“Stars at Noon”, the disconcerting black hole of Claire Denis, Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival in 2022

Demanding and talented filmmaker, Claire Denis (Les Bastards, White Material) goes in all directions with Stars at Noon, rambling and long film, released this Wednesday, June 14. To believe that she has put together improvised rushes on a canvas of espionage, a pretext for a passion under the anecdotal Nicaraguan sun. The Cannes jury in 2022, chaired by Vincent Lindon, who has toured several times with the filmmaker, had decided otherwise, awarding him an unexpected Grand Prize.

Unlikely

Trish, an American journalist stranded without papers in Nicaragua in the middle of the election, meets Daniel, an Englishman who could help her out of this bad situation. She falls from Charybdis to Scylla with this seductive spy wanted by the CIA, who will take her through all the dangers.

Claire Denis in a spy movie? Unlikely, but why not? The genre offers multiple possibilities with the most twisted plots, where we like to get lost. Labyrinths that are not without displeasing the filmmaker. But who fall into a dead end.

Z-series

The security Trish finds in Daniel puts her in danger as she discovers a passion. Claire Denis films waiting and boredom in an exoticism of Z films. Like them, Stars at Noon is devoid of drama, but it forgets to keep it short. The film spans 2:17, which is part of the project, speaking of boredom. A suspended time that Trish and Daniel fill in the dampness of improvised rooms, as if they were inventing hot water.

Hard for this author who gave us beautiful films. The Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize awarded to Stars at Noon in 2022 serves it more than anything else, by giving a spotlight on an outclassed film that does not make you want to come back.

The sheet

Gender : Espionage / Passion
Director: Claire Dennis
Actors: Margaret Qualley, Joe Alwyn, Danny Ramirez, Benny Safdie
Country : Canada / Greece / France / United Kingdom
Duration : 2h17
Exit : June 14, 2023
Distributer : Ad Vitam

Summary: A young American journalist in distress, stranded without a passport in today’s Nicaragua in the midst of an election, meets an English traveler in a hotel bar. He seems to her to be the perfect man to help her flee the country. She realizes too late that, on the contrary, she is entering a murkier, more dangerous world by his side.