''Frontier of the Dawn'' also ''Frontier of Dawn'' (french: La Frontière de l'aube) is a 2008 French drama film directed by
Philippe Garrel
Philippe Garrel (; born 6 April 1948) is a French director, cinematographer, screenwriter, film editor, and producer, associated with the French New Wave movement. His films have won him awards at Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival.
...
. It stars
Louis Garrel
Louis Garrel (born 14 June 1983) is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his starring role in '' The Dreamers'', directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. ,
Laura Smet, and
Clémentine Poidatz. It tells the story of a photographer who is haunted by the ghost of his dead lover. It was screened at the
2008 Cannes Film Festival
The 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival was held from 14 to 25 May 2008. The President of the Official Jury was American actor and director Sean Penn. Twenty two films from fourteen countries were selected to compete for the ''Palme d'Or''. The awards ...
in competition. It was released in France on 8 October 2008.
Plot
A photographer François visits actress Carole's apartment to take pictures of her. Although Carole has a husband, François and Carole have an affair for a while. After François ends their relationship, Carole suffers a mental illness and commits suicide. A year later, François's lover Ève gets pregnant, and the two will get married. François is haunted by Carole's ghost.
Cast
Release
The film had its world premiere in the Competition section at the
2008 Cannes Film Festival
The 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival was held from 14 to 25 May 2008. The President of the Official Jury was American actor and director Sean Penn. Twenty two films from fourteen countries were selected to compete for the ''Palme d'Or''. The awards ...
on 22 May 2008. It was released in France on 8 October 2008.
Reception
On review aggregation website
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 50% based on 6 reviews, and an average rating of 6.1/10.
Aaron Cutler of ''
Slant Magazine'' wrote: "At times ''Frontier'' feels more like homage than like a film in its own right, but if its goal is to pay tribute to the dead, lost, and forgotten, then a reheated quality may be precisely the point." Karina Longworth of ''
IndieWire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...
'' wrote: "Hands down the most accessible Garrel film I've seen, it's still a strange, swoony, genre-bending challenge."
Writing for ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'',
Richard Brody
Richard Brody (born 1958) is an American film critic who has written for ''The New Yorker'' since 1999.
Education
Brody grew up in Roslyn, New York, and attended Princeton University, receiving a B.A. in comparative literature in 1980. He firs ...
listed it as one of the best films of 2009.
References
External links
*
{{Philippe Garrel
2008 films
2008 drama films
2000s French-language films
French drama films
French black-and-white films
Films directed by Philippe Garrel
2000s French films