Gendered Frames, Embodied Cameras: Varda, Akerman, Cabrera, Calle, and MaïWenn

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.

Table of Contents:
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

About the Author :
Cybelle H. McFadden is assistant professor of French and is also a member of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Review :
McFadden presents an original and thought-provoking overview of a particular strategy in women's filmmaking, which will be of interest to any future researchers of this theme, in France or further afield. 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.