Description
Book SynopsisThe films of Claire Denis probe the idea of global citizenship and trace the borderlines of family, desire, nationality and power. Her films, including Chocolat, Beau travail and White Material explore connections between national experience and individual circumstance, visualizing the complications of such dualities. Following a foreword by Wim Wenders, international contributors explore the themes she addresses in her films, such as kinship and landscape, neo-colonialism and New French Extremity. Original interviews with an editor, actor and two composers familiar with Denis's working style and with Denis herself, also reveal fresh facets of this intrepid filmmaker.
Trade ReviewThis book compiles insightful essays and interviews concerning the work of one of the most innovative and particular narrative filmmakers of our time -- Claire Denis. I feel so lucky to have this remarkable body of films accessible to my consciousness! Thank you, Claire Denis. Jim Jarmusch Claire Denis's films are unequalled in contemporary cinema in their political rigour, sensitivity, artistic verve, and sheer sensuality. This beautiful, exploratory book responds to these films through interviews with the director and her collaborators, photographs and tributes, and through a series of coruscating critical essays from the finest writers in the field. Emma Wilson, Professor of French Literature and the Visual Arts, Cambridge University. Marjorie Vecchio has put together a stunning volume, full of intellectual verve and breathtaking insight that throws light on the work and critical impact of Claire Denis. Unpretentious yet spot on in terms of philosophical framing, the contributions will occupy a central place in the ever-growing archives of film criticism and the theoretical soundtrack that accompany every screening of our ability to think. Avital Ronell, Philosopher, New York University.
Table of ContentsMarjorie Vecchio - Introduction Wim Wenders - Forward: “Klärchen“ 1. Interviews Martine Beugnet -‘To Let The Image Sing’: Conversations with Dickon Hinchliffe and Stuart Staples Kirsten Johnson - Interview with Nelly Quettier, Paris July 2011 - Interview with Alex Descas, Paris July 2011 Jean-Luc Nancy - Interview with Claire Denis, European Graduate School, Saas-Fee, Switzerland Summer 2011 (Trans. Nathalie Le Galloudec) 2. Relations Catherine Wheatley - La Famille Denis Sam Ishii-Gonzales - Reinventing Community, or Non-Relational Relations in Claire Denis’s I Can’t Sleep James S. Williams - Beyond the Other: Grafting Relations in the films of Claire Denis 3. Global Citizenship Cornelia Ruhe - Beyond Post-colonialism? From Chocolat to White Material Florence Martin - Trouble Every Day: The Neo-Colonialists bite back. Rafael Ruiz Pleguezuelos - Foreignness and Employment: A Study of the Role of Work in the Films of Claire Denis Jean-Luc Nancy - The Intruder According to Claire Denis (Trans. Anna Moschovakis) 4. Within film Noëlle Rouxel-Cubberly - Delivering: Claire Denis’s opening sequences Laura McMahon - Rhythms of Relationality: Denis and Dance Firoza Elavia - That Interrupting Feeling: Interstitial Disjunctions in Claire Denis’s L'Intrus Henrik Gustafsson - Points of Flight, Lines of Fracture: Claire Denis’s Uncanny Landscape Adam Nayman and Andrew Tracy - Arthouse/Grindhouse: Claire Denis and the “New French Extremity” Filmography Index
