[CAMILLE CLAUDEL 1915
screens Thursday, January 9th at 8:35 pm, Friday January 10th at 7:00
pm, and Saturday January 11th at 7:20 pm at the Cleveland
Cinematheque.]
Review by Milan Paurich
Even if you’ve never seen--or wanted
to see--a film by French auteur Bruno Dumont, CAMILLE CLAUDEL 1915
is worth seeking out for its fearless lead performance by Juliette
Binoche alone. Dumont has been racking up festival prizes (including
two Cannes Grand Jury wins for HUMANITE and FLANDERS)
and international critical plaudits for nearly two decades without
making a dent in the U.S. market. His one foray onto American
shores--2003’s California-lensed TWENTYNINE PALMS--is best
forgotten.
Maybe it’s because Dumont’s films
seem too intimidating with their deliberate pacing and tendency to
reduce the human species to the level of barnyard animals, especially
while fucking. Or perhaps it’s just because most domestic arthouse
habitues don’t like being challenged. (Hard to believe that equally
“difficult” foreign-language directors like Alain Resnais and
Ingmar Bergman were once furious topics of conversation--and
debate--at tony American cocktail parties.) As a result, they’ve
missed out on one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary
world cinema.
