50. 378 Images of Women in French Cinema

 

Take Home Final Examination, mailto:joseph_garreau@uml.edu  or placed in my mailbox (Coburn 113) by the required time and day.

 

A. ESSAY QUESTION (20 points):

Using as a mode of analysis the following:

 

• woman as object

• women as an exploited element in a patriarchal society

• positive role model of women,

 

in a clear and cogent manner, synthesize your observations on the films  we’ve screened 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.

 

 These films were:

1. Girl on the Bridge

2. Diva

3. Betty Blue

4. Entre nous

5. French Twist

6. The Widow of St. Pierre

7. Story of Women

8. Indochine

9. The Lover

10. Camille Claudel

11. Thérèse

12. La Femme Nikita and its remake Point of No Return

13. Chaos

 

B. ON THE FILMS THEMSELVES  (70 points)

 

1.  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 (besides Paris, of course!) did the film take us?

 

2. Diva

Diva has 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 did you retain of Diva’s unforgettable female characters, both in the principal (Cynthia Hawkins) and the supporting roles (Alba, Paula and Nadia)? 

 

3. Betty Blue

a) What does the French title, 37, 2º le matin, refer to?

b) Why is the meaning of the above title, lost in “Betty Blue” significant for the understanding of the whole movie?

 

4.  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. 

 

5.  French Twist

a) Why did Josiane Balasko tackle such a subject in French Twist?

b) Borrowing from to Denise Brahimi’s critique, how can we interpret the last scenes in French Twist?  Or, to phrase the question differently, if Balasko had genuinely wanted to give lesbianism a place in cultural representation, why did she not have Loli, Marijo and children set up home together, independently of Laurent?

 

6. The Widow of St. Pierre

a) What is the double meaning of the word “Veuve” in the French title?

a) 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?

 

7.  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?

 

8.  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?

 

9. 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? 

 

10. Camille Claudel

a)What were the societal obstacles that stood in the way of Camille Claudel's acceptance as an artist?

b) Thérèse and Camille Claudel

I deliberately chose the biopics of Thérèse (Thérèse Martin, 1873 -1897) and Camille Claudel (1868 - 1955).Can you comment on the totally different approach of the respective filmmakers: Alain Cavalier for Thérèse and Bruno Nuytten for Camille Claudel. Compare in particular the visual flair (or lack thereof) of both cineasts.

 

11. Thérèse

a) As detailed in the handout, Thérèse is a film built on reversals. Cavalier flouts the convention of commercial cinema in the sense that it is not the woman, but the man - an absent other, Jesus -, who assumes shifting personae. In the nuns’ imagination, what are the several different representations of Jesus?

b) As a mystic, Thérèse does avoid food, but still revels in the body, in the warmth of human touch. Which examples have you retained?

c) Why is Thérèse a film praised by both religious and non religious viewers?

 

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

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  (10 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, has been chosen as the new Marianne?

 

3.  Name the French actress who received twice an Oscar nomination as a troubled woman seeking independence from a dominant father figure only to end up in an asylum.

 

4. 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.”?

 

5.  They both died, three months apart, in 1943, two women punished for defying male society and asserting their independence. Who are they?

 

6.  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.”

 

7.  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?

 

8. The nuns in Thérèse  cherish the words of a key erotic text in mystical literature found in the Old Testament.  What is the title of this poetic text? 

 

9-10. 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!