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France, Germany · 2009
1h 40m
Director Claire Denis
Starring Mati Diop, Nicole Dogue, Grégoire Colin, Alex Descas
Genre Drama
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A widowed metro conductor approaching retirement lives with his grown daughter — the object of a neighbor’s romantic interest. The man’s former girlfriend also lives in their building and plays a role in their closely-knit lives. 35 Shots of Rum considers the mysterious complexity of evolving relationships, whether romantic or familial.
Claire Denis’ latest may appear whisper-thin on the surface, yet it’s marvelously profound, illuminating the love between a father and daughter but also highlighting the difficulty of relinquishing what most people spend a lifetime putting into place.
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
In its modest scope and mellow tone, 35 Shots of Rum resembles Olivier Assayas’s "Summer Hours," another recent film by a French director who has sometimes trafficked in provocation and extremity. Both movies embed extraordinary thematic richness within a simple, almost anecdotal narrative framework, and both achieve a rare eloquence about the state of the world by means of tact and reticence.
To fall in love with it, viewers only have to be receptive to a movie that examines the ties that bind with grace, wit and depth.
Superbly played and realised, this stays with you.
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
There is never a shortage of options if you're looking for an intimate foreign drama about family bonds. But the eloquent insights of director Claire Denis stand alone.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
For 20 years, Claire Denis has been among France's foremost filmmakers with her acute yet subtle observations of the ebbs and flows within relationships. Her perception and understanding seem to grow only richer over the years, and her newest film, 35 Shots of Rum, is surely one of her finest -- and thereby one of the best films of the year.
Village Voice by Melissa Anderson
35 Shots is Denis's warmest, most radiant work, honoring a family of two's extreme closeness while suggesting its potential for suffocation.
The film evolves into a simple, intimate, acutely emotional portrait of a family reaching a painful crossroads.
Denis -- who has called the film a tribute to the great Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu -- keeps dialogue to a minimum as she delicately examines how immigration is changing the face of France.
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A modest and measured film that manages to convey many intricate emotions in few — very few — words.