The Coolidge Corner Theatre’s “Claire Denis: Cinéma Courageux” spends three weeks in March showcasing six of the filmmaker’s 15 narrative features.
on “Paris, Texas” and “Wings of Desire.” In the book “The Films of Claire Denis,” Wenders said, “Claire was more than ready to make her own films. It would have been a waste to let her continue working as an assistant director.”Not to be confused with the dismal Johnny Depp movie of the same name, her 1988 debut “Chocolat” begins with a grown woman returning to a liberated Cameroon.
That day comes in “White Material,” Denis’ 2009 film starring Isabelle Huppert as a coffee plantation owner in an unnamed African country who refuses to evacuate after the French government is ousted by an insurgency. It’s a dizzying disaster movie about denial, with Huppert’s magnetically blank visage put to expert use in refusing to acknowledge how much danger she’s really in. De Bankolé shows up again, this time as a guerilla leader, pointedly more powerful as a symbol than as a person.
.” The one film in this series as yet unseen by me, it reunites Denis with “Wings of Desire” star Solveig Dommartin in a presumably less celestial tale about an underground cock-fighting ring.Denis’ most acclaimed film, which recently rocketed to seventh place on the BFI Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time list, “Beau Travail,” is a loose adaptation of Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd” transplanted to modern-day French Foreign Legion maneuvers in Djibouti.
Naturally, Denis followed her most renowned picture with her most divisive and aggressively off-putting. 2001’s “” was a landmark of the New French Extremity movement at the turn of the millennium. Like a lot of those titles, it first came to my attention via VHS tapes a friend liked to send me in the mail back then to try and freak me out. It worked. The film stars Vincent Gallo as a physician who spends his honeymoon hunting down a vampire cannibal played by Béatrice Dalle.
There’s a scene midway through that might be the most stunning thing Denis has ever directed. Our quartet is soaked and stranded curbside on a rainy night with a broken-down car. A restaurant closed for the evening takes pity and re-opens for them, and there’s an air of enchantment to these after-hours festivities.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Two Ferraris Miss Corner, Catch Air, Crash Into WallTwo Ferraris miss corner, catch air, crash into wall.
Read more »
The best spring dresses to shop on the high street, handpicked by Red's editorDress season is around the corner
Read more »
Shiba Inu (SHIB) Set for Death Cross, but Does It Really Matter?$SHIB facing increased pressure after the most recent market correction, and the death cross paints a grim picture for the meme asset
Read more »
‘White Lotus’ actor jokes about being hit on following show’s successFrancesco Zecca memorably played one of the “palazzo gays” opposite Jennifer Coolidge in Season 2 of the critically acclaimed HBO series.
Read more »
Pro-choice member of Parliament knocks bill limiting pro-life protesters: 'That's draconian'Claire Fox, a left-leaning, pro-choice member of Parliament, explains why she opposes a bill that would limit the actions of pro-life protesters.
Read more »