Claire Denis

[Never Cursed]

Claire Denis' latest film, The Fence is getting a DVD only release in France on August 19.

Fwiw, the film is in English and needs minimal (if any) translation. That said, it is...not a good movie, so caveat emptor for other reasons

[hearthesilence]

Claire Denis's new film, an adaptation of “Black Battles with Dogs” by Bernard-Marie Koltès, is opening at IFC Center today - again it has been saddled with a lame American title when a straight translation, Le Cri des gardes / The Cry of the Guards, would've been better.

I saw this at NYFF last year, and while it's not among her best, I actually liked it myself. (It's been too long since I've seen it, but what was the controversial A.I. shot? I'm surprised to hear there was one.)

FWIW, I do remember two key moments early on in the film, and I thought it was peculiar that no one discussed the implications of them. First, it becomes clear later on (without spelling it out in words) that Alboury could have found the exact location of his brother through the help of locals. With this in mind, the reasons for confronting those at the construction site become sharper, and in memory those reasons can feel directed at us/the audience. Second, it’s no minor detail that the meaning of an indigenous land rights anthem can be lost on someone who can sing along to every word.

[Never Cursed]

I saw this at NYFF last year, and while it's not among her best, I actually liked it myself. (It's been too long since I've seen it, but what was the controversial A.I. shot? I'm surprised to hear there was one.)

Spoiler

de Bankolé's character's dreams in the beginning contain shots of a dog that were "enhanced" with generative AI images; i.e., they filmed a plate of a dog, and then used AI to make it look the way Denis wanted it. It certainly stood out to me when I saw it.

[zedz]

Though that image is specifically identified as “the white man’s dream of the black man’s nightmare,” so I think grotesque AI is a fitting way to represent that. I don’t know why people need to single that out for criticism when there’s so much else that’s bad about the film!

[Never Cursed]

There's no reason to use AI specifically to depict it, though: conventional VFX could have done this job just as easily (but probably at greater expense) and with the same meaning. The only time I've seen it actually work artistically is in Radu Jude's Dracula, where the point is to create disgusting machine-generated libidinal fantasies for the purpose of making fun of AI and of the idea-free idiots who use it

[pistolwink]

It's a bit wild that a director as well-known as Denis can have no say in the English-language titles of her films. I recall her being appalled that Un beau soleil intérieur was rendered as Let the Sunshine In (not even sure if she recognized the Hair reference, which would probably only have made her madder). Were "A Bright Sunlight WIthin"—or something similar—and "With Love and Fury" that far beyond the pale?

[Matt]

The title for Both Sides of the Blade at least makes sense because of the Tindersticks song title/lyrics. Denis later went on to say that it was the "real title" of the film. She didn't have the song until the editing process, so the Avec amour et acharnement title was probably set well before. She also considered that title untranslatable, so it was probably always going to have a different English title. But distributors wanting to call it Fire was beyond ridiculous, even just from a search engine optimization perspective.

Let's be thankful that Let the Sunshine In was not called Dark Glasses as was originally intended.

[malachi_lui]

I also saw Le Cri des gardes at NYFF last year, the AI shot in question didn't stick out to me like AI, just some sort of eerie animation/manipulation. I've no problem with it, I'm very anti-AI but if it's used for minor touch-ups in otherwise human-intensive works of art (see also the AI voice tools for The Brutalist), it's not corrupting the art. Though I agree with Never Cursed that Radu Jude's Dracula is probably the limit in terms of what generative and heavily augmentative AI use in cinema can be valid (I loved it).

Anyway, Le Cri des gardes is probably one of Denis' lesser films but it's still very good. Too stage-y, partly due to the source material, and I recall the visual style being stale, though the story carries enough power and movement to sustain it. Would be interested to rewatch but I'll wait until it's online soon, not paying IFC Center prices considering their inconsistent projection quality (I let my membership lapse after a year).