Gendered Frames, Embodied Cameras

Varda, Akerman, Cabrera, Calle, and Maïwenn

By (author) Cybelle H. McFadden

Not available to order

Publication date:

29 May 2014

Length of book:

260 pages

Publisher

Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

ISBN-13: 9781611476330

Gendered Frames, Embodied Cameras: Varda, Akerman, Cabrera, Calle, and Maïwenn is the first book to link these five filmmakers together through an analysis of the relationship between filming one’s own body and the creative body. Through engaged artistic practices, these female filmmakers turn the camera to their bodies as a way to show the process of artistic creation and to produce themselves as filmmakers and artists in their work from 1987–2009. By making visible their bodies, they offer a wider range of representation of women in French film. Through avant-garde form, in which tangible corporeal elements are made image, they transform representational content and produce new cinematic bodies with the power to influence signifying practices in contemporary French culture. By rendering visible their artistic practice and praxis and their camera in their work—reflexive practices that also unite these filmmakers—these women also visually claim the role of filmmaker and creative subject. Thus they establish their authority in a film industry in which women’s participation and recognition of their achievements have historically been lower than that of their male counterparts.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Gendered Frames, Embodied Cameras in Contemporary French Cinema (1987-2009)

Section I: Self-Authorization Through Self-Representation

Chapter One: Reflected Reflexivity: Agnès Varda’s Aging Female Body
Chapter Two: Enacted Reflexivity: Chantal Akerman par Chantal Akerman
Chapter Three: Hybrid Reflexivity: Dominique Cabrera’s Half-Body, Half-Camera

Section II: Self-Construction Through Faux Narratives

Chapter Four: Orchestrated Reflexivity: Sophie Calle’s Narrative Body as Artist
Chapter Five: Faux Reflexivity: Maïwenn’s Camera and the Female Body

Conclusion: Reflections on Gendered Frames, Embodied Cameras

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Chapters function both independently and inter-dependently, which is a great advantage for those who teach French cinema, as chapters can easily be pulled as readings, just as the entire book can be assigned for courses on Contemporary French Cinema or Women’s Filmmaking in France. The book is a welcomed addition to scholarship on all five filmmakers, particularly to the few published explorations on Maïwenn, which tend to focus on Polisse (2011). The book will be of interest to enthusiasts, scholars, and students of French Studies, FilmStudies, and Contemporary Feminist and Gender Studies.