suite92 Marco is the captain of a supertanker. He's at sea and life is good.Pull the chain on that. Marco's sister Sandra calls him back in desperation: her husband has committed suicide, her daughter Justine is in a tailspin, and the family business is not going well. Sandra accuses wealthy business man Edouard Laporte as the cause of these ill fortunes. So Marco, in his own particular way, goes after Edouard.Marco's fortunes diminish, and he discovers a number of discouraging truths about his family. This gets more evident when a young man offers to sell Justine back to him for 5000 francs.Will Marco pull himself and his family out of this downward spiral, or will external forces be too great for that? -----Scores-----Cinematography: 6/10 For much of the screen time, there was not enough light or too much light, odd choices of camera angles, strange depth of field choices...in other words, much of the noir package. The filming of the car ride with passengers and drivers high on drugs was quite emblematic of this. I did not find this helpful or illustrative, even though this is a dark tale.Sound: 7/10 OK, redeemed by the sound track with the closing credits.Acting: 6/10Screenplay: 6/10 A bit lurching for my taste. The film jumps from segment to segment to segment, with time references not all that clear, with one message. All the characters are flawed and disgusting. Got it: noir.

westsideschl A rambling script that jumps so often from one person to another; one scene to another; one plot structure to another that you're left wondering if this is a story or an exercise in the writers/director being enamored with their cleverness. The inconclusive and illogical, abrupt ending is further proof of the film makers' self-absorption. Excessive use of flash backs and constant, shifting brief moments with each character leaves the viewer caring less about the principal vehicle - the life of a young girl in a prostituting environment. I usually have high regards for French film studios efforts, especially with their crime/thriller movies, but in this case ... Final verdict - who cares!

JulienPlante I realised after watching Bastards that I am a Claire Denis fan. I appreciate her entire body of work and I knew early on she was one of my favourite directors. Each film she has made has moved me and stayed with me.I like her way of filming a story. She never spells the story out for us, none of the characters come out and tell us how they are feeling; instead we have to find our own way into their worlds with visual clues. It is for us to see and follow, to be active in our observations. Somehow Claire Denis manages to reveal things to us in a soft, unassuming way, which then affects us when we read the intense and often deeply buried emotion that spills out.For the making of Bastards, Claire Denis has returned to her team of long-time collaborators, including cinematographer Agnès Godard, indie band Tindersticks for their atmospheric soundtrack, and actors like Vincent Lindon, Gregoire Colin and Michel Subor.With Bastards, Chiara Mastroianni (Beloved) joins this entourage, as does Lola Créton (Goodbye First Love, Something in the Air). While Mastroianni gives her best performance on screen, Créton reveals a lot of herself without ever actually saying more than a few words.Viewers that have not seen any of her previous films may find it harder to appreciate the qualities and intensity of the movie. We are quickly drowning in a story where nearly every character is not likable - here the title Bastards feels very apt.It's a dark and raw film. It has the shadowy mystery of The Intruder, the emotional disturbance of Trouble Every Day, and the intimacy of Vendredi Soir. It's a sordid and brutal revenge drama, but it's also a true modern film noir. Enigmatic and detailed, with dark textures. Sharing with us the fragile and troubled human condition, the characters' bodies are explored in close up, the texture of the skin, the marks and blemishes staring back at us.But, ultimately, what Denis nails every time is the mood. The unseen, unheard mood. The impression we are left with, the vibrations of human energy. This is the real mark of a Claire Denis film.

Sindre Kaspersen French author, screenwriter, film professor and director Claire Denis' twelfth feature film which she co-wrote with French screenwriter Jean-Pol Fargeau, premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 66th Cannes International Film Festival in 2013, was screened in the Masters section at the 38th Toronto International Film Festival in 2013, was shot on locations in France and is a France-Germany co-production which was produced by producers Vincent Maraval, Olivier Théry-Lapiney and Laurence Clerc. It tells the story about a former naval officer named Marco Silvestri whom after learning that something has happened to his friend named Jacques, leaves his job to support his sister named Sandra, then learns that her daughter named Justine has been hospitalized and begins studying a woman named Raphäelle who lives with her son named Joseph and her husband named Edouardo. Distinctly and masterfully directed by French filmmaker Claire Denis, this finely paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints, draws a multifaceted portrayal of a French father, brother and captain on a ship whom whilst looking for his niece acquaints a married mother whose main concern in life besides the well-being of her son, is that no one else has a more fulfilling life than hers. While notable for its distinct and atmospheric milieu depictions, reverent and crucial cinematography by cinematographer Agnès Godard, production design by production designer Michel Barthélémy and use of sound, colors and light, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about atrocious and dehumanizing crimes against youths and children which illustrates how positively audacious cinema can be when executed by a filmmaker with an immaculate cinematic language and where a middle-aged man initiates an unscrupulous romance with a stranger whilst a daughter is dancing with death, depicts several dense and mysterious studies of character and contains a great and timely score by English composer Stuart A. Staples.This increasingly dramatic, perspicacious and romantic master-act in audio-visual proficiency which is set in the capital city of France in the 21st century and where a man's hazardous search for a disappeared close relative leads him on an unrighteous path where barbarianism governs, is impelled and reinforced by its densely fragmented narrative structure, subtle character development, rhythmic continuity, efficient film editing, distinct humane undertones and style of filmmaking, eloquent use of music, appropriate title which is a social comment in itself, breath-taking last scene, telling comment by Raphäelle : "What's so great about your life?", the poignant acting performances by French actor Vincent Lindon and French-Italian actress and singer Chiara Mastroianni and the good acting performances by French actress Julie Bataille and French actor Michel Subor. An austerely emphatic, astonishingly envisaged and obscurely atmospheric narrative feature.