Claire Denis, a visionary filmmaker, is known for her evocative and thought-provoking films that explore complex themes of human experience, identity, and social dynamics. Her work has received critical acclaim for its narrative depth and visual artistry, making her one of the most influential directors in contemporary cinema. Her Beau Travail (1999), named one of the greatest films of all time by the British Film Institute, was inspired by Herman Melville‘s novella Billy Budd. Stars at Noon (2022) was awarded the Grand Prix at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Both Sides of the Blade (2022) won Denis the Best Director award at the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival. Denis will appear in conversation with Visiting Fellow Adam Shatz to explore the intersections of culture, politics, and the arts.
The American Library in Paris Visiting Fellowship is supported by The de Groot Foundation.
About the speakers:
Claire Denis is a French film director and screenwriter. Her feature film Beau Travail (1999) has been called one of the greatest films of the 1990s and of all time. Other acclaimed works include Trouble Every Day (2001), 35 Shots of Rum (2008), White Material (2009), High Life (2018) and Both Sides of the Blade (2022), the last of which won her the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival. For her film Stars at Noon (2022), Denis competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, winning the Grand Prix.
Adam Shatz is the US editor of The London Review of Books and a contributor to The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and other publications. He is the author of The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon, and of Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical Imagination. He is the host of the podcast “Myself with Others,” and the recipient of the 2024 Guggenheim.
