Claire Denis has had a busy year. Her two films, Both Sides of the Blade and Stars at Noon, premiered at Berlinale and Cannes, respectively. Blade earned the Silver Bear for Best Direction out of Berlin, Stars the Grand Prix out of Cannes. The two differ in tenor, but in each she pulls out fantastic lead performances, from one actor she’s worked with in spades, and one that’s new to her troupe: Juliette Binoche and Margarett Qualley.
Her more recent film, starring Qualley and Joe Alwyn, centers on a flailing journalist and mysterious businessman starting a relationship in Panama. Seemingly on the run at all times, the couple evade capture and cultivate a physical, financial, and—finally—emotional bond in the midst of a political thriller. Stars at Noon features a sizzling, sweaty narrative, muddled in its second act by a connection that doesn’t always stick between Trish (Qualley) and Daniel (Alwyn). They seem forced together out of circumstance, and little else.
Still, Denis remains an expert behind the camera. Her visual language, an ability to shoot the human body, remains unmatched and distinct amongst her contemporaries, finding a tenderness, an intimacy in every sex scene. There’s no cheapness or tricks with her view of sex, which is often necessary to tell her stories. In this film it’s no different—Trish and Daniel find themselves intertwined before long.
Adapted from the 1986 novel from Denis Johnson, the French auteur extracts Qualley’s best performance, her charm and allure on full display. She’s giving a big performance, an actorly one as the lead working with a hazy script. Alwyn is serviceable alongside her, and the film lumbers along when the two of them aren’t interacting outside of their bedroom. The third act finds life, though, as Benny Safdie pops up to be menacing and kind as a double-edged thorn in the pair’s collective side.
Denis keeps you on your toes. Her tone shifts without hesitation, and she’s unafraid to challenge a journalist’s questions. She’s unlike any other interview subject, and I felt appreciative to chat with her even as she might seem displeased with some of the phrasing in my questions. She makes movies that challenge and excite while rarely resulting in tidy endings. Her interviews feel the same way.
I chatted with Denis about the word “transactional,” about slow dancing, and about she approaches sex scenes.
The Film Stage: How are you doing?
Claire Denis: I’m jet-lagged, tired, and cold.
You have two movies out this year. Six months ago, in an interview, you said you didn’t really see a connection. Now that Stars at Noon is out, do you see one?
Probably the connection is me. But no: I honestly don’t. Once I finished Both Sides of the Blade I had already been on the script for Stars at Noon. It was written before the pandemic. I’d been waiting for years to be able to do so. There was absolutely no connection. Maybe in the end, now that the films are finished, people can see a connection. Me, it was impossible.
And you updated the novel for modern times, for the pandemic.
Don’t you remember the pandemic? Nobody could leave. You could not ask an actor or actress to go to Central America.
That’s understandable—
Do you remember the pandemic?
Yes, of course.
You know, everything was blocked.
How was working with the new actors, a new cast of people?
Margaret, she’s been waiting three years and a half. I mean, I met her after the Tarantino movie. So I knew for four years when she agreed to be Trish. It was a long companionship, you know, and I had less time to meet with Joe, but we immediately liked each other. But it was as opposed to Juliette Binoche and Vincent London, with whom I’ve been working before. But Margaret, it was not like discovering. I think it’s been four years, we’ve been phoning each other, texting each other so many times. She was like a friend already when we started shooting.
What about Margaret and Joe’s chemistry?
They knew each other. But they never acted together. I think it was for the best, considering the story. The way they meet in that bar—I think it was great. They were not completely familiar with each other, you know, that there was this little distance.
And their relationship starts off as transactional. And there is a sense to all of Trish’s relationships being almost transactional in this way.
In other words, you mean, she’s a prostitute?
Not necessarily, like he’s looking for just someone to connect with, to get sex from, and the options are limited. And she’s—
He is a stranger. He realized she could be a prostitute and he wants to get laid. I don’t know. I mean, for me, we don’t have to use antique words to say what happened in a bar when a man meets a beautiful young woman that apparently is a whore. I think the world is becoming so moral these days, you know?
Yeah, I understand. I think that I—
What I say you don’t understand. I mean, the morality is like… the world is like… as if we are lying. People, I mean. It still exists, this kind of relationship. We don’t have to hide.
Behind other words? Or talking around it?
Like transactional? For a price I sleep with you—that’s the line. Price. I sleep with you. Shall we meet again? Every time you have $50? That’s clear. It’s not?
It is.
You look at me with weird eyes.
Oh no, I’m sorry, I was just listening.
Okay, okay.
There’s so much intimacy in the slow-dancing scene, which I love.
We listened to the music together. I mean, it’s easy. It’s very beautiful to direct a scene like that. And it’s easy with Margaret and Joe. It was like they knew. It’s not very difficult to have great Margaret and great Joe understand that scene and great music.
It feels like Trish is in a state of purgatory during the film.
That’s just the story—you know, she wants to live. She’s trying, she has been trying to be a journalist. It’s a disaster, her life. She’s really in dire straits. And she thinks maybe this English guy at the bar is full of money and can help her to leave, to get a plane and leave and she needs dollars to leave and to retrieve a passport. Although she hides the fact that she doesn’t have a passport, she lied to him. It’s a nice word [purgatory]. It’s very beautiful. But I would say it’s hell.
I wanted to ask about shooting sex scenes. Has that process changed for you in the last 30 years or so?
It’s difficult. Always. It’s not easy. But in some films it’s very important. It’s the way two characters connect to each other. Sometimes it’s by dialogue, and sometimes it’s by, in this film, it was really about: their connection is through sex. As he thinks she’s a whore. And she accepts the idea. She needs the money. Sex is not easy, because you have to go into intimacy with actor and actress. But how could I avoid making sex scenes in the story? It’s the most important moment of the film, the desire.
Do you still look at sex the same way?
Do you mean getting older? I don’t know. Just: I don’t know. Do I think the same way? I think it’s great. I think it’s part of filmmaking? Do I feel the same way? This, I don’t know. It’s for you to say.
Are those the most difficult days on set?
No, no, no. No, it’s not hard. It’s just like, everybody knows. We are shy people. But it’s not hard. It’s the heart of the story. So it’s great. It’s actually very touching, very moving. It makes me cry sometimes.
You shoot sex with a lot of tenderness.
You think I have tenderness?
Yeah, I do.
Of course. I always try, because that’s the way I feel. I wouldn’t do differently even if it’s a money transaction.
I like that.
Me too.
I wanted to ask about John C. Reilly, briefly.
John C. Reilly was on the phone with one of my collaborators one day in Panama. And he was traveling to Ireland because he had bought a house there. And I asked him, shyly, to see if he would accept being that guy owning the magazine, answering when Trish calls. And he said “Of course. He would be happy to.” He’s such a great actor, such a great man, such a charming person. It was so fantastic. I was so lucky. Everyone in the cast is so great. I’ve been very lucky casting that film.
Well, I enjoyed it, the film. And so thank you for the time, and looking forward to whatever is next.
Well, up next, I don’t know. And a great, green sweatshirt, too.
Stars at Noon opens on Friday, October 14 in theaters and on VOD.