Both Sides of the Blade

Dir. Claire Denis. 2022, 116 mins. DCP. In French with English subtitles. With Juliette Binoche, Vincent Lindon, Grégoire Colin, Bulle Ogier. In Denis’s crepuscular Parisian melodrama, Binoche plays Sara, a radio host, living in tentative domestic bliss with her husband Jean (Lindon), a former rugby player shadowed by his past. Enter François (Colin), Jean’s former business partner and Sara’s former lover, whose sudden return to both their lives feels as deathly inevitable as that of a vampire. Denis has never made a film so sharply straight and to the point as this, her wintriest and weariest work, which finds its network of white Parisians collapsing upon itself in a cyclical dance of animal impulse and egoistic retribution. Ferociously filmed by the great French cinematographer Éric Gautier (Irma Vep, Pola X) in choppy, convulsive handheld sequences that suggest an unrepentant return to Denis’s nineties roots, Both Sides of the Blade is a rugged, back-to-basics blues performance from a filmmaker who has nothing left to prove but an abundance yet to share. 

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. Review safety protocols before your visit.