Review of 35 Shots of Rum (2009) by Pyrh — 28 Oct 2009

Lovely scenes of working class Paris, though the living spaces seem much too bourgeois 'intello' with books everywhere for the train workers depicted. The nearly all Black cast is excellent and worth watching whatever they say or do.

But this film suffers from Claire Denis' pretentious, mannered take on the emotional lives of its subjects: there is much too much silence--too much quiet--in their lives and the highly symbolic coincidences are unconvincing.

Is it a white intellectual's overly reverent appreciation of Black Paris that's at fault? Or is it that Denis tells every story with a formality and 'respect' that leaves out the noise and stir of real life--and real feelings.

Perhaps both. In any case, this is a classic of the succès de critique. The critics love it for its demure, understated silences.