Tactile, melancholic, sensuous, elliptical. It’s hard to describe the effect that Nenette And Boni (1996) had on me. Directed by Claire Denis, and co-written by Denis and her collaborator Jean-Pol Fargeau, the story is about a brother and sister living in Marseilles. The experience of the movie is that it gives you pieces of the overall picture slowly, leaving it up to your interpretation of how they might fit together, what moments are reveries and dreams, and what exactly are the connections between everyone. Boni (Gregoire Colin) is the oldest of the two siblings, a cocky, macho teenager filled with frustrated sexual desire and rough fantasies. He works in a pizza van by the docks and allows friends to crash in his house, left to him by his mother who has recently passed away. His sister, Nenette (Alice Houri) is fifteen years old and has run away from home, pregnant and seeking help from him. Their parents are separated and the father is something of a dodgy businessman in debt to gangsters. There’s also the baker’s wife that Boni fantasies about, played by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, blonde and plush in sweaters and dresses, while the baker is none other than Vincent Gallo, chewing the scenery as a love-sick grouch. Tindersticks provide the score, which adds considerably to the moody urban ambience of Nenette And Boni: early morning coffee and late night streets, migrant working communities, telephone card scams and American fast food. This is of a piece with the other city-based dramas I’ve seen of Denis’, like 35 Shots Of Rum and Friday Night, but there’s a scrappier, tougher air about everything, balanced by unexpected moments of tenderness and romance. It’s an observational languor that Claire Denis and her collaborators (cinematographer Agnes Goddard) create, and one I can anticipate deepening my appreciation of whenever I return to these characters and the overall vibe. Even a played out song like ‘God Only Knows’ finds another pure cinematic expression here and a key sequence involving dough as an avenue for sexual frustration becomes something charged, funny and thrilling. Streamed on the Criterion Channel. Recommended.
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