Bastards

In this brooding revenge drama from Claire Denis, tanker captain Vincent Lindon returns to Paris to help his sister (Julie Bataille) after her debt-ridden husband kills himself and their teenage daughter (Lola Créton) is pitilessly assaulted. Bataille blames treacherous billionaire Michel Subor for her family's problems, so Lindon wastes no time in moving into the apartment block where Subor has installed mistress Chiara Mastroianni and their young son. Lindon plans to exploit his budding relationship with Mastroianni, but unexpected emotions and shocking revelations get in the way, in a deliberately elliptical story that owes much to William Faulkner's brutal 1931 novel Sanctuary and Akira Kurosawa's thriller The Bad Sleep Well (1960). Shooting in digital for the first time, Denis and regular cinematographer Agnès Godard make fascinating use of intricate long shots and intimate close-ups, which draw viewers into the action only to leave them as far from the truth as ever. Once more exploring the concept that anyone is capable of anything, Denis challenges the audience to unravel the entanglements. But, while the performances are exceptional, the conceit and execution are self-consciously calculating.