Event

Ne Change Rien

Seattle Premiere!

(Pedro Costa, 2009, Portugal/France, 35mm, 100 min)
Pedro Costa's ninth film is a bit of a change of pace for the director, who traditionally concentrates on the marginalized and underserved communities of Lisbon. Retaining the distinctive low-light visual style of his previous films, he turns his camera on French chanteuse-actress Jeanne Balibar, in a dreamlike meditation on the process of creating music. Costa situates Balibar and her band, including the great guitar virtuoso Rudolphe Burger, in often-cramped isolation against receding darkness as they work their way through calmly sad melodies. Balibar herself appears as one compelled, repeating melodic fragments for minutes at a stretch, encapsulating her experience and memories through song. Less a documentary than an experiment in pure-cinema aesthetics, Ne Change Rien takes the time to make space for reflection on what it means to create.

"An original, truly contemporary take on the music genre." Senses of Cinema