Guillaume Nicloux

In ›To the Ends of the World‹ (2018), Guillaume Nicloux forges a connection between World War II and Indochina, between the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity. In doing so, he shatters stereotypes of genre and masculinity with homoerotic aesthetics.

This film is an exclamation mark in the French director’s radical oeuvre and is at the same time programmatic: in the style of Kubrick, Nicloux repeatedly takes on the most varied genres and transcends them. In ›A Private Affair‹ (2002) starring Thierry Lhermitte and Marion Cotillard, he brings film noir and its erotic undertones into the new millennium. ›Hanging Offense‹ (2003) represents a revival of the police drama from a female perspective and ›The Stone Council‹ (2006) is Nicloux’s answer to mystery thrillers. The films relate to each other, in motifs, in variations. They experiment with subgenres of the thriller, linked by a penchant for the mysterious. In the 2010s, Nicloux became even less predictable. ›The Nun‹ (2013), an adaptation of Diderot’s classic, explores sexual and other relationships of dependency in the guise of a period film. The rumoured kidnapping of author Michel Houellebecq in the film of the same name (2014) transcends the mockumentary genre and is given a variation in ›Thalasso‹ (2019). There, the man of letters meets actor Gérard Depardieu, who left his mark on Nicloux’s films for years. In ›The End‹ (2016), the iconic actor is literally lost. In ›Valley of Love‹ (2015), he and his ex-wife (Isabelle Huppert) travel to Death Valley to see their deceased son once more — because in Nicloux’s works, miracles do happen.

© Orange Studio

Masterclass Guillaume Nicloux
moderated by Frédéric Jaeger
on Tuesday, 16.11. at 16:00 in the Stadthaus N1 (Ratssaal)
in French and English