There was some buzz for Nino when it first premiered at Cannes, so I knew I wanted to prioritize this when it was first announced at TIFF.
In many ways this was like a modernized take on the Cléo from 5 to 7 story, although the time-frame of Friday to Monday through which the events of Nino take place is not nearly as tight as the hour and a half approach that Agnes Varda takes to telling the story of Cleo. Much like Cleo however, there is a similar sense of timing and space in terms of the blocking, framing and editing of where Nino is headed from moment to moment. We see him bump into a former classmate of his from long ago. He is self-conscious and disappointed with the way his life is going – working an unimpressive job by comparison, and also finding out he has throat cancer from his medical exam results. He lies to her about how things are going, lies about how he’s going to have a child just like her, and later buys a baby monitor off of her for cheap to get in her good graces and to continue the lie.
We also see Nino attend his own surprise birthday party. He tries to celebrate with the others there, but his own anxieties surrounding his recent medical diagnosis are plaguing him. He leaves after a while and wanders. He reaches out to his mom – he stays with his mom for a while. He has this secret that he wants to share with her – namely his recent diagnosis. His mom notices his pain, but instead he says it’s depression and brushes it off as nothing more. He continues to shut himself off lest he burden others about his own problems.
He reunites with his classmate Zoe, visits her apartment and stays with her for a while. A romantic interest develops between the two, but Nino reveals that he has been lying all along and that he doesn’t have a child. Zoe seems fine with this for a bit, as the lie isn’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, and Nino seems like a pretty unproblematic guy who gets along quite well with her son. Yet it is Nino’s inability to reconcile with his insecurities about his life, his anxieties surrounding death and illness as well as him distancing from everyone else up to this point that prevents the relationship from blossoming further. He leaves, and afterwards we see Nino getting ready to receive treatment for his cancer. We do not know the effectiveness of the treatment or what happens to him after.
In other words, the influences are quite clear. Yet even if it is not the most special film, but Nino still hits all the right notes as far as a film of its style goes.