The-Original-Sin-Of-Claire-Denis [PDF]
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‘NOT TO HAVE LOVE OR PAIN IN YOUR HEART MEANS THAT YOU ARE NOT A VERY WELL FINISHED HUMAN BEING’ CLAIRE DENIS Claire Denis seems to find pleasure and grief in our status as ‘fallen’ beings, writes season curator Sophie Monks Kaufman ‘I guess my films are made out of tenderness and love for human beings even when they can be very brutal,’ Denis said in 2018. She knows herself well; contrasting emotional landscapes colour everything she’s made. The balance sometimes tilts towards brutality (the blood-soaked ears of corn in Bastards) and sometimes towards tenderness (the camera tracing body parts in Vendredi Soir): this season of 10 films moves from one pole to the other. Mysterious atmospheres electrified by sensuality are a motif of her films, as are the primal sounds of Tindersticks, the visions of cinematographer Agnès Godard and the faces of actors she loves to work with, faces which – with the exception of Alex Descas – run more towards dramatic features than classical beauty: Grégoire Colin’s sharp nose, Béatrice Dalle’s gap teeth and Michel Subor’s cold eyes. WANT MORE? See pxx for details on our Woman with a Movie Camera Summit, and pxx for a special event on early women filmmakers TALK Image: Wild Bunch Wild Image: The Cinema of Claire Denis Bastards Les Salauds TRT 80min France-Germany 2013. Dir Claire Denis. The highly distinctive work of Claire With Vincent Lindon, Chiara Mastroianni, Julie Bataille, Michel Subor. 100min. Digital. Denis has defied expectations and EST. 18 pushed the boundary of narrative This harrowing and hypnotic account cinema. In this illustrated talk, of family tragedy, sexual violence season programmer Sophie Monks and the futility of revenge hinges Kaufman will guide you through CLAIRE DENIS on a gruffly magnetic performance Denis’ body of work to date, by Vincent Lindon. He is Marco, considering stylistic elements and a supertanker captain called back narrative motifs that shape the to Paris after his sister’s husband filmmaking practice and vision of commits suicide. Marco loses himself this singular director. pursuing the man he thinks is Tickets £6.50 responsible, while Lola Créton plays White Material a young woman too traumatised France-Cameroon 2009. Dir Claire Denis. With Isabelle Huppert, Christopher Lambert, to speak. Nicolas Duvauchelle, Isaach De Bankolé. 106min. Digital. EST. 15 Also available on In an unspecified part of French the dangerous atmosphere is her colonial Africa, white coffee unstable son (Duvauchelle). plantation owner Maria (Huppert) Dedicated to child soldiers, White clings to her land even as civil war Material is full of grief, and honours and racial conflict brings the spectre the complexity of souls twisted of bloodshed ever closer. Adding to by colonialism MON 3 JUN SAT 22 JUN TUE 25 JUN SUN 9 JUN SAT 22 JUN 18:30 NFT3 20:45 NFT2 20:50 NFT2 20:15 NFT3 18:20 NFT3 @BFI 31 The Intruder L’intrus + intro by I Can’t Sleep J’ai pas sommeil season programmer Sophie France-Germany-Switzerland 1994. Monks Kaufman* Dir Claire Denis. With Yekaterina Golubeva, Richard Courcet, Alex Descas, Béatrice Dalle. France 2004. Dir Claire Denis. 110min. 35mm EST With Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin, Béatrice Dalle, Yekaterina Golubeva, This rarely-screened early Denis film 130min. 35mm EST. 15 exemplifies her preoccupation with Icy-eyed Michel Subor plays Louis, a how banal violence can sit within Trouble Every Day + intro by Anna Bogutskaya, BFI Events Programmer* man who lives alone in the Alps until sympathetic, sometimes graceful France-Germany-Japan 2001. Dir Claire Denis. With Béatrice Dalle, Vincent Gallo, Tricia Vessey, the need for a heart transplant drives people. Set in Paris, the story is Alex Descas. 101min. 35mm EST. 18 him back into civilisation. Themes of driven by an ensemble of characters The most romantic cannibal (a brilliantly cast Béatrice Dalle) father-son relationships and dreams who are all connected, including a movie you’re ever likely to and controlled newlywed Shane of violence are present, yet it’s often beautiful Lithuanian immigrant, a see foreshadowed High Life as a (Vincent Gallo). The Tindersticks’ hard to tell what is really happening struggling musician and a science-fiction story rooted in score, with Stuart Staples’ haunting in this elliptical, maddening, slow-burn, transvestite dancer. And one the eerie darkness of humanity. baritone, is one of their best. CLAIRE DENIS offering of genius – inspired by a of them might be the serial Physical and sexual appetites are Jean-Luc Nancy book. ‘Granny Killer’... as one for force-of-nature Coré SUN 9 JUN SUN 23 JUN SUN 2 JUN MON 10 JUN SAT 8 JUN THU 20 JUN 14:30 NFT3* 20:00 NFT3 17:40 NFT3 20:465 NFT3 20:40 NFT3 18:10 NFT3* 32 book online at bfi.org.uk TALK Beau Travail Philosophical Screens: Beau Travail France 1999. Dir Claire Denis. With Denis and the Philosophy of the Body Lavant, Grégoire Colin, Michel Subor. 93min. 35mm EST. 15 on Screen TRT 60min Jealousy of a popular new recruit (Colin) drives Sergeant Galoup In Claire Denis’ cinema, movement (Lavant) mad under the Djibouti sun and gesture are at least as significant as dialogue or narrative. The latest in this loose adaption of Herman Chocolat CLAIRE DENIS event in our popular series exploring Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor. The France-West Germany-Cameroon 1988. Dir Claire Denis. With Isaach De Bankolé, Giulia Boschi, training routines of French cinema through a philosophical lens François Cluzet, Cécille Ducasse. 105min. 35mm EST. 15 sees William Brown, John legionnaires are choreographed to Claire Denis’ debut announced her to a white family. This is a child’s- O’Maoilearca and Catherine sweaty, homo-erotic perfection. Male as a fully formed talent. Partly eye-view of racial and sexual tension Wheatley examine Denis’ grace is captured along with more inspired by her childhood in French that bubbles with unspoken desires, masterpiece Beau Travail, and how destructive human capabilities in the colonial Africa, Chocolat boasts a injustices, and a jaunty score by bodies on screen can pose questions heat-struck masterpiece that made coiled central performance by Isaach Abdullah Ibrahim. A must-see. about queerness, colonialism, film-lovers fall head over heels for De Bankolé as Protée, ‘house boy’ Claire Denis. isolation and intimacy. Free to ticket holders of Beau Travail on Wed 19 Jun 18:20, otherwise £6.50 (must be booked in advance due to capacity) WED 5 JUN WED 19 JUN WED 19 JUN WED 5 JUN FRI 7 JUN 20:50 NFT2 18:20 NFT3 20:10 BLUE ROOM 20:40 NFT2 20:50 NFT3 @BFI 33 TALK Vendredi Soir Vendredi ON A MISSION All the Boys and Girls of Their Time: Let The Sunshine In Vendredi Soir Claire Denis: The Politics and U.S. Go Home Un beau soleil intérieur France 2002. Dir Claire Denis. With Valérie Poetics of Desire France 1994. Dir Claire Denis. France-Belgium 2017. Dir Claire Denis. Lemercier, Vincent Lindon, Grégoire Colin, TRT 90min Hélène de Saint-Père. 90min. 35mm EST. 15 to find and support With Alice Houri, Grégoire Colin, Vincent With Juliette Binoche, Xavier Beauvois, The theme of desire is an integral Gallo, Jessica Tharaud. 67min. Digital. EST. Alex Descas, Gérard Depardieu. 95min. During a gridlocked traffic jam in part of Denis’ work, yet its context Unconfirmed Digital. EST. 15 Paris one rainy Friday night, Laure and meaning evolves across her This hour of heaven was made for Juliette Binoche radiates soul as a (Lemercier) picks up Jean (Lindon). new filmmakers oeuvre. Join our invited speakers to a French TV series called Tous les divorced artist looking for love in all They end up making love before delve deeper into this defining motif garçons et les filles de leur âge... the wrong places. The vulnerability returning to their separate lives. and ask questions such as what is the Alice Houri and Grégoire Colin of Binoche’s performance – akin to The most conceptually simple Find out more at network.bfi.org.uk role of desire in her cinema? And play squabbling siblings in 1960s her character’s music hero Etta James Claire Denis film, adapted from how does Denis use her unique suburban France. He smokes and (whose ‘At Last’ has a big scene) – a novel by Emmanuèle Bernheim, @bfinetwork visual language to express the dances to The Animals, she’s imbues this classic romcom narrative is also her most erotic – alive with intimacy between the characters hell-bent on losing her virginity. with depth. Dialogue informed sensual details, especially the and the world? They go to a party and meet a US by awareness of social status and artistic close-ups of bodies. Tickets £6.50 CLAIRE DENIS soldier... It’s a mini work fizzing male manipulations anchors the with affection. breezy tone with the gravitas of hard-won wisdom. SUN 2 JUN SAT 15 JUN MON 24 JUN SUN 30 JUN MON 3 JUN WED 12 JUN WED 12 JUN 20:40 NFT2 20:45 NFT3 18:15 NFT2 20:25 NFT2 20:45 NFT3 20:45 NFT3 18:20 NFT3 Tomorrow Might Be The Day Dir. Joséfa Celestin 34 book online at bfi.org.uk NETWORK Ad SB Guide 2019-06 FINAL.indd 1 02/04/2019 17:35.