Nénette and Boni exposes the brother-sister bond with a rich visual tapestry
Nénette and Boni, the new feature from French filmmaker Claire Denis, offers insights into brother-sister relations by probing the rapport between the estranged siblings of its title. "There is a secret mystery in the relationship between brother and sister; it's a very strong and carnal relationship, but also a completely distant one," observes the director. "As a teenager, I read Jean Cocteau's book Les Enfants Terribles, which is about such a relationship, and it made me think that you would never have this 'mystery' with anyone else. Though Nénette and Boni feel like perfect strangers, they realize that there's more intimacy between them than they thought."
Last year's Best Picture recipient at Switzerland's Locarno Film Festival, Nénette and Boni is being distributed domestically this month by Strand Releasing. In this lyrical film, the brash, 19-year-old Boniface (Grégoire Colin) idles his away his days toiling at a local pizzeria and engaging in elaborate onanistic fantasies about the local baker's bounteous wife (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi). His routine is interrupted by the arrival of his headstrong, 15-year-old sister, Antoinette (Alice Houri), who has escaped from a boarding school. The pair's mother has recently died, and both are alienated from their absentee father, Felix, who later surfaces to offer unwanted support. Reluctantly, Boni gives his sibling shelter, only to discover that Nénette is some seven months pregnant. The indifferent brother and sister soon find themselves facing the inevitable responsibilities of premature adulthood.
During Denis' preproduction discussions with her longtime cinematographer, Agnès Godard, AFC, the director emphasized that the camerawork should convey the siblings' aloof familiarity, seen primarily from Boni's perspective. "I told Agnès that if I could, I'd like to go under the skin [with the photography]. So we chose a close-to-the-skin framing style with more close-ups than usual in order to create physical intimacy with Boni. Then, we could accept that the difference between his reverie and reality was not clear."
Denis and Godard's instinctive, organic approach to cinema forsakes on-set rehearsals with actors in favor of improvisational shot blocking, and the duo often includes test footage as part of the finished film. While both admit that Nénette and Boni is by far their most experimental film to date, they note that their methods remained essentially the same. The cinematographer remarks, "Having been an assistant director for years, Claire always has one or two very precise images in mind when we're preparing a film. I would say that this is the best 'document' to start with, since it's really the essence of the entire film."
The duo first met in the early Eighties, although at separate times Denis and Godard had studied at the prestigious Parisian film school IDHEC (the Institute des Hautes Etudes Cinematographiques). After their respective graduations, both began the upward climb through the crewing ranks. Denis served as an assistant director for acclaimed filmmakers Wim Wenders (on Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire), Jim Jarmusch (on Down by Law), Constantin Costa-Gavras and Jacques Rivette. During Godard's progression from focus puller to cinematographer, she operated for such distinguished cameramen as Sacha Vierney (on Belly of an Architect), Henri Alekan (on Wings of Desire), Denis Lenoir (on Daddy Nostalgia) and Darius Khondji, AFC (on the Scottish film Prague).
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