Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

Towards Mathilde

Dance • 1h 23m

Directed by Claire Denis • Documentary • With Mathilde Monnier • 2004 • 84 minutes

Emphasizing raw physicality, craft, and in-the-moment fervor over exposition, Towards Mathilde, from filmmaker Claire Denis (Beau Travail, 35 Shots of Rum, Let the Sunshine In), is a documentary portrait par excellence.

At its center is Mathilde Monnier, whose title as head of the Montpellier National Centre for Choreography sends her and an elite group of dancers through numerous, demanding performance pieces, each captured on sumptuous 8 and 16mm images by cinematographers Agnès Godard and Hélène Louvart. Monnier's significant talents are a clear point of fascination and admiration for the film crew, yet her mysterious aura — that of an artist totally in command of themselves and, by extension, the viewers — remains throughout. Released in the U.S. for the first time, Towards Mathilde is a singular work among Denis' era-defining oeuvre.

"Startlingly beautiful. A star directorial performance that expands the boundaries of what a documentary can be." —Travis Mackenzie Hoover, Slant

Tags
16mm, 35 shots of rum, 8mm, agnès godard, art and architecture, artist, artists, aura, beau travail, cinematography, claire denis, craft, dance, documentary, elite, europe, expository, fascination, fervor, film crew, film stock, france, gender studies, grasshopper films, herclouds, high life, hélène louvart, let the sunshine in, mathilde monnier, montpellier national centre for choreography, mysterious, oeuvre, ovid, performance, performing arts, physicality, portrait, s_0067, s_0290, s_0339, s_0486, talent, title_t, title_tuvwxyz, towards mathilde, western europe, womandirector, women's studies, world regions

Up Next in Dance

  • Pendular
    1:48:37
    Pendular

    Pendular

    Directed by Julia Murat • Drama • With Raquel Karro; Rodrigo Bolzan • 2017 • 105 minutes

    A young couple settles down in a large abandoned industrial warehouse. An orange strip, glued to the floor, partitions the area in two equal portions: to the right, his sculpture atelier; to the left, her da...

  • Ballerina
    1:16:48
    Ballerina

    Ballerina

    Directed by Bertrand Norman • Documentary • With Diana Vishneva, Svetlana Zakharova, Ulyana Lopatkina, Alina Somova and Evgenia Obraztsova. • 2006 • 77 minutes

    In the grand tradition of the Ballets Russes comes a portrait of five Russian ballerinas from the Mariinsky Theatre (also known as the K...

  • Ballet Boys
    1:11:57
    Ballet Boys

    Ballet Boys

    Directed by Kenneth Elvebakk • Documentary • With Lukas Bjorneboe, Syvert Lorenz Garcia, Torgeir Lund • 2014 • 72 minutes

    Billy Elliot meets First Position in Ballet Boys, a documentary that follows, over four years, the struggles, set-backs and accomplishments of three friends and hopeful futu...

×