FILMCLUB will be screening the third in its series of films by women directors. Claire Denis is one of the leading contemporary directors and tonight’s film, 35 Shots of Rum, although less well-known than some of her others, is testimony to her remarkable ability.

Film-fans can catch the movie at 7 pm on Tuesday, March 15 at the Tatham Art Gallery in Chief Albert Luthuli Street, Pietermaritzburg.

The film centres on widowed train driver, Lionel, who lives in Paris with his student daughter, Joséphine. He has brought her up alone, and the bond between father and daughter is exceptionally strong.  But Lionel knows that it will soon be time for his daughter to make her own life.

In the same apartment building live cab driver, Gabrielle, once romantically involved with Lionel, and Noé, a potential suitor for Joséphine.

Consciously referencing Ozu’s similarly themed family drama Late Spring, 35 Shots of Rum is perhaps Denis’ warmest and most personal film. In it she gently observes both family love and romantic desire, using the subtlest of movements, gestures and expressions, rather than explicit dialogue, to convey the characters’ emotions.

Music and dance are often central to Denis’ films, and this is no exception: the most celebrated sequence is one in which the four main characters dance in a small bar after their car has broken down, and in the course of the dance, crucial shifts take place in the delicate structure of feelings and relationships that connects them.

The film has had an exceptionally positive reception, with critics describing it as “exquisite,” “hugely touching,” “pitch-perfect” and “a movie that examines the ties that bind with grace, wit and depth.”

Entry is R35 per person and The Tatham Coffee shop will be offering a soup and bread supper from 6 pm onwards (at a very reasonable R40 per person). Safe parking is available in the government parking lot next to the gallery.