La caméra de Claire

Huh? was my initial thought. Some scenes I felt made me mildly embarrassed but on reflection now realise it was a choice, by the director and myself. So a few days on and, much like the films premise, I've changed (but not my rating), I now nod my head and think hmmm.

This film has made me want to find out more about its directors work.

La caméra de Claire (2017) was shown in the U.S. with the translated title Claire's Camera. It was written and directed by by the Korean filmmaker Sang-soo Hong. The great French Actor Isabelle Huppert plays Claire, who is on vacation in Cannes. Kim Manhee portrays Min-hee Kim, a young sales assistant for a Korean film distributor. Kim Manhee is director Sang-soo Hong's muse.

The film begins with Min-hee being fired for no apparent reason. Her boss tells her, "I no longer consider you honest." However, she won't tell Min-Hee why she is being fired.

Min-hee, with no job, is at liberty in beautiful Cannes, but, naturally, she is confused and depressed. She meets Claire, who is sunny and optimistic. Claire has a small Polaroid-style camera, with which she takes pictures of people she meets. People are typically happy to have been asked. (If Isabelle Huppert wanted to take your picture, wouldn't you be happy?)

The basic plot of the film is the friendship between the two women as they set about trying to discover why Min-Hee was fired without apparent cause. It's an interesting concept, and it works well in this film.

We saw this movie in its Rochester Premiere at the wonderful Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman Museum. It has an anemic IMDb rating of 6.6. It's not a must-see film, but it's much better than that. It will work well on the small scree.

I don't really know what I was expecting from this film, the fact that it was only 1 hour and 8 minutes long, a lovely poster of the film, sunny and happy and then the word 'friendship' in the synopsis. Somehow I guess I expected a sweet and cute little film, something like a french-korean Before Sunrise, but it was not. Like other user reviewers have already mentioned, it's a very awkward film, I would guess the whole film is built up by 10 scenes, long takes with not much happening. The times I felt I got involved in the story, was when there was some drama between the korean actors, like the Director telling the Producer Lady his feelings about her, that was actually good. But the scenes with Isabelle was pretty stiff, shaky english and the dialouge became much slower than when they spoke in their native language. There's probably many things I missed with the film, but I'm not too eager to return back to it for a second watch, even if the film is just over 1 hour.

I assume it was trying to say something. I didn't understand it at first so I kept waitching. Was this an essay on the futility of movie-making? On the futility of watching a movie because it has one of your favourite actresses and you assume it will be at least worthwhile as a result? Maybe. How it got an "80" critics' rating eludes me as well. I can only assume these people all figured that if they didn't understand the point of it then it must be really profound. They were wrong. Honestly, don't bother.

The plot is minimalistic to the point of being ridiculous. The dialogues reminded me of tutorials for students who study a foreign language. They are rather primitive: "I am hungry" - "Are you hungry?" - "Yes, I am hungry". Luckily this film is only 1 hour and 8 minutes but it felt longer...I love Huppert but here she has the easiest acting job ever. What a waste of a great talent.