I Can't Sleep
(1994)
Directed by Claire Denis
Monday - November 5 - 7:00 p.m.
Claire Denis takes us again to the margins
and the marginalized this time in the
immigrant ghettos of Paris. This dream-like
tale follows the lives of Theo, a struggling
African musician and lonely single father,
Camille, his transvestite brother, and Daiga, a
beautiful, young Lithuanian immigrant, as the
city searches for a serial killer. The film uses a
famous French murder case from the 1980s as
a base to explore marginalization and isolation
in the immigrant experience. Claire Denis
makes us aware of the beautiful, otherworldly
qualities of even the most mundane and
sometimes awful situations. French language
with English subtitles. (New 35mm print. 110
min. Not rated.)
Nenette and Boni
(1996)
Directed by Claire Denis
Tuesday - November 6 - 7:00 p.m.
Brother and sister, Nenette and Boni are products
of a broken home; their mother has recently died
and their abusive father lurks somewhere in the
background. 19-year-old Boni combats loneliness
by conjuring vivid and hilarious fantasies of the
neighborhood baker's voluptuous wife. Nenette,
his estranged 15-year-old sister, is trapped in a
boarding school and seven months pregnant. When
she finally winds up on her brother's doorstep
the two warily embark on an unpredictable and
compelling journey. French language with English
subtitles. (35mm. 99 min. Not rated.)
Beau Travail
(1999)
Directed by Claire Denis
Saturday - November 10 - 3:00 p.m.
Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, the
film focuses on the lives of men in a small
French Foreign Legion outpost, emphasizing
the banality and ritual of their days in the
scorching sun. Sergeant Galoup, seems the
ideal Legionnaire: a brooding loner, cut off from
his past. He runs the troupe like a well-oiled
machine, until the arrival of a new recruit
threatens to upset the delicate balance. The
film is a poetic and lyrical exploration of a
special, very enclosed male world through its
rituals, codes and barely contained emotional
conflicts, and resonates with the power of a
Greek tragedy. French language with English
subtitles. (35mm. 90 min. Not rated.)
Claire
Denis is scheduled to be present.
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cinema.indiana.edu
Claire Denis