The Sensual, the Monstrous, and the Everyday in the Cinemas of Claire Denis and François Ozon

University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2014 The Sensual, the Monstrous, and the Everyday in the Cinemas of Claire Denis and François Ozon Amy E. Bertram [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Bertram, Amy E., "The Sensual, the Monstrous, and the Everyday in the Cinemas of Claire Denis and François Ozon. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2014. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/2677 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Amy E. Bertram entitled "The Sensual, the Monstrous, and the Everyday in the Cinemas of Claire Denis and François Ozon." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in French. Christine A. Holmlund, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Les Essif, Sébastien Dubreil, Charles Maland Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) The Sensual, the Monstrous, and the Everyday in the Cinemas of Claire Denis and François Ozon A Dissertation Presented for The Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Amy E. Bertram May 2014 Copyright © by Amy E. Bertram All rights reserved. ii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Phil and Kathy Bertram, for their unconditional love and support. I dedicate it in loving memory to my grandparents, Thelma and Marshall Bertram, whose service to higher education inspired me to become a teacher. I also dedicate it to Frida Kahlo, my sweet cat who almost lived long enough to see it through, and to my dear canine companion, Rusty Shiitake, who came in to my life as PhD coursework began. iii Acknowledgements I would like to express my deep gratitude for the guidance, inspiration, and assistance that Dr. Chris Holmlund has provided during my tenure in graduate school. Her passion for cinema compelled me to begin my own investigations into film, and her dedication to teaching has encouraged me to challenge my own students. I would also like to thank the other members of my committee, Drs. Les Essif, Sebastien Dubreil, and Charles Maland, for their insightful input and advice during the dissertation process. Many heartfelt thanks also go to my vast network of friends and chosen family for their unwavering support, love, and friendship. iv Abstract Claire Denis and François Ozon create thought-provoking, compelling, sensual films that intersect in terms of theme, genre play, and adaptation. The purpose of this study is to examine their work for points of connectivity. Phenomenology, postcolonial theory, queer theory, and globalization studies inform the analysis. As French filmmakers whose careers began at about the same time, Denis and Ozon have both produced almost a film a year. They continue to make new films. They have been grouped with other contemporary French filmmakers under labels such as New French Cinema, New French Extremity, or French Queer Cinema, yet their films have rarely been examined together. This study does just that, providing detailed analyses of fourteen films that reveal deep affinities between the two. They share narrative, thematic, and cinematic choices. Their films similarly immerse spectators in haptic experiences. They concentrate on desire, sexuality, and relationships; on violence and horrific acts; on death and dying. While Denis’s films are often concerned with the repercussions of globalized life, focusing on outsiders in urban settings in France and in formerly colonized countries around the world, and Ozon’s films frequently take place in rural locations in France, both bear witness to the complex and contradictory aspects of the quotidian lives of ordinary people. The fourteen films studied here may often provoke a sense of malaise, or melancholia, yet they also proffer enchantment, sensuality, and rare moments of beauty. v Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 1: Relationships, Desire, and Discord: Affection-images, Any-spaces-whatever and Haptic Moments…………………………………………………………….18 Chapter 2: Sexuality and Adaptation: (Homo)Eroticism and Queer Cinematic Pleasures …………………………………………………………………………………...59 Chapter 3: Sexuality, Criminality and Desire: Beauty and Terror of Everyday Killers …………………………………………………………………………………...98 Chapter 4: Coping, Grieving, Denying: (Re-) Imagining Death and Dying …………………………………………………………………………………...139 Chapter 5: Parents, Siblings, and Strangers: Reconstructing Traditional Family Structures …………………………………………………………………………………...176 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….213 Bibliography……………………………………………………...……………...225 Vita……………………………………………………………….……………...241 vi Introduction: Denis-Ozon Connections Claire Denis and François Ozon are distinctly different filmmakers. Yet, certain of their films pair well together. They have both sustained the prolific production of nearly one film a year. Numerous critical studies in scholarly journals and book-length auteur studies (two for Denis [Beugnet and Mayne] and two for Ozon [Schilt and Rees- Roberts]) secure their status as important contemporary filmmakers. François Ozon’s work is more readily and widely accessible. Still, both his and Denis’s films are typically marketed inside and outside France as auteur films and as art house fare. In this dissertation, I will analyze narrative and cinematic components of several films by Denis and Ozon in chapters that are thematically organized. Each chapter considers a pairing or a group of three films. Points of connectivity between Denis and Ozon include the use of adaptation, creation of haptic spaces, portrayal of desire, sexuality, and relationships, inclusion of intertextual references, consideration of the human capacity for violence and monstrous acts, and depiction of death and dying that is unrelated to murder. I will engage with postcolonial, phenomenological, and queer theories in order to analyze their works. In certain chapters, I will also discuss genre and reference ongoing collaborations with screenwriters, editors, directors of photography, cinematographers, and actors. Without knowledge of French culture and history, especially about the often- thorny relationships between France and her former colonial dependents, pre- and post- Independence, one cannot fully appreciate the narrative content of many of Denis’s films. Her films have received limited distribution, usually screening only on festival circuits 1 and in art house theaters.1 She often chooses difficult subject matter, employs ambiguous and elliptical narratives, and produces a complex cinematic style. Her protagonists are typically marginal figures who, in passing, reveal what contemporary, urban, globalized life is for many in France and abroad. Some of her films are set in Paris or Marseilles, while others take place in formerly colonized countries such as Cameroon, Djibouti, or Tahiti. Certain of her films have garnered a lot of critical attention from both Anglophone and Francophone scholars, most notably Beau travail (Good Work). Ozon’s films are generally easier to understand on a surface level, but they also reveal layers of complexity, making the experience of his films more meaningful with greater familiarity of French culture, history, and politics. More accessible to Anglophone audiences due to his frequent use of theatrical and comedic elements, not to mention English-speaking actors, his films have received critical attention from especially British and American scholars. By contrast with Denis, almost all his protagonists are white. His settings are typically in France and often rural. Although this dissertation will not discuss other filmmakers, it is important to note that Denis and Ozon have been considered together with other of their contemporaries, especially Catherine Breillat. Schilt pairs Ozon and Breillat, Breillat and Denis have been interviewed together, and Beugnet also links them.2 Denis’s and Ozon’s films, minus a few exceptions, do not leave one with the sort of unsettled, bleak feeling 1 A majority of both Denis’s and Ozon’s feature films are now available through mainstream rental companies such as Netflix. However, Denis’s documentaries and short films are harder to come by, for purchase or for rent, in either the U.S. or France. Both directors’ films can be seen occasionally on French television or at international film festivals, and now such streaming services as mubi.com have some available for rent. Most of their feature-length films have had theatrical releases in the U.S. 2 For example, see Sklar. 2 that many of Breillat’s films do. A few examples of their films that do challenge spectators in that way include Denis’ Trouble Every Day, S’en fout la mort (No Fear No Die), and White Material, and Ozon’s Les amants criminels (Criminal Lovers) and the beginning

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