Ten Minutes Older: The Cello (Facing Nancy)

MOVIE #1,159 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 09.22.23 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙲𝙻𝙰𝙸𝚁𝙴 𝙳𝙴𝙽𝙸𝚂 (𝙵𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚑: [𝚍ə𝚗𝚒];) 𝙳𝙸𝚁𝙴𝙲𝚃𝙾𝚁 𝙵𝙾𝙲𝚄𝚂 I had originally planned on watching the entirety of this two-part, four-hour anthology project featuring 15 luminary directors including Werner Herzog, Jim Jarmusch, Wim Wenders, Spike Lee, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jean-Luc Godard and of course Denis, among others. But WHO 👏 HAS 👏 THE 👏 DAMN 👏 TIME (sorry). The gist here is that these filmmakers were invited to create their own vision of what time means in about ten minutes of film. The connective tissue (and origin of the subtitles!) is that the soundtrack was scored by the same guy, with the first half being performed on trumpet, and the second half on… you guessed it. It’s the kind of bloated, haughty idea that I can typically get behind but I just wasn’t in the mood. So, for the sake of this Director Focus on Claire Denis, I just watched her segment (“Facing Nancy”).

And it’s easily one of the least memorable things she’s ever made. It's just a conversation between a young lady and an older man on a train about god knows what. Intercut with shots of Alex Descas smoking a cigarette for some reason (I guess he just happened to be there?). They talk about time/space and how we experience life, etc. Idk man. Maybe this works better in the context of the broader anthology. But I doubt it?

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,158 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,160 ⫸

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Ten Minutes Older is a 2002 film project consisting of two compilation feature films titled The Trumpet and The Cello. The project was conceived by the producer Nicolas McClintock as a reflection on the theme of time at the turn of the Millennium. Fifteen celebrated filmmakers were invited to create their own vision of what time means in ten minutes of film. The music for the compilations was composed by Paul Englishby, and performed by Hugh Masekela (trumpet) and Claudio Bohorques (cello). It was released on September 3, 2002.