FRANCE – 2017 – DCP – color – 94’

Direction: Claire Denis
Screenplay: Claire Denis
Cinematography: Agnès Godard
Editing: Guy Lecorne
Set design: Susan Gohsmann
Music: Stuart Staples
Costumes: Judy Shrewsbury
Cast: Juliette Binoche (Isabelle), Xavier Beauvois (banchiere), Philippe Katerine (Mathieu), Josiane Balasko (Maxime), Nicolas Duvauchelle (attore), Alex Descas (Marc), Laurent Grévill (François), Bruno Podalydès (Fabrice), Paul Blain (Sylvain), Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (donna della macchina), Gérard Depardieu (veggente), Sandrine Dumas (amica)
Production: Curiosa Films in coproduzione con Playtime Productions

SYNOPSIS

Isabelle is a divorced painter with a ten-year-old daughter. She waits for her life to be filled with love. There is a banker, an eccentric guy, who first seduces her and then assures her that he will never leave his wife. There is an actor, perhaps. Or maybe a man she met by chance, far from the environment of her usual acquaintances. What does Isabelle do when she is not in love?

CRITICAL NOTE
“Everything is clear, stripped down, essential. Precise frames follow one another, leading to Isabelle’s heart and the core of life and cinema; the image construction revolves around the characters and holds onto them as if in protection. It is a reassuring embrace, and yet it offers no consolation. Denis’ cinematographic choice is deliberate and cannot be separated from the irony or the subtlety of the dialogues, written along with Christine Angot; or even from her absolute empathy with the actors – above all, Juliette Binoche: impeccable, human, confused and extremely beautiful. But that’s not all. Around her are the men, cleverly caught in their wavering ego, like sketches of humanity.” (Chiara Borroni, Cineforum no. 566, July 2017)

AWARD
2017 Cannes FF – Quinzaine des Réalisateurs: SACD award