Under the Skin: The Films of Claire Denis
3/4/11 to 4/16/11
An important retrospective devoted to one of the most exciting talents of contemporary cinema, French director Claire Denis, many of whose films focus on colonialism and its legacy. Whether in her debut film Chocolat or her most recent, White Material, Denis focuses her (and our) attention on the textures and rhythms of the physical world and on the ways that people move through it. This series also includes films by Jim Jarmusch and Wim Wenders on which Denis served as assistant director, revealing the long arc of her remarkable career.
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Films - Past
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Past Films
White Material
Friday, March 4 7:00 PMClaire Denis (France, 2009). Isabelle Huppert plays a West African plantation owner whose world is collapsing around her. Denis's most recent film is “tense, convulsive . . . a thing of terrible beauty” (Village Voice). “The best film of the year” (Artforum). (102 mins)View DetailsChocolat
Friday, March 4 9:00 PMClaire Denis (France/W. Germany, 1988). Denis's first feature draws on recollections of her girlhood in 1950s colonial Africa. “A film of infinite delicacy . . . made with the complexity and subtlety of a great short story” (Chicago Sun-Times). (105 mins)View DetailsParis, Texas
Saturday, March 5 7:15 PMWim Wenders (W. Germany/France, 1984). Amnesiac Harry Dean Stanton and his young son set out across the West in search of the boy's mother in Wenders's melancholy road movie. Written by Sam Shepard, with a memorable score by Ry Cooder; Denis was assistant director. (145 mins)View DetailsI Can't Sleep
Sunday, March 6 3:00 PMClaire Denis (France/Switzerland, 1994). Loosely based on a series of real-life murders, Denis's Parisian noir opens up more riddles than it solves, mysteries of intention and desire. “Calmly lures viewers into an ordinary world where the sinister and the benign wear the same face” (N.Y. Times). (110 mins)View DetailsNo Fear, No Die
Sunday, March 20 3:00 PMClaire Denis (France, 1990). In Denis's surprising second film, Isaach de Bankolé and Alex Descas play immigrants who train birds for cockfights on the outskirts of Paris. “Has a seedy, claustrophobic power that says as much about human as about animal exploitation” (Time Out). (91 mins)View DetailsNénette and Boni
Friday, March 25 7:00 PMClaire Denis (France, 1996). “A sibling drama of unsentimental urban grit and swooning lyricism, Nénette and Boni meditates on the myriad permutations of love and sensuality . . . Denis's elliptical narrative style has seldom been this graceful” (Slant). (103 mins)View DetailsBeau travail
Friday, March 25 9:00 PMClaire Denis (France, 1999). In this story of French Legionnaires isolated in a blisteringly beautiful African setting, Denis creates “a fixed, timeless world of mysterious, balletic rites, rippled with simmering homoerotic tensions. . . Prepare to be blown away” (Time Out). (90 mins)View DetailsDown by Law
Saturday, March 26 8:30 PMJim Jarmusch (U.S., 1986). Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni make an odd trio of Louisiana jailbirds in what Jarmusch termed a “neo-Beat noir comedy.” Denis was assistant director. (107 mins)View DetailsBeau travail
Friday, April 1 7:00 PMClaire Denis (France, 1999). In this story of French Legionnaires isolated in a blisteringly beautiful African setting, Denis creates “a fixed, timeless world of mysterious, balletic rites, rippled with simmering homoerotic tensions. . . Prepare to be blown away” (Time Out). (90 mins)View DetailsTrouble Every Day
Friday, April 1 8:50 PMClaire Denis (France, 2001). Vincent Gallo and Béatrice Dalle are stricken with a gruesome sexual compulsion. Denis's controversial take on erotic horror is “sui generis . . . harrowing, merciless, strangely tender” (Glenn Kenny). (101 mins)View DetailsWings of Desire
Saturday, April 2 8:30 PMWim Wenders (W. Germany, 1988). Denis assisted (and met actress Solveig Dommartin, who later appeared in No Fear, No Die) on Wim Wenders's poignant city symphony, which centers on a pair of melancholy angels whose beat is Berlin. (130 mins)View DetailsThe Intruder
Friday, April 8 6:30 PMClaire Denis (France/Korea, 2004). After a heart transplant, a man travels the world in search of new meaning. “Poetic and primal. . . . This mysterious object may be Denis's most gorgeous film” (Village Voice). (130 mins)View DetailsU.S. Go Home
Friday, April 8 9:00 PMClaire Denis/Cédric Kahn (France, 1994). “The great unseen Claire Denis film” (Harvard Film Archive), U.S. Go Home is a vivid portrait of 1960s French youth. With Claire Denis: The Wanderer, a filmed interview with the director. (114 mins)View DetailsThe Intruder
Saturday, April 9 8:30 PMClaire Denis (France/Korea, 2004). After a heart transplant, a man travels the world in search of new meaning. “Poetic and primal. . . . This mysterious object may be Denis's most gorgeous film” (Village Voice). (130 mins)View DetailsFriday Night
Friday, April 15 7:00 PMClaire Denis (France, 2002). A chance encounter in a traffic jam offers a thirtysomething woman a moment of liberation. “This is wonderfully alert filmmaking, vividly alive to the constant by-play between inner longings and everyday surroundings” (Time Out). (90 mins)View DetailsVers Mathilde
Friday, April 15 8:50 PMClaire Denis (France, 2005). This rarely screened documentary on choreographer Mathilde Monnier is “a must for modern dance and Denis fans” (Variety). With short Pour Ushari Ahmed Mahmoud, a haunting evocation of political repression and exile. (88 mins)View Details35 Shots of Rum
Saturday, April 16 8:40 PMClaire Denis (France, 2008). Denis magically limns the story of a father (Alex Descas) and his daughter as they face the inevitable: her independence. “Quiet and lovely . . . (shows) how the melancholy strains of ordinary existence are also its sweetest music” (N.Y. Times). (100 mins)View Details
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