Claire Denis spent her childhood in French West Africa. After her film studies, she worked in theatre and as assistant director to Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, Jacques Rivette and others. Denis' first feature Chocolat (1988) is a somewhat autobiographical story of the last colonial days in Cameroon. The subtle and frequently contradictory moods in this film made her lyrical talent immediately obvious.

She consolidated her reputation as an innovator of French cinema with the brilliant post-film-noir S'en fout la mort (1990), about the illegal cockfighting scene in France and the smaller-scale teenage film U.S. Go Home (1994). In the central party sequence in U.S. Go Home, Denis translates the characters' inner conflicts into rhythm, gestures and sound in a virtuoso choreography. The incestuous undercurrent of this film crops up again in Denis' best-known work, the sibling drama Nénette and Boni (1996). Since their first collaboration for the serial killer film J'ai pas sommeil (1994), it has been clear that Denis has found a kindred spirit in her camerawoman Agnès Godard. This was the film which made Denis' and Godard's names outside of France. It also formed the model for Denis' later works: modern reinterpretations of genre myths and well-known subjects transplanted into an unfamiliar terrain. This is evidenced in a bloody vampire film (Trouble Every Day, 2001), an intense love story (Vendredi Soir, 2002), and two wildly inventive adventure films which represent the highest achievement in her work up until today (Beau Travail, 1999 and L'Intrus, 2004).