Ne Change Rien
Oct 28 - Nov 03, 2011
(Pedro Costa, 2009, Portugal/France, 35mm, 100 min)
Seattle Premiere!
Pedro Costa’s ninth film is a bit of a change of pace for the director, who traditionally concentrates on the marginalized and underserved communities of Lisbon. Retaining the distinctive low-light visual style of his previous films, he turns his camera on French chanteuse-actress Jeanne Balibar, in a dreamlike meditation on the process of creating music. Costa situates Balibar and her band, including the great guitar virtuoso Rudolphe Burger, in often-cramped isolation against receding darkness as they work their way through calmly sad melodies. Balibar herself appears as one compelled, repeating melodic fragments for minutes at a stretch, encapsulating her experience and memories through song. Less a documentary than an experiment in pure-cinema aesthetics, Ne Change Rien takes the time to make space for reflection on what it means to create.
"The cinematography is stunning and beyond atmospheric. The music is highly intelligent. Balibar as Balibar is undeniably charismatic...She's nothing less than the muse of cinema." —Seattle Weekly
"Nothing much happens in Ne Change Rien, but we never lose interest in the images on the screen. We powerfully feel these black-and-white moments of Jeanne Balibar smoking and singing." —The Stranger
"fans of left-field French pop, David Lynch, and chiaroscuro musical portraits like Let's Get Lost, Bruce Weber's love-letter to Chet Baker, will surely find it of interest." —Line Out
“An original, truly contemporary take on the music genre.” —Senses of Cinema