When I think about Paris, I normally don’t think about subways. My Paris has sumptuous architecture, great restaurants, high fashion and intoxicating romance. And yet the Paris metro system is indeed the visual metaphor for the intersecting lives of five Parisians in Claire Denis’s latest award-winning film, 35 SHOTS OF RUM. While I missed seeing the city of lights in all its glory, those subway tracks had a mesmerizing effect and had me thinking about life choices and the potential dangers of changing course. There’s romance too, but it’s the kind of romance that causes unspoken internal stress and temporary immobility.

As the story unfolds, we are witness to a critical turning point in the intimate relationship between a father and daughter. As each independently contemplates an inevitable separation (the daughter is a pretty college student with more than one suitor), a melancholy sadness is beginning to hover over both of them. In a relationship where a warm familial embrace can chase away the blues in an instant, the prospect of independence is generating a fair amount of anxiety.

The film’s setting is a middle-class suburb of Paris where the father, Lionel (beautifully played by Alex Descas), works as a train conductor and his daughter Josephine (Mati Diop) is studying the politics of global economies. In the way Denis (BEAU TRAVAIL, CHOCOLAT) quietly captures the ordinary routines of their life together we begin to understand the extraordinary bond that exists between them. The magical quality of the film is found in how well we come to understand the characters despite minimal dialogue and not much narrative. As Josephine prepares dinner she can discern, simply from the familiarity of sounds that Lionel makes when he comes home from work, that everything in their world is just as it should be.

Or is it? Josephine’s feelings for a handsome neighbor, Noe (Gregoire Colin), appear inhibited by her feelings of love and responsibility for Lionel, a widower. At the same time, Lionel gives Josephine conflicting messages about his independence and resilience. Lionel is equally ambivalent about the advances of a former lover, Gabrielle (Nicole Dogue), also a neighbor. In fact, it occurred to me that Lionel might view Gabrielle’s advances as a threat to his relationship with Josephine. Any therapist would have a field day here.

In figuring out the best five-minute clip to share with you, I felt it had to be a moment that showcases Denis’s ability to communicate multiple messages where no words are spoken. In one of the more beautifully choreographed sequences of the movie, Lionel, Josephine, Noe and Gabrielle seek shelter at a café when their car breaks down in a torrential rainstorm. In the following clip, Denis reveals the conflicting desires of each character with the skillful economy of furtive glances and quicksilver expressions of emotion:

The theme of inevitable change, and the wariness and pain that can accompany it, is depicted more directly in another intersecting story-- the retirement of one of Lionel’s colleagues, Ruben (Jean-Christophe Folly). A celebration of Ruben’s retirement is really the first step in his downward spiral that finds him incapable of establishing an adequate replacement for work and the friendship of colleagues. Like Lionel, Ruben doesn’t say much but we understand from his sad, hooded eyes and body fatigue that he is confronting a bleak future.

Ruben’s story gave me chills. How often do we see retirement as a celebration when, in fact, the loss of purpose and social interaction is probably a perfect formula for depression? (Note: Another recent acquisition by Cinemondo, the brilliant film DAYS AND CLOUDS, deals with the trauma of job loss and its devastating consequences as experienced by an upper-middle-class couple in Genoa. Highly recommended!).

While the future for Lionel and Josephine is hardly as bleak as Ruben’s, Lionel does conclude that when their changed circumstances are at hand, it is finally time to have those 35 shots of rum. When it happens, my impulse was to simply say: Cheers!

Beginning Saturday, December 5th, some great award-winning Romanian films will be premiering on Link's airwaves. Ranging from indictments of the totalitarian Ceauşescu regime to explorations of contemporary social mores, these films come from a new crop of young Romanian directors -- the new wave -- and illuminate the changing society that is today's Romania. Some highlights include this week's premiere of Muntean's The Paper Will Be Blue, Porumboiu’s 12:08 East of Bucharest, and Cristi Puiu’s Stuff and Dough. And two great shorts are now available to watch online -- Hanno Hofer's tale of a village postman, Dincolo, and Humanitarian Aid.

The Romanian new wave has been a favorite in the film critic world for several years, catching the attention of the New York Times's A.O. Scott, among others. But most Americans haven't had the opportunity to see these great films from a country once known primarily for gymnastics -- until now.

Link TV proudly presents these films in partnership with the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York. Readers in NYC shouldn't miss this weekend's 4th Annual Romanian Film Festival at the Tribeca Cinemas -- more info is available at icrny.org.

This just in from a friend who thought it was worth sharing.  He's right.
Istanbul's Sulukule, the world's oldest Gypsy settlement, known for its music & dance clubs, is being demolished by developers to make way for gentrification. If you have ever been entranced by the sound of Turkish Roma clarinet, read this and weep.

Good-bye, Gypsies: The Loss of 1,000 Years

I'm going to a Gypsy Festival at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC, on Saturday, and we'll see if my little flip camera can capture some of the event. It's going to be quite the gathering, with Turkish clarinetist Selim Sesler setting the tone for some wild and wooly music, fortune tellers, and some trumpet madness from Frank London of the Klezmatics. (He has several extra-curricular projects, and Roma musicians figure prominently in some of them.)

Speaking of Gypsy music, a few years ago I was given a DVD of a great little video of the Hungarian violinist Roby Lakatos. He claims descent from the great Janos Bihari, the gypsy musician that had royalty in thrall in the 18th century, and was known as the king of the Gypsy violinists. Well, Lakatos certianly has plenty of flash, and the video was cool enough for me to want to show it on the channel. But the record label was laconic to say the least and was not interested in tracking down video for me. So it never made it to Link TV.  Then, out of curiosity, I looked on YouTube and voilá! There it was. So here it is, if you are curious. Of course, my DVD is better quality……!