Making Film is to Be Inside

a Talk with Claire Denis
By Craig Phillips, with Jonathan Marlow
May 14, 2003

With her beguiling new film, Friday Night, French filmmaker Claire Denis may have made her version of Wong Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love - but her film is less melancholic and more in the moment. After the poor reception of her last picture, the brooding romantic thriller-cum-cannibal-fest Trouble Every Day, it may appear that Denis is returning to safer, simpler ground with a light, romantic story. But, as with all of her work, there's more going on than meets the eye in Friday Night, and, as always, it's not plot alone. It's the feel, the mood, the music, the hauntingly photographed images that draw you in - but it's the playfulness at work that really enchants. Read more....