For ardent Hong Sang-soo fans, 2017 couldn’t be a more rewarding year. Not just because the South Korean filmmaker has three new films ready — the first, “On The Beach At Night Alone,” launched in Berlin — or even because two of those features are on offer at the Cannes Film Festival, “Claire’s Camera” and “The Day After.” No, it’s because a fascinating new frontier has been opened up for this prolific filmmaker: international locations in “On the Beach” and, even more prominently, “Claire’s Camera.” Oh, and Isabelle Huppert is back in Hong’s orbit for the first time since 2012’s “In Another Country” (also the director’s last Cannes Competition entry). Without making too grand a claim before the premiere of his other Cannes effort, “Claire’s Camera” is likely his most re-watchable work since 2014’s “Hill Of Freedom.”
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Famously, “Claire’s Camera” was shot during Cannes last year, when lead actress Kim Minhee and Huppert were present at the festival for “The Handmaiden” and “Elle,” respectively. Sticking to a handful of locations a ways off from the red carpet, the film follows Manhee (Kim), a sales agent working at the Cannes market (a poster for Hong’s “Yourself And Yours” at the Finecut booth is visible in the first shot, immediately earning chuckles). Not surprisingly, Manhee is caught up in a love triangle, the other points of which are her boss Yanghye (Chang Mihee) and director So (Jung Jinyoung), with whom she had a drunken affair. The consequence is Manhee’s firing. Following this, Claire approaches Manhee at the waterfront hoping to take a photograph of the beautiful stranger she had earlier encountered off-screen, and they become fast friends.
Erstwhile, these various figures continue to run into each other in unexpected combinations. All of this is generally threaded together by Claire, with her perceptive camera serving as a witness to the drama. If the happenstance encounters in Seoul can come across as a little too contrived in other Hong films, any Cannes attendee can attest to the small-world feel of a festival where familiar faces look around every street corner, and the characteristic story beats transpose well here. As always, Hong plays with narrative structure and time, rendering at least a couple scenes into a guessing game of where they fit into the puzzle (ultimately, it’s a pretty linear affair in Hong Sang-soo terms).
Huppert is charming as the titular Claire, but takes a backseat to Kim Minhee who, after nuanced turns in “Right Now, Wrong Then” and “On the Beach,” cements her status as the finest performer to enter Hong’s stable of actors. If Hong is often a filmmaker who can be accused of making the same movie over and over again, this latent muse brings a veritable freshness to his output by offering an emotional gravity that hadn’t significantly figured into his creative sphere.
Kim’s empathetic turn might best be compared to Kristen Stewart’s recent collaborations with Oliver Assayas. The performance is not about what is said — feelings are often expressed in English, introducing a thick layer of abstraction — but rather what can be gleaned from the actress’ body language. Manhee’s occasionally sad expression and deflated posture communicates volumes about a character whose past is exclusively offscreen. Likewise, her smile lights up the screen and its easy to see why Claire becomes so taken with her, the contrast in their cheerful, impromptu adventures suiting the sunny Riviera atmosphere.
Also worth a mention is the big grey dog that Claire and Manhee encounter on multiple occasions (billed as Bob in the trailer, though its name isn’t mentioned in the film proper), and, if there’s any justice, currently a Palme Dog frontrunner alongside the namesake super-pig from “Okja.” This dog’s presence is one obvious marker of the improvised nature of “Claire’s Camera,” as the director surely had to pick out locations and commence shooting at a whirlwind pace. He pulled off the challenge well and serves up a special treat for Cannes audiences — not only the satisfaction of familiar locations but also in how the film credibly captures the festival’s esprit de corps. It’s an unexpected vibe, seeing as Hong’s cynical depiction of the film industry in Korea is typically of art-house directors playing their movies for small theaters sparsely populated by disinterested students.
Don’t be deceived by its modest 69-minute run time — “Claire’s Camera” is more than just a warm-up to the Competition-worthy “The Day After.” Wisely turning her lens towards Manhee, Isabelle Huppert’s Claire seeks to capture the arresting turmoil that actor Kim Minhee so subtly expresses and which contributes a compelling wrinkle to Hong’s familiar themes. Both a loving homage to the film festival that has built Hong Sang-soo’s reputation and an accomplished work on its own terms, “Claire’s Camera” proves that its director’s talent can’t be fenced in by national borders. [A-]
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