claire denis features 1988-2018

Love that ending, and love the film, it's still my favorite to have been released in at least the last 25 years. It was jaw-dropping the first time I saw it, right before the DVD went out-of-print, and for years it was impossible to find - it was really tough recommending it to people for that reason alone. But similar to Joni Mitchell (in more of a niche way), it's been absolutely wonderful to see this massive appreciation for Denis build up over the past decade. She already had critical acclaim, but as late as 2010, it felt like a fairly small number of people had actually seen her best work. Even IndieWire neglected to mention her in one of their well-meaning but horribly-conceived articles pushing for more recognition for female filmmakers. (Didn't help that they gave plenty of room for Nancy Meyers's work.) I was able to see Denis speak on two separate occasions years apart, and you could see the change easily - first time seemed relatively low-key but the second time around a wave of fans surrounded her at the end of the talk, and she was clearly taken aback.

Been meaning to get the Criterion _Beau Travail_ and surely will but yesterday I was delighted to be able to catch a one-off screening at my local Alamo, on their largest screen even. Truly remarkable.