EDEN (Mia Hansen-Løve) Opening Friday (June 26). 131 minutes. See listing. Rating: NNN
Where to watch: iTunes
During the years 1992 to 2013, Parisian Paul (Félix de Givry) embraces electronic dance music as a teenager, becomes a DJ and does everything he can to remain one – which is to say, he does nothing else.
The subject matter may seem a strange choice for Mia Hansen-Løve, director of such tender life studies as The Father Of My Children and Goodbye First Love, but it’s based on the experiences of her brother Sven, who co-wrote the screenplay.
It’s still her movie, though, taking an elliptical, emotional route through the chaotic French club scene and spending more time on Paul’s string of lovers and perpetual money woes than on the production of club hits or the evolution of Daft Punk, who are name-checked throughout.
But that’s the point: life is what happens beyond the turntables, and it’s perversely fascinating to spend two decades with a character who learns almost nothing.