35 Shots of Rum

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Tim M @tgmacman Nov 25, 2025 Playing things cooly aloof, Claire Denis's 35 Shots of Rum has little for the layperson but is filled to the brim with subtext. See more Feb 17, 2020 Beautiful and moving. See more Apr 20, 2019 Nothing much happens but we are touched. Just like real life. Available as I write this on Kanopy See more Feb 22, 2019 Ozu's Late Spring is one of the greatest films of all time for my money and if someone were to tell me that it was being remade I might take to the streets in protest; however, Claire Denis accomplishes the impossible in translating the wistful melancholy of Ozu into a new format that may not equal the original but certainly does it justice. See more Oct 21, 2016 This is not a good film: it has nothing to say and it is event-less. Claire Denis apparently thinks that a film with mainly non-Caucasian French actors is by the same token wonderful. It certainly is the case that the French film industry is shockingly white... but to me Denis' thinking is itself rather racist. Imagine this film, with such dullness, but with white actors.... Sorry, a case of the emperor's new clothes. Beautifully shot, of course. A beautifully shot turkey. See more Jun 15, 2016 Somehow Claire Denis has managed to create a warm moody film, one that ruminates about the positive aspects of our closest relationships (in this case between single dad and daughter), even as it signals the changes that must occur without ever making them too sad. In this way, Denis has taken her cues from Ozu, particularly Late Spring (1949) which also sees a father contemplating his daughter's future life without him. Alex Descas plays the dad as a man of few words but deep feeling. His life is complicated by romantic pursuit from a neighbour, a chain-smoking taxi driver, who has long been treated as part of the family. Another neighbour provides a romantic interest for Josephine, the daughter (played by Mati Diop). The relationships between these four principals and a few others make up the heart of the film and Denis allows the richness and complexity of real life to infuse the film. At the same time, her eye for composition (including Ozu-like still lifes), her ear for the way that the soundtrack can evoke moods (courtesy of the Tindersticks), and her thoughtful script that leaves ambiguities everywhere, such that we don't really know anything about the backstory of the characters except what we can infer, elevate the film beyond an ordinary drama. In the end, Alex drinks the 35 shots of rum to mark a special occasion, though we are left to guess at what has happened (but the second rice cooker gives it away). Rich and satisfying without ever threatening to be a major statement. See more Read all reviews

35 Shots of Rum

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