If 2021 has been a calvacade of bad decisions, dashed hopes, and warning signs for cinema’s strength, the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming has at least buttressed our hopes for something like a better tomorrow. Anyway. The Channel will let us ride out distended (holi)days in the family home with an extensive Alfred Hitchcock series to bring the family together—from the established Rear Window and Vertigo to the (let’s just guess) lesser-seen Downhill and Young and Innocent—Johnnie To’s Throw Down and Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons in their Criterion editions, and some streaming premieres: Ste. Anne, Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over, and The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love.
Special notice to Yvonne Rainer’s brain-expanding Film About a Woman Who . . .—debuting in “Female Gaze: Women Directors + Women Cinematographers,” a series that does as it says on the tin—and a Joseph Cotten retro boasting Ambersons,...
Special notice to Yvonne Rainer’s brain-expanding Film About a Woman Who . . .—debuting in “Female Gaze: Women Directors + Women Cinematographers,” a series that does as it says on the tin—and a Joseph Cotten retro boasting Ambersons,...
- 11/21/2021
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
On the occasion of Claire Denis’s birthday today, we are reprinting this Fall, 1997 interview from our print edition — writer/director Ira Sachs, whose first feature, The Delta, was in release, speaking with Denis around the U.S. opening of her Nenette et Boni. For the past ten years, the French director Claire Denis has been making a vital group of films which, with their mixture of intimate drama, sociological observation, and political acuity, have established her as an important influence on other independent-minded filmmakers around the world. After working as a crew member on Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law,Denis made […]...
- 4/21/2020
- by Ira Sachs
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
On the occasion of Claire Denis’s birthday today, we are reprinting this Fall, 1997 interview from our print edition — writer/director Ira Sachs, whose first feature, The Delta, was in release, speaking with Denis around the U.S. opening of her Nenette et Boni. For the past ten years, the French director Claire Denis has been making a vital group of films which, with their mixture of intimate drama, sociological observation, and political acuity, have established her as an important influence on other independent-minded filmmakers around the world. After working as a crew member on Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law,Denis made […]...
- 4/21/2020
- by Ira Sachs
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Photo by Darren HughesTHE Beau Travail Effect When Film Comment surveyed nearly 120 filmmakers, critics, and programmers for its “Best of the Nineties” feature in the January/February 2000 issue, only four people mentioned Claire Denis.. A year later Beau travail topped the magazine’s poll of the best films of 2000. The only evidence I’ve been able to find of a complete Denis retrospective in the English-speaking world during the 1990s was one organized by Linda Blackaby at the 1997 Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema. Whereas between 2000 and 2003—following Beau Travail’s festival tour of Venice, Toronto, New York, Sundance, Berlin, and on and on—Denis was the spotlight of retros at the Cinematheque Ontario (courtesy of James Quandt), the National Film Theatre London, the Dublin International Film Festival, and the Northwest Film Forum. There were certainly others. This is not to suggest that Denis was unknown before Beau travail. Her first...
- 4/17/2019
- MUBI
In the ranks of international arthouse auteurs, the status of Claire Denis is curiously ambiguous: depending on which lens you look through, she’s either among the most venerated or the most undervalued filmmakers working today. Ask the critical community, and you’ll leave very much with the former impression. Many writers, this one included, will heap her with lofty superlatives, “greatest working filmmaker” among them; in the last edition of Sight & Sound magazine’s famous decennial critics’ poll of the greatest films of all time, her hypnotic 1998 masterwork “Beau Travail” was one of just four films from the last 20 years to place in the top 100.
And yet, 30 years and 13 features into a career at once dauntingly consistent and thrillingly unpredictable, the diminutive 72-year-old Frenchwoman is held in curiously circumspect regard by her own industry. She has never won an award at Cannes, Venice or Berlin, with a Locarno Golden...
And yet, 30 years and 13 features into a career at once dauntingly consistent and thrillingly unpredictable, the diminutive 72-year-old Frenchwoman is held in curiously circumspect regard by her own industry. She has never won an award at Cannes, Venice or Berlin, with a Locarno Golden...
- 10/17/2018
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Claire Denis comedy and Léonor Serraille’s Camera d’Or winner also among haul.
UK art-house kingpin Curzon Artificial Eye has locked up a further four Cannes titles bringing its current haul from the festival to a mighty 10 movies.
New to the slate are Claire Denis’ Let The Sunshine In (Un Beau Soleil Interieur), joint winner of the Sacd award in Directors’ Fortnight, Laurent Cantet’s well-received The Workshop (L’Atelier), Léonor Serraille’s Camera d’Or winner Young Woman (Jeune Femme) and Rungano Nyoni’s striking Directors’ Fortnight entry I Am Not A Witch.
As previously announced the distributor has acquired Palme d’Or winner The Square, Grand Prix winner 120 Beats Per Minute, best screenplay winner The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, Fatih Akin’s Competition drama In The Fade (Aus Dem Nichts), for which Diane Kruger won the best actress prize, Michael Haneke’s Happy End and Francois Ozon’s L’Amant Double.
Directors...
UK art-house kingpin Curzon Artificial Eye has locked up a further four Cannes titles bringing its current haul from the festival to a mighty 10 movies.
New to the slate are Claire Denis’ Let The Sunshine In (Un Beau Soleil Interieur), joint winner of the Sacd award in Directors’ Fortnight, Laurent Cantet’s well-received The Workshop (L’Atelier), Léonor Serraille’s Camera d’Or winner Young Woman (Jeune Femme) and Rungano Nyoni’s striking Directors’ Fortnight entry I Am Not A Witch.
As previously announced the distributor has acquired Palme d’Or winner The Square, Grand Prix winner 120 Beats Per Minute, best screenplay winner The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, Fatih Akin’s Competition drama In The Fade (Aus Dem Nichts), for which Diane Kruger won the best actress prize, Michael Haneke’s Happy End and Francois Ozon’s L’Amant Double.
Directors...
- 5/31/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2; Alps; Killing Them Softly; The Claire Denis Collection
With author Stephenie Meyer's bodysnatching romp The Host due in cinemas shortly, and the underrated Beautiful Creatures sadly failing to fill the Twi-hard gap, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012, EntertainmentOne, 12) ships up on disc alongside the boxed set The Twilight Saga – The Complete Collection. The last time I defended Bella, Edward and Jacob in these pages, it provoked a barrage of Guardianista messageboard abuse, so let me say that if you're not already on board, there's nothing here for you – just move along. For everyone else, the second part of this final instalment finds safe pair of hands Bill Condon (who provides a commentary track) having more campy fun than he did in Part 1, with Kristen Stewart's long-suffering heroine finally growing a set of vampire teeth and taking command of centre stage.
Having...
With author Stephenie Meyer's bodysnatching romp The Host due in cinemas shortly, and the underrated Beautiful Creatures sadly failing to fill the Twi-hard gap, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012, EntertainmentOne, 12) ships up on disc alongside the boxed set The Twilight Saga – The Complete Collection. The last time I defended Bella, Edward and Jacob in these pages, it provoked a barrage of Guardianista messageboard abuse, so let me say that if you're not already on board, there's nothing here for you – just move along. For everyone else, the second part of this final instalment finds safe pair of hands Bill Condon (who provides a commentary track) having more campy fun than he did in Part 1, with Kristen Stewart's long-suffering heroine finally growing a set of vampire teeth and taking command of centre stage.
Having...
- 3/10/2013
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Adam Goldberg was staying under an assumed name in a hotel that tried to charge him $20 for some toothpaste when I caught up with him about his latest record, The Goldberg Sisters. He got out of the crowded LANDy business after confusing debacles with a Taiwanese pop singer, a Mexican troubadour and another Landy who was already on Myspace featuring Auto-Tune raps with titles like "I Just Wanna Fuck."
Thus, out of a necessity to differentiate himself, The Goldberg Sisters were born. Incidentally, there really are two Goldberg sisters, but it's clear at this point that they have nothing to do with this record. We talked about all the twiddling that went down, and then moved on to some mutually favorite subjects, like David Lynch film scores, and the little moments in films that stay with you forever.
The last time we spoke you had just released a record as Landy,...
Thus, out of a necessity to differentiate himself, The Goldberg Sisters were born. Incidentally, there really are two Goldberg sisters, but it's clear at this point that they have nothing to do with this record. We talked about all the twiddling that went down, and then moved on to some mutually favorite subjects, like David Lynch film scores, and the little moments in films that stay with you forever.
The last time we spoke you had just released a record as Landy,...
- 4/19/2011
- by Brandon Kim
- ifc.com
Start: 03/12/2011 Start: 03/12/2011
Bird's Eye View Film Fest in London, UK is showing a short section of horror all by women! From a fiercely feminist slashfest to a deadly defence of free speech, via some light cannibalism... Contemporary horror by the world's bloodiest women.
Short Lease
Dir. Prano Bailey-Bond & Jennifer Eiss, UK 2010, 13min
When a woman finds a man hanging in a country house, she re-experiences his death in nail-biting detail. British Horror Award-winner.
Daddy's Girl
Dir Helen Komini Olsen, Norway 2009, 8min
A girl needs to get rid of her father. This eerie, deadpan film won Best Short Fiction at the 2010 Minimalen Festival.
Nursery Crimes
Dir Laura Whyte, UK 2010, 4min
Little Bo Peep has slaughtered her sheep and doesn't know where to hide them... This gory stop-motion animation won the British Horror Festival Audience Award and Best Film at Village of the Damned.
I Spit on Eli Roth
Dir Devi Sniveley,...
Bird's Eye View Film Fest in London, UK is showing a short section of horror all by women! From a fiercely feminist slashfest to a deadly defence of free speech, via some light cannibalism... Contemporary horror by the world's bloodiest women.
Short Lease
Dir. Prano Bailey-Bond & Jennifer Eiss, UK 2010, 13min
When a woman finds a man hanging in a country house, she re-experiences his death in nail-biting detail. British Horror Award-winner.
Daddy's Girl
Dir Helen Komini Olsen, Norway 2009, 8min
A girl needs to get rid of her father. This eerie, deadpan film won Best Short Fiction at the 2010 Minimalen Festival.
Nursery Crimes
Dir Laura Whyte, UK 2010, 4min
Little Bo Peep has slaughtered her sheep and doesn't know where to hide them... This gory stop-motion animation won the British Horror Festival Audience Award and Best Film at Village of the Damned.
I Spit on Eli Roth
Dir Devi Sniveley,...
- 1/26/2011
- by Superheidi
- Planet Fury
Denis is in the tradition of Rivette, Renoir and Vigo, who found a way of unpeeling the real to discover inner meanings
Let's dispose of the old-fashioned opening straight away – it isn't that Claire Denis has a strong case for being considered the best female film director working today; it's far more that she is one of the most intriguing and provocative film-makers of any kind. Her latest film, White Material, is dominated by a woman, Maria (embodied with startling but characteristic commitment by Isabelle Huppert), a coffee-grower in a unnamed African country who becomes caught up in a terrible but inexplicable civil war. You can say it's a feminist picture in that Denis and Huppert build a complicated sensibility – helpless but angry, desiring but detached, an onlooker and a victim. But it's also a film that makes us feel we are seeing Africa as if for the first time.
Let's dispose of the old-fashioned opening straight away – it isn't that Claire Denis has a strong case for being considered the best female film director working today; it's far more that she is one of the most intriguing and provocative film-makers of any kind. Her latest film, White Material, is dominated by a woman, Maria (embodied with startling but characteristic commitment by Isabelle Huppert), a coffee-grower in a unnamed African country who becomes caught up in a terrible but inexplicable civil war. You can say it's a feminist picture in that Denis and Huppert build a complicated sensibility – helpless but angry, desiring but detached, an onlooker and a victim. But it's also a film that makes us feel we are seeing Africa as if for the first time.
- 7/8/2010
- by David Thomson
- The Guardian - Film News
Akira Kurosawa And His Influence, London
If you've never seen a Kurosawa film, then a) you've doubtless seen a film made by someone who's seen a Kurosawa film, and b) shame on you. The Japanese master devoured western film and literature (John Ford and Ed McBain were favourites), and translated them into samurai epics and domestic films noirs, which westerners devoured right back. Here you get both sides of the coin. Compare Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name in A Fistful Of Dollars with Toshirô Mifune's wily samurai in Yojimbo, catch the Hamlet influences in Kurosawa's 1960s corporate thriller The Bad Sleep Well, spot the original C3PO and R2D2 in The Hidden Fortress, or see how the multi-angle flashback structure of Rashômon (on extended release) has lent itself to medieval Sweden (Bergman's Virgin Spring), the Wild West (Outrage) and ancient China (Zhang Yimou's Hero).
BFI Southbank,...
If you've never seen a Kurosawa film, then a) you've doubtless seen a film made by someone who's seen a Kurosawa film, and b) shame on you. The Japanese master devoured western film and literature (John Ford and Ed McBain were favourites), and translated them into samurai epics and domestic films noirs, which westerners devoured right back. Here you get both sides of the coin. Compare Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name in A Fistful Of Dollars with Toshirô Mifune's wily samurai in Yojimbo, catch the Hamlet influences in Kurosawa's 1960s corporate thriller The Bad Sleep Well, spot the original C3PO and R2D2 in The Hidden Fortress, or see how the multi-angle flashback structure of Rashômon (on extended release) has lent itself to medieval Sweden (Bergman's Virgin Spring), the Wild West (Outrage) and ancient China (Zhang Yimou's Hero).
BFI Southbank,...
- 6/4/2010
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Anyone who knows the Claire Denis' filmography would most certainly know the faces of Alex Descas and Gregoire Colin (featured in the pic above). Descas' work with Denis dates back to 1990's S'en fout la mort, and the facially gifted Colin might have had more to work with in Nénette et Boni (1996), Beau Travail (1999) and L'intrus (2004), but in the handful of scenes we do find him in for 35 Rhums, Colin makes his presence known by simply working with a character that doesn't have much of an elaborate back-story. In his fifth Claire Denis film, you could describe his subtle character as a mystery man and though at some point he does indeed get rid of a carcass – it's far from what one might think. Descas delicately plays a man headed into the unknown of retirement - in typical Denis fashion. - #7. 35 Shots of Rum Anyone who knows the Claire Denis...
- 1/5/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
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