Casey Affleck's "Company" landed in the main competition at Venice this week, and by the sound of it, the film is built almost entirely on restraint. According to Variety, the drama jumps between three timelines — 1975, 1953 and 1903, with each segment connected by an act of storytelling passed from one character to another.

The cast is a mix of veterans and newer faces: Nick Nolte, Adelaide Clemens, Ben Mendelsohn, Scoot McNairy, Emily Alyn Lind, Caylee Cowan and Atticus Affleck. Affleck, who also directs, shoots much of the film with just two actors in frame, or sometimes one, letting the camera sit still while the performances do the moving.

Nolte plays Tom, an old man living alone in winter isolation who finds a young woman, Alice (Cowan), passed out in the snow outside his cabin. He brings her in, warms her up, and she tells him a story about a couple living in a near-identical cabin in 1903. That's where Clemens and McNairy come in, playing a couple on an isolated farm who, in a kind of echo, rescue a stranger of their own from the cold. Caleb, played by Atticus Affleck, a man who talks up his travels and his philosophy with equal parts swagger and nerves.

Built on the two-shot

Clemens told Variety the film pushed her toward something she's been circling as an actor for a while. "As I've gotten older, and I've worked more in the industry, I've started to learn the power of a two shot," she said, crediting cinematographer Marcell Rév for pulling it off. Unlike directors who frame a two-shot and then cover it with cutaways, she said Affleck largely stayed put, trusting the actors to carry entire scenes "from the shins up."

Nolte, for his part, said what pulled him into the project was the script's use of silence. "It had these silences and gaps, and the storytelling was obvious," he told Variety, adding that he didn't want to play Tom as a straightforward hermit but as someone who'd deliberately chosen distance from other people, the kind of man who'd probably have made his living as a trapper.

There's a quieter story running under all this too. Nolte is 86, and he was candid about how few roles exist for an actor his age. "I find that without the work, there just isn't any reason to keep on going," he said, before adding that he has more projects lined up and has no interest in retiring as long as he's physically able.

No distributor or release date has been announced for "Company" beyond its Venice competition slot. Whether the film picks up a jury prize, or simply a distribution deal on the strength of its Lido reception, should become clearer as the festival's awards weekend approaches.