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Claire Denis |
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Director / Screenwriter |
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1948 - |
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Born April 21,
Paris, France |
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Key
Production Countries: France, Germany |
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Key
Genres: Drama,
Psychological Drama, Romance, Family Drama |
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Key
Collaborators: Agnes Godard
(Cinematographer), Gregoire Colin (Leading Player), Jean-Pol Fargeau
(Screenwriter), Alex Descas (Leading Character Player), Arnaud de Moleron
(Production Designer), Nelly Quettier
(Editor), Stuart Staples/Tindersticks (Composer), Isaach De Bankole
(Leading Player), Vincent Gallo (Leading Player), Bruno Pesery (Producer) |
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Recommended:
U.S. Go Home [TV] (1994),
Friday Night (2002), The Intruder (2004)^, 35 Shots of Rum (2008)^, White
Material (2009) |
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Worth
a Look: No Fear, No Die (1990), I Can't Sleep (1994),
Nenette et Boni (1996), Beau travail (1998)* |
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Approach with Caution: Chocolat (1988) |
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Duds: Trouble Every Day (2001) |
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* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section; ^
Listed in TSPDT's
21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films
section. |
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Links: [
Amazon
] [
IMDB ] [
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [
Senses of Cinema: Great Directors ] [
Wikipedia ] [
The
European Graduate School Biography ] [
Kinoeye Feature (2003) ] [
The Guardian: Claire Denis Interviewed by Jonathan Romney ] [
Errata Interview (2004) ] [
Film
Comment Interview (2005) ] [
Senses of Cinema Interview (2002) ] [
Screening the Past Article (2006) ] [
Reverse Shot Article (2009)
] |
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Books:
[
Claire Denis (Contemporary Film Directors)
] [
Claire Denis (French Film Directors)
] |
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"So
its clear, I think, how far certain running ideas in French
cinema - evident in the thirties and hurried forward in the New
Wave - are still being pursued. Claire Denis reminds one not
just of the wonder of French cinema, but of its sense of
history."
-
David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002) |
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"A
provocative director whose films offer richly textured,
contemplative examinations of cross-cultural tensions and
alienation, Claire Denis is one of French cinema's most
distinctive and humanistic storytellers. A prolific filmmaker
who is more concerned with the drive of her characters rather
than the plot that weaves them together, she has been dubbed by
one critic as one of the only current French directors who "has
been able to reconcile the lyricism of French cinema with the
impulse to capture the often harsh face of contemporary France."" -
Rebecca Flint Marx (All-Movie Guide) |
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"Aside
from their striking visual quality and formal dexterity, Denis'
films exude tender affection for, and solidarity with, a range
of everyday people – exiles, immigrants, sexual transgressives
and alienated urban dwellers – who thrive on the margins of
society. At the same time, much of her work questions the
self-serving assumptions and prejudices of the dominant white
European culture." -
Damon Smith (Senses of Cinema, 2005)
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"If filming means you have to control everything I'd shoot myself.
You already have to control the framing, the colors, the
costumes, the sets and all that. But that's done before, the
control's done before. What I like during filming is that these
are moments when you have the right not to reply and to let
things happen. Before the shoot, after the shoot, you have to
account for everything." -
Claire Denis |
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Please
note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based
only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director
that we haven't seen include
Towards Mathilde
(2005). |
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7 |
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"A
white liberal director who spent her formative years living
in colonial Africa, Claire Denis is one of the most original
and daring directors to emerge from France. What she seems
to be attempting, and frequently achieving, is a
phenomenological, almost existential, cinema. Her ambition
is, in her words, "to capture moments... pieces of time."
There is an almost anthropological interest in minutiae -
gestures, faces, surfaces - as her camera zeroes in and
lingers long on pinpoint details. Denis self-deprecatingly
puts her meditative style down to the fact that she is a "a
bit slow."
-
Lloyd Hughes, The Rough Guide to Film |
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●
Top 250 Directors |
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●
21st Century Top 50 |
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●
100 Essential Directors (Pop
Matters) |
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● The Wild Bunch... 50 of the Movies' Maddest Visionaries |
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Ranked
3rd on Film Comment's list of the 25 Best Directors of the Decade
(2000-2009) |
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●
501 Movie Directors: A
Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers |
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See Also |
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Chantal Akerman |
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Michelangelo Antonioni |
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Jean-Jacques Beineix |
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Bernardo Bertolucci |
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Catherine Breillat |
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Manoel de Oliveira |
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Bruno Dumont |
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Vincent
Gallo (External Link) |
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Julio Medem |
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François Ozon |
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Jacques Rivette |
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Wim Wenders |
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Claire Denis's Favourites |
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Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Rainer Werner
Fassbinder,
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Spike Lee,
Germany, Year Zero (1947)
Roberto Rossellini,
The Home and the World (1984)
Satyajit Ray,
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
John Cassavetes,
Late Spring (1949)
Yasujiro Ozu,
No, or the Vain Glory of Command (1990)
Manoel de Oliveira,
La Notte (1961)
Michelangelo
Antonioni,
Nouvelle vague (1990)
Jean-Luc Godard,
Pickpocket (1959)
Robert Bresson.
Source:
Sight & Sound
(1992) |
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