IU Cinema screens Denis’ films

The films of Paris-based filmmaker Claire Denis will play this week at IU Cinema followed by “An Evening with Claire Denis” at 7 p.m. Nov. 10.
 
Denis is the sixth filmmaker to speak for the Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Lecture Series at the IU Cinema.

This will be Denis’ first visit on a four-stop tour that also includes the University of Notre Dame, Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis and Emory University in Atlanta.

Unifrance, an organization that promotes French cinema, is paying for Denis’ international and domestic travel.

Director of 20 films and a professor of film at the European Graduate School in Switzerland, Denis spent her childhood and formative years traveling across Africa, a maturing experience that she said is the basis of the themes in her films.

On Sunday, IU Cinema screened her 1988 film debut “Chocolat” and her 1994 film “I Can’t Sleep,” which explores the themes of cultural displacement and racial conflict among immigrants.

“Nenette and Boni” (1996)

When: 7 p.m. today

Receiving international reception and one of her most successful works, the coming-of-age drama finds siblings Nenette and Boni grappling with life after their parents’ divorce and mother’s suicide.

“The Intruder” (2004)

When: 6:30 p.m.

Thursday

Set in a forest near the French-Swiss border, 68-year-old Louis Trebor lives alone with dogs and seeks a heart transplant before searching for his son, who lived for years in Tahiti. Denis took inspiration from a memoir by French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy and paintings by Paul Gauguin.

“Beau Travail/Good Work” (1998)

When: 3 p.m. Saturday

“Beau Travail” focuses on an ex-Foreign Legion officer stationed in the African country of Djibouti and is based loosely on Herman Melville’s novella “Billy Budd, Salior.” Eroticism and antagonism are seen between a sergeant and a new legionnaire recruit. Denis is scheduled to be present during the screening of this film.

“Trouble Every Day” (2001)

When: 9:30 p.m. Saturday
 
Leaving audiences stunned at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, actors Vincent Gallo and Tricia Vessey play a young American couple spending their honeymoon in Paris. The film features shocking scenes of sexual cannibalism and blurs the lines between low and high genres. Denis is scheduled to be present during the screening of this film.

“Matériel Blanc/White Material” (2009)

When: 3 p.m. Sunday

Denis’ latest film, scripted by novelist Marie NDiaye, is set in the west-central African country Cameroon and depicts a white French family surrounded by unrest and rebellion. Denis is scheduled to be present during the screening of this film.