Born in Paris in 1946, Claire Denis spent her childhood in colonial Africa, in Cameroon, Senegal and Burkina Faso, which marked many of her films. She worked as an assistant to Jim Jarmusch, Wim Wenders and Costa-Gavras before directing Chocolat (1988). Her work favours fragmentary storytelling, bodies and gestures over dialogue, and loosely explores colonialism, desire and strangers. Beau travail (1999), a reworking of Melville's Billy Budd among Foreign Legionnaires in Djibouti, is often named one of the best films of its decade.
Filmography
- Chocolat (1988)
- Nénette and Boni (1996)
- Beau travail (1999)
- Trouble Every Day (2001)
- Friday Night (2002)
- The Intruder (2004)
- 35 Shots of Rum (2008)
- White Material (2009)
- Bastards (2013)
- Let the Sunshine In (2017)
- High Life (2018)
- Stars at Noon (2022)