My first glimpse of Claire Denis is of a slight, elegant figure dressed in white slipping out of a black limousine that fills the narrow street outside the hotel where our rendezvous is scheduled. For an instant, I feel as if I have been sucked into the menacing world of her latest film. I have just travelled to Paris to interview her, and have arrived early because I am anxious not to waste a minute of the 45 I have been granted to investigate the extraordinary career of a French director idolised by peers such as Barry Jenkins, Charlotte Wells, Andrea Arnold and Pedro Almodóvar and whose work is a fixture of critics’ lists of the best movies ever made.
At 77, Denis is a formidable presence. She speaks a handful of languages and made two films during the Covid pandemic, both of which won European film festival awards last year. Both Sides of the Blade took the Silver Bear at Berlin, while Stars at Noon – the film we are here to discuss – tied for the Grand Prix at Cannes. Based on an early, semi-autobiographical novel by the poet and novelist Denis Johnson, it’s the story of a reckless young American woman trapped in Nicaragua who tries to flee the country in a stolen car with her English lover (Joe Alwyn), a mysterious character she has randomly picked up. He claims to be a businessman but keeps a gun in his sponge bag and appears to be wanted by the CIA.
