Nénette and Boni (Nénette et Boni)

Claire Denis

France 1996 | 103 min | 35 mm | colour | 1:1,85 | Pyramide
French version, Czech and English subtitles

The movie Nénette and Boni overflows with insistent and emotive images, originally filmed on 16 mm, honoured with several prizes in IFF Locarno.

The meanings in Claire Denis films don’t lie in the words but gestures and movements. Mobility and variability of individual gestures leads to strongly emotive images, whose meaning is never definite. In this ambiguous way the film Nénette and Boni is describing rediscovered relationship between brother and sister. The story is filled with their shy pokes and circling around each other keeping safe distance, disarming efforts to find mutual sense of security. This film recieved many awards in IFF in Locarno and was originaly shot on 16 mm using lenses with long focal lenght which allowed to create almost “tactually” urgent images drawing us near the bodies of the characters and the surface of their skin in very intimate way