Ballarat Film Society – Both Sides of the Blade

France, 2021, 116 min.  Directed by Claire Denis
Scorching Love Triangle Drama

Celebrated veteran film director, Claire Denis developed and shot this film during different stages of Covid-19 lockdowns in France (as is reflected in some of the outdoor scenes). Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon play an apparently happy couple whose relationship is unsettled when Francois, Sara’s ex-lover and Jean’s former friend, suddenly reappears in their lives. The title Both Sides of the Blade comes from a song used in the film, while the French title, Avec amour et encharnement, translates as Love and Fury – but it is also being distributed in English-language cinemas as Fire. The film bubbles with sexual tension and romantic ambivalence whilst simmering in the background are post-colonialist tensions and the continual sting of global economics, themes that Denis continually interrogates in her work. This contemporary drama won the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival’s Silver Bear for Best Director and has been voted into Sight and Sound’s top 50 films for 2022.  A steamy complex film, dancing around the danger of old flames.