Claire Denis’ 1994 film U.S. Go Home is set near a military base just outside of Paris. It follows a few French teenagers as they navigate 1960’s youth culture and strive to pin down an emerging sense of self. This discussion considers how America figures within the film, both as a real, material presence and an abstracted space of culture, identity, and image. For the young characters, America provides an attractive vehicle for self-discovery and transformation “outside” the familiar reaches of everyday life in France while simultaneously looming in the margins as an unfavorable imperialist presence. Denis echoes this split in the conflicting desires of her characters and a narrative style which attends to the fragmented dynamics of lived experience over clean cinematic continuity.
