I think it was Gene Siskel who determined a movie’s quality by the following dictum: Is this film more interesting than a documentary of the same actors having lunch? The films of Hong Sang-soo sometimes feel like you’re just watching a documentary actors sitting around and eating, though a key difference in the Sang-soo world is that they’ll also be drinking. My enjoyment of Claire’s Camera (2017) was often predicated on the delight in watching Kim Min-hee and Isabelle Huppert stand on a beach in Cannes complementing each other. Sang-soo’s film was shot during the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and the festival is occasionally discussed, yet happening off-camera in the background. The actors are not playing themselves but performing as characters, and yet, as often the case with Sang-soo, there’s a meta-textual element.
Min-hee plays Jeon who works for a production team in town to premiere a Korean director’s film at Cannes, Jeong Jin-yeong. When the film opens, Min-hee’s character is let go from her job on account of not having an “honest” character. Mystified and distressed, she decides to spend some time at Cannes since she can’t book a flight home. Eventually she crosses paths with Claire (Huppert), a French woman visiting Cannes for the first time to see a friend’s film. A teacher with an interest in photography, she uses a polaroid camera to continually document what’s around her, including people. For some not familiar with Sang-soo’s whole thing – how he writes scenes the morning of shooting, often constructing the narrative as he goes, mainly focused on people talking and sitting and drinking – this film might seem slight. There’s an obvious air that it was shot quickly and cheaply, and that there might be five key locations often visited twice. To me, this was very charming and funny, humour born from observation and the interactions between people, and Huppert’s screen persona always imbues even a kind-hearted, lovely character with a strange, off-kilter aura. And it has sad moments often revolving around Min-hee’s treatment, and her poise as a presence. Recommended.
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