Claire Denis Quotes

When you have countries that have a lot of minerals and diamonds and oil and are in business with companies from all over the world - but these companies don't share, really, their profits - this is called post-post-colonial.

- Claire Denis

Diamonds, Over, Profits, Minerals

Growing up outside your own country makes you feel that you don't belong when you return, so you feel free to make friends with whomever you like.

- Claire Denis

Country, Belong, Like, Whomever

What I don't like so much is to give explanations about people's behaviour... I'm not interested in making conclusions. I would never think about myself or anyone else, 'Well, this happened, this happened, this happened, so this must be the result.' It doesn't work like that with me.

- Claire Denis

Result, About, Would, Conclusions

I am always asked, 'You grew up in Africa?' Every time I introduce a film, or I'm interviewed, 'You grew up in Africa?'

- Claire Denis

Film, Always, Africa, Introduce

In Kurosawa's films, the tragedy is that this strong man was crushed by corruption or mistrust at the end.

- Claire Denis

Strong, Mistrust, Films, Corruption

I reproach so many things about my family, but on the other hand, I kept asking them to be my family.

- Claire Denis

Asking, Other, About, Reproach

In a way, I feel obliged to respect Jean Rouch because I am told he is very important.

- Claire Denis

Feel, Very, Obliged, Jean

Often, women as little girls are sent off on a track for them to live a perfect life and be a perfect woman. Not for boys, who can be themselves with their mood and their temper.

- Claire Denis

Woman, Perfect, Mood, Perfect Life

Sometimes bleak is good. Sometimes bleak is necessary. Some part of life is always bleak.

- Claire Denis

Some, Always, Necessary, Bleak

I have no relationship to the French bourgeoisie. I don't like connecting with them.

- Claire Denis

Relationship, Like, Them, Bourgeoisie

I am the eldest child; it's lonely at the top.

- Claire Denis

I Am, Top, Am, Eldest

My grandfather died when I was 12, but I remember the sorrow of my mother. Even now, she's an old lady, but when she speaks about her father, she looks young. A love like that is undefeated, you know?

- Claire Denis

Love, Young, I Remember, Undefeated

I didn't foresee my career. Things happen.

- Claire Denis

Career, Happen, Things, Foresee

I don't know - music in film, for me, is not another part of a soundtrack; it is something that also helps to approach a character, to foresee the type of image - you see what I mean - it's like a part of the process.

- Claire Denis

Process, Image, Soundtrack, Foresee

I always thought of Djibouti as a place where human history hasn't really begun yet - or perhaps it's already over. There's something in the landscape that's stronger than human civilisation. There's no agriculture, for example, and there are live volcanoes.

- Claire Denis

Thought, Example, Begun, Human History

Marguerite Duras was a very good friend of mine and an intellectual hero. She was also a sort of mother figure. Of course she was an influence.

- Claire Denis

Very, Mine, Figure, Good Friend

A career for me is something like building a bridge. You know, where to put the lifts. You have a plan. I have a blueprint for each film, but not for my life.

- Claire Denis

My Life, Career, Like, Blueprint

What I like is the idea of a group, even if it's just two people - the idea of solitude within a group.

- Claire Denis

Like, Idea, Within, Solitude

I think a film noir demands a beginning and an end.

- Claire Denis

Beginning, Think, I Think, Noir

'Chocolat' was a sort of statement of my own childhood, recognizing I experienced something from the end of the colonial era and the beginning of independence as I was a child that really made me aware of things I never forgot - a sort of childhood that made me different when I was a student in France.

- Claire Denis

Beginning, Student, Own, Colonial

The cinema should be human and be part of people's lives; it should focus on ordinary existences in sometimes extraordinary situations and places. That is what really motivates me.

- Claire Denis

Sometimes, Part, Lives, Ordinary Situations

I have very strong relationships with my actors when I'm shooting. When you love an actor's work, you always feel you have to go further, and you make several films together. One film just gives you time to get acquainted.

- Claire Denis

Love, Strong, Very, Acquainted

I don't remember being afraid of anything in making films.

- Claire Denis

Remember, Making, Films, Being Afraid

I hate family pressures and family responsibilities. I'm more comfortable as a stranger. I always imagined I could just live in a hotel. I'm afraid of family.

- Claire Denis

More, Always, Could, Pressures

I really started watching films when I was 14. As I became a teenager, there was nothing that really interested me apart from music, books and films.

- Claire Denis

Nothing, Films, Became, Teenager

I don't think I see the way bodies move in any special way. People say I do, but everybody moves. I don't see why all of a sudden I'm a specialist in the way bodies move.

- Claire Denis

Think, Everybody, Move, Specialist

For some reason, I have always been interested in the stories of people who are exiled and who are deprived of rights. My main motive to make a film is to keep the society in mind and the hospitality adhered.

- Claire Denis

Reason, Some, Always, Deprived

My films are always looked at strangely, and there is nothing I can do about it.

- Claire Denis

Always, Films, Looked, Strangely

Making pizza is a great job. All that kneading the dough - everything to do with cooking is wonderful, sensual.

- Claire Denis

Pizza, Making, Great Job, Dough

When making a film, if I feel nothing in my body, I can't work. I have to touch. I have to feel. I never stop touching.

- Claire Denis

Work, Making, Touching, Never Stop

My mother's father was from Brazil - a painter, and not a famous one - and was always broke. But he was a free spirit, a great grandfather.

- Claire Denis

Famous, Brazil, Always, Free Spirit

The camera is not your eye, and it's not the eye of the audience. I don't think it's my eye, either. It belongs to the film.

- Claire Denis

Eye, Think, Audience, Camera

We don't all look alike - some people think they're tough, some people think they're fragile - but in the end, we share a lot.

- Claire Denis

Look, Think, Some, In The End

I've never seen a world where only men were responsible for the violence, and the women were innocent. They go together. Men and women are a violent mixture.

- Claire Denis

Innocent, Go, Violent, Women Are

I'm not a tacky person, I think.

- Claire Denis

Think, Person, I Think, Tacky

Because TV is mostly close up, it has to be fast. And because it has to be fast, you don't have time to explain completely, by a sequence shot, what's happening between people. So instead of experiencing what's happening, say, when a couple is dancing, dialogue is used to explain.

- Claire Denis

Dancing, Explain, TV, Sequence

I hate the idea of growing accustomed to someone and being faithful.

- Claire Denis

Growing, Someone, Idea, Accustomed

You don't grow up naive in Africa.

- Claire Denis

Grow, Grow Up, Africa, Naive

Inside the family, you can go from hate to passivity to extreme love within the same hour.

- Claire Denis

Love, Same, Hour, Passivity

I've experienced love and ambition and desire in my life, but never in the same way as in a family.

- Claire Denis

Love, My Life, Never, Experienced

I can be unkind to someone in the street or in the subway - I'm a bad-tempered person - but I'm unable to be unkind to a character. They exist because of me, and I have responsibility for them.

- Claire Denis

I Can, Exist, Them, Unkind

I am not at all interested in theories about cinema. I am only interested in images and people and sound. I am really a very simple person.

- Claire Denis

Sound, Very, Images, Simple Person

The only thing I find interesting is self-interest.

- Claire Denis

Find, Only, The Only Thing, Self-Interest

There seem to be more women producers than men.

- Claire Denis

Men, More, Than, Producers

I suppose I am interested in the variety of human life - how people live. I am most interested in individuals and how they respond to challenges or to difficulties or just to each other. I am curious about people.

- Claire Denis

Challenges, Curious, Other, Respond

I hate the victimization of women, always.

- Claire Denis

Women, Hate, Always, Victimization

Sometimes I feel like John Wayne.

- Claire Denis

Sometimes, Like, John Wayne, Wayne

I'm not a very brave person.

- Claire Denis

Person, Very, Brave

I think cinema is linked to literature by a lot of social ways. Our brains are full of literature - my brain is.

- Claire Denis

Think, Social, I Think, Linked

I think working as an assistant was a part of knowing people who like cinema, and to learn from a movie, you have to watch it.

- Claire Denis

Think, Movie, I Think, Cinema

Africa is no more this poor continent. It's on the march.

- Claire Denis

More, Africa, Continent, March

I'm a very sinister person.

- Claire Denis

Person, Very, Sinister

A father who sees his daughter leave in the arms of another man does not feel the same as a mother. It is heartrending for her, too. But it is not the same.

- Claire Denis

Father, Feel, Another, Another Man

I'm not witty.

- Claire Denis

Witty

When I was a child I had a nightmare, and in the morning, I asked my mother and father, 'If I kill someone, would you still love me?' My parents were very preoccupied with this, but I think I'm not the only one to ask for that - not love, but absolute fidelity.

- Claire Denis

Love, Mother And Father, Nightmare

I can't imagine a society with absolutely no solidarity. For me, it's a nightmare. And I don't want to live in a place like that.

- Claire Denis

Want, Like, Imagine, Nightmare

I'm tiny. I'm small.

- Claire Denis

Small, Tiny

You can spend your whole life in France without ever thinking about the Legion.

- Claire Denis

About, Ever, Spend, Legion

Shoes have a meaning.

- Claire Denis

Shoes, Meaning

When I was doing 'Beau Travail,' I listened a lot to Benjamin Britten.

- Claire Denis

Doing, Lot, Beau, Listened

I always thought Vincent Lindon had a sexy body, a body you can trust, a solid body you can lean on.

- Claire Denis

Trust, Always, Solid, Lean

Filmmaking creates a sort of - trust, maybe. It has led me to a group of people I feel good with. We have something in common because of film, when otherwise we might have nothing.

- Claire Denis

Trust, Maybe, Otherwise, Creates

I think you cannot make films without choosing everything.

- Claire Denis

Think, I Think, Films, Choosing

I don't want to be mysterious.

- Claire Denis

Want, Mysterious

I was never very interested in my own experience, I think, in fact, if my films have a common link, maybe it's being a foreigner - it's common for people who are born abroad - they don't know so well where they belong.

- Claire Denis

Fact, I Think, Very, In Fact

The history of colonisation cannot disappear.

- Claire Denis

Cannot, The History Of, Disappear

'White Material' is about courage and craziness.

- Claire Denis

White, About, Material, Craziness

I listen to a lot of different kinds of music.

- Claire Denis

Music, Lot, Kinds, Different Kinds

I long to make films. I'm dying to be inside the next film. I always hope there will be another film.

- Claire Denis

Next, Always, Films, Dying

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