Aspects chorégraphiques chez Claire Denis et François Ozon : vers une cinéchorégraphie

Abstract

This work proposes to study the bridging (rapprochements) between contemporary cinema and modern dance, and how, through their interactions, there emerges a new cinematographic writing. This parallel between the two disciplines can be observed, firstly, through an increase in filmmaker/choreographer and actor/dancer collaborations, be they documentary films (Pina, Wenders [2013]), La danse, Wiseman [2009]), fiction films (Black Swan, Aronofsky [2010]), or adaptations of films into choreographic works (Les Enfants du paradis, Carné [1945], adapted by José Martinez [2008]). Modern dance, born of a rejection of classical dance and its conventions, inscribes itself in a reappropriation of the body, and the liberty of each, in order to find its own language, its own subjectivity -- concerns proper to all modern projects. Our objective is not to describe a new genre, nor a movement, but rather to attempt to define and to explain a trend that intensified at the turn of the century. Through the cinematographic universes of Claire Denis and François Ozon, we propose to show that dance impregnates all processes of cinematographic creation. Beyond the occasional borrowings from dance that translate to the screen in choreographed sequences, we will explain the extent to which the films of Denis and Ozon are permeated by fundamental principles of modern dance. This choreographic dimension, or cinéchorégraphie, can clearly be seen in the actors' bodies, as much in their movements (body language), as in their absence of movement (physical presence) and their sometimes narcissistic, but mostly modest, beauty. Moreover, cinéchorégraphie can be observed in more subtle ways from the mise-en-scène (scenic space, music, camera movements) all the way up to the montage, and gives to the viewer a unique perceptive cinematographic experience (in the phenomenological sense). The works offered by Denis and Ozon, being subject to multiple readings, can thereby make film lose its definitive and irrevocable status, bringing it closer to the live arts.