This critic has often compared Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon’s films to the work of Jacques Tati, but in their latest film, The Falling Star, what strikes the viewer is how much it feels like something out of the Aki Kaurismäki universe. Abel and Gordon, a real-life married couple who also star in their own films, are a consistent and oft-overlooked delight. Their mime-like prioritization of physical comedy is at the root of their films’ droll sense of humor, but their keen sense of how to use stillness for maximum impact is what really elevates their work.
The Falling Star is perhaps their least sentimental film, but that doesn’t mean it’s without their trademark sense of warmth. Boris (Abel) is a mob boss laying low as a bartender in a nondescript Parisian bar called the Falling Star. After an attempt on his life, he is forced to go into hiding, and his cronies find a sadsack named Dom (likewise played by Abel), who also happens to be a dead-ringer for Boris, to unwittingly take his place. Farcical hijinks ensue when it’s discovered that Dom isn’t quite the loner he seemed and that his estranged wife Fiona (Gordon) is a private eye who is hot on his trail.
There’s something undeniably beguiling about a husband and wife team directing and starring in films in which they play each other’s love interests. While this could certainly be a recipe for projects that skew toward the cloying, Abel and Gordon’s films are so skillful and nimbly directed that they’re nearly impossible to resist. The duo’s love of the circus brought them together, and both that love and raucous influence is deeply evident on screen. The directors often frame their characters in full shots, allowing their bodies to do much of the talking. In The Falling Star, violence is introduced into the melancholic spectacle of their world, but it’s always the tool of fools and buffoons, always rebuffed through the gentle circus antics of Dom and Fiona.
Mileage may certainly vary depending on your tolerance for that sort of quirkiness, but there’s a moving sense of sadness at the heart of The Falling Star that is hard to shake. This inflection is present in all of Abel and Gordon’s films — a poignant sense of loneliness balanced by the balm of their unique brand of slapstick. The director-performers use their bodies to create something deeply as skillful as it is heartfelt, and this comedic language feels like something brought forth from the silent era; a romantic Chaplinesque adventure filled with as much silliness as pathos, with Abel (who resembles a French Don Knotts) as our intrepid little tramp and Gordon as his waifish love who comes to the hapless chap’s rescue. There’s simply no one out there doing it like these two.
DIRECTOR: Abel & Gordon; CAST: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy, Phillippe Martz; DISTRIBUTOR: Kino Lorber; IN THEATERS: August 30; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 38 min.
