But all these elements remain familiar without becoming predictable, flowing into emotional states both subtle and sublime where many other films would depend on exposition. This lite-yet-effective touch has become somewhat of a trademark of the film's director, Claire Denis, who has proven to be one of the more enigmatic and perceptive practitioners of current-day Gallic cinema. Her work has often bordered on the esoteric, but her sense of place and her knowledge of how easy it is to mistrust one's emotions allows 35 Shots to be both uncompromised and immensely accessible. For an 'art' film, it moves with the grace and simplicity of an elegiac Hollywood drama.
Movement is key to 35 Shots both in its thematic trajectory and its characters. Both Gabrielle and Lionel work in forms of transportation. Gabrielle loves her work but it becomes increasingly unclear if Lionel remains a conductor out of love or of habit. In one of the film's most devastating scenes, Lionel comes across the body of a recently retired co-worker and begins to wonder if this is what happens when one stops moving or switches tracks. Similar are the feelings shared with his daughter on their growing, symbiotic existence, emotions that come into glaring relief as Noé considers a move to Brazil.
These feelings of dependence are shaken into clarity in key scenes. After a botched trip to a local concert, the four main characters find themselves stuck at a small Caribbean restaurant, slow dancing to the Commodores. The scene is completely devoid of dialogue and yet everything the audience needs to know about what these people fear and hope for, what they want, and what they can't live without, is communicated. Denis' ability with dimly-lit interiors and close-ups is essential here, but it's hard to remember the last time four actors were able to so silently awaken the depth of their characters in such a harmonious fashion.
This deep devotion to physicality and wordless expression has been part of Denis' repertoire for some time but it has never been so soulful and seductive. And though it is a familiar tale, 35 Shots excises much of the fatty sentimentality that plagues the common view of the father-daughter relationship. Lionel, always moving on the same set of rails, loves his daughter but wonders if he has done enough, if there is another bolt that can still be tightened before she becomes an adult. Under her cool veneer, Josephine wonders if any man will love her the way her father has. Like the mythology of the film's title, their relationship is an old story that gains power as it ostensibly remains a mystery.
Aka 35 rhums.
Every time an actor makes a blank expression, take a shot.
