preparatory to watching "Vendredi Soir" tonight, a 2002 Claire Denis Interview

You know, I was twice asked to make films in the United States. I was even offered Boys Don't Cry. That was six years ago, but I didn't like the idea of making that film. I had just done J'ai pas sommeil (I Can't Sleep, 1993), I got the impression that they were offering me yet another news-in-brief item: “Oh her, she likes news items, that's her thing.” What further bothered me was to be forced to proclaim at the outset that because I was a foreigner I was going to see things more clearly. As far as that's concerned, I don't believe in it at all. I think that you can only feel yourself an outsider if you are part of a community. The outsider's view, I don't believe in it… Me, if I'd done it, that's how I would have seen these little Americans, these tragic communities, everyone is unemployed, people are living in caravans, girls of 14 committing credit card fraud, brawls every day and first babies being born to girls who are 13 years old. To come along in black jeans and make a compassionate film, I could not have done that...