Denis’ films, though often brilliant (especially Beau Travail and her pleasingly off the rails The Intruder) are not particularly accessible, and require patience and commitment from their audience. 35 Shots of Rum is much more approachable to novice audiences, featuring sympathetic characters with recognisable dilemmas. After a gorgeous series of shots of trains trailing around the outskirts of Paris (the father is a train driver) we centre on a group of French-North African characters. A widowed father lives with his daughter, and though it is never made explicit they clearly depend on one another, not letting strangers get too close to their family dynamic. A female taxi driver who lives next door (Nicole Dogué in arguably the best performance) is in love with the father, but the affection no longer seems to be reciprocated after a relationship dissolved.
It may seem incongruous that a white female director should make such an acute study of a black male character, although as viewers of her debut Chocolat will know, she spent her childhood in colonial Africa in a male-dominated community. Her love of Ozu is apparent in her leisurely pace, her focus on gesture rather than dialogue, and her sensitivity to familial relationships. Ozu’s Late Spring is a clear influence, as, apparently, was the relationship between Denis’ mother and grandfather.
There is a scene half way through 35 Shots of Rum which should become a classic of world cinema. Four people (the father, the daughter, the taxi driver and a young man in love with the daughter) are stranded in a Parisian bar when their car breaks down in the pouring rain. Drying off, someone selects the Commodore’s 80s hit “Night Shift” on the jukebox, and the characters slowly dance with one another. Not a word is spoken during the whole interlude, yet when the young man gently cuts in on the father dancing with his daughter, this mild gesture will change the fates of all four people. It is a beautiful, sad sequence I have already watched several times, and a mark of the director’s great talent.
The relationship between a father and daughter is complicated by the arrival of a handsome young man in this carefully crafted dissection of familial ties from Claire Denis.
Lionel is a train driver. A widower, he has brought up his only daughter Josephine since she was very small. They live side by side in a protective cocoon from the outside world. For Lionel, everything in his life revolves around his daughter and for Josephine, her world is her father. However, little by little, Lionel realises that time has passed and perhaps the time has come for them both to move on and find their independence.
