- Claire Denis
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Claire Denis
Denis at the 66th Venice International Film FestivalBorn 21 April 1948
Paris, FranceOccupation Director, writer, professor Claire Denis (born 21 April 1948) is a French film director and Professor of Film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.[1]
Contents
Early life
Denis was born in Paris, France, and raised in colonial Africa (Burkina Faso, Somalia, Senegal and Cameroon), where her father was a French civil servant.[2] She moved houses every two years because her father wanted them to know about geography. She used to watch the old damaged copies of war films sent from America when she was growing up in Africa. As an adolescent she loved to read. She would read all the required material in school, but would then sneak her mother's detective stories at night.[3]
Career
Denis initially studied economics, but, she has said, "It was completely suicidal. Everything pissed me off."[3] She then went to the IDHEC, the French film school, at the encouragement of her husband. He told her she needed to figure out what she wanted to do.[3] She graduated from the IDHEC, and served as assistant to Jacques Rivette, Costa-Gavras, Jim Jarmusch, and Wim Wenders. Since 2002 Claire Denis has been a Professor of Film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.[1]
Her debut feature film Chocolat (1988), a semi-autobiographical meditation on African colonialism, won her critical acclaim. With films such as US Go Home (1994), Nénette et Boni (1996), Beau travail (1999), Trouble Every Day (2001), and Vendredi soir (2002) she established a reputation as a filmmaker who "has been able to reconcile the lyricism of French cinema with the impulse to capture the often harsh face of contemporary France."[4]
A large number of Denis' films concentrate on the everyday lives of immigrants and French people of African origin. Indeed, a lion's share of her films possess a central character that is a black male; this tendency remains unique to Denis in both France and abroad. However, Denis' films can be said to maintain less avowed political overtness than subtle multiculturalism and plurality.
Denis was a band leader, worked as an actress, notably in Venus Beauty Institute (2000), and directed for French TV. Two of her movies, L'Intrus and her contribution to Ten Minutes Older: The Cello, were inspired by the French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, as Denis and Nancy have confirmed in a video lecture at European Graduate School.[5]
Style
The majority of Denis' oeuvre uses location work over studio work. She sometimes places her actors as if they were positioned for still photography. She uses longer takes with a stationary camera and frames things in long shot, resulting in fewer close ups. However, Denis' cinematic and topical focus always remains relentlessly on the faces and bodies of her protagonists. The subject's body in space, and how the particular terrain, weather, and color of the landscape influences and interacts with the human subjects of her films maintains cinematic dominance.
Tim Palmer explores Denis' work as a self-declared formalist and brilliant film stylist per se; an approach the filmmaker herself has declared many times in interview to be as much about sounds, textures, colors and compositions as broader thematic concerns or social commitments.[6]
Filmography
Feature films
- Chocolat / Chocolate (1988)
- S'en fout la mort / No Fear, No Die (1990)
- J'ai pas sommeil / I Can't Sleep (1994)
- Nénette et Boni / Nenette and Boni (1996)
- Beau travail / Good Work (1999)
- Trouble Every Day (2001)
- Vendredi soir / Friday Night (2002)
- L'intrus / The Intruder (2004)
- 35 rhums / 35 Shots of Rum (2008)
- White Material (2009)
Short films
- Keep It for Yourself (1991)
- Contre l'oubli / Against Oblivion (1991)
- segment: Pour Ushari Ahmed Mahmoud, Soudan
- Boom-Boom (1994)
- Tous les garçons et les filles de leur âge / All the Boys and the Girls of Their Age (1994)
- segment: US Go Home
- À propos de Nice, la suite (1995)
- segment: Nice, Very Nice
- Ten Minutes Older: The Cello (2002)
- segment: Vers Nancy / Towards Nancy
Documentary films
- Man No Run (1989)
- Jacques Rivette, le veilleur / Jacques Rivette, the Watchman (1990)
- Vers Mathilde / Towards Mathilde (2005)
Further reading
- "L'intrus: An Interview with Claire Denis" by Damon Smith (Senses of Cinema).
- "Dancing Reveals So Much: An Interview with Claire Denis" by Darren Hughes (Senses of Cinema).
- "Great Directors: Claire Denis" by Samantha Dinning (Senses of Cinema).
- Martine Beugnet, Claire Denis, 2004, Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York.
- Judith Mayne, Claire Denis, 2005, University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago.
- Spectacularly Intimate: An Interview with Claire Denis, by Kevin Lee, (MUBI).
References
- ^ a b "Claire Denis Faculty Page at European Graduate School (Biography, bibliography and video lectures)". European Graduate School. http://www.egs.edu/faculty/claire-denis/biography/. Retrieved 2010-10-27.
- ^ Hermione Eyre, "Claire Denis on filmmaking and feminism," Prospect, 21 June 2010, http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2010/06/loving-the-lost-and-monstrous/
- ^ a b c Ancian, Aimé (2002). "Claire Denis: An Interview". Senses of Cinema. Archived from the original on 18 October 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20061018081600/http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/02/23/denis_interview.html. Retrieved 26 November 2006.
- ^ Taylor, Charles (2000-03-31). "Beau Travail". Salon.com. http://archive.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2000/03/31/beau_travail/. Retrieved 13 June 2006.
- ^ Claire Denis and Jean-Luc Nancy. L'Intrus. The Intruder. European Graduate School. Video Lecture. 2007.
- ^ Palmer, Tim (2011). Brutal Intimacy: Analyzing Contemporary French Cinema, Wesleyan University Press, Middleton CT. ISBN 0819568279.
External links
- Claire Denis. Faculty page at European Graduate School (Biography, filmography, photos and video lectures)
- Claire Denis at the Internet Movie Database
- Claire Denis, a Reverse Shot symposium
Categories:- 1948 births
- Female film directors
- French film directors
- European Graduate School faculty
- Living people
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