Detroit Film Theatre
35 SHOTS OF RUM

November 27 - November 29, 2009 

(France – 2008 – directed by Claire Denis)

From the enormously gifted Claire Denis (Beau Travail, Friday Night) comes this gloriously graceful, intricately designed and delicately charming new film, which traces the lives of a whole community of characters in a French working-class neighborhood. At its core is the relationship between a train-driving father (Alex Descas), his beloved daughter (Mati Diop), and a handsome new neighbor (Grégoire Colin), but it’s the seemingly effortless depiction of the way their lives intersect with those all around them that is key to the film’s cumulative, lyrical magic. Displaying her genius for situations that feel authentic without the traditional movie-plot clichés, Denis – together with her extraordinary ensemble cast and cinematographer Agnès Godard – has pulled off a feat of storytelling that is both poetic and intoxicating, without ever hitting a false note. In French with English subtitles. (100 min.)

“Magical, moving and marvelously profound. Radiates a warmth that is smoother than the finest liquor.” -Jay Weissberg, Variety