Film Series
Strange Desire: The Films of Claire Denis
One of a handful of filmmakers who can credibly lay claim to the title of World’s Greatest Living Director, Claire Denis creates films that speak as much through words as they do through movement, rhythm, and texture. Profound and empathetic studies of outsiderhood, immigrant alienation, the ravages of colonialism, and the mysteries of love and desire, her films are not so much watched as experienced in a full-sensory head-rush of sound and image. In anticipation of her latest philosophical reverie and first English language feature, High Life, BAM proudly presents the largest US retrospective ever of this singular cinematic mood-maker.
Special thanks to Institut Français for their assistance with this program
Denis’ hypnotically languorous take on Billy Budd is an erotic ballet of jealousy and obsession.
Denis takes carnal desire to its disturbing, blood-soaked extreme.
Denis’ stunning debut feature explores the tension between colonizer and colonized.
Denis’ warmest film centers on the bond between a widowed Parisian train driver and his daughter.
An arresting Isabelle Huppert stars in Denis’ searing exploration of colonialism’s legacy.
A one-night stand is envisioned by Denis as a shimmering nocturnal reverie of fantasy and desire.
Denis captures the New Wave titan out and about on the streets of Paris.
A richly impressionistic portrait of the exhilaration and confusion of adolescence.
Colonialism’s legacy haunts these documentary and narrative shorts.
Claire Denis launches Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche into the depths of the cosmos.
This hallucinatory neo-noir is perhaps Denis’ darkest, most troubling film to date.
A deeply empathetic portrait of life in a Darfur refugee camp.
Mind and body: a one-of-a-kind dance film and a heady work of cinematic philosophy by Denis.
Denis directs a swooning study of adolescent angst and discusses her artistic philosophy.
A radiant Juliette Binoche lights up Denis’ sly deconstruction of the French sex comedy.
Denis’ take on the serial killer thriller is an elusive, sensitive study of alienation.
Denis’ haunting, visceral visions of immigrant alienation.
Denis’ famously elliptical style reaches new heights of abstraction.