Claire Denis

Cannes Review: Claire Denis Destined To Divide With Disturbing, Salacious 'The Bastards'

If all art is only ever about sex and death, Claire Denis’ Un Certain Regard film “The Bastards” may be the most "artistic" one we’ve seen in Cannes to date, as it rolls around positively shamelessly in the musk of both. Or it may be a grubby little exercise in exploitation, depending on who you tal...

Cannes: Suicide and Sexual Abuse Abound In Claire Denis' Frustratingly Muddled 'Bastards'

Claire Denis' films are typically intimate dramas weighted with emotion, which makes it particularly dispiriting that "The Bastards," her eleventh feature, contains those ingredients without sufficiently pulling them together. A muddled revenge drama about family ties and traumatic experiences, the ...

Cannes Unveils 2013 Line Up With One Female Director in Main Competition

The Surprises & Notable Absences Of The 2013 Cannes Line-Up

So the 2013 Cannes lineup has finally been unveiled and as usual, there were a fair few surprise inclusions, a fair few snubby exclusions/category decisions, and some mildly oh!-inducing title changes. The majority of our firm predictions made it in (the Coens, Soderbergh, Farhadi, Sorrentino, Gray,...

'Only God Forgives,' 'Nebraska,' 'Inside Llewyn Davis,' 'The Past' & More Lead Official Selection For 2013 Cannes Film Festival

As usual, sifting the actual fact from the speculation when it comes to the line-up of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival has been a little tricky. We know the opener -- Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby," the closer -- "Zulu," with Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom, and as of yesterday, the Un Certain Re...

First Images & Official Synopsis For Claire Denis' 'The Bastards'

Claire Denis’ last two features, “35 Shots of Rum” and “White Material” were both critically adored and ended up on a lot of Best Of lists when they debuted between 2008 and 2009. Her back catalogue is equally impressive, so it’s no wonder then that her follow-up that we’ve been waiting four years f...

Further Breaking Down the Sight and Sound Numbers by Gender

One reader Miran Terzic did some serious work breaking down gender votes in the Sight and Sound Top 50 film poll.  If the 197 (I had 196) voted three women would make the top 50, not just one.  The ones that would make it would be: Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles direct...

Claire Denis To Shoot New Feature 'The Bastards' Next Month, Vincent Lindon & Chiara Mastroianni To Star

When the members of The Playlist like to get our foreign film art house mojo working, there are few filmmakers as consistently rewarding as Claire Denis. As we outlined in our retrospective a couple years back, her body of work is impressive, with a number of distinct, individual films that are...

Sexism Watch: Another Movie List Leaves Off Women

So tired of reading these lists that don't include any women.  This time it is AMC's film site which offers up a list of the 50 top directors of all time.