claire denis features 1988-2018

Loads of good things on here (although High Life was the biggest disappointment of last year).

1. 35 Shots of Rum
2. Chocolat
3. White Material
4. Let the Sunshine In
5. Beau Travail
6. Trouble Every Day
7. I Can't Sleep
8. High Life
9. Nénette and Boni
10. Bastards
10. Friday Night
11. The Intruder

l'intrus is in my top three for sure. will try and watch the ones i havn't seen yet first (us go home, i can't sleep, trouble every day, vendredi soir). even the less remarkable films here some eternal moments, the dance in nenette and boni for example; maybe this poll should have been best denis dance scene.

I've seen all of these except Trouble Every Day.

The two early ones that few Americans have seen, because they're hard to see, that absolutely belong in the first tier with Chocolat, I Can't Sleep, 35 Rhums, and Let the Sunshine In, are US Get Home and No Fear, No Die.

Of the ones I've seen, Beau travail > Chocolat > White Material > Let the Sunshine In > Trouble Every Day > High Life.

Omitted here, but I've wanted to see the documentary Man No Run (1989) with Cameroonian "punk bikutsi" group Les Tetes Brulees for decades. As far as I can tell only a few snippets (1, 2 have found their way to the net.

Jesus this is hard.

I agree with Alfred that The Intruder is very much at the bottom of the stack tho.

I've seen them all, and I strongly disagree about The Intruder. For me, it's first tier, with Beau Travail, 35 Shots of Rum, and Chocolat. Sure, it's her most aggressively non-narrative; it's also her most poetic. It's baffling, but when I let it wash over me it comes together like a painting by Chagall.

35 Shots of Rum and White Material I remember at the moment giving me most pleasure and would watch again now.

The Intruder is impenetrable but I like it anyway.

I've only seen her last two, and I didn't much like either of them. 35 Shots of Rum has always sounded interesting to me, so I'll try it next.

L'intrus, Beau Travail and 35 Rhums are my top three.

of the five i've seen:

35 rhums > no fear, no die > beau travail > the intruder > high life

(watched NFND on VHS at my college library)

i'm really curious about the larger series that 'US go home' was a part of - assayas, akerman and téchiné also directed installments: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252792/?ref_=tt_ov_inf

ranked

Friday Night
Let the Sunshine In
Beau Travail
35 Shots of Rum
Nenette et Boni
Chocolat
High Life
Bastards
White Material
Trouble Every Day

only seen those

I would rate 35 Shots of Rum, Beau Travail and Nénette et Boni as my favorites, but like all of the basically.

it seems hard right now to find a way to see Beau Travail, not sure why. I haven’t watched in years

*all of them

i'm really curious about the larger series that 'US go home' was a part of - assayas, akerman and téchiné also directed installments

The first 15 minutes of The Intruder -- Michel Subor with his dogs swimming in the icy lake, collapsing from the heart condition; Grégoire Colin and his girlfriend in sexxytime -- is some of Denis' intensest and most promising filmmaking.

Toss up between 35... and Friday Night for me. Both sublime and Denis at her best, imho.

Friday Night is so beautiful and stands alone formally imo... it isn't dated or worn by the tech of its time-- no rotoscoping, no fully animated sequences, it's a pure light show. is there anything else like it? narrative but completely spartan story wise but utterly mesmerizing visually, a silent film shot through a love gun 90 years into the future

https://www.vulture.com/2020/04/claire-deniss-quarantine-diary-hummus-and-new-scripts.html

finally watched I Can’t Sleep last night, liked it as much as all of her films

The only one of her major films I haven’t been able to see is Chocolate

*Chocolat

hard what to decide what to vote for

I think I voted for L'Intrus because a lot of people dissed it and I got a lot from it without getting it, if you know what I mean.

I voted Vendredi Soir/Friday Night. Also because Paris at night has rarely been more "on" in a film. Something happened when they made that film - Flappy otm.

L’Intrus was confounding but interesting, I definitely want see it again.

yeah it flew completely over my head in a vaguely fascinating way

L'Intrus, for sure. It's worth reading the Jean-Luc Nancy essay that inspired it.

her films all seem ambiguous and understated, maybe it’s why she’s not more widely acclaimed, but seeing the scope of them I’m really impressed

Waitaminnit! Forgotten here - and it slipped my mind as well - but I'd vote for it in an instant: her Jacques Rivette docu.

Watching 35 Shots of Rum and reading her recipe for hummus has made me pliant.

I’m impressed by how Denis disarms and blurs by focusing on closeups of bodies

still not sure what to vote for here

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

lol i def thought i would get round to watching some before this poll closed

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Same top three as me although I really should see Vendredi Soir. The trailer makes it seem so dour.

When I saw Trouble Every Day again I found it really gross and depressing, without much to mitigate that. Not that I think people shouldn't make films like that, it was just very much not for me at that point (pre-pandemic, fwiw).

Bastards is much better than people said it was at the time. Glad it got votes, although it's also v depressing.

Vendredi Soir is anything but dour. Trouble Every Day, yes.

Surprised The Intruder placed as high as it did, I should check it out.

I agree about Bastards, it's very good, Michel Subor plays monsters and super creeps perfectly (there's a throughline from his lead in Le Petit Soldat 50 years prior).

and Vincent London is the lead in Bastards iirc, and he's "the guy" in Vendredi Soir / Friday Night

Must see 35 Rhums. Surprised by the lack of support for her post 2013 output, given its so much more accessible (in the streaming/physical media sense).

her post 2013 films are great imo

I ended up voting for 35 Shots of Rum, but could have voted for almost any of these

Let the Sunshine In is fantastic, underrated as a comedy, like I've said before it's French Curb Your Enthusiasm

Sanpaku, get on 35 Rhums.

The post-2013 output is still good, don't get me wrong, I don't think her best films are behind her at all.

I didn't like The White Material much but, as with all of her work, I put that down as a deficiency in me rather than in the films.

"you don't have an engine in your ass!"

saw beau travail this weekend for the first time, my first denis movie - incredible film that dominated my thoughts all weekend. i understand that she doesn't really have a consistent style from movie to movie though. are there any of her other movies that are particularly beau travail-esque?

If you're looking for Denis movies where the camera and editing appreciate the male body without exoticizing it, you can't do better than Chocolat and 35 Shots of Rum.

enjoyed the new one (between two blades) (but it is not beau travailesque)

Maybe in terms of international settings, L'intrus or White Material (which I haven't seen).

Early this summer my wife and I were on the Santa Monica Pier during the blood moon and she informed me later we passed by Claire Denis without me realizing it.

Maybe in terms of international settings, L'intrus or White Material (which I haven't seen).

Chocolat is also set in Africa, but compared to her later films it's pretty mild and conventional.

white material is not beau travail-like. but it's dope

She has a helluva winning streak, even the space movie w/Juliette Binoche in the orgasmatron

the space movie was awesome

in a career of movies filled with amazing scenes, the ending of Beau Travail is the best moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grGiq0yTaj4

Love that ending, and love the film, it's still my favorite to have been released in at least the last 25 years. It was jaw-dropping the first time I saw it, right before the DVD went out-of-print, and for years it was impossible to find - it was really tough recommending it to people for that reason alone. But similar to Joni Mitchell (in more of a niche way), it's been absolutely wonderful to see this massive appreciation for Denis build up over the past decade. She already had critical acclaim, but as late as 2010, it felt like a fairly small number of people had actually seen her best work. Even IndieWire neglected to mention her in one of their well-meaning but horribly-conceived articles pushing for more recognition for female filmmakers. (Didn't help that they gave plenty of room for Nancy Meyers's work.) I was able to see Denis speak on two separate occasions years apart, and you could see the change easily - first time seemed relatively low-key but the second time around a wave of fans surrounded her at the end of the talk, and she was clearly taken aback.

Been meaning to get the Criterion _Beau Travail_ and surely will but yesterday I was delighted to be able to catch a one-off screening at my local Alamo, on their largest screen even. Truly remarkable.

no fear no die is amazing, top tier for sure. the leads, the colors, the mise en scene, 'french kiss' and 'buffalo soldier' used to great effect.

I like the new one too - I feel like ppl are selling it short. (Doesn't help that once again the English title kind of sucks - once again, I vastly prefer a straight translation of the French title, The Cry of the Guards.)

Not perfect, I'm tempted to say the whole first scene with Isaach de Bankolé and Matt Dillon should've been re-done (the acting is too mannered) and I feel like they should've cut out the two "I can hear the car coming" moments and let Mia McKenna-Bruce's arrival play continuously from her perspective, but that would overlook the film's strengths which gradually build over the course of the film.

I'll just say this - I think it's vitally (and subtly important) that you see the entire opening sequence. There's a reason we see that leaf laid into that tire track, which will become very clear late in the film, and when it does, the reason Isaach de Bankolé even wants to confront Dillon and McKenna-Bruce with his brother's death becomes clearer as well. In memory, Bankolé's reason feels like it's directed at us, the audience.

(It’s also no minor detail that the greater meaning of an indigenous land rights anthem can be lost on someone who can sing along to every word.)

When I saw Both Sides Of The Blade (which I really like) at a festival showing (fast turnover - get them out fast) the house lights when on so bright when the last scene ended that you literally could not see the screen after that scene but there is something happening during the credits that actually changes your entire perspective of the film. Infuriating that the festival did that but actually also quite infuriating that Denis made that vital scene part of the credits.

She did a similar thing on Un beau soleil intérieur/ Let The Sunshine In where an important part of the film plays over the end credits. A very strange tactic and I'm not sure to what end.