Claire Denis - Lectures / Workshops / Seminars

CINEMA AS CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Filmmaking, Engagement and Transformation (3 credits)

Claire Denis

Description: This course examines contemporary filmmaking as exploration into multi-ethnic and cross-cultural environments, with the cool passion and distanced engagement of an anthropologist. This course will investigate the films of Claire Denis through the lens of Visual Cultural Anthropology. We will be using a Deleuzian conceptual framework; themes from visual anthropology; scholarly interpretation of Denis’ work; and interdisciplinary articles analyzing her films from one or more of these perspectives and themes. These perspectives will be counterbalanced by the voice of the filmmaker herself. During the Saas-Fee residency seminars, Prof. Denis will address a multitude of themes layered within the rich textures of the films within her body of works.

Objectives: Current themes explored in the course include: cinema of the senses; cinema embodied (including body transformation and the post-colonial body); voice and vision (perspectives of the filmmaker; the anthropologist/ethnographer; the viewer; the subject), simultaneities; movement and the image, and the cinematic imagination.

Learning Outcomes: This course is aimed to inform filmmakers and writers alike on the process of seeing cinema as a form of cultural anthropology. Through taking a new perspective to the process of imagining and directing films students enhance thier ability to engage in informed film criticism. Students will also be inspired to take their own personal artistic and scholastic projects towards the dream like spaces that Claire Denis’ films embrace.

Required Films:

Denis, Claire. Chocolat (Chocolate). Caroline Productions. DVD, 105 min, ASIN: B00005J75R. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Denis, Claire. S'en fout la mort (No Fear, No Die). Cinéa. 1990. VHS (NTSC) ASIN: 6303063683. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Denis, Claire. J'ai pas sommeil (I Can't Sleep). Agora Films. 1994. 110 min. DVD, ASIN: B0006H30G8. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Denis, Claire. Nénette et Boni (Nenette and Boni). Canal+. 1996. DVD, 103 min, ASIN: B001TKJDKI. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Denis, Claire. Beau travail. (Good Work). SM Films Arte France Cinéma. 1999. DVD, 90 min. ASIN: B00006JDTD. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Denis, Claire. Trouble Every Day (Gargoyle). Rezo Productions. 2001. DVD, 101 min, ASIN: B0002JC6TW. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Denis, Claire. L’Intru (The Intruder). Fox Lorber. 2004. 130 min. DVD, 130 min, Language French, ASIN: B000ELJA6K. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Denis, Claire. Vendredi soir (Friday Night). Arena/France 2 Cinéma. 2002. DVD, 90 min, French, ASIN: B0000C23D1. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Required Readings:

MacDougall, D. The Corporeal Image : Film, Ethnography, And The Senses. Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press. 2006. ISBN: 0691121567. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Beugnet, M. Claire Denis. Manchester University Press; New York. 2004. ISBN: 0719064813. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Deleuze, Gilles and Barbara Habberjam (Translator) and Hugh Tomlinson (Translator). Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. University of Minnesota Press. August 1986. Paperback, 264 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0816614008. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Deleuze, Gilles and Hugh Tomlinson (Translator) and Robert Galeta (Translator). Cinema 2: The Time-Image. University of Minnesota Press. November 1989. Paperback, 364 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0816616779. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Internet Resources:

Association for Studies in French Cinema.

Journal, Studies in French Cinema.

Visual Anthropology - News and Resources online for Visual Anthropology.

Visual Anthropology Journal – Visual Anthropology is a scholarly quarterly journal presenting original articles, commentary, discussions, film reviews, and book reviews on anthropological and ethnographic topics. The journal focuses on the study of human behavior through visual means.

Visual Studies is a major peer-reviewed journal published on behalf of the International Visual Sociology Association. The cross-disciplinary and multi modal nature of the journal is reflected by the coverage of anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, media studies, visual culture, symbolic interaction, documentary photography (moving and still images), information technology, visual literacy, visual intelligence, and communication studies.

Web Archive in Visual Anthropology.