Bastards
Nov 15 - Nov 21, 2013
(Claire Denis, France, 2013, 83 min)
Four years is too long between films, especially when we're talking about director Claire Denis. Denis' latest foray into the gritty underside of human desire, Bastards, is an enthralling, elliptical drama of familial betrayal and revenge.
It’s the contemporary story of Marco, a container ship captain who is summoned to Paris by his sister; she claims that a powerful businessman has pressured her family, resulting in her husband’s suicide, her daughter’s institutionalisation and the bankruptcy of the family business. Marco vows to take revenge, and moves into the same building as the enigmatic mistress of the tycoon, with whom he unexpectedly falls in love.
Taut, shocking and possessed with a stark beauty, Bastards is a film that will leave you hypnotised and guessing all the way until the devastating final shot.