59.
368 Images of Women in French Cinema –
2006 Summer I
Take-Home
Final Examination, mailto:josephgarreau@comcast.net or placed in my mailbox (Coburn 113) by Monday, June
3rd, 12: 00 P.M.
A.
ESSAY QUESTION (20 points):
Using
as a mode of analysis the following:
•
woman as object or as exploited element in a patriarchal society
•
positive role model of women,
in a
clear and cogent manner, synthesize your observations on the films that you
find relevant and for which you can apply the above characteristics. Also,
detail which woman - or women - represent(s) for you the most positive feminine
image.
The
films were:
1. 8 Women
2. A Woman Is a Woman
3. Café au lait
4. The Girl on the Bridge
5. Diva
6. Betty Blue
7. Entre nous
8. Story of Women
9. The Widow of St. Pierre
10. Indochine
11. The Lover
12. La Femme Nikita and its remake Point of No Return
13. Chaos
B.
ON THE FILMS THEMSELVES (60
points)
1. 8
Women
François
Ozon stated that he wanted to make a film about women rather than about French
movie stars. However, he does focus on the “image” associated with
some of the actresses. Can you, for example, tell which image is associated
with
a) Catherine Deneuve (Gaby, Monsieur’s wife)
b) Virginie Ledoyen (Suzon, one of the two daughters)
c) Fanny Ardant (Pierrette, Monsieur’s sister)
d) Emmanuelle Béart (Louise, the new maid)
e) Firmine Richard (Chanel, the cook)
2. A
Woman Is a Woman
a) How do you interpret the title of the film?
b) Three easily identifiable distinct colors mark Godard’s style in “A Woman Is a Woman”? Which 3 colors?
c) Why did Godard give Emile the name Récamier as his last name?
d) Why did he give Alfred, (played by Jean-Paul Belmondo) the name of Lubitsch?
e) Which character said toward the end of the film “I don’t know if this is a comedy or a tragedy”?
3. Café
au lait
a) Literally translated, what does “métisse” mean? Why is it more to the point than the American title “Café au lait”?
b) In this “color blind-”type of movie, does the title indicate the skin color of the baby?
c) Did we – or didn’t we - see the baby’s face?
d) More than a ménage à trois à la Jules et Jim, what’s the “message” that Godard want to convey?
4. Girl on the Bridge
a) Briefly comment on the following: “Girl on the Bridge is a peculiar sort of romantic drama about a man and a woman bound together by an alloy of danger, fatalism, luck, libidos, and sharp steel. On one level the film is preposterous; on another, implausible; and yet on another a compelling, fantastic drama.”
b) To
which three exotic places or countries (besides Paris, of course!) did the film
take us?
5. Diva
Diva
been described as an aria of adolescent
male obsession with the fatal mystery of womanhood, a movie oscillating between
the realms of obsessive love and urban thriller. What have you retained
of Diva’s unforgettable
female characters, both in the principal (Cynthia Hawkins) and the supporting
roles (Alba, Paula and Nadia)?
6. Betty
Blue
a) What does the French title, 37. 2º le matin, refer to?
b) Why is the meaning of the above title significant for the understanding
of the whole movie?
c) Why did Beineix state that he “felt ashamed of the
way women are treated in movies”?
7. Entre nous
a) In what sense is Entre nous less a feminist than a feminine film?
b) Why, in your opinion, was the French title Coup de foudre (meaning “Love at first sight” changed
to Entre nous ?
c) In Pauline
Kael’s view, Diane Kury’s idealization of Lena and Madeleine seems
to be based on a traditional conception of women as being finer-grained and
more sensitive than men. Please, comment, comparing the two women to their
husbands.
8. The
Widow of St. Pierre
a) What is the double meaning of the word
“Veuve” in the French title?
b) Briefly comment on the following remark of a French
critique:“Le poids des images compte bien plus que le choc des
mots”, or, in an approximate translation: The film’s images weigh
much more than the words themselves.
c) What are for you the two most memorable scenes?
9. Story of Women
a) Pierrot's wish (over the birthday cake) is to be an
executioner, "un bourreau". Why? asked his mother. "
'cause they put something on their head and one doesn't know who they are when
they execute people". What idea, do you think, Chabrol is trying to
convey?
b) What is the
obvious symbol of the goose hanging by the legs that the blind players try to
decapitate?
c) Whose voice, narrating the execution of Marie Latour, do we
hear at the very end of the film?
10. Indochine
a) Wargnier plays on Catherine Deneuve’s status as an
icon of French womanhood, able to ‘signify a constellation of
traits’; which ones more specifically?
b) Why did the filmmaker give Deneuve such a dominating
narrative role in Indochine?
c) Although centering on a romantic triangle composed of a
young white officer, an older white woman and her adopted Vietnamese daughter,
it what sense can it be argued that Indochine - first and foremost a glossy romantic drama - can be viewed
as a feminist film?
11. The
Lover
a) In what ways was the love between the young girl and the
Chinese man in The Lover an impossible
love?
b) Since you have not read L’Amant (The Lover) or L’Amant de la Chine du Nord (The North
China Lover), it may be difficult for you
to comment on the fact that Annaud’s film lacks the distinctive voice and
ambiance of the Duras’s book, yet the abundant soft-core sex scenes and
the splendid sets make up for the banal style. In your eyes, what makes The
Lover such a successful film?
c) There is a strong similarity between the attitude of
Camille in Indochine and
“she” (Marguerite Duras interpreted by Jane March). What
similarity?
12. La Femme Nikita & Point of No
Return
a) The original French title says only “Nikita”.
Why the addition of “La femme” for the American market?
b) What specific example(s) taken from the movie can you give to illustrate Anne Barlowe’s assertion that “a woman cannot kill like a man”?
c) As much as you can formulate a valid opinion from the
video-clip shown in class, what differences and similarities can you establish
between Nikita (Anne Parillaud) and Maggie (Bridget Fonda)?
13. Chaos (12 points)
In lieu
of a reaction paper on this last film, address briefly the following points
after reading the handed out film review and additional comments:
a) Coline Serreau as a "non politically correct"
screenwriter and filmmaker;
b) the two-dimensional characterizations of women as victims
(or sly feminist avengers) and men as egotistical dolts whose subjugation of
women masks a desperate reliance on them;
c) the film’s greatest asset is that the story
doesn’t tidily conform to the rigorously logical demands of reality.
C.
TRIVIA OR NOT SO TRIVIA (20 points)
1. Which female movie star replaced Brigitte Bardot in 1985
as the model for Marianne, the figure representing the Republic that stands in
town halls throughout the country, and whose likeness in 1992 was put on
stamps?
2. I will have told you in class - or you may have read it in
the handout - which woman, in 2004, was chosen as the new Marianne?
3. Which other
famous French actress said that “women’s roles are more interesting
[than men’s] because they are more provocative, more telling and more
subversive.”?
4. Which famous
female author wrote, in which famous book, in what year: “On ne
naît pas femme, on le devient.” “You are not born a woman,
you become a woman.”
5. Who (name the actress) made the following comment: “Deux choses sont sans limites:
la féminité et les moyens d’en abuser“ = “Two things are without limits:
femininity and the means of taking advantage of it”? In which film?
6-7. François Ozon’s oeuvre suggests which
well-known Spanish filmmaker and which late American (of Danish origin)
filmmaker known for his critiques of the middle class?
8. In “8 Women” François Ozon associates
each actress with a flower, for example Firmine Richard [who is from French
Guadeloupe] (Chanel) is associated with a sunflower. Which flower is associated
with Emmanuelle Béart (who plays the role of Louise)?
9. I will have told you in class, in “8 Women”,
there is a poster in Gaby’s room (played by Catherine Deneuve) reminding
the audience of which 1967 film classic in which she fantasized the enjoyment
of a masochistic relationship with her husband?
10. Which famous French actress at the beginning of her career was compared to Danielle Darrieux, who played the greedy and drunkard mother – and singing “There is no happy love” – in “8 Women”
11. She plays the role of the amoral woman in Jules et Jim
and in The Lovers. What’s her name?
12. I will have told you in class: Mathieu Kassovitz is married to which actress we have seen in which film?
13. In which film, made by which filmmaker, do we see a
flip-flop of traditional racial stereotypes?
14. Which reviewer, about which film, rightly states that
“the subtitles [...], sometimes miss the point altogether [and] get
carried away, distilling filth out of what is essentially slang”?
15. “My obsessions are private ; my passions are
known,” she said. Who said it?
16. In “The Lover”, why did Jean-Jacques Annaud choose Jane Marsh to play the role of the girl and Jeanne Moreau as the voice of Marguerite Duras.
17. Although quite famous today, she was nevertheless given a
very passive role in Claude Berri’s 1986’s film? Which actress and which film?
18. Four movies are based on actual events, which ones?
19-20. If you could
summarize in one paragraph what you have learned in this course, what would
your comments be. Finally, what suggestions can you offer to make it a better
or more interesting course? Thank you!