dvd collection
Ra
THE SEARCH FOR BELONGING IN THE FILMS OF CLAIRE DENIS
Chocolat
04 /05
choc ol at
overview
chocolat
is a film directed by Claire Denis, about a French family
that lives in colonial Cameroon. A young French woman returns to the vast silence of West Africa to contemplate her childhood days in a colonial outpost in Cameroon. Her strongest memories are of the family’s houseboy, Protée—a man of great intelligence nobility, and beauty—and the intricate nature of relationships in a racist society. The title chocolat comes from the 1950s slang meaning “to be cheated”, and thus refers to the status in French Cameroon of being black and being cheated. Towards the end, France’s father reveals a central theme of the film as he explains to her what the horizon line is. He tells her that it is a line that is there but not there, a symbol for the racial boundary that exists in the country. This line is not a physical one but is still one that people widely recognize. The film was entered into the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.
0 6/07
choc ol at
extra information
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C a st (in cr edits or der)
Country: France, Cameroon
Isa ach De Bankolé: Protée
L anguage: French, English
Giulia Boschi: Aimée Dalens
Release Date: May 1989 (USA)
Fr ançois Cluzet: Marc Dalens
Filming Locations: Cameroon
Jean-Cl aude Adelin: Luc
Film negative format: 35 mm
L aurent Arnal: Machinard
Printed film format: 35 mm
Jean Bediebe: Prosper
Aspect r atio: 1.66:1 (intended ratio)
Jean-Quentin: Courbassol
Gross: $2,317,091 (USA)
Emmanuelle Chaulet: Mireille Kenneth Cr anham: Boothby
Awa r ds a nd nominations Cannes Film Festival Year: 1988 Result: Nominated Award: Palme d’Or Recipient: Claire Denis César Awards, Fr ance Year: 1989 Result: Nominated Award: César Categor y: Best First Work Recipient: Claire Denis
Jacques Denis: Joseph Delpich Cécile Ducasse: France, as a girl Clementine Essono: Marie-Jeanne Didier Fl amand: Capt. Védrine Essindi Mindja: Blaise Mireille Perrier: France Emmet J. Williamson: Mungo Park
I don’t know you here. wife, she is mind. It’s time Aimée to the Religious man Nansen, after a hyena attack.
what keeps Look to your loosing her e to leave!
man no run
10/1 1
m a n no ru n
overview
While filming chocolat Denis met Les Têtes Bruleès, a group of Cameroonian musicians who were very popular in their home country. When they embarked on their first tour of France in 1987, Denis was there to document their moving encounters and reactions to French culture. Les Têtes Bruleès play Bikutsi music, an ancient rhythm from the rain-forest region of western Cameroon. Bikutsi is the music of the Beti tribe, traditionally played on a “balafon” and danced by the women of the clan in a jerky, hypnotic fashion. But Les Têtes Bruleès do not play traditional music. Even though their sound is based on the Bikutsi rhythm with swirling balafon style guitars and rough-edged vocals, the music is electric. The Bikutsi Rock, carefully nurtured at the Chacal Bar, the band’s headquarters in Yaounde, is unique to Les Têtes Bruleès.
12 /13
m a n no ru n
extra information
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Cr ew
Country: France
director: Claire Denis
L anguage: French
producer: Jean-Franรงois Casamayou
Release Date: Oc tober 1989
cinematogr aphy by: Pascal Mar ti
Filming Locations: Paris
and Jean-Bernard Menoud
runtime: 90 min
film editing by: Dominique Auvray
Sound mix: Stereo
production manager: Michel Siksik
Printed film format: 35 mm
sound department: Daniel Ollivier
Aspect r atio: 1.66:1
and Georges Prat
ah, this is it, not my dream
this is m.
jean-marie ahanda at the airport.
i can’t sleep
choc ol at
17/18
overview
Daïga has emigrated from Lithuania to Paris and is looking for a place to stay and work. Theo is a struggling musician, and his brother Camille—a transvestite dancer. One of these three people might be connected to the serial “granny killer” who has been terrorizing Paris for a while. Claire Denis presents a haunting and understatedly compelling meditation on estrangement and disconnection in i can’t sleep. Using fragmented, unresolved episodes, narrative ellipses, and tangential encounters, Denis creates a melancholic and sensual tapestry on cultural division and marginalization. By tracing the aimless, desperate, and isolated lives of social outsiders, i can’t sleep
becomes an evocative, richly textured, and deeply disturbing
contemporary ballad on the pervasive nature of violence and the difficulty of assimilation in an increasingly alienating society.
extra information
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C a st (in cr edits or der)
Country: France, Germany,
Yek aterina Golubeva: Daïga
Switzerland
Richard Courcet: Camille
L anguage: French, Russian, English
Vincent Dupont: Raphaël
Release Date: May 1994 (France)
L aurent Grévill: Le Doc teur
Filming Locations: Paris
Alex Descas: Théo
runtime: 110 min
Irina Grjebina: Mina
Sound Mix: Dolby
Tolst y: Vassili
Printed film format: 35 mm
Line Renaud: Ninon
Gross: $111,015 (USA)
Béatrice Dalle: Mona Ir a Mandell a-Paul: Lit tle Harr y
Awa r ds a nd nominations Camerimage Year: 1994 Result: Nominated Award: Golden Frog Recipient: Agnès Godard César Awards, Fr ance Year: 1995 Result: Nominated Award: César Categor y: Best Suppor ting Ac tress Recipient: Line Renaud
Sophie Simon: Alice, Mona’s sister Danielle van Bercheycke: Fleur Patrick Gr andperret: Abel EAlice Hurtaux: 2 nd vic tim Fabienne Mai: 3 rd vic tim
My brother, I don
ThĂŠo at the
it’s like you. n’t know him.
police office after his brother was put under arrest.
beau travail
22 /23
be au t r ava i l
overview
beau travail
focuses on an ex-Foreign Legion officer as he recalls
his once glorious life, leading troops in Africa. Back in France, master sergeant Galoup remembers the time in the desert, where he led his men under the command of Bruno Forestier. His life there consisted mostly of routine duties like supervising the physical exercise of his men. One day, his troop is joined by Gilles Sentain whose physical beauty, social skills, and fortitude make Galoup envious. When Gilles Sentain helps another soldier, violating previous orders by Galoup, he sees a chance to destroy Sentain. As a punishment, he drives soldier Sentain out into the desert to make him walk back to the base. But the soldier does not return because the sergeant has tampered with his compass, and Sentain cannot make his way out without it. Even though Sentain is later found and rescued by a group of Djiboutis, the sergeant Galoup is sent back to France by his commander for a court martial, ending his time in the Foreign Legion.
24 /25
be au t r ava i l
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Awa r ds & nominations
Country: France
berlin international
L anguage: French, Russian, Italian
film festival
Release Date: May 2000 (France)
Year: 2000
Filming Locations: Djibouti, Paris
Result: Won
runtime: 92 min
Award: Reader Jur y of the “Berliner
Sound Mix: Dolby SR
Zeitung”—Special Mention
Printed film format: 35 mm
Recipient: Claire Denis
Aspect R atio: 1.66:1 Gross: $247,606 (USA)
British Independent Film awards Year: 2001
C a st (in cr edits or der)
Result: Nominated
Denis L avant: Galoup
Award: British Independent Film Award
Michel Subor: Bruno Forestier
Categor y: Best Foreign Film
Grégoire Colin: Gilles Sentain
Chicago Film Critics
Richard Courcet: Legionnaire
Association Awards
Nicol as Duvauchelle: Legionnaire
Year: 2001
Adiatou Massudi: Legionnaire
Result: Nominated
Mick ael R avovski: Legionnaire
Award: CFCA Award
Dan Herzberg: Legionnaire
Categor y: Best Foreign Language Film
Giuseppe Molino: Legionnaire
Recipient: Claire Denis
Gianfr anco Podighe: Legionnaire Marc Veh: Legionnaire Thong Duy Nguyen: Legionnaire Jean-Y ves Vivet: Legionnaire Bernardo Montet: Legionnaire
Chlotrudis Awards Year: 2001 Result: Won Award: Chlotrudis Award
Categor y: Best Cinematography
London Critics Circle
Recipient: Agnès Godard
Film Awards
Chlotrudis Awards Year: 2001 Result: Nominated Award: Chlotrudis Award Categor y: Best Ac tor, Best Direc tor,
Year: 2001 Result: Nominated Award: ALFS Award Categor y: Foreign Language Film of
the Year
Best Movie, Best Screenplay
National Societ y of Film
Recipient: Denis Lavant, Claire Denis,
Awards, USA
Jean-Pol Fargeau
Year: 2001 Result: Won
César Awards, Fr ance Year: 2001 Result: Won
Award: NSFC Award Categor y: Best Cinematography Recipient: Agnès Godard
Award: César
Rot terdam International
Categor y: Best Cinematography
Film Festival
Recipient: Agnès Godard
Year: 2001
European Film Awards Year: 2000 Result: Nominted Award: European Film Award Categor y: Best Cinematographer Recipient: Agnès Godard
Result: Won Award: KNF Award —Special Mention Recipient: Claire Denis
If i fornication we wouldn’
Commander Bruno Forestier to galoup.
it weren’t for and blood, ’t be here.
white material
28/29
white m at e r i a l
overview
Denis revisits Africa, this time exploring a place rife with civil and racial conflict. A white French family outlawed in its home and attempting to save its coffee plantation connects with a black hero also embroiled in the tumult. All try to survive as their world rapidly crumbles around them. white material
is an visceral, potent and very personal rumination
on a society turned upside down. In an African country in the throes of a unpredictable regime change, Maria Vial is trying to sustain the coffee plantation she runs with her ex-husband AndrÊ, but unknown to her, he has other plans. The country is tenuously under the control of a rebel militia whose leader is on the run. With the regular army preparing to regain control, French forces have moved out, warning the remaining white residents that they’re on their own if they stay behind. Nevertheless, Maria refuses to be driven off the land, continuing to run the farm as the specter of impending tragedy looms.
extra information
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Awa r ds a nd nominations
Country: France, Cameroon
National societ y of film critics
L anguage: French
awards, usa
Release Date: May 2010 (France)
Year: 2011
Filming Locations: Paris
Result: 3 rd place
runtime: 106 min
Award: NSFC Award
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Categor y: Best Foreign Language Film
Printed film format: 35 mm
Recipient: Claire Denis
Aspect R atio: 2.35:1 Gross: $302,819 (USA)
satellite Awards Year: 2010 Result: Nominated
C a st (in cr edits or der)
Award: Satellite Award
Isabelle Huppert: Maria Vial
Categor y: Best Motion Pic ture, Foreign
Christopher L ambert: André Vial
Language Film
Nicol as Duvauchelle: Manuel Vial
venice film festival
Isa ach De Bankolé: Le Boxeur
Year: 2009
William Nadyl am: Chérif, the mayor
Result: Nominated
Adèle Ado: Lucie, André’s wife
Award: Golden Lion
Ali Bark ai: Jeep, chief ’s rebellious
Recipient: Claire Denis
Daniel Tchangang: José Michel Subor: Henri Vial
Washington DC Area Film critics association awards Year: 2010 Result: Nominated Award: WAFCA Award Categor y: Best Foreign Language Film
It is safe.
Maria trying to convince people to work for her.
I have had no trouble.
© 2011 Cecilia Bissoli All rights reser ved. No par t of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means — graphic, eletronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems—without prior writ ten permission.
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