PARENT & CHILD

Inspired by Yasujiro Ozu’s Late Spring and her mother’s relationship with her grandfather, Claire Denis transports the father-daughter story from postwar Tokyo to modern day Paris in 35 Shots of Rum. Denis’s way of illustrating the warmth and yearning of the parental relationship is faithful to her enigmatic style while the resulting film is also true to the essence of the Japanese classic. A homage from an auteur of our time to one from the past, 35 Shots of Rum solidifies Denis’s statute as a master of her generation while reminding its audience of the perennial beauty of Ozu’s picture.

The film opens with the view from a train conductor’s window. Viewers see the train passing through the rails and are treated to the Parisian scenery. Accompanied by the setting sun and the original music by British band Tindersticks, the scene conveys an atmosphere of warmness and melancholy that sets the tone of the film. Under the lens of cinematographer Agnès Godard (a longtime collaborator of Denis), 35 Shots of Rum is illuminated with rich and earthy colors of its trains, apartments, cafes and characters.

Like its Japanese predecessor, 35 Shots of Rum depicts a very close relationship between an aging father and his adult daughter whose life as a two-person family is bound to break when they soon realize the young woman will eventually grow up to have a separate life. Joséphine, the daughter (played by Mati Diop), is a college student who shares a mutual attraction with their rootless neighbor Noé (played by Grégoire Colin). Lionel, the father (played by Alex Descas), is a quiet train conductor who has an elusive relationship with another neighbor, Gabrielle (played by Nicole Dogué). As in other films by Denis, the relationships between the characters and their past are often hinted at bay and rarely spoken aloud, but the closeness between father and daughter is unquestionably the emotional anchor of a picture that thrives within the enclosure of its organic pathos without the burdens of cynicism.

Claire Denis also includes a couple of themes from her previous films in 35 Shots of Rum. Post-colonial France, a recurring topic in a lot of her films, is brought up briefly in Joséphine’s class discussion. But by using a cast of mainly black performers in this gentle family drama, Denis successfully made a quiet statement about the normalcy of France’s diverse population. Mortality, which was the focus of her last film, The Intruder, looms over the pensive Lionel as he watches an ex-colleague struggling with life after retirement. A life in transition summons immense sadness from deep inside him.

Mono no aware— a Japanese concept describing the impermanence of things and the sadness at their passing— is core to Japanese culture and Ozu’s films, yet Denis notices this faintly nostalgic feeling is indeed universal and its presence is central to 35 Shots of Rum. No matter how much happiness the future might bring, Lionel and Joséphine reckon that the uniquely beautiful relationship they have will have to be broken up some day. The final shot is very simple by design, yet the bittersweet sense of loss closes the film in the most profoundly touching way.