''Both Sides of the Blade'' (formerly known in English as ''Fire''; ) is a 2022 French romantic

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Claire Denis Claire Denis (; born 21 April 1946) is a French film director and screenwriter. Her feature film ''Beau Travail'' (1999) has been called one of the greatest films of the 1990s, as well as of all time. Other acclaimed works include '' Trouble Ev ...

, who wrote the screenplay with

Christine Angot Christine Angot (born 7 February 1959) is a French novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Life Born Pierrette Marie-Clotilde Schwartz (Schwartz being her mother's name) in Châteauroux, Indre, she is perhaps best known for her 1999 novel ''L'I ...

. The film is based on Angot's 2018 novel ''Un tournant de la vie''. The film stars

Juliette Binoche Juliette Binoche (; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress and dancer. She has appeared in more than sixty feature films and has been the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Silver Bear, ...

Vincent Lindon Vincent Lindon (born 15 July 1959) is a French actor and filmmaker. For his role in the film '' The Measure of a Man'' (2015), Lindon won Best Actor at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, Best Actor at the 41st César Awards and the IFFI Best Actor A ...

, and

Grégoire Colin Grégoire Colin (born 25 July 1975) is a French actor. Career Grégoire started acting on the French stage at age 12. He first caught the eye of critics in the 1992 Agnieszka Holland's psychological family drama ''Olivier, Olivier'' when he was ...

. The film had its world premiere on 12 February 2022 at the

72nd Berlin International Film Festival The 72nd annual Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale took place from 10 to 20 February 2022 in person. On 15 December 2021 the first film of the festival was announced. The festival opened with François Ozon's drama ...

, where it competed for the

Golden Bear The Golden Bear (german: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin. History The winn ...

, while Denis received the

Silver Bear for Best Director The Silver Bear for Best Director (german: Silberner Bär/Bester Regie) is an award presented annually at the Berlin International Film Festival since 1956. It is given for the best achievement in directing and is chosen by the International Jury ...

Plot

Sara and her husband Jean swim in the sea while on vacation, kissing and caressing one another. They return home to a wintry

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, where Sara works as a radio presenter. Jean, a former professional rugby player with a prison record, is an absent father to his mixed-race teenage son Marcus, who lives in the custody of Jean's mother Nelly in the banlieue of Vitry. One day, Sara glimpses her estranged ex-boyfriend François on the street, flooding her with emotion. François, who was also once a close friend to Jean, is opening a sports agency to recruit young rugby players and contacts Jean to work with him as a talent scout. The re-entrance of François into their lives threatens the relationship Sara and Jean have had for ten years.

Cast

as Sara *

as Jean *

as François *

Bulle Ogier Bulle Ogier (born Marie-France Thielland; 9 August 1939) is a French actress and screenwriter. She adopted the professional surname Ogier, which was her mother's maiden name. Her first appearance on screen was in ''Voilà l'Ordre'', a short film ...

as Nelly * Issa Perica as Marcus * Alice Houri as

Tribunal de Commerce In France, the ''tribunal de commerce'' (plural ''tribunaux de commerce'', literally "commercial courts") are the oldest courts in the French judicial organization. They were created at the end of the Middle Ages. The commercial court has juri ...

Worker *

Mati Diop Mati Diop (born 22 June 1982) is a French-Senegalese filmmaker and actress who starred in the 2008 film '' 35 Shots of Rum''. She also directed the 2019 film '' Atlantics'', for which she became the first black female director to be in contentio ...

as Gabrielle *

Bruno Podalydès Bruno Podalydès (born 11 March 1961) is a French writer, film director, producer and actor. His brother Denis Podalydès Denis Podalydès (born 22 April 1963) is a French actor and scriptwriter of Greek descent. Podalydès has appeared in more ...

as Invité Inauguration *

Lola Créton Lola Créton (born 16 December 1993) is a French actress. Créton began her career at the age of 10, appearing in the short film ''Imago'' (2004). She is known for her lead roles in the films '' Goodbye First Love'' (2011) and '' Something in th ...

as Lola * Richard Courcet as Postal Worker * Hana Magimel as Anna *

Lilian Thuram Ruddy Lilian Thuram-Ulien (; born 1 January 1972) is a French former professional footballer who played as a defender. He began playing football professionally in his homeland with Monaco and played in the top flight in France, Italy and Spai ...

as himself

Production

In early January 2021, Wild Bunch International announced the release of several French films despite the strict restrictions imposed by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. One of those movies would be ''Fire'', a dramatic movie directed by Denis. That same month, it was announced that filming was about to

wrap Wrap, WRAP or Wrapped may refer to: Storage and preservation * Gift wrap or wrap paper, used to enclose a present * Overwrap, a wrapping of items in a package or a wrapping over packages * Plastic wrap, a thin, clear, flexible plastic used to co ...

in Paris, and that

and Issa Perica were part of the cast, with Ad Vitam Distribution set to distribute in France. Part of the film was shot at

Maison de la Radio Maison de la Radio et de la Musique, nicknamed “maison ronde” (“the round house”) is the headquarters of Radio France. It is located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris near the Eiffel Tower. Built in the shape of huge ring 500 meters in c ...

, the headquarters of

Radio France Radio France is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: *France Inter — Radio France's "generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed with a wide variety of ...

. Production wrapped in early February 2021. The film was developed within the context and restrictions of the

COVID-19 lockdowns Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of non-pharmaceutical interventions colloquially known as lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar societal restrictions) have been implemented in numerous countrie ...

in France, which Denis credits with bringing her and the cast closer together. However, they became "exhausted, relentless" with their work. The pandemic also exists as a reality in the film. Shooting a scene in the

Paris Métro The Paris Métro (french: Métro de Paris ; short for Métropolitain ) is a rapid transit system in the Paris metropolitan area, France. A symbol of the Paris, city, it is known for its density within the capital's territorial limits, uniform ar ...

, Denis found it "impossible to pretend the pandemic didn't exist." The characters also wear face masks in some sequences taking place outside their apartment. The film marks the acting debut of Hana Magimel, the daughter of Juliette Binoche and

Benoît Magimel Benoît Magimel (; born 11 May 1974) is a French actor. He was 14 when he appeared in his first film, and has starred in a variety of roles in French cinema. At age 16, Magimel left school to pursue acting as a career. In 2001, he won the Best Ac ...

. French footballer

appears as himself.

Release

The film was selected to compete for the

in the main competition section of the

, where the film had its world premiere on 12 February 2022. Claire Denis won the

IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its S ...

acquired the US distribution rights to the film in early February 2022, for a limited release on 8 July 2022. The film was released in France by Ad Vitam Distribution on 31 August 2022. The film was released for streaming on AMC Plus on 4 November 2022, 119 days after IFC's limited release date of 8 July 2022.

Title

The title ''Both Sides of the Blade'' is derived from the song of the same name by

Tindersticks Tindersticks are an English alternative rock band formed in Nottingham in 1991. They released six albums before singer Stuart A. Staples embarked on a solo career. The band reunited briefly in 2006 and more permanently the following year. Th ...

, which was written by Stuart A. Staples for the film and is featured at its conclusion. When she received the song during the film's editing, Denis was impressed by the "quality" of the title and deemed the French title ''Avec amour et acharnement'' too difficult to translate. Denis has described ''Both Sides of the Blade'' as the "real title" of the film because it "describes the movie" perfectly. The film was originally being marketed in English under the title ''Fire''. '' Paste'' said there is "palpable contention" regarding the film's title. On 3 March 2022, during her introduction at the film's U.S. premiere at

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

's annual Rendez-Vous with French Cinema series, Denis herself decried, "The film is not called ''Fire''!" Denis told an interviewer at the event, "I tried today to speak with the distribution company because I think 'Fire' is not completely fitting for the film. 'Both Sides of the Blade,' it’s sharp. There's passion, but it could be divided in a painful way. It's cutting!" In April 2022, IFC Films officially changed its distribution title to ''Both Sides of the Blade''.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on 112 reviews, with an average rating of 7.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Elevated by impeccable work from Claire Denis and Juliette Binoche, ''Both Sides of the Blade'' is a relationship drama that cuts deep." According to

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigned a weighted average score of 72 out of 100 based on 27 critics, the film received "generally favorable reviews".

Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdashers ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave the film three out of five stars, writing, "It's intriguing if contrived and anticlimactic, though acted at the highest pitch of sensual conviction." David Rooney of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' praised the film's "psychologically astute" screenplay, Gautier's "probing" cinematography and Denis' "laser-focused" direction for laying bare the characters' emotions "with fluid modulation of tone". Rooney also praised the film's "rigorous rejection of sentimentality" and its sex scenes for "involving middle-aged bodies captured with such unselfconscious naturalness and grace." Guy Lodge of ''The Guardian'' praised the "unusually elegant geometry" of the film's love triangle as well as Denis' "rich, nuanced exploration of female desire from the fault lines of an ostensibly simple narrative", and complimented Binoche and Lindon on the emotional range of their performances. Kevin Maher of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' gave the film four stars out of five, writing, "Binoche, typically, is on commanding form, working once more with a film-maker who seems intuitively aware of how to harness her every glance or grimace."

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * * {{Claire Denis 2022 films 2022 romantic drama films French romantic drama films 2020s French films 2020s French-language films Films directed by Claire Denis Films based on French novels Films shot in Paris Films set in Paris Films impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic