35 Shots of Rum

Inspired by the stories of her Brazilian grandfather that Claire Denis heard as a child, 35 Shots of Rum is the film that the director claims to have always wanted to make. An attempt to interpret the man who raised her mother alone, the film began to take greater shape after Denis attended an Ozu season with her mother in Paris and recognised in the Japanese master’s work the unique articulation of feelings amongst family members, both present and absent. The result of these endeavours is a film that stands comfortably alongside 1999’s Beau Travail as one of Denis’ greatest achievements.

A father, Lionel (Alex Descas) and daughter, Joséphine (Mati Diop), live lovingly together in a grey apartment building in a drab suburb of Paris. Two neighbours frequently intrude – one has romantic designs on the father, the other (impossibly handsome Denis regular Grégoire Colin), has eyes for the young daughter. A train driver on Paris’ rapid-transit rail network, Lionel has been raising Joséphine alone ever since she was a little girl. Though the retirement of a fellow driver provides a fleeting distraction, little by little Lionel begins to realise that time is passing by and that the time to leave each other is perhaps approaching.

A former assistant to Jacques Rivette, Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch, who has since her 1988 debut with Chocolat established herself as one of the greatest voices in contemporary French cinema, Denis delicately captures the reassuring waves of Lionel and Joséphine’s everyday lives and beautifully depicts the subtle shifts in their delicately entwined relations. The sense that father and daughter have outgrown each other is revealed in increments, with the film building to an agonisingly poignant conclusion following an excursion to Lubeck; the final resting place of Joséphine’s mother.

Taking its title from an old Caribbean drinking legend, 35 Shots of Rum is steadfast in its refusal to lapse into sentimentality. The central relationship aside, this is never clearer than when Denis is dealing with the retirement of Lionel’s co-worker, Réne (Julieth Mars Toussaint). Unable to adjust to a life without the bonhomie of work, and finding himself robbed of the comfort of ritual, the man takes his own life, committing suicide on the tracks that for so long provided him with his living.

Alex Descas is mesmeric in the sixth film that he and Denis have made together. Expressing emotion with a subdued, silent and yet unfailing intensity, Descas is also by turns fragile and resolute. The film begins with Lionel and his daughter reunited in their flat together after a day of work. The intimacy between the pair is such that it appears as if they are a couple. Descas’ great skill is to subtly exercise the paternal link and dispel this initial ambiguity.

The collaborative thread is present elsewhere. A treat to look at, the film’s crisp, winter visuals and flowing camerawork are courtesy of Denis’ regular cinematographer, Agnès Godard. Continuing a relationship that goes back to 1996’s Nénette et Boni, the simple but extremely effective score is courtesy of Stuart Staples of the Tindersticks. As ever with Denis, the use of music is exemplary. An exhilarating sequence in which Lionel enjoys a romantic dance to ‘Night Shift’ by The Commodores sends genuine shivers down the spine.

Jason Wood

Anticipation:

The films of Claire Denis are always striking, intelligent and beautifully realised.

Enjoyment:

Establishes an immediate and intense fascination for its characters and their lives that it never for a second loses.

In Retrospect:

Perhaps the pinnacle of an estimable and consistently stimulating career.