#Julieth Mars Toussaint

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

35 Rhums (Claire Denis, 2008)

[nomoreuniverse]

Julieth Mars Toussaint - Sans Titre, 2009

[lifejustgotawkward]

365 Day Movie Challenge (2019) - #58: 35 Shots of Rum (2008) - dir. Claire Denis (52 Films by Women 2019: #11)

I continue my journey into the filmography of French auteur Claire Denis with 35 Shots of Rum, her 21st-century retelling of Yasujiro Ozu’s masterpiece Last Spring (1949). Like the Ozu classic, Rum is a gentle and contemplative drama about a middle-aged man, Lionel (Alex Descas), and the grown-up daughter he lives with, Joséphine (Mati Diop), both of whom face crossroads when she considers a romantic relationship with a neighbor in their apartment building, Noé (Grégoire Colin). Lionel himself is pursued by an ex-girlfriend, Gabrielle (Nicole Dogué), who lives in their building too. These characters lead unglamorous existences - Lionel is a driver on commuter trains that ride between Paris and its suburbs, Gabrielle is a cabbie - but they appreciate good food, music, dancing and, for Joséphine, debating economics and philosophy with classmates at her university.

Photographed warmly by Agnès Godard, Rum paints a quietly moving portrait of its small group of main characters. Besides the performances of Descas, Diop, Colin and Dogué, painter Julieth Mars Toussaint brings dignity and subtle emotion to his first (and so far only) film appearance in the role of René, a coworker of Lionel’s who has been forced into retirement. Although I consider No Fear, No Die the superior of the two Claire Denis films I have seen thus far, 35 Shots of Rum is still lovely, perhaps most of all in a wonderful scene where Mati Diop and Grégoire Colin sway across a restaurant’s dance floor to the rhythms of “Nightshift” by the Commodores. I always admire directors who are able to marry sound and vision in artistic ways.

[byneddiedingo]

Mati Diop and Alex Descas in 35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis, 2008) Cast: Alex Descas, Mati Diop, Nicole Dogué, Grégoire Colin, Julieth Mars Toussaint, Adèle Ado, Jean-Christophe Folly, Ingrid Caven. Screenplay: Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau. Cinematography: Agnès Godard. Production design: Arnaud de Moleron. Film editing: Guy Lecorne. Music: Tindersticks. If I hadn't read that Claire Denis said that 35 Shots of Rum was inspired by Yasujiro Ozu's Late Spring (1949), I'm not certain I would have spotted it. But once I learned that fact, it became obvious. Both films are about widowers living with their daughters, and both end with the daughter's marriage and the father contemplating loneliness. I would have to rewatch Late Spring to cite other parallels, but the central fact is that both films share a bittersweet, melancholy tone. The fact that Lionel (Alex Desecas) and Jo (Mati Diop) are Black lingers as a subtext in the film, the way the devastation of Japan in the war lingers in the background of Ozu's films, surfacing in Denis's film when the anthropology class Jo attends begins to discuss postcolonialism, with references to the radicalism of Frantz Fanon and other writers. Mostly, however, we stay in the enclosed world of Lionel and Jo and their friends, Gabrielle (Nicole Dogué) and Noé (Grégoire Colin). One of the film's challenges (and delights) is that Denis plunges us into their world without exposition, leaving us to discover the relationships (and even the names) of the characters as the narrative unfolds. For a while at the start of the film, I took Lionel and Jo to be a married couple or lovers, so close is their relationship, until it became apparent that they were father and daughter. Even the title takes some time to work out its significance: It refers to a ritual drinking bout that's supposed to occur at important celebrations, and we first see it at the retirement party of René (Julieth Mars Toussaint), Lionel's fellow driver in the metropolitan Paris train system. Though Lionel gets fairly inebriated, he decides the occasion isn't important enough to consume all 35 shots of rum. Eventually, René is unable to cope with loneliness and lack of purpose after the mandatory retirement and kills himself on the train tracks where Lionel is driving. René's death adds poignancy to Lionel's facing life alone after Jo marries -- a wedding at which he does indeed go through with the 35 shots ritual. Denis's film is a subtle, moving delight, full of details that are enough to provoke extended contemplation or even a rewatching. Decas and Diop (who would go on to direct her own fine film, Atlantics, in 2019) give quietly extraordinary performances.

[bonjourtableau]

kité, Julieth Mars Toussaint

Proposé par lavignerouge.

[weepingwidar]

Julieth Mars Toussaint (Martiniquais, 1957)

Julieth Mars Toussaint - Ephebe Marathon

[nomoreuniverse]

Julieth Mars Toussaint - Ephebe Marathon