STARS AT NOON - PURE CINEMATIC ART! AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE FRENCH MOVIE (2022) - A REVIEW & MORE

 

 

STARS  AT  NOON - PURE CINEMATIC ART!

AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE FRENCH MOVIE (2022) - A REVIEW & MORE

 

Stars at Noon is a 2022 English-language French movie directed by Claire Denis. The movie is based on the novel (1986) by the name "The Stars at Noon" by Denis Johnson. The lead pair is Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwin. The film is a romantic thriller and a masterpiece by Claire Denis.

 

The story is set in Nicaragua during revolutionary times, about an American journalist and an English businessman entangled in dangerous circumstances.

  

The film premiered at Cannes, winning the Grand Prix, and received praise for Qualley's performance and Denis's direction, despite mixed reviews on pacing and chemistry.

 

 

SYNOPSIS :

 

Trish is a young American journalist stranded in Nicaragua during the COVID-19 pandemic and amid a period of severe governmental instability. She is a travel writer whose coverage of brutal extrajudicial killings has alienated both her superiors and the ruling party; her passport has been confiscated, and she is living in a flophouse paid for by a sympathetic cabinet minister. Trish assumes that she will be executed for her anti-government activities when the minister can no longer protect her. She has sex with government officials for money and basic necessities (largely unavailable due to the political crisis) while searching desperately for a way out of the country.

 

One day, Trish solicits a British man named Daniel for sex in a hotel reserved for wealthy foreigners. Daniel introduces himself as a petrochemicals consultant, but Trish assumes that he is really an intelligence agent. They have passionate, tender sex, and Trish follows him the day after. She observes him meeting with a man she identifies as a Costa Rican police officer. When questioned about the meeting, Daniel is surprised to hear of the man's true identity, eventually realising his hostile intentions after the officer chases the two through a market.

 

Trish lets Daniel hide out in the flophouse. The Costa Rican officer quickly finds them, but he is unwilling to attack Daniel in a building protected by a governmental official. Trish and Daniel fall in love. The climax of their emotional bond occurs in a deserted nightclub, where they dance romantically as he speaks about his wife.

 

Eventually, Trish is informed that the government can no longer protect her; she runs out of money, and Daniel is cut off by his employer. Realising that they will be killed by the Costa Rican once they leave the hotel, the two steal a car and drive towards the border. Along the way, they meet a man whom Trish quickly realises is a CIA agent. The man offers Trish safe passage to the U.S. in exchange for Daniel, but Trish refuses. At the border, the agent offers her the same deal and questions how they will cross the border without Trish's passport. It becomes clear that the agent and the Costa Rican are colluding with the authoritarian government, while Daniel is attempting to destabilise it in some way.

 

Trish and Daniel trade the car to smugglers in exchange for a boat ride across the border. At the end of the journey, the smugglers are shot dead by unseen soldiers, and Daniel is wounded. They make their way to an abandoned church and fall asleep. When they wake up, the agent and the Costa Rican, along with armed troops, have surrounded them. Daniel convinces Trish to abandon him, and the soldiers take him away. A Nicaraguan police officer and former client of Trish's returns her passport, enabling her to fly home legally. The agent pays her and leaves.

 

                        

           Margaret Qualley

                                                                 Joe Alwyn

 

 Although “Stars at Noon” is set in Nicaragua during the very recent past, it’s another film by legendary director Claire Denis (“Beau Travail,” “High Life”) that seems to have been time-warped in from the 1970s or ’80s, when tough, smart, languorous, handsomely produced, frankly sexual portraits of fascinating but often unlikable adults got made and seen more than occasionally, and played in art house theaters just big enough to envelop the viewer with images and sounds.



Beautifully crafted and perfectly put together! Stunningly beautiful cinematography! An intimate, erotic, fragile, raw, deep and thrilling story about love, escaping and conspiracy! Amazingly filmed and edited! The work with light is amazing! Gorgeous visuals!



The film was released in Cannes (2022) on 14 May 2022 and in France on 14 June 2023. The theatrical release in the United States was in 2022, in response to public demand. The movie's total duration is 2 hours and 17 minutes.

 

The film is a cat-and-mouse game where the stakes are high and where tension is ever-present. The cinematography is stunning, with spectacular shots of Nicaragua's lush landscape and its turbulent political climate. Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn deliver powerful performances, convincingly capturing the desperation of their characters while still creating an intense and palpable chemistry.

 

STARS AT NOON is an ambitious and captivating thriller with moments of real beauty and insight. Although it could benefit from a more streamlined narrative and a faster pace, it's worth a watch for its gorgeous visuals and strong performances.

 

Beautifully crafted and perfectly put together! Stunningly beautiful cinematography! 

Stars at Noon is not available for streaming in India.




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