Nénette et Boni

In her emotionally explosive fifth film (all of them have been screened at Rotterdam), Claire Denis again worked with the two young actors, Alice Houri and Grégoire Colin, from her previous film U.S. Go Home. Bonifica (19) known as Boni, works in a pizza joint in Marseille. After the death of his mother, he didn’t want to have anything more to do with his father, a lampshade dealer who brought up Boni’s sister Nénette, who is now 15. One day Nénette climbs over the wall of her boarding school and then knocks on Boni’s door. Boni is angry at first and refuses to take her into his house. Both have been hardened by life and both are wrestling with a father they hate and who no longer has a place in their lives after their mother’s death. They only have each other to turn to and try to make the best of things, slowly growing closer together. Boni fantasises about the attractive wife of the local baker (played by Valérie Bruni-Tedeschi) and Nénette confesses to Boni the real reason she left.Denis uses a wide variety of styles – from tight close-ups, documentary-like shots to idealised dream sequences – to map out the intangible aspects of the sibling bond, assisted by the sultry sounds of the British band Tindersticks. The film won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival.