35 Rhums
35 Shots of Rum
by
MOVIE CATEGORY
The metro driver Lionel lives with his daughter Joséphine, an anthropology student, in an apartment in a shabby and meaningless building. Distressed by the thought of the death of Joséphine’s mother, but tied by a relationship of great affection, both of them facing the loneliness that surrounds them: Lionel witnesses the retirement of his sad colleague René discovering and maybe welcoming the kindliness of the neighbor Gabrielle, and Joséphine maybe starts to create a bond with the melancholic Noé.
Few films focus on father-daughter relationship like 35 Rhums, freely inspired by the classic Late Spring by Yasujiro Ozu. Although built on the model of the family drama, Claire Denis always focuses with great warmth on the details of the bodies and the contacts between them, exploring with a suspended and dreamy rhythm the realistic everyday life of the protagonists, observed in their wait to be able to celebrate something of their life with the alcoholic ritual of 35 shots of rum, to be drunk all in a row among friends and applause.
DIRECTORY
She was born in Paris in 1948 and lived in Africa until 1961. She graduated in cinema from IDHEC, the French film school, in 1972, and had the opportunity to assist directors such as Jacques Rivette, Andrej Tarkovsky and Wim Wenders. Her cinema will address issues such as colonialism since her early works such as Chocolat (1988) and S’en fout la mort (1990), but her films will focus on more carnal and suggestive investigations of desire with the classics Beau Travail (1999) and Trouble Every Day (2001). Her movies travel around the world, from Cannes with Chocolat to Berlin (with Beau Travail and Avec amour et acharnement in 2022), from Locarno (where she won the Pardo d’Oro with Nénette et Boni in 1996) to Venice (with Vendredi soir in 2002). Her latest film, Stars at Noon (2022), was awarded the Special Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival Jury.