Both Sides Of The Blade (2022) is a love triangle that unfolds like a floating inevitability, like something on rippling water, bobbing towards you slowly. Directed by Claire Denis and written by Christine Angot (based on her novel), the film focuses on Sara (Juliette Binoche), a radio journalist, who is married to Jean (Vincent Lindon), a former sports star now ex-con after an undisclosed incident. Returning after an idyllic holiday rendered in the first scene of the movie, there is latent tension in their career imbalance, Lindon’s rugged face melancholic as he looks for work and is being asked to be a father again to his teenage son from a previous marriage. When Sara incidentally sees a lover from the past, Francois (Gregoire Colin), her refined and respectable air crumbles; what was buried within grips hold of her tightly. What makes it worse, and inevitable, is that Francois and Jean were old friends as well – when they reconnect over a new job opportunity, Sara can’t help herself. Overwhelmed with desire, Binoche is emotionally vulnerable yet covering herself by talking around the blatant issues now in her relationship with Lindon, who can only observe warily and begin to quietly tense up. Yet our sympathies toward Lindon are complicated by his own mismanagement and distant treatment of his son. Denis grounds this in the reality of the Covid pandemic still visible at the time of shooting, racial and political events that remind us of the wider world, and the textural location shooting in Paris. Denis and her collaborators have a clear knack for capturing the physicality of her actors, the way their bodies interlock or stand apart, and staying with the emotional states written on their faces. It’s a little bit long, unwieldy, and yet remains compelling to me, in how it communicates emotional truths while investing in the characters and their relationships with all of their complications. If you are a fan of Denis’ previous films such as Nonette And Boni, to see previous actors used now older like Colin for example, also adds to the impact. I was really in the mood for Denis’ hang-out, tactile and Tindersticks-scored representation of urban Paris, and letting deep moments sink in as well as deflating them with comic touches. Rented on iTunes. Recommended.
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