Chansons d’amour (Love Songs)

Here, Rousseau continues his examination of what is and isn’t worthy of being an image, of being a scene, of being a film. A self-portrait whose very suspense is drawn from the tensions of those questions. Alone in a hotel room. A view of a modest pool. Indecision about a shirt. Movement from light to penumbra to shadow. And then back again. Presque rien. A film that dares into the almost-nothing. And, with its extraordinary photographic economy, returns with moving rewards. (C.W. Winter)