedy and make an attempt to attend a concert. That last episode ends with the principals taking shelter in a cafe, where they booze, smooch and dance to the durable (and appropriate) Night Train by The Commodores.
By the end of the film, certain recalibrations have taken place in the key relationships, but there
are no signs of any mighty catharses or re-appraisals. That's as it should be. Though not as emotionally torrid as some of the director's earlier work, 35 Shots of Rumreconfirms that Denis is a master of dramatising the less than dramatic.
Directed by Claire Denis, starring Ingrid Caven, Julieth Mars Toussaint, Jean-Christophe Folly, Adele Ado, Djedje Apali, Eriq Ebouaney, Club, IFI, Dublin 99 mins
