No Fear: The Films of Claire Denis

Comprehensive Retrospective of Groundbreaking French Filmmaker

Wednesday, November 10 – Thursday, November 18 at IFC Center

Denis in Person Opening Night to Present Her Debut Film, CHOCOLAT;

18-Film Program Includes All the Director’s Fiction Features,

Two of Her Documentaries, a Portrait of the Filmmaker,

And Films by Jarmusch and Wenders that Helped Launch Her Career

Sneak Preview of Her Upcoming WHITE MATERIAL, with Denis and

Star Isabelle Huppert in Person Sunday, November 7 at 6:30pm

“No Fear: The Films of Claire Denis,” a nine-day retrospective of the acclaimed French director, unspools Wednesday, November 10 through Thursday, November 18 at IFC Center. The most extensive retrospective of Denis’s work ever presented in New York, the program opens with the director in person to present CHOCOLAT, her noted first feature. The retrospective includes not only all the artist’s fiction feature films, but also two of her documentary features, a short made for an omnibus film, and three films by other
filmmakers that she worked on early in her career and that were instrumental in launching her as a director.

A complete schedule is below.

WHITE MATERIAL, the director’s latest film, opens at the IFC Center on Friday, November 19, preceded by a special sneak preview screening on Sunday, November 7 at 6:30 with Claire Denis and star Isabelle Huppert in person. Born in Paris in 1948 into the family of a French colonial administrator, Claire Denis spent her childhood in West Africa. She studied filmmaking at the prestigious film school IDHEC (now FEMIS) in Paris, and after graduating, worked as an assistant to New Wave legend Jacques Rivette, about whom she later made the portrait JACQUES RIVETTE – THE WATCHMAN for the “Cinema of Our Times” series. She went on to work with other noted international directors, including Costa-Gavras, Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch, before writing and directing her first feature, CHOCOLAT (1988). A drama about a young French girl growing up in Africa that was rooted in the filmmaker’s own personal experience, CHOCOLAT immediately established Denis as a filmmaker to watch. Selected for the official competition at Cannes, it was acclaimed by audiences and critics, with Roger Ebert calling it “a film of infinite delicacy… made with the complexity and subtlety of a
great short story.”

Ranging from the African landscape of CHOCOLAT that she revisits in BEAU TRAVAIL and WHITE MATERIAL to the muliticultural, urban France of I CAN’T SLEEP, NO FEAR, NO DIE and 35 SHOTS OF RUM, Denis’s powerfully visual work explores the dynamics of belonging and the lives of outsiders, as well as the underlying potential for violence that can exist in even the most mundane relationships. Over the years, she has also worked repeatedly with a select group of actors—including Isaach de Bankolé (CHOCOLAT, NO
FEAR, NO DIE and WHITE MATERIAL), Alex Descas (NO FEAR, NO DIE, NENETTE AND BONI, TROUBLE EVERY DAY and 35 SHOTS OF RUM), Vincent Gallo (U.S. GO HOME, NENETTE AND BONI and TROUBLE EVERY DAY) and Grégoire Colin (U.S. GO HOME, NENETTE AND BONI, BEAU TRAVAIL, THE INTRUDER and 35 SHOTS OF
RUM)—in a series of collaborations that span decades.

Among the highlights of IFC Center’s retrospective are NENETTE AND BONI, named best film at Locarno; the rarely-screened U.S. GO HOME, never released stateside; BEAU TRAVAIL, a stunningly filmed meditation on masculinity; Denis’s film about Jacques Rivette; TOWARDS MATHILDE, a collaboration with choreographer Mathilde Monnier, shown with a short about a Sudanese political prisoner that Denis made for an omnibus film commissioned by Amnesty International; CLAIRE DENIS - THE WANDERER, a portrait of the artist by filmmaker Sébastian Lifshitz (Come Undone); and three films that Denis worked on before becoming a director-Jim Jarmusch’s DOWN BY LAW and Wim Wenders’s PARIS, TEXAS and WINGS OF DESIRE-and that were influential in her artistic and professional development.

Sun. Nov. 7 at 6:30 WHITE MATERIAL: special sneak preview screening, with Claire Denis and star Isabelle Huppert in person. dewWHITE MATERIAL is an IFC Films release and opens theatrically on Friday, November 19.No Fear: The Films of Claire Denis                                    November 10-18 at IFC Center
Wed. Nov. 10  CHOCOLAT (1988) 12:30, 2:45, 5:00, 7:15*, 9:30pm  *Claire Denis in person at 7:15
Thu. Nov. 11   NENETTE AND BONI (1996) 12:30, 2:45, 5:00, 7:15, 9:30pm
Fri. Nov. 12     I CAN’T SLEEP (1994) 2:15, 4:35, 7:00, 9:20pm
DOWN BY LAW (1986, Jim Jarmusch)  11:45pm
Sat. Nov. 13    BEAU TRAVAIL (1999) 2:15, 6:10, 10:05pm
TROUBLE EVERY DAY (2001) 4:15, 8:10pm
DOWN BY LAW (1986, Jim Jarmusch)  11:45pm
Sun. Nov. 14   JACQUES RIVETTE  - THE NIGHTWATCHMAN  2:15pm
35 SHOTS OF RUM (2008)  4:35, 6:30, 8:25, 10:20pm
Mon. Nov. 15   VERS MATHILDE (2005) with short “For Ushari Ahmed Mahmoud, Sudan” (1991)  11:00am, 5:30pm
THE INTRUDER (2004)  12:45, 3:10, 7:15, 9:40pm
Tue. Nov. 16   U.S.GO HOME (1994) with CLAIRE DENIS -THE WANDERER (1996, Sebastian Lifshitz)
12:30, 2:45, 5:00, 7:15, 9:30
Wed. Nov. 17  WINGS OF DESIRE (1987, Wim Wenders)  11:00am, 1:25pm, 3:50, 10:00pm
NO FEAR, NO DIE (1990)  6:30, 8:15pm
Thu. Nov. 18   PARIS, TEXAS (1984, Wim Wenders) 12:30, 3:30, 10:00pm
FRIDAY NIGHT (2002)  6:30, 8:15pm

IFC Center, 323 Ave. of the Americas at West 3rd St., ifccenter.com, box office:  212 924-7771.