I've Known More Than a Few Emilys...

I've been watching Clean obsessively of late; Olivier Assayas' film strikes me as being bracingly, rigorously unsentimental. Maggie Cheung... No words.



(The title shot, featuring second unit location tableaux of Hamilton, Ontario!)

The scene with her onscreen son in the Parisian zoo - their discussion of drugs, particularly - is astounding.



Nick Nolte's performance is equally arresting. Such presence...



And yes, BĂ©atrice Dalle. She's insanely gorgeous in the film. I remember queueing up to see Betty Blue/37.2 le matin a number of times on its American release (1986), but I much prefer her in middle-age. She inhabits herself with such aggressive aplomb. (And that face...)



Clean builds, builds... A brilliant denouement.



After this, I intend to dig into Assayas' Demonlover. I ignored it utterly on its release; my mistake.

TS

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