1000 Times Good Night

Note: Originally written in June 2015

As we navigate through life, we are often confounded by choices; choices that we need to make from amongst options that cannot co-exist. Often these choices lead to irreversible circumstances and consequences. Yet we move along with considerable adeptness at making these choices. The conundrum for Rebecca (Juliette Binoche) though, as she faces the inevitability of a choice, is that either consequence of this choice is not only irreversible but also powerful and thoroughly devastating. A war photographer who was almost killed in a suicide bombing, Rebecca returns home only to face an ultimatum from her family to quit her life threatening job or loose their intimacy. The film takes us closer to the various characters surrounding this conundrum at multiple levels; primarily Rebecca, secondarily her teenage daughter and husband who're increasingly growing distant from her yet show some level of understanding, and tertiary-ly, the various global communities at strife that Rebecca helps through her daring photojournalism. The screenplay and narration carefully balance moments of emotional poignance and conflict without getting judgmental at any point. The camera work is strikingly gorgeous; the background score, minimal yet appropriate. But the film is entirely anchored on Juliette Binoche's terrific acting, which proves with immediacy why she is one of the greatest contemporary actors. For just her alone, this stands out as a very powerful film. 

Read more on the flick at IMDB and Letterboxd.