I am unfamiliar with Hong Sang-soo’s films, but I like South Korean films. After Elle, I decided to prioritize seeing Isabelle Huppert on the big screen. I was further encouraged to see Claire’s Camera after seeing a promotion for this film ridiculing Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War as the most ambitious crossover event. The movie is only seventy-nine minutes long so without knowing anything else about it, I decided to give it a chance.
Claire’s Camera focuses on Manhee, a young South Korean woman who suddenly finds herself unmoored in a foreign land during the Cannes film festival after an esoteric exchange with her older woman boss, Yanghye. There are two other characters, a director, So, who is the source of Manhee’s troubles, and the titular character, Claire, who initially unwittingly reconnects the characters to each other and brings a sense of closure to Manhee, which does not necessarily mean that things end well. The film’s narrative has a certain sense of logic, but isn’t exactly chronological. We start at one scene then either move backward or forward in time to further explore the central exchange. The bookends take place at her workplace, but the majority of the film takes place outdoors or at tables in front of cafes with occasional interior shots at bookstores or libraries, restaurants or homes.
Claire’s Camera has enough dramatic tonal shifts to leave me ambivalent regarding my feelings about the film. Overall the film, like our main character, is light, open and welcoming, but Manhee shows occasional moments of wariness as she peers into tunnel like openings then walks away from them as if she is worried about what lurks there, but in later scenes, Claire just walks through the area without hesitation thus dispelling the viewers’ subconscious concern of whether or not there is actual or perceived danger. In many ways, Claire’s Camera feels like a ghost story as characters occupy the same spaces at different times and the echo of their presence is felt later on, but only Claire confirms that it is reality, not superstition, which gives them a sense of eeriness.
Claire’s Camera ostensibly feels like the opposite of Richard Linklater’s Before films. All the characters are visitors either for work or pleasure and are temporarily thrown together. There is a recognizable awkward, instant intimacy as visitors struggle to create community while also recognizing that it is not sustainable because of distance and compatibility. The most hilarious scene is when Claire and So are hitting it off until he joins her table, and instead of asking him questions directly, she looks him up on the Internet, which leads to awkward silence. The three South Korean characters voluntarily connect with Claire, but awkwardly try to disengage or change their connection to each other, which actually is more likely to last because they have to return home at some point and return to daily life.
There are a few central themes of Claire’s Camera: judgment, honesty and the act of changing by seeing. Manhee’s boss tells her to “trust my judgment” about her assessment of Manhee that she isn’t honest though open hearted, but karma wins when So echoes the same words to Manhee’s boss. I love intergenerational friendships and relationships, but there is almost a vampiric quality to the older people’s interaction with Manhee, and a lack of self-awareness at their own deficiencies in character. Even though they are all in the business of seeing, they are mostly blind to what is unfolding in front of them and insensitive to their subjects. They use Manhee as a scapegoat for their own insecurities. I became unreasonably furious with everyone constantly asking her if Manhee was cold. Initially I was willing to exclude Claire from this judgment, but when Claire feigns surprise after Manhee recognizes photos of So and shares her background with Claire without Claire later mentioning that they talked about her, I changed my assessment of her. Instead of hanging out with her friend, she is hanging out with these strangers. What is Claire getting out of this scenario: control, a sense of importance and more meaning, validation, than she ordinarily gets? In the end, they succeed at changing Manhee by their constant scrutiny.
There is a superstition that taking someone’s photo can steal your soul. As Claire’s Camera reaches the denouement, Manhee becomes more brusque and withdrawn. There was only one emotionally volatile scene when Manhee stops being her outgoing, open self, emotionally shuts down after we see her interact with So and rejects further engagement with one of the characters that she previously only had positive interactions with in which I could not completely figure out when it occurred in the overall narrative. It is the only time that we see Manhee upset, and by the end of the film, we see her brush off help from someone that she warmly engaged with before. It is completely depressing that she emerges from her epiphany not ready to move on, but returning to a toxic environment and feeling diminished. Honesty is killed.
Claire’s Camera was shot in 2016, but there is a #metoo undercurrent to the entire narrative. There is never a suggestion that sexual relationships were not consensual, but the vibe of the only encounter between Manhee and So feels aggressively possessive, and we see another side of him that contrasts tremendously from all his previous interactions with other characters. Manhee’s demeanor after their exchange is completely different, and she never reverts back to her old self. Her boss and So make Manhee pay for So’s mistakes and try to imply that it is Manhee’s outward appearance and engaging manner that creates licentiousness.
Claire’s Camera occasionally felt improvised. There are subtitles because while the French and South Korean characters speak to each other English, a majority of the dialogue takes place in their respective native languages. Even though the cast is filled with veteran accomplished actors, when they spoke in English, the delivery suddenly felt stilted, which makes sense given the context, but made me wonder if French audiences felt similarly when Kristin Scott Thomas or Alessandro Nivola act in French.
While I enjoyed Claire’s Camera, it left me feeling despondent. When epiphanies only lead to a dog returning to its vomit, it would be better to stay home than travel. It is a story about a woman learning how to stop engaging with the world and being herself as she withdraws into herself alone and left with drudgery to seek approval from someone unworthy of her time and work. She chooses a hostile home to being in limbo in an unfamiliar, but superficially more welcoming world.