Serre moi fort

One morning, Clarisse (Vicky Krieps) walks out on her family, leaving her husband Marc, their two children. and the big house with the blue shutters and piano behind. She drives an old AMC Pacer from the 70s to the sea and drifts through space and time. When she returns, there is no longer anyone there, yet she tries with all the means at her disposal to maintain the connection to her family. She fills the gaps that yawn between her memories and the present with imagined hallucinations. Mathieu Amalric films parting and grief as a teetering between what was, what is, and what might have been. The montage of these shards of family life is complemented by an inner monologue in voiceover, piano music from Beethoven to Schönberg, and the intensity of Vicky Krieps’ acting performance. (bik)