Film

35 Shots of Rum

Name: 35 Shots of Rum
Genre: Drama
Released: 2009
Cast: Alex Descas, Mati Diop, Nicole Dogué, Grégoire Colin, Julieth Mars Toussaint

Drama

A quietly devastating portrait of a widowed father and his adult daughter navigating life's small ruptures—a colleague's retirement, a job ending, the gradual awareness that they must finally separate. Claire Denis finds profound melancholy in ordinary moments: a drink shared, a song playing, the weight of unspoken love. It moves at the pace of real grief, which is to say: it barely moves at all.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love slow, observational films where small gestures between a father and daughter carry more weight than plot, and the city's textures do half the talking.

Skip it if you need narrative momentum or a clear through-line, since the story drifts through quiet scenes and long pauses that many viewers will find frustrating.

What it asks of you: Scenes linger past where you expect them to end, and the pace mirrors an ordinary afternoon, unhurried and quiet, across a running time of just over an hour and a half.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Moonlight2016

Three chapters of a Black man's life, told with the same tender observation of gesture and silence. Like Denis, Barry Jenkins finds poetry in restraint, letting absence speak as loudly as presence.

But Very slow. Demands patience with long takes of people thinking rather than speaking. Some find it remote rather than intimate.

A Prophet2009

Jaques Audiard's masterpiece about a young man shaped by prison, structured around quiet moments of transformation. Both films trust the camera to linger on faces and understand their occupants.

But Bleak and violent. The trajectory is inexorable. Not a film about redemption, and its bleakness can feel unrelenting.

The Son2022

Florian Zeller's portrait of a depressed man and his son, performed with devastating simplicity by Hugh Jackman. Depression as a fact of life, not a plot point. The same quiet accumulation of hurt.

But Claustrophobic and repetitive by design—watching someone struggle with the same grief over and again. Can feel airless.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from 35 Shots of Rum

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles1976

Both films believe that the ordinary rituals of life—shared meals, repeated journeys, the texture of days—contain everything worth knowing about human beings. Form mirrors content.

Chantal Akerman's three-hour documentary of a woman's daily routine—cooking, cleaning, sex work—shot in real time. It's the film Denis invokes most directly: domestic life as the subject of cinema, repetition as revelation, the radical act of watching a woman simply exist.

But It is genuinely three hours of a woman doing housework. Watching paint dry is not metaphorical. You must surrender to the pace entirely or you will hate it.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles poster

Courage Under Fire1996

Deepa Mehta's film about two women discovering love amid conservative family pressure. Like Denis, she finds the erotic in domesticity, in shared tea and overheard conversations.

But Controversial in its home country for its subject matter. Some sequences are brief and easy to miss, which can frustrate viewers wanting clarity.

Stalker1979

Tarkovsky's meditation on desire and the spaces between people. Glacial pacing, philosophical depth, images that haunt. Denis studied this kind of cinema; the DNA is visible.

But Nearly three hours of people walking through rooms and landscapes. If you want plot or conventional drama, this will feel like punishment.

I Used to Be Darker2013

Lynne Ramsay's film about a young woman home from college, suffused with unease and family dysfunction. Visually precise, emotionally evasive in the way real families are.

But Deliberately vague about what's actually happening. Some viewers find the withholding of information frustrating rather than mysterious.

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu2005

Cristi Puiu follows an old man's night in a Romanian hospital. Absurdist, compassionate, unbearably real. The same eye for the forgotten, the marginal, the slow accumulation of indignity.

But Two hours of bureaucracy and suffering. It's not depressing so much as numbing, which some find worse. Very little happens that feels like drama.

The Leopard1963

Yorgos Lanthimos's portrait of a family in crisis, elliptical and strange. Small-scale intimacy with an alien atmosphere. The same sense that love and resentment are inextricable.

But Intentionally awkward. Dialogue sounds unnatural, scenes don't connect logically. If you want naturalism, this deliberate strangeness can feel affected.

The Notebook2013

Salvatore Cannatella's delicate Sicilian drama about a girl escaping an arranged marriage. Visually understated, morally complex. Less famous than it should be, with Denis's eye for the poetry in constraint.

But Extremely quiet and regional. If you're unfamiliar with post-war Sicilian life or don't speak Italian well, some context will elude you. Very austere aesthetically.

The Ascent1977

Both films refuse to separate the physical from the spiritual. A meal, a journey, a body is also always a question about meaning and mortality.

Andrei Konchalovsky's Soviet film about two monks climbing a mountain toward martyrdom. Brutal and metaphysical. Like Denis, it uses landscape and the body to explore suffering and grace without sentimentality.

But Religious allegory in Soviet cinema. Dense, brutal, not interested in explaining itself. Historical context helps but isn't given.

Play2005

Both films imply that love and desire exist in glances, in the spaces between bodies. Both trust the audience to observe without interpretation.

Alain Guiraudie's film about voyeurism and desire in a public park, shot with the deadpan clarity of surveillance footage. The same unflinching observation of human behavior, the same refusal to judge or sentimentalize.

But Sexual content presented clinically and repeatedly. Not arousing; intended to make you uncomfortable with your own watching. Some find it exploitative rather than revelatory.