European Directors

The selected European director for this discussion is Claire Denis from France and known to have explored colonial and post-colonial themes in her works. The greatest influence of Claire Denis as a European film director is based on modern France as well as European cinematic identity. Research shows that Claire Denis has a better understanding of France. History shows that Claire Denis lived in French West Africa in the 1950s; the reason as to why her films relate to the issues of colonial past as well as the race whose effect is haunting the West. In the role as a film director, Claire Denis approaches themes in her movies using human contact and sensual bodies. Based on this background, this research paper entails a discussion of Claire Denis as a European film director with a particular focus on her role and how her work can be situated to evolve the notions of European identity and that of her own country. The paper will also explain how and why Claire Denis works slip these notions. The role of Claire Denis as a European film director will also be compared to that of a rival Michael Haneke.

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In her works, Claire Denis plays many roles of a film director. Generally, a film director has the role of taking the entire control of a film including its artistic as well as dramatic aspects. The film director takes the responsibility of visualizing the screenplay or script and guiding the technical crew as well as the actors on their actions to fulfill the intended vision. A film director also chooses the cast members, the creative aspects and production design of making the film. The responsibility of Claire Denis as a European film director entailed many aspects including selecting the context, characters, production design and visualizing the screenplay.

In her roles as European film Director, Claire Denis seems to undertake all the responsibilities of a director. For instance, when looking at her latest film "White Material," it gives the viewer the idea of a film director who can carry out all the tasks including controlling the main idea in the movie, the dramatic aspects, visuals in the screenplay, production design, choice of cast members as well as the creative aspects of filmmaking. In the "White Material" movie, Claire Denis chose the main idea explored in the film that entailed the aspects of race and colonialism. These themes are explored in most of her movies from the prominent "Chocolat" in 1988 whose focus was a small French girl growing up in a colonial settlement in Central Africa, Cameroon (Boule and Ursula 53). The girl has a complicated relationship with a Black and older servant. In this film, Claire Denis can be said to have played a huge role in enhancing the maturity of French cinema where racial tensions and complicated sexual relationships between the colonized and colonizer were explored. In the "White Material," Claire Denis does not deviate from the subject of race and colonization.

Claire Denis as a film director selects the setting and characters fitting best for specific roles in the movie (Mayne 3). The setting of the "White Material" is in an African country facing issues of civil war. The locals are terrified from children to political leaders. Claire Denis films focus more on human experiences in ordinary and extraordinary situations (Williams 233). Maria Vial is a character playing the role of White in an African country. She farms coffee but the workers have left her almost the time to harvest. The presentation of the White in an African country is that of Europeans dominating the Black people. The Whites are known to be bold. However, Maria feels helpless without the African labors.

The work of Claire Denis can be situated to evolve the notion of European identity and that of her own country. In her role as a film director, Claire Denis did not work alone but with other directors. Purposely, collaboration with other film directors is a common European and French cinema culture. French cinema was characterized by having a strong back-up from other contributors to the process of making the film (Nowell-Smith 586). Claire Denis is described as an auteur who worked in collaboration with other contributors in the filmmaking team including Agnes Godard, the camerawoman and other directors such as Agnes Varda and Eric Zonca. It is an aspect that makes her works rigid and not easy to break the movies based on different components that are methodologically attributable to all the team members (Letzler, Ben, and Christine 109).

The auteur aspect in Claire Denis filmmaking evolves the notion of European identity with the European art cinema that majorly borrows from other films of the 1920s including the French New Wave. In fact, European cinema resides in film works that are innovative, socially committed and having a humanistic outlook (Vincendeau 56). Claire Denis role as a film director works well to represent these important aspects of the film in European art cinema. They do not connect with the modern life because a person can read the entire idea of the film (Mia 79). European cinema is dominated by auteurs whereby the directors are artists and authors with the aim of making films that reflect their personal visions as well as concerns (Wood 24; Elsaesser 485). Claire Denis's role as a film director fits well with this European identity of cinema. There is little focus on the culture and state of the nation when making the film. For Claire Denis, her role as a director in making a film entails a process of achieving the impossible. While working with others, Claire Denis exposes herself to different situations regarding her life to explain how people tend to respond to challenges. To Denis, the culture or status of a nation is not an area of interest to capture during filmmaking but the variety of human life.

In her technical and production design role, Claire Denis uses freewheeling and nomadic intensities during filmmaking. She focuses more on the contemporary French cinema whose focus is more on space and landscape (Williams 233). The use of long sweeping panoramic shots, as well as the use of close-ups in her films, demonstrates her love for capturing life in the countryside (Boule and Ursula 53). Space is one of the most dramatic stylistic units in visual arts. When looking at Claire Denis films, a person would expect to see different types of spaces evident in fiction cinema including the psychological space of the actor, the area of experience as well as geography covered by the film and the screen field. Claire Denis ensures to reproduce external space by carefully directing the camera person during filmmaking. The consideration of freewheeling and nomadic intensities when making the film is a fascinating thing in the contemporary French cinema (Williams 233).

Claire Denis's role in directing the "Chocolat" in 1988 and the other films including the "White Material" can be said to have contributed to the theory of European space in the European cinema. History shows that European films filmed before 1989 did not have the aspect of space. The European space became a source of identity with the European cinema based on the movies that were created after the year 1989 (Galt 230). The year 1989 was a time that defined the post-Wall time in Europe where everything including culture and politics developed to new directions. Historical films created at this time provide a significant reflection of European identity in a specific time and place. Claire Denis role as a film director played a role in changing the identity of European cinema that developed to a new focus of European space.

The character of skin is emphasized in Claire Denis films. Her role in choosing this character demonstrates the essence of European identifies in an African land. When looking at a movie such as the "Chocolat" and "White Material," skin was a major character suggesting the superiority of White characters over the blacks in Africa. Having been raised in a French colonial country in West Africa, Claire Denis's role as a film director wants to reveal European identity by how Africans submit to the White. Europeans colonial rule is evident in the films and Claire seems to defend how things are when a White lives an African country. Being white in Africa gives a person European identity of a special status in the society. Individualism is a core theme promoted in European cinema and Claire Denis wants to show that Europeans are individualistic by making others feel inferior. Africa gives the white a special status and going back to their country may weaken this status. In "The European Self: Rethinking an Attitude," Herzfeld (139) states that individualism is a stereotypes European identity. The self-view of Europeans is that they should be the owners of property and power. The concept of European individualism is highly explained by the imperial and colonial presence of the Whites in a country. The friction between the Whites and blacks is the purpose of Claire Denis using the skin to demonstrate race

The role of Claire Denis as a European film director can also be said to have deviated in one or the other from evolving the notions of European identity. Looking at the movies directed by Claire Denis, they deviate mostly from the psychological themes advocated in European art cinema. Claire concentrates more on the screen presence of the characters in the film and not the mental aspect found in many of the European cinema (Mayne 2). A good example is demonstrated in her 2001 film, the Vendredi Soir whereby the story directs the viewer on the actions of movement from one place to another. The woman protagonist is relocating from her house to another one owned by her partner. However, she never arrives at her destination because of traffic Jam. The viewer sees the Vendredi Soir as a road film where the screen concentration is on the movement of the characters, events, and objects. It is like a trip about roads and cars whereby the psychological aspect is not evoked in the viewer because the anticipating is a road narrative. From the opening scenes where there is a series of images of a town and life in the city, Paris has a role as a city and a historical representation of the place where Claire Denis covered the film. There is a lot of spectatorship when viewing the Vendredi Soir film rather than the observer having a mental clue of the meaning that the film director wanted to present to the audience. European art cinema focuses majorly on the emotional as well as a social determinant of people's lives. Claire Denis ignores these aspects of European cinema by exercising freedom in filmmaking.

When compared to Michael Haneke, Claire Denis as a film director seems to use human contact and sensual bodies in addressing themes in the film. The role of Michael Haneke as a European director centers in screenwriting. Haneke majors in writing the film scripts and working together with others to come up with the production design, characters as well as themes during filmmaking. His work is more on social themes that connect to violence when compared to Claire Denis themes of colonization and race. Haneke's films engage with the audience through the psychological connection of a cinematic experience. According to Price and Rhodes, the entire cinematic practice in Haneke's films is built upon the capability to move the emotions of the viewer (51). In the technical aspects of the film, Haneke uses long takes just like Claire Denis. The use of long takes in Haneke's filmmaking to give the audience the feeling of remaining in the same situation when viewing the film (Price and Rhodes 87). For instance, the "Cache" is one of Haneke's films produced in 2005, the author uses long takes in the opening scenes that takes the viewer through a psychoanalytical lens of magnifying the desire of t...