I Can’t Sleep (J’ai pas sommeil)

Claire Denis weaves the true story of Thierry Paulin—a black, gay transvestite who, with his lover, killed at least 20 “little old ladies” in Paris during the 1980s—into a portrait of his extended family from Martinique and their encounter with a plucky young Lithuanian actress. Her meditation on the estrangement of immigrants and the socially marginalized “is a fascinating picture—a rare, successful effort at a kind of film that’s attempted all the time without success” (San Francisco Chronicle). In French with English subtitles. 1994, new 35mm print, 110 minutes.