The centerpiece of Claire Denis’ “Stars at Noon” plays out in a stilled, near-empty nightclub suffused with violet light, where two strangers in a strange land share a moment of swooning intimacy.
We glimpse Trish (Margaret Qualley) first adrift in the dark before two hands, belonging to the Englishman (Joe Alwyn) she’s become entangled with, materialize at her waist.
She grips a sleeve of his white linen suit, clutching its fabric, as he leans close enough to breathe her scent; they sway, eyes shut, before she throws her arms around him.
Awash in the languid, discarnate grooves of a title track crooned by Stuart Staples, of long-time Denis collaborators Tindersticks, the two cling together as if drowning, their slow dance slipping out of time and space into a realm of overpowering emotional and physical sensation, if only for a few minutes.
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