Margaret Qualley plays a childish and self-absorbed American journalist in a broken Central American country in the new film by director Claire Denis. She is more interested in carnal pleasures than revolution.
The film Hvězda v poledne, which Czech cinemas will start showing on Thursday and which defies clear genre categorization, takes place in Nicaragua. In this regard, the screenwriting trio, formed alongside the French author by her compatriot Léa Mysius and filmmaker Andrew Litvack, remained faithful to the book of the same name by the now deceased American novelist Denis Johnson.
He set the story of a young journalist in the period just after the Sandinista revolution from 1979, when Nicaraguan rebels overthrew a right-wing dictatorship. The government of US President Ronald Reagan responded with an economic blockade of the Central American country and financial support for the opposition army called Contras.
According to the first minutes, it might seem that the screenwriters also respect the period setting. As the heroine Trish walks through the desolate streets of the capital city of Managua, we see a society decimated by corruption and violence, where even McDonald’s food is served by soldiers.
But the respirators on the faces of some people are confusing. Moments later, the camera pans to a poster with anti-covid measures. Obviously, we are not in the 1970s or 1980s, but in the present. Deliberately blurring the boundaries between different historical stages describes the lostness of the characters.
He doesn’t understand much
For the seventy-seven-year-old French director, bringing the feelings of a person stuck in a strange, incomprehensible landscape to the fore is more important than faithfulness to reality. After all, due to covid and political unrest, she was filming in Panama, not Nicaragua. In the end, even the plot, which we could summarize in the dilemma “to leave or to stay?”, is not too important.
Journalist Trish came here to report on the armed conflict in the north of the country. But soldiers and officials make it impossible for her to move freely. It doesn’t bother her too much. She is primarily motivated by a desire for adventure. She does not hide that the Nicaraguan rebels are closer to her in their muscles than in their political positions. He doesn’t really know what’s going on in the country. And we won’t know either.
After Trish sleeps with several local men for selfish reasons, she meets Daniel, a British businessman. Her peer is played by Joe Alwyn. Also, their relationship is initially strictly sexual and transactional in nature. But gradually it gains in intensity and depth. It is no longer clear who is using whom.
If, for example, John le Carré wrote the script, it could be the beginning of an inscrutable espionage thriller: a pair of English-speaking heroes try to find their way in an exotic country by soldiers and secret agents of several countries. They don’t know who they can trust, threats are lurking around every corner, the risk is growing.
Margaret Qualley v roli Trish. | Photo: Film Europe
But Claire Denis doesn’t make genre films. It adopts an atmosphere of isolation and distrust from the spy genre, rather than narrative mechanisms used to build tension. The pace remains so nonchalant throughout the entire two-and-a-quarter hours that it feels like we’re watching a pair of lovers on vacation. Trish and Daniel are in danger from several sides, but they always find time to chat, have sex, or walk around the market.
Claire Denis grew up in colonial West Africa and since her debut Chocolate from 1988 analyzes the legacy of colonialism as well as the relations between people of different origins. Stars at Noon adds an American perspective to her filmography, but otherwise does not reveal much about the subject. The characters are too vague, archetypal, and the plot could take place in any part of Latin America.
This is also why it is suggested to approach the film as a parable about an aimless, monotonous search for meaning in a politically and economically uncertain reality. The director is not interested in why the characters are trying to get certain information, nor what information it is, but the existential dimension of their situation. Nicaragua serves as an imaginary purgatory for the protagonists. They do not understand it and at the same time they cannot escape from it.
The winner of awards from festivals in Cannes and Berlin has always made mysterious films full of ellipses. But Claire Denis has never been so close to the work of Michelangelo Antonioni, the Italian director who brought non-communicative storytelling to perfection.
Stars at Noon is similarly elusive as his famous drama Occupation: Reporter from 1975. In it, Jack Nicholson, as an American war correspondent, wandered through an unnamed African country and was influenced by an unknown environment that became a reflection of his inner self.
Joe Alwyn as Daniel to Margaret Qualley v role of Trish. | Photo: Film Europe
When love is gone
The protagonists of Claire Denis’ novel are similarly inaccessible and distant from the beginning. But they don’t keep their distance from each other. Trish and Daniel spend a good part of the film making love, filling the void with sex. As their sweaty bodies intertwine in horizontal and vertical positions, the outside world, made known only by the sharp rays of the sun, ceases to exist.
The erotic suffocation is enhanced by the tropical climate. Thanks to the evocative details of cinematographer Eric Gautier, we feel the extreme humidity of the air, when clothes stick to hot limbs, almost on our own skin. Similarly sensual is the slow dance of the central actors in an empty bar to the sounds of melancholy skladby Stars at Noon by the English band Tindersticks.
But even during intimate moments, the couple does not find what they desire. Editing does not connect shots into harmonious wholes. The conversation continues smoothly, but the positions of the actors change in leaps and bounds. Although they are physically close, the disparate spatial relationships reveal that their emotional separation persists.
Also from the 28-year-old representative of the main role, Margaret Qualley, who drew attention to herself with the film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood or the series The Maid, the whole time radiates in addition to excitement, but also instability. As if even in a loving embrace she could not find lasting peace and longed to escape from it.
Although Claire Denis in her last films as The inner sun or last year’s With love and determination she talked about partnership as a condition that allows people to lose their self and find happiness, but she did not become a naive romantic.
Love and sex may bring us a sense of reciprocity and anchoring for a fleeting moment, but when falling in love passes, we will still have to deal with life and death, grope the wasteland, search for meanings.
Stars at Noon are not among the highlights of the French author’s filmography. They are too monotonous and not very mysterious for that. However, it is still a film that you don’t often come across in Czech cinemas. Its blank spaces encourage reflection on the fundamental questions of existence. However, it cannot be ruled out that for many they will primarily be a source of boredom and frustration.
Film
Stars at noon
Directed by: Claire Denis
Film Europe, Czech premiere on August 31.
2023-08-31 03:49:06
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