Canadian Premiere
Updating Denis Johnson’s Nicaragua-set novel from the Revolution to the present-day and working in English and Spanish, French auteur Claire Denis is venturing into Graham Greene territory here—espionage and dirty deeds in the tropics. It’s worth remembering that she herself grew up in French colonial West Africa; westerners getting hot and bothered in foreign climes pop up in Beau Travail, White Material, L’intrus, and her first film, Chocolat.
The focus here is on a young American, Trish (Margaret Qualley), a freelance journalist who has gotten in over her head and whose passport has been seized after she embarrassed the authorities. Marooned indefinitely in an unnamed Managua, Trish is forced to trade sex for protection and rum money. She tries to put on a tough and cynical front, but secretly she’s desperate. Then she meets Daniel (Joe Alwyn), a dashing English businessman. At first, she thinks he could be her ticket out of here. Gradually she realizes he’s in worse trouble than she is.
Too languid and languorous to be described as a thriller, but more plot-driven than most Denis films, Stars at Noon is a moody, almost malevolent romance, a tropical neo-noir; love and disillusion in the time of COVID.
Grand Prix (tied), Cannes 2022
Supported by
Claire Denis
Margaret Qualley, Joe Alwyn, Danny Ramirez, Benny Safdie, Nick Romano, Stephan Proaño, Monica Bartholomew, Carlos Bennett
France
2022
In English and Spanish with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Left-Handed Girl
Co-written and edited by Sean Baker (Anora), Shi-Ching Tsou's heartwarming solo feature debut follows a single mom in Taipei who is too consumed with her noodle stand to keep tabs on her five-year-old daughter's burgeoning shoplifting habit.
Train Dreams
A lovely, ruminative movie set in the Pacific Northwest in the first half of the last century. Robert (Joel Edgerton) is a lumberjack, a taciturn man who comes to appreciate the life slipping between his fingers.
The Colour of Pomegranates + The House Is Black
This month's Pantheon screening is a double-bill, Sergei Parajanov's extraordinary evocation of the life and work of C18th Armenian poet Sayat Nova, and, The House is Black (22 min), the only film directed by the great Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad.
Köln 75
The true story behind the greatest solo concert in jazz history, this is Keith Jarrett's legendary 1975 Köln Concert — as organized by 18-year-old rebel music promoter Vera Brandes. Fun, inventive and feminist, it's the Bend It Like Beckham of jazz films.
Credits
Executive Producer
Christine De Jekel, Olivier Gauriat, Pituka Ortega Heilbron, Marcela Heilbron
Producer
Olivier Delbosc
Screenwriter
Claire Denis, Léa Mysius, Andrew Litvack
Cinematography
Eric Gautier
Editor
Guy Lecorne
Production Design
Arnaud De Moléron
Original Music
tindersticks
