Notre corps

For 168 minutes, Claire Simon’s NOTRE CORPS immerses us in a gynaecological clinic that forms part of the Tenon Hospital in Paris. Out of the experiences of dozens of patients—including, crucially, herself—Simon assembles a composite portrait that traces the arc of a life from young adulthood to death. Rather than focus on the clinic as a workplace or as an apparatus of power, Simon humanizes the institution by concentrating on face-to-face interactions between doctors and patients. Her camera is unhurried and careful; although non-interventionist, the film possesses none of the chilly detachment sometimes found in observational films. Its concern is rather to sensitively bear witness to situations in which the fragile relation between personhood and embodiment is at stake. The routine and the exceptional, the vulnerable and the resilient, the particular and the universal: in the space of what Simon calls the “mostly female world” of the hospital, each term bleeds into its ostensible opposite. In NOTRE CORPS, corporeal experiences that are typically experienced in private—abortion, pregnancy, infertility, gender-affirming care, cancer—are made public, becoming visible in the light of cinema as the shared, fleshy ground of women’s lives. (Erika Balsom)

In the presence of Claire Simon.

On Thursday, October 26, 2023 there will be a panel at the VIENNALE ZENTRALE with Claire Simon, Jennifer Reeder and Martha Mechow. More information HERE!

Claire Simon: LES PATIENTS (1990), COÛTE QUE COÛTE (1995), SINON, OUI (1997), MIMI (2003), ÇA BRÛLE (2006), LES BUREAUX DE DIEU (2008), GÉOGRAPHIE HUMAINE (2013), GARE DU NORD (2013), LE BOIS DONT LES RÊVES SONT FAITS (2016), LE CONCOURS (2016), PREMIÈRES SOLITUDES (2018), LE VILLAGE (2019), LE FILS DE L’ÉPICIÈRE, LE MAIRE, LE VILLAGE ET LE MONDE (2020), VOUS NE DÉSIREZ QUE MOI (2021)