Is it because Claire Denis looks lovingly on the ordinary world that I leave her films and see beauty in everything? I think so, and I think too that she lends the magic involved in the act of looking even if it is only briefly. Her films do what, recently, Vermeer’s paintings have done for me, which is to quiet me by giving a weight, a tangible value, to smallness.
The narrative is a simple one: a story of a daughter and father. The greater part of the film is companionable, comfortable, with the exception of a few moments of personal disquiet: a death, unreturned love, realization of another person’s immense value. I leave the details for you to discover.
How pleasing a way to use one’s time–in seeing something that creates, from emotions the viewer likely already has, a world where, not without difficulty, happiness is foremost.
