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 (081122)
Both Sides of the Blade is a painfully realistic and totally adult drama from
France that depicts a long-time marriage unraveling before our very eyes. A
middle-aged wife in a complacent marriage is torn between her dependable husband
and an exciting ex-boyfriend that has come back into her life. It is the third
and probably best of the three excellent films that director Clair Denis made
with Juliiette Binoche. The others were High Life (2017) and Let the Sunshine In
(2017).
The film was shot during COVID and the characters can be seen wearing masks in
public which adds another level of danger to the illicit affair and secret
sexual rendezvous.
The film’s title is taken from a song by the Tindersticks which was used in the
end of the film. The director, Clair Denis, elaborated on the title saying, the
film “is sharp, there is passion and it could be divided in a painful way, it’s
cutting.”
Denis is the film maker who has made such highly regarded films as Chocolat
(1988), Can’t Sleep (1994), and White Material (2009). Beau Trevail (1999) which
might be her masterpiece, often shows up on critics’ the best films of the 90s
lists. This has been a great year for Denis. Both Sides of the Blade won the
Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and the other film she made this year,
The Stars at Noon (which has not yet been released in Chicago) won the Grand
Prix at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival
The star of Both Sides of the Blade, Binoche, has long been considered one of
the finest and most consistently outstanding actresses in the world (I much
prefer her oeuvre to Meryl Streep’s). Some of her best and most respected films
include The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), Lovers on a Bridge (1991),
Three Colors: Blue White and Red (1992-3), Chocalat (1999), Cache (2005), and
best of all, Certified Copy (2010), which I picked as best film of that decade
(see the Alternate Reality article). Despite its Oscar acclaim and “classic”
status, I don’t consider her film, The English Patient to be a major or
particularly interesting work.
Although he is much less well known, her costar, Vincent Lindon, got deserved
acclaim and attention for the outstanding, Measure of Man (2014), the colorful
and imaginative, Isle of Dogs (2017), and the subversive, Titane (2019). Lindon
is almost as convincing and impressive as Binoche playing the long-suffering
husband who does not fully understand what his wife is going through.
The film Is centered around a painful and passionate love triangle. Binoche
plays Sara, a talented radio journalist who gets to interview some of the most
knowledgeable and important people in French culture. She is married to Jean
(Vincent Lindon) who is an ex con and former pro rugby player who is trying to
rehabilitate himself, and he has started working as an athletic scout. Jean’s
new (and former) partner is Francoise (Gregoire Colin) who is Sara’s ex-lover.
Sara and Jean have an odd and contradictory relationship. Both members of the
married couple are capable of smoldering passion often followed by periods of
extreme remoteness and coldness.
The renewed business relationship between Jean and Francois is not purely
coincidental. In one of the most memorable scenes in the film, Sara sees
Francois looking like the essence of cool putting a motorcycle helmet on a woman
who is presumably his girlfriend, and both he and Sara eyes meet in a moment
that will dramatically change three lives. Her expression is like that of an
alcoholic who has just decided that she is about to get off the wagon. When she
later mentions she saw Francois to her husband, she pretends to brush it off as
if it were inconsequential, but I’m sure they both know it means something.
Shortly after Francois calls up Jean and offers to form a partnership with him
knowing that the not very employable ex con with the well to do wife is unlikely
to jump on any job offer. It is also of course a convenient excuse to see Sara
again.
Sara continually tries and fails to hide her excitement of the concept of seeing
her ex again. She is haunted by her memories of her relationship to Francois and
eventually succumbs to temptation. Jean eventually picks up on clues that
something is going on between his wife and partner which leads to one of the
most volatile and emotionally devastating cinematic arguments I have seen in a
long time.
Jean also has a troubled relationship with Marcus, who is his son by his
previous wife who was a person of color. Marcus resents his dad’s advice about
his career path (Marcus wants to settle for going to vocational school which
would probably get him only a lower-level job), and he thinks Jean will never be
able understand what it is like to be black in a predominantly white French
society (although like many European cultures France is becoming increasingly
less mono-racial). The way you see the relationship might depend on your
politics. A conservative might see Marcus as a delinquent who blames his
personal failings or lack of ambition on discrimination and a liberal might see
his dad as a privileged white person who is insensitive or does not comprehend
the particular problems and limitations his son faces because of his race and
social class.
Like many 15-year-olds and their dads, the gulf between them seems enormous. To
complicate things Marcus resents his dad’s current wife and he is stealing money
from his grandmother (Bulle Ogier) who is his well-intentioned but out to lunch
legal guardian. Although Sara often interviews people about race in France, she
never tries to help her husband with the racial divide between her husband and
his son. The black son with lower economic expectations than his upper-class dad
seems to live in a different world than his father and their relationship hints
at the existence of two Frances.
Although the film’s slow start and psychologically negative situations might
repel some viewers, this often emotionally bruising film is definitely worth
sitting through and it offers many rewards. It contains several of the year’s
best performances (Binoche should be remembered at Oscar time) and it is just as
psychologically searing and powerful as Marriage Story (although I don’t think
the script is as consistently remarkable) or a classic Cassavetes film. But if
you go be prepared for some explosive emotional fireworks.
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