Nenette and Boni [Nénette et Boni] ** (1996, Grégoire Colin, Alice Houri, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Vincent Gallo, Jacques Nolot) – Classic Movie Review 9407

Co-writer/ director Claire Denis’s 1996 Nenette and Boni [Nénette et Boni] is a difficult, edgy, sometimes un-realised picture, with some good scenes and dialogue as well as a couple of persuasive, even attractive, star performances that help paper over the cracks of the film’s implausibilities and inscrutabilities.

The 15-year-old pregnant Nénette (Alice Houri) jumps school and arrives at the Marseilles apartment of her estranged brother Boni (Grégoire Colin), an 18-year-old travelling-van pizza-maker, who lusts after the local baker’s sexy wife (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi).

Nenette and Boni is in the interesting category for its real sense of place and sympathy for what it means to be young, estranged and alienated. Despite getting so many things right, some of the film seems terribly wrong. While most of the details ring true, annoyingly at other times, for a social realism picture it does not always seem very real at all, and if it is meant to be surreal it does not establish its credentials as such. There is much sexual frankness.

Claire Denis won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival (1996).

Also in the cast are Vincent Gallo as Vincenzo the baker, Jacques Nolot, Malek Brahimi and Gérard Meylan.

Nenette and Boni is directed by Claire Denis, runs 103 minutes, is made by Canal+, Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée, Dacia Films, IMA Productions and La Sept Cinéma, is released by Pyramide Distribution (1997) (France) and Strand Releasing (1997) (US), is written by Claire Denis and Jean-Pol Fargeau, is shot by Agnès Godard, is produced by Georges Benayoun and is scored by Tindersticks.

It is shot at Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9407

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