Both Sides of the Blade

Name: Both Sides of the Blade
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: July 8, 2022
Duration: 116 min
Rating: 73
Cast: Bulle Ogier, Grégoire Colin, Hana Magimel, Issa Perica, Juliette Binoche

2022

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Generally favorable reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Ratings

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6.7	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Ratings

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Both Sides Of The Blade (US Trailer 1)

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Movie Details & Credits

IFC Films | Release Date: July 8, 2022 | Not Rated

Starring: Bulle Ogier, Grégoire Colin, Hana Magimel, Issa Perica, Juliette Binoche, Mati Diop, Vincent Lindon

Movie Facts:

Screened at the 2022 Berlinale (and in some other locations) under the title "Fire."

Summary: Sara (Juliette Binoche) and Jean (Vincent Lindon) have been in a loving, stable relationship for ten years. They are happy. He is her rock, someone she can hold on to. When they first met, Sara was in a relationship with François (Grégoire Colin), Jean’s best friend. One day, Sara sees François on the street. He does not see her, but she isSara (Juliette Binoche) and Jean (Vincent Lindon) have been in a loving, stable relationship for ten years. They are happy. He is her rock, someone she can hold on to. When they first met, Sara was in a relationship with François (Grégoire Colin), Jean’s best friend. One day, Sara sees François on the street. He does not see her, but she is overwhelmed by a sensation that her life could suddenly change. François does indeed get in touch with Jean to suggest that they work together again. Before long, things are in danger of spiralling out of control. [Berlin]… Expand

Director: Claire Denis

Genre(s): Drama, Romance

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 116 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Alison Willmore

Jul 11, 2022

There is something exquisitely grown-up about Both Sides of the Blade, which works its way up into a series of excruciating fights between Jean and Sara in which they talk and talk and wound one another terribly while failing to ever say what they really mean. Read full review

Josh Kupecki

Jul 14, 2022

Human beings can be really complicated. And thankfully, there are filmmakers around like Claire Denis who make films such as Both Sides of the Blade to remind us of that complexity. Films that seemingly help us in trying to understand each other, but really show us that we might never be able to. Read full review

IndieWire David Ehrlich

Feb 15, 2022

As is often the case with Denis’ films, Fire grows more illuminating as it gets hotter; what starts like a constrained and unusually jagged French drama is eventually forged into an incendiary portrait of three people who — to varying degrees — all delude themselves into thinking that the past is possible to quarantine away from the present. Read full review

Guy Lodge

Feb 15, 2022

Denis’ latest sees her applying her usual rigorous form and psychological curiosity to material that tends to inspire more generic directorial treatment, teasing out a rich, nuanced exploration of female desire from the fault lines of an ostensibly simple narrative. Read full review

The Film Stage Rory O'Connor

Feb 15, 2022

It isn’t difficult to imagine Denis–one of the most cerebral, confounding filmmakers we have–constructing Fire, with its oddly trivial love triangle and omnipresent string section, as a duplicitous farce; a way to upend our expectations of how a film like this should look. Read full review

Elizabeth Weitzman

Jul 8, 2022

A slow burn that never quite bursts into flame, Both Sides of the Blade is likely to appeal most to those who are already fans of director Claire Denis. That said, would anyone turn down the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with her luminous leading lady, Juliette Binoche? Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

Jul 13, 2022

The whole thing looks like an ad for cologne. Read full review

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User Reviews

MickVV

Aug 3, 2022

Excellent adult drama that captures well the many vagaries of the human heart.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

quentinm

Jul 19, 2022

Do not leave your seat before the credits are done. More is revealed as the credits scroll down! That said, this is a literary film, burrowing into its main character, Sara. You will ruin the pleasure of watching if you start judging her; best to try to understand what she is undergoing.Do not leave your seat before the credits are done. More is revealed as the credits scroll down! That said, this is a literary film, burrowing into its main character, Sara. You will ruin the pleasure of watching if you start judging her; best to try to understand what she is undergoing. The dialogue is often amazingly plausible. Binoche has the kind of beauty that compels one's unwavering attention. There is a lot of mystery in this film, which makes it both interesting and nettlesome, but definitely worth seeing.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

JLuis_001

Dec 25, 2022

Love's fickleness is so extreme that the stability you may have fought for for years can be shattered in a second by a chance encounter that turns you into someone else.

This story may seem like a romance at first, but soon it becomes a story whose language devolves into constant evasionsLove's fickleness is so extreme that the stability you may have fought for for years can be shattered in a second by a chance encounter that turns you into someone else.

This story may seem like a romance at first, but soon it becomes a story whose language devolves into constant evasions and outright lies until it all comes out, and those moments are never tidy or pleasant.

The storytelling is not too clean and there is more than one occasion where it gives the feeling that the script is pushing towards melodrama, not so much to force the breakdown because you can see it coming, but to give a sense of gloom, which to some extent is understandable. Once the breaking point is reached, nothing is ever the same again and now we see how the masks fall.

Both Sides of the Blade is a film that relies entirely on the strength of its actors and their performances. A dialogue driven drama from beginning to end.
Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon do a more than excellent job and are the pillars of the story as they should be.
It may not be spectacular, but it is enjoyable, nonetheless.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

Mauro_Lanari

Feb 12, 2023

(Mauro Lanari)
As states the title of the 2018 book by Christine Angot on which the film she co-wrote the screenplay is based, Binoche's Sara is at "Un tournant de la vie", a mid-life crisis [not really: protagonists are in their sixties but they are keen to show themselves younger].(Mauro Lanari)
As states the title of the 2018 book by Christine Angot on which the film she co-wrote the screenplay is based, Binoche's Sara is at "Un tournant de la vie", a mid-life crisis [not really: protagonists are in their sixties but they are keen to show themselves younger]. Undecided about everything, she will pay the consequences, a "Buridan's ass" with a foregone outcome. The baroque pop of Tinderstick creates a dark pall of incomprehensible dramatic tension which weighs down Claire Denis' work even more. Silver Bear for Best Director to a typical French story about an affective/love/sentimental/sexual mess. Menopause for all of them?… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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