Stars at Noon Unclassified 15+
Legendary French sensualist Claire Denis returns with a steamy, Cannes Grand Prix–winning romance-thriller starring Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn.
In this swooning, sexually charged adaptation of Denis Johnson’s 1986 novel, Qualley (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, MIFF 2019) stars as an American journalist drifting through a boozy haze in Nicaragua. While there, a side hustle in sexual favours leads her into a hot and heavy liaison with a mysterious English businessman (Alwyn, The Favourite, The Souvenir: Part II) – and into a web of political espionage from which both desperately seek to escape.
One of contemporary cinema’s greatest auteurs, Denis (Let the Sunshine In, MIFF 2017; Bastards, MIFF 2013; Beau Travail, MIFF 2000) infuses the source text’s drama with her singular brand of disquieting eroticism, updating its Nicaraguan Revolution backdrop to a pandemic-addled world haunted by the ghosts of colonisation and foreign co-dependence. With slippery supporting turns from John C. Reilly as a harried editor and filmmaker Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems; Good Time, MIFF 2017) as a shadowy stranger, Stars at Noon is sheer cinematic seduction – all danger and desire.
“From the film’s bristling, dust-licked atmospherics to its frank, corporeal eroticism to yet another shivery, enveloping score by longtime collaborators Tindersticks, [Stars at Noon] is vintage Denis.” – Variety
Tickets
For information about the accessible services being offered at MIFF, please visit miff.com.au/access. If you require any access service, such as wheelchair/step-free access, for any MIFF session, please call 03 9087 3395 or email boxoffice@miff.com.au to book your ticket.
For information about the accessible services being offered at the regional cinemas, please contact the venue directly.