Women & Film-

Vol. 1 # 5-6
1
 WOMEN AND FILM
Contents
STAFF 6 TOWARDS A POPULAR FEMINIST CINEMA:
AN INTERVIE W WITH LINA WERTMU LLER
CO-EDITORS: E. Servi Burgess
Siew-Hwa Beh
Saunie Salyer 12 FEMINIST FILM CRITICIS M: THEORY AND PRACTICE
Julia Lesage
ASSOCIATE EDITORS: 20 BEYOND THEORY OF FILM PRACTICE:
Sandy Flitterman AN INTERVIE W WITH NOEL BURCH
Julia Lesage 32 THEORY OF FILM PRACTICE: ANALYSI S AND REVIEW
Elisabeth Hart Lyon Constance Penley
Janet Parker
Constance Penley 36 WOMEN'S FILM DAILY
Bill Nichols Barbara Martineau
45 AN INTERVIE W WITH TRA GIANG AT THE MOSCOW FILM FESTIVA L
.CONTRIB UTING Carol Wikarska
EDITORS:
48 NEW EAST GERMAN CINEMA: AN INTERVIE W WITH GITTA NICKEL
Joanna Boudreaux
Norman R. Seider
Beverie Houston
Marsha Kinder 52 LIVES OF PERFORMERS
Chuck Kleinhans Chuck Kleinhans
Carol Wikarska 55 GERMAIN E DULAC: FIRST FEMINIST FILMMAK ER
William Van Wert •
COVER: 58 HEART OF THE AVANT-G ARDE:
Anthony Dubovsky
SOME BIOGRAP HICAL NOTES ON GERMAIN E DULAC
Sandy Flitterman
COVER PHOTOGRAPHY:
Lew Watts 62 MOTHER OF THE NEW WAVE: AN INTERVIE W WITH AGNES VARDA
Jacqueline Levitin
TYPESETTING: 67 BARBAR A LODEN REVISITE D
Evening-Dawn Graphics Madison Women's Media Collective
71 THIRD WORLD PERSPECTIVES: FOCUS ON SARAH MALDOR OR
Part I. It Takes Time To March
Part 11. Monangambeee
Part Ill. Sarah Maldoror: A Woman In Struggle
77 INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S CINEMA: REVIEWS
Address all corresponde nce to: 82 SANKA, PINK LADIES, AND VIRGINIA SLIMS
Women& Film Gerald Peary
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Berkeley, California 94704
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100 BOOKS
© copyright Women & Film 1974 104 FEEDBAC K/FEEDF ORWARD

2
ANOTE FROM THE EDITORS
A year has passed since the publication of
our last issue, necessitating answers to
countless queries as to our silence. In
January, 1972 only a handful of people
were aware that Riverside County
Printing presses were rolling off a new
feminist periodical. Now, in June, 1974,
with over three years perspective on our
work the time is right not only for a
re-evaluation of our function, informed
by your response, but also a re-formulation
of our needs in 01 der to fulfill this
function.
The first two issues of Women & Film
have been out of print and in continuing
demand for over a year. After the
publication of our last double issue
(Nos. 3-4), 100% of our subscribers
renewed, and both institutional and
individual new subscriptions doubled
within three months. Beginning with the
first issue, Women & Film has been used
as a university text in both film and
women's studies courses; it has been
reprinted, translated and anthologized.
In spite of an unsystematic and haphazard
distribution process, Women & Film is
bulk ordered from Australia, England,
France, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Canada,
Mexico and Japan. Based on previous
sales, in order to supply copies of our
current issue for a one-year period, we
need to print 15,000 copies (this figure
does not take into account sales resulting
from possible publicity, advertising or
organized distribution-if Women & Film
reaches a bookstore in your hometown,
it is because someone has carried an
issue into that bookstore and requested
that it be stocked). The "success" of
Women & Film in these terms is phe-
nomenal, considering the usual history of
small magazines, the majority of which
fold after the first issue or within the first
year of operation.
Women & Film is obviously providing
needed information of a specific nature.
Simultaneous with its appearance we have
witnessed the emergence and proliferation
of women's media events (including film
festivals and video conferences), literature
on women in the arts, and a general
mobilization of women working in media-
related industry; an independent women's
cinema (including production, distribution
and political/aesthetic criticism); and an
entirely new field of human discourse
(ideological analysis of the forms of
patriarchy) .
Women & Film receives requests for a
wide-range of information from biblio-
graphie·s of filmmakers to dates and
details of media conferences, to frame
enlargements from women's films. These
requests in themselves offer a compelling
argument for a national women's media
center or clearing house while our lack of
funds for a research staff of any kind
makes response stow and sometimes
impossible. The present organizational
and financial status of Women & Film
undercuts our desire to respond to these
needs. The total. income of Women & Film
comes exclusively through sales (and
occasional small donations)-we solicit
no advertisers and have received no
grants. Women & Film received $3500.00
from the sales of Vol. I, Nos. 3-4, which
will just meet the printing, typesetting
and lay-out costs of Vol. I, Nos. 5-6. (We
can only meet these costs because our
typesetter and designer charge well
below commercial rates.) The expenses
of postage, transportation (for distribu-
tion purposes), telephone, and office
supplies and materials necessary to mag~
zine production are not covered. We have
no office and Women & Film writers are
not yet paid. The small staff that
produces Women & Film does so on a
·part-time, entirely voluntary basis, don~
'ting income from unrelated jobs to help
meet daily costs.
The political implications of this situation
are evident: lack of response from founda-
tions and grant-giving -organizations even
in the face of an overwhelming need is an
oversight that can be accounted for only
by acknowledging that this is still a sexist
culture governed by attitudes that do not
allow "women's work" to be taken
seriously. Because this is true, there may
be no more issues of Women & Film.
However, we will not stop our efforts to
organize the vast amounts of excellent
material that is sent to us, in the
continuing hope that our financial
3
situation will improve.
In this issue we are presenting some of the
theoretical work called for in Nos. 3-4.
Toward this goal Julia Lesage has written
an overview of feminist film criticism and
offers directions for a possible feminist
film theory. We are also including an
extensive interview with Noel Burch
whose recent book Theory of Film
Practice is a useful introduction to theor-
etical questions arising from the actual
work of filmmaking and whose own
attitudes towards political/theoretical
questions will become clear from our
interview and auto-critique.
Film has long been recognized by feminists
as an important mediator of patriarchal
ideology and writers in this magazine
have been involved since its inception in
trying to situate film in this ideological
context. If feminist filmmakers do not
generate a conscious, articulated theory
of their filmmaking practice, there is a
danger of recapitulating the dominant
patriarchal ideology when we attempt to
follow our "spontaneous" urges to express
ourselves. We hope that there will be a
substantial response to the theoretical
material presented here, both in ~erms of
criticism and of more writing on the
subject.
Although we are happier with the material
in this issue than ever before, we think a
critical overview of it could give writers
an idea of what we would like to see in the
fuwre.
For example, there are six interviews in
this issue. Just in terms of the variety,
they are compelling, but we think they
could be even more useful if accompanied
by a critical evaluation: e.g., why did you
choose to interview this person? Why is
it interesting that you are interviewing
the subject in terms of your own interests
and background? How does the subject's
work specifically contribute to film and
feminism? How do you evaluate the actual
dynamic of the interview. On page 20
the interviewers of Noel Burch give an
auto-critique of their own interviewing
practice. A critique of the interviewed
 subject is also necessary: for example, the fictional narrative, biographical portraits,
Agnes Varda interview might have in- experime ntal-requ ires a specific mode of
cluded a comment on Varda's vague analysis. We hope to address ourselves
embrace of feminism after a previous most exhaustively to those feminist films
disavowal of the need for an organized which attempt to deconstru ct the
women's movemen t as well as a clarifica- aesthetic/political codes of patriarchal
tion of her bourgeois individualist notion culture.
of the artist.
"Third World Perspectives" in this issue
Women & Film includes a lot of reportage offers extensive information on Sarah
on women's film events and festivals Maldoror. If we receive enough material
througho ut the world. It is vitally impor- our next issue will focus on all aspects of
tant to get this informati on out; however, Third World Women's Cinema. Specifically,
it is also necessary to be a critical reporter. we're interested in reports from Third
Besides simply listing the events, it is World women working within film and
importan t to include material on the television industries concerning their
politics of the organization of the event functions and roles w~thin that industry.
(e.g., was it run by a non-hierarchical
collective of women or by three male Finally, we realize that in past issues we
film promoter s?!), the usefulness of the have been very lax in soliciting artwork
event in terms of raising importan t issues and graphics from women artists. How-
about feminism and film, and ideas for ever, the few original works we have
improving future events. When reviewing published have been reprinted all over the
the films shown at the festivals it is world: We would like to give exposure to
necessary to give critical evaluations of as many women artists as possible and
them and not merely descriptive plot would like photographs, drawings, and .
summaries. design ideas to be submitted to the same
P.O. box as manuscripts.
With this issue we are instituting three
permanen t sections: "The Ideological
Massage/Reviews of Commercial
Cinema," "Indepen dent Women's Cinema,''
and ''Third World Perspectives." In the
first section we hope to publish feminist
analyses of commercial filmmaking, both
Hollywood and internatio nal. Almost
every radical film magazine (including
Women & Film) has immediately for-
mulated statement s about film as an
ideological tool of patriarchal culture or
capitalism, seeing bourgeois film in a
direct, linear, causal relationship to it.
However, it is much more complex than
that-film is not a reflection of society
but is embedded in it with complex,
mediated linkages to other social and
economic formations. Until a theory of
film in culture has been more precisely
articulate d it will be difficult to make state-
ments on the p9litical impact of any film.

The section "Indepen dent Women's

Cinema" wi II attempt to keep abreast of
films made by women independ ently of
the (male) commercial film industry.
Each of the forms-po litical documen tary,

4
Towards a Popular
Feminist Cinema:
·E. SERVI BURGESS
Lina Wertmuller was born in Rome on When we'd talked our way through the usual less fraud involved in making people laugh.
August 14, 1930 of a family of Swiss preliminaries, I asked her about what I've It's easier to swindle people with tragedy
ancestry. After the war she obtained a found to be the more or less stock criticism because laughter has to be something real;
teacher's diploma, and then enrolled in a of her work. it's much easier to make people cry than
Stanislavsky-method director's academy in laugh. Writers, directors in Italy are afraid
Rome, headed by Pietro Sharoff. From ESB: Some critics have accused you of an
out-and-out vulgarity in your films, of of using humor, the grotesque, all facets
1952 on she worked in the theater-as of comedy. They're afraid they'll look bad.
assistant director, and writer for more than wanting to scandalize the public ...
I don't give a damn about that. Comedy has
a dozen plays and musicals. Her cinema no life in the cultural spheres in Italy, in
career began in 1963 as assistant director LW: I really don't see why. I believe in
vulgarity, but I want to make it clear that contrast with the Anglo-Saxon countries,
to Fellini for 8½, and in the same year she where there has always been a lot of respect
wrote and directed her first film, The my films are not "vulgar" in the generally
accepted definition of the word. I don't for someone able to make people laugh.
Lizards. It was praised by critics for the Of course in Germany it's even worse than
acute insight and accuracy of detail used in think that saying "go fuck yourself" in a
film is vulgar. In the first place it's become in Italy-and let's not even talk about Spain.
describing the stagnant, provincial life of the The point is that I think I can get serious
middle class in a small, southern Italian part of the language, so why pretend it's
any different? People talk that way, I talk ideas over to a lot of people by using
town. Her second film, accused of a certain comedy.
superficiality and facile comedy, was This that way, why should I pretend everyone's
Time Let's Talk About Men which came out always dressed in their Sunday best? Why
ESB: An American critic has said of you
in 1966: Until 1972 when she wrote and should my films be cut off from reality_? that you must be some kind of anarchist.
directed her generally well-received film, Because a lady with a pearl necklace will be Do you agree with that? Is that the political
Mimi the Metalworker, she wrote for radio shocked? Absolutely not. I try to make my philosophy you want to express in your
and television. Her latest film, A Film of films resemble the reality I'm describing. films?
Love and Anarchy, came out in Italy in That's the first point. The second is that I
February of 1973 and is a great box-office find what they call vulgarity, that is the LW: No, no. I'm not an anarchist. I'm
success, although it has received mixed comedy in certain phrases, in certain certainly way over to the left, but at the
reviews from Italian critics. responses, is one of the great defenses of the same time I'm very worried about the
people. When a poor fellow gets spattered destiny of the left. I think the real crisis of
She lives and works in a penthouse apart- with mud from a passing Cadillac, he says our century is the fragmentation of the left
ment overlooking the Rome rooftops. Short, "Go fuck yourself." It's his good-humored and the bureaucracy it's fallen into. Look
slim, attractive; lively face behind oversize defense. The only comedy nowadays is at the hope we all had for the Soviet Union;
white framed glasses; a gutteral voice, with with the common people; they use it as a then we were allowed in and we saw with
a strong Roman accent, and speech well- safety valve. The more anguishing their terror a kind of bureaucracy that's more
interspersed with strong, to-the-point (and everyday life, the more they defend them- like czarist Russia than the new world we
untranslatable) dialect expressions; hands selves with witty remarks, cheerful insults; were all expecting. Maybe, I hope, anyway,
that are never still, either waving about, vulgar, if you like, but that helps make the that it's just because it's still in a formative
playing with the buttons (all opened) on her tragic moments in life seem less so. Cheerful period. But I don't know. It seems to me
blouse, reaching for a cigarette, or going vulgarity is the wit of the poor, their last that the laws of economy are iron strong.
through her short, tousled blond hair. I was and extreme defense. And so even the best political movements
greeted with a strong handshake and a very have had to restructure themselves according
warm smile, and then led quickly through ESB: You obviously rely a lot on comedy in to these laws.
the living room into her glass-paned, tiny your films. Why?
white study (but not before I had a chance As far as expressing my political ideas in my
to glimpse her husband's sculptures strewn LW: Because it gets my ideas over to the movies goes, well, it's difficult. I'm con-
about the living room and literally hanging greatest number of people. It's fundamental fused, as I think we all are. We're living
from the rafters: life-size canvas-covered to me. Italy is a country that has lived through a post-revolution and we can't have
male figures with genitals prominent, through centuries of academia; we've always any historical vision of it. All I can express
pillows shaped like breasts, or penises with had great cultural moments, but always in are my fears, my hopes, and my desires.
testicals; she later told me of the delight the environment of an academic culture. What I'd like to do is work for the most
she takes in the expression of shocked It's been that way in the theater, aside from neglected class of people, the masses. I want
dismay which crosses the faces of "certain Goldoni. The writer of tragedies has always to make popular cinema. Usually, films
bourgeois ladies" when in adjusting a sofa been taken more seriously than the writer divide up into two groups: one is the
pillow in back of them they find their hands of comedies, after the days of Ancient esthetic-cultural-elite kind of film, and then
around a floppy penis.). Rome, anyway. But I think it's a lot more there's the enormous quantity of consumer
difficult and just as important, just as material, the commercial films. I think that
serious, to write comedies. You get a bigger the culturally elite film makers, though
audience, a different audience. And there's they're doing a lot of good things, should
6

5
An Interview with
Lina Wertmiiller
Lina Wertmuller on the set of Lizards.
dedicate some of their energy to making
commercial films, because they're the ones
that reach the great masses of people.
What's important then is to agitate the big
problems in the kind of film that the masses
will run to see just as they run to see a
Western or a dirty movie; and when they
'!:ome out of the movie, after having laughed
and cried, they come out with some
problems. That would help to eliminate the
enormous distance there is in the cultural
,Alps of our society, where there are these
pinnacles of technique, culture, intelligence,
and then the tragic valleys, where instead,
the masses are constantly being formed into
ideal consumers, or even worse, are being
instrumentalized for political reasons.

Ms. Wertmiiller talks with animation and

force when expressing her abstract ideas. It's
when I ask about her and about her films
that she hesitates and almost expresses some
annoyance, or maybe it's surprise that one
should be interested in those subjects. In
any case, the arms stop waving, she loses
her vivacity, becomes subdued, and takes
more time to phrase her replies.

ESB: Did you have trouble finding a pro-

ducer willing to take on your first film,
The Lizards?

LW: Terrible problems. When I first

proposed doing it everyone felt it was
too regional. Instead when it went to
LocarnQ, to Canada- it toured the world-
everyone saw that the problems it raised,
those of false development, are everywhere.
I mean the false development of humanity,
which for me is the gravest problem of all.
That is, the face this society puts on of
having arrived at a grand level of civilization,
but then in substance its base is imbedded
in the fogs of injustice and ignorance.

The Lizards was my act of accusation against

the bourgeoisie. It was set in a small town in
southern Italy where only the few were able
to continue their education. It was about
one young man who seemed about to make
it out of the stagnancy of the life of the
town, who cou Id have made it, but then
didn't. He goes back to a life·of doing
nothing, of spending his days promenading
up and down the main street of the town~
It's an accusation against the bourgeoisie in
I

6
 •

that the middle class is the very one that
could break 11Nay, study-and instead it
remains closed within itself. It feeds on that
thin layer of apparent social importance. The
middle class is the deposit of all the world's
shit. It's the famous "silent m!ijority," and
it's where the common people, mistakenly,
want to arrive. And when they've reached
that lower-middle-class status, their aspira-
tions then are only._towards defending their
car, their television set, against the assault of
the "enemy" that wants to take them away.
And this way the progress of humanity is
held up in a terrifying way; what's formed is
only the consumer mentality.
ESB: You're pretty pessimistic then about
the future of humanity.
LW: No! I have great hope, enormous hope
in man. Otherwise it would be the end.
Certainly the battles to be fought are many,
because all conspires to keep man in a
consumer status. That's where the big
interests lie. And in spite of all this, man-
kind keeps going, so there's always hope.
How many centuries will it take? The most
delicate work that has to be done is in
respect to the masses, there's no doubt
about that. It's criminal to increase their
confusion.
LW: Ah, he has been an immense light in
my life. Because Fellini is extraordinary. He
is an extraordinary personality. You can't
learn anything from Fellini, nothing,
because Fellini is an inventor, an artist.
You can't learn art. What you can learn is
the freedom of art. What a wealth of
fantasy, of imagination in that man; he's
open to such very unusual wave lengths,
outside any framework. And the joy of
watching him work, of watching him invent,
of watching him move, with this extra-
ordinary concentration, but which always
remains free. He manages to keep himself
open at all times to the sense that it's a
game. That's the most illuminating thing of
all that he taught me.
ESB: It's said he constantly changes the
script as he's making the movie •..
LW: He changes everything. Everything. He's work the sex thing is overcome. Look, I also
an inventor and that is what is most
extraordinary about him.
ESB: Do you make many changes in the
script as you're shooting your films?
Again, she seems to lose up. She would
obviously prefer to continue to talk about
Fellini.
no stock in women writers. Is that the way
you feel?
LW: No. I've worked a lot with men and
very well, I must say. I find that except for
that first zone in which probably the man-
woman thing is there and makes its
atavistic presence felt in the form of
certain prejudices we all know about, after
this first zone is overcome and you come to
know one another, collaborate together and
really get down to work, you forget that
sexual infrastructure.
ESB: So you don't find that being a woman
causes you problems in filmmaking?
LW: In certain ways, of course it does.
There have been prejudices on the part of
producers. I haven't had an easy career. But
I maintain that when you really get down to
think there's a slightly racist mentality in
women themselves, in feminism. We are the
first ones who should make no sexual
distinction in jobs. I find it racist when there
are things just for women. We're the first
ones to feel blacker that the blacks, do you
see?
ESB: Perhaps with some reason ...

ESB: So through your films you want to
speak clearly to the masses?
LW: I want my films to help them think, to
raise problems they can think about.
ESB: What made you want to become a film
director?
LW: I was born in the theater. That is, not
by way of my family; what I mean is that
the theater is where I began. I love the
theater very much. I consider it the great
matrix of all spectacles, including films of
course, and I also think it's the best school
in all senses for someone who eventually
goes on to make films. My first experience
with directing films came when I was
assistant director to Fellini for 8½.
ESB: Do you feel Fellini has had a strong
influence on your work?
It's apparent I've touched upon her
favorite subject. Her eyes light up, she sits
back, arms outspread.
8
LW: Yes, I change it if I have to. It depends
on how precisely I intuited the thing when
I wrote it out. When you're actually work-
ing with the scene, you're always faced with
a new richness, a new dimension. So
sometimes you have to throw out every-
thing, other times you've hit it right and ·
you can keep it the same. It just depends.
ESB: Do you always work on your own
both for subjedt and screenplay of your
films?
LW: Yes, I write everything by myself.
I never have collaborators. 1'm not even
sure why ... It certainly isn't a choice
dictated by any megalomania of mine,
because I enjoy working with others, and
I've worked a lot with others. But with my
films, since I like the subjects I work with,
they're subjects I'm interested in, ... well,
I just end up doing them myself.
ESB: Playright and director Dacia Maraini
said in a recent interview !liat she always
works alone because male co-workers put
LW: Yes, yes, we have thousanas of reasons,
but we should aim at the social and
economic reasons for this tragic inequality;
women with two jobs, one of which is
never paid, terrifying things like that. There
should be massive struggles against these
things, within the political parties, too. We
mustn't allow ourselves to be instrumental-
ized by the parties that don't fight for the
vital needs of women. My second film was
dedicated to women. It was called This
Time Let's Talk About Men, and among the
various episodes there was one of a chilling
reality. It was the one about the peasant
and his wife. I love that episode because it's
reall" ~ remarkable photograph. It could be
a banner for serious feminism.
ESB: Would you describe the scene?
LW: It's just the story of a normal day in a
peasant family. He's a peasant-farmer, she's
a peasant farmer, she gets up early, cleans
the house, thinks of the children, goes out
to work as a maid, hoes the field, - and he's
on strike. For social reasons. He spends the

7
day at the bar, plays cards, talks politics,
stops on the way home and dreams his
drunke!J dreams in front of a poster of
Sophia Loren, gets home late. His wife is
making the next day's bread after having
slaved all day, and he wants to make love.
She's still working, she has other problems
on her mind, so he forces her to make love.
And then he tells her she's gotten fat, that
she looks like a piece of furniture, that she's
not a woman. She is the great, the immense,
the extraordinary victim. You know, as soon
as you get out of this damned bourgeoisie,
this damned face our civilization puts on,
and you go to the lower classes, it's just like
that, tragically like that. Who do you see
out hoeing in the countryside? Women.
ESB: Screenwriter Luciana Corda has said
that in a masculine society like ours a
woman film director has less prestige for
the simple fact that she doesn't use
strong language and that she can't grab
someone and punch him. What do you
think of that?
Lina Wertmiiller directing A Film of Love and Anarchy.
LW: I've given a lot of punches. And strong successful, I can be a banner for feminism.
words are my everyday language. I've I mean, what can I do more, or better than
punched and hit people because I have a to work well? The really grave problem is
terrible temper, but there's no need to that society has to be entirely changed; the
punch someone in the nose in order to be family nucleus is in crisis, it doesn't work
strong. On the contrary. I think if women any more. I think a new nucleus will be
just went to work without any of their formed-mayb e it will be a group, I don't
own prejudices, they'd work well in all fields.
know. It's basis, and the basis for all society,
Instead of crying because mama won't give will continue to be the importance of the
us the jam, we just take it ourselves, right?rapport between human beings, between the
sexes, because you can say what you like,
ESB: Do you think you'll someday make a but this rapport between the sexes is
film about the problems that the feminists certainly the foundation for the continuation
pose? of the species. Up till now, though, for
better or for worse, there was a certain
LW: Perhaps. I find the struggle of the division of labor in the family concept; it
feminists a splendid one-let me make that doesn't work any more, but it used to. That
clear. The problem for me is that I have a is, man had a cozy nest in which to find
particular penchant for the grotesque, and refuge, and it was woman whose duty it was
so, unfortunately , it would be difficult for to provide it. Now we justly refuse that
me to treat the subject in a film without duty, we want to go out and work. But if
making it funny. And I wouldn't want to this society that wants so much from us
make people laugh about a struggle that I won't provide us with someone who will
profoundly respect. In any case, my position wash our pants, who will make a nest for us
is that by working, by making films that are (because all of us want to take refuge
8
somewhere) what do you do? The problem
is staggering.
ESB: How would you describe your own
marriage?
LW: My husband [sculptor and set designer
Enrico Job] and I get along very well. That's
because I was particularly lucky, because my
husband is a great artist, and therefore he's
someone I admire so much that his being
my husband or lt'ver is unimportant. Our
temperments are very different, but we have
a great reciprocal esteem for one another-
and that's probably the basis for our really
good relationship. He's also my greatest
critic!
ESB: Film critics have praised you for the
fine sense of detail you bring to your films.
LW: I think my greatest merit lies in my
living very close to my characters and
regarding them from the inside rather than
from outside. Certainly a lot more detail
comes out that way. And then I go on
location, talk to the people, take my actors
with me. Maybe little of this actually
comes out in the film. That is, the work
I do is not naturalistic; I don't reproduce
reality as it is, but rather I make it in my
own way, I choose a wave length, a way that
points out the reality but doesn't reproduce
it. A filter is fundamental, otherwise it
would be the photograph that counts, and
instead it's the photographer.
ESB: What film that you've made up to
now do you feel expresses most what you
had in mind before you began shooting?
LW: That's a strange question. I don't know.
However, I don't think I've succeeded in
expressing my ideas completely in any of
them. But then people talk to me about my
ideas, and so I realize they came across.
Maybe 1'm something of a perfectionist.
I don't think anyone is a hundred per cent
satisfied with what he does. It's already a
lot if he makes himself understood. Perhaps
I shou Id be satisfied ...
ESB: Mariangela Melato and Giancarlo
Giannini must be favorite actors of yours,
seeing that after Mimi the Metalworker you
used them again in A Film of Love and
Anarchy.
10
LW: I love to work with them. They are It's clearly time for me to leave. The
two extraordinary young actors, because tslephone has been ringing every three or
they work seriously. I think it's important four minutes for the last quarter of an
to get out new, young actors-and it's hour; William, her assistant, has been coming
especially necessary in Italy. The cinema in more frequently to give her messages;
is such an industrialized structure, so closed the lovely and excellent young actress, (a
up, that rather than putting a hundred lire Wertmiiller discovery) Lina Polito, of
on a new face, they'll put a hundred million A Film of Love and Anarchy, has been
lire on an old face. Producers always want a waiting patiently in the living room
modish cast, so I've had to be very firm, to throughout the interview (leafing through
impose myself. what looks suspiciously like a film script,·
but Lina Wertmiiller won't confirm that
ESB: What film do you have in mind to do "I really don't know if there will be a good
next? part for her in my next film," is all she'll
say.)
LW: I really don't know. You find me in a
period of doubt and confusion. There are Again the strong handshake. She asks me
beautiful films I want to make, but I don't please to send her what I've written when it
know if it's the right time for them. comes out in the magazine, also anything
that's come out on her films in the U.S.
ESB: Can you tell me of any subjects you'd Suddenly, what I had somehow sensed at
particularly like to treat in future films? various times during the interview, is clear
to me: the security and self confidence are
LW: Oh, there are lots. I have a great a mask. She wants me very much to like her,
Caligula ready that I'II make sooner or later, to write something "good."
for example. His is one of the greatest
parables of power that's ever been; his kind
of megalomania, of madness, makes him a
relative of the Catholic God as He's
presented to us by priests. There's an
extraordinary thing about Caligula which
is also in the Catholic God, and it's always
fascinated me. Power, when it reaches a
certain level, discovers a very interesting toy;
free will. It goes like this: I know you're a
man, I put you in the condition to sin, but
if you sin I punish you. Monstrous. I've never
liked this business about an omniscent God,
who knows how things are going to end up,
and yet still makes man the way he does. So
he knows man will sin. What the hell kind of
game is that? Anyway, it's a game that
Caligula had very well intuited. He used
atrocious tricks to tempt people to sin, and
as soon as they did he punished them. I'm
fascinated by Caligula, which is why I wrote
something I'm very pleased with and that
some day I'll make. But I don't know when.
It probably won't be my next film, or the
one after that. I want the public to be able
to follow me and I don't think they're
ready for my Caligula yet-I just don't
think now is the time. I have to think.
Thinking is difficult, you know ...
9
Lina Wertmuller on the set of Mimi the Metalworker.

11

10
Feminist Film Criticism:
Theory and ~ractice
JULIA LESAGE
This article arises out of a workshop on
principles of feminist film criticism given by
Maureen Turim and myself at the Midwest
Women's Film Conference in Madison in
June, 1973. At that time our goal was to set
out some theoretical guidel ines or parameters.
We also wanted to share with the women
there our own experience as critics both in
the women's press and in college journals
where we hoped to establish a feminist
presence. I consider myself a socialist
feminist and much of this paper reflects my
own experience writing for the radical press
and teaching film theory and aestheti cs as
well as working in a feminist film making
group, which have been my major pol itical
activities. In general both Maureen and I
would advance the principles stated in the
editorial in the last issue of Women and
Film, in particular on the necessary role of
theory in establishing a feminist cinema.
The Practice of the Feminist Critic:
The critic herself determines what is
feminist in her review. If she makes her
relation to the women's movement and her
politics in general clear to the readers, she
provokes a political response both to her
review and to the film at hand. This is not
to say that the readers expect a precis of the
critic's political stance in each article she
writes. Rather, a woman's articles over a
period of time plus the kinds of references
she makes to activities and issues in the
women's movement and to political issues in
general make her politics clear. More candor
about one's politics in film reviews is useful
in dispelling once and for all the idea that
the media just provides entertainment or
that we have to take what we are offered;
politics and culture are inseperable and the
feminist critic has ideas on how to fight
sexism in film. When I myself say that I am
a socialist feminist, that means that I see
the major forms of opp ression in ou r society
-sexual, class, and racial oppression, in
particular-as interrelated and that women's
oppression must be fought by collective
action against those institutions w hich are
built on class, racial, and sexual oppression:
namely, the institutions of capital ism. That
the critic put a label on herself as a certain
kind of feminist is not so important as her
making explicit the assumptions which
underly her analysis of fil m and her valu e
12
judgments about films. For example, if she or newsletters since the alternate media,
makes the judgment, "Film X is merely both staff and readership, sympathetically
reformist," the critic can help her readers receives militant film reviews. However, both
come to the same conclusion if she shows Maureen and I have had the experience that
the ways in which a given film, particularly once on the staff of the mixed underground
a political film, is reformist and what a paper or a radical or cultural magazine, as
preferable alternative would be. feminists we had to struggle to write as
authorities in other areas as well as about
Film criticism refers to a specific kind of women's affairs. For Maureen, this meant
writing with a specific function in the United writing about more than just grotesquely
States-that of a consumer's guide. Like a sexist films or else explicitly feminist films.
book reviewer in a magazine or Sunday Thus she had to insist that the films which
supplement, the film critic traditionally has are in the auteurist pantheon, such as those
the right to make generalii:ations about of Peckinpah, were not exempt from a
culture and mores. Thus feminists can feminist critique. To fight the liberalism of
conveniently use this ready-made journalistic having feminist articles mainly in the "safe"
vehicle not only to attack sexism in a film area of culture, women in any mixed
but also to evaluate the social milieu that publication have also found that they have
generates that film. Furthermore, as a to push for an explicitly anti-sexist stance in
consumer's guide, feminist criticism feeds all the articles in the publication as a whole.
the growing appreciation of long-neglected All types of local women's publications need
women's films and hopefully wil I provide and want feminist film criticism and this is
a basis on which to evaluate and construc- an excellent place to start because very often
tively criticize those films. Men are also first articles come out of a good political
writing anti-sexist criticism-hopefully their discussion with other women and, once
numbers will increase-but here I shall use the published, stimulate more discussion from
term feminist to apply only to women. readhs, especially women readers, from
whom the local critic can receive feedback.
Women who write film criticism write for
a certain audience. The militancy of an Women and Film offers an outlet for critics,
article may depend both on the type of both women and men, who want not only to
publication and the intended audience. Many combat sexism in the established cinema but
fine women critics, a number of whom also to help create a new place for women in
are film scholars, write for the established film. Such criticism is rapidly moving beyond
press. However, it is only recently-probably a critique of the mechanisms of sexism in
in the context of a broader public awareness the content of individual films to feminist
of ideas springing from the women's move- perspectives on film theory and a supp~rt
ment-that we can see an anti-sexist for and evaluation of the work of women in
perspective in the work of both men and film. The magazine attracts a readership
women critics in the established press. specifically interested in feminism, the
media, or both (Isn't everyone interested in
Women reviewers and film scholars whose the movies?). The magazine has proven a
work I admire- Penelope Gilliatt, Renata useful resource for women's courses, where
Adler, Susan Sontag, Claire Clouzot, Marie- it can be passed around to interested women.
Claire Ropars-Wuilleumier 1 -established Women and Film also has a mixed readership
themselves as critics without specifically of men and women among film buffs, film
considering issues of sexism. Just as teachers and students, and radical critics of
Women and Film has asked that more be film and literature. The impact on cinema
written on women's films, not necessarily education seems to be the magazine's most
feminist films, we need articles on the work immediate pay-off, and for that reason
of these women. But for now I would like to alone we need all our women critics to join
concentrate on feminist criticism as such. us to make their influence felt now.
Because of their socialization, feminists often I mentioned the diiect influence feminist
feel more confident writing about culture film criticism has on women's courses. Such
for the underground press or women's papers criticism should have an effect on other
11
 The Schema in Brief:

( 1) milieu 1 (2) maker(s) (3) film (4) audience (5) mUieu2

f.._____f_ (6) producti!n/distribution _.J___ ___ f
institutio ns as well, hopefully especially on t shall go over the schema in parts to object of traditional film study and of
the productio n and distriwti on of films. indicate how it is useful to consider each semiological studies such as those of
First of all, as a critique of the established area when writing about women and film. Christian Metz. Although such analysis is
film industry- its history, its present practice, extremely importan t for our understan ding
its international perspective- feminist One: The prefilmic milieu, in the widest of film, hopefully feminist film criticism
criticism can bring neglected films to our sense, includes past history as well as the will constantl y relate film to milieu with a
attention and also demythol ogize some of present situation. Milieu 1 encompasses both specific vision of how sexism can be attacked.
cinema's traditiona l heros and themes the economic base of the filmmaker's milieu
(A good example of such necessary demythol- as well as the ideological superstru cture. In
Four: The audience for the complete d film
gizing is Constanc e Penley's article on the schema, milieu 1 is placed linearly before can be considered in both individual and
Bergman in the last issue of Women and the maker(s) only to indicate that this is the collettive terms.
Film). Hopefully feminist criticism will ever situation prior to and in which the film is
increasingly help women film makers, both made. By working her way through this Five: The audience' s milieu is always to some
by describing their films and by offering entire schema in criticizing any one film, extent historically /temporal ly /spatially /
these women a political and an aesthetic the critic herself can elaborate some of the socially different from the maker's milieu,
critique. interrelations between ideological super- and the audience brings its experience with
structure and economic base, particularly as its milieu to its judgment of a film. Feminist
Even more, unlike establishm ent film regards the mechanisms of sex ism. 3 film criticism, in attacking sexism and
criticism, feminist film criticism can and
promotin g women's films, will hopefully
should aid feminist political activity. Many That sexism which we can find in almost all have a favorable effect on milieu 2 • The
women are using the media in forms that do of established cinema can be found in
not have professional distriwti on: 8mm or minimum effect which we would hope that
cinematic tradition, language structures , feminist film criticism would have would be
video. They are often using the media artistic conventio ns (especially in the to get people to view the films that are a
specifically as a local organizing tool. The photographing of women), social conventio ns part of their milieu in a new way. 4
content of their work and the technica,I and and specific social situations. These are all
political mechanisms of such projects must part of milieu 1 , and embedde d in these Women viewing and discussing films in a
be presented in detail so that other women structures and experiences we find the women's studies course or at a women's
can benefit immediately in their own maker(s) of the film at the time of m;.1king. conference may want to get together by
political projects, either by using some of Since the whole of milieu 1 has been and still themselves in a group to discuss the films
the material that has already been prepared is overwhelmingly sexist, even a self con- seen since their experience of women's
or by \earning how to use film and video in sciously feminist director will find it hard to oppression gives them a "milieu" different
similar ways in their own women's groups. make a film which rebuts sexism in all areas. from that of the male viewers or from the
She has many pressures on her from milieu 1 , makers. For example, I have seen that a
Theory: which•the critic should examine, and her group of women discussing The Godfathe r
films reveal not only a rejection of sexist by themselves express different reactions
In order to write effectively and to give her social conventio ns from milieu 1 but than in a mixed discussion of the same film.
readers, especially women readers, a way to artistic ones as well. To utilize the fact that under the right
evaluate cinema themselves, the feminist circumstances women can bring the experi-
film critic must work out for herself a Two: The maker in film, as opposed to many ence of 'their oppression to bear on their
theoretical framewor k to encompas s the visual and literary artists, is almost always judgment of a film, the Ann Arbor Women's
whole range of issues related to film. Her not a single individual but a collective entity. Film Collective ran a free weekend film
theory governs what she says to what In many of the contempo rary women's films, conference several years ago, showing
readership, what aspects of films she will such as the San Francisco Newsreel women's traditional Hollywood films incorporating
write about, what effect she hopes to gain The Woman's Film, the director is not named ~arious images of women. After each
from her criticism. A good theory includes as the maker and we are led to think that the showing they had discussions of the films
an explanati on of the mechanisms operating technical crew, the sound mix person, actors
in men's groups and women's groups so that
within the film (form, content, etc.) and the and editors worked together collectively
the women could come to a consensus
mechanisms that go beyond the product and non-hierarchically and that all had about their relation to the mass media with
that is the film (such as the film industry, some control over the final film. Film
. distribution, audience expectati on, etc.). their own milieu.
processors are also "makers" of a film yet
are not esteemed as such. One must ask in SiK: The productio n/distribu tion system is
The following schema is a useful theoretica l relation to the area of technique , why so
shown in the schema as affecting all other
tool to consider film as a total process, from few of the new women filmmakers are
sub-systems. Involved in distributi on are
its inception to its reception by an audience. concentra ting on experime ntal films,
producers, distributo rs, exhibitor s, critics
It allows us to account for changes due to experime ntal in technique and form. and audiences - all of whom are influenced
reception in a different historical period by the economic base of the society in which
from which the film was made. 2 Three: The complete d film is the principal they live. Although sexism in cinema is

13

12
 The Schema Elaborated:
l
milieu 1
~
,-- __ .., _,• = feedback loop
producer
tech ical
distributor
exhibitor
universal, we should note that prodµction/
distribution relations differ from Western
capitalistic ones to Third World capitalistic
ones to Russian, Eastern European, Chinese,
Third World socialist ones, etc., all of which
means a difference in the way opportunities
are offered to women in each country to
make films (and there are far fewer oppor-
tlmities than those available to men-in all
cases!).
Distribution and the viewing situation
influences when and how any film is received. picture at all.
In most cases, 35mm distribution has to be
arranged at the time of financing the film.
.There is very little freelance distributing of
feature films once they are made, which is
why we see so few films from the Third
World or by radical European directors here
in the United States, although they would
obviously like to have them shown here.
Women's films have been presented in
women's film festivals which have publicized, their fight to establish themselves either
both contemporary women's films not well-
distributed and older films until now "lost"
by neglect. The showings in these festivals
are often accompanied by panel discussions.
Later, because the festivals and the accom-
panying publicity and reviews have brought
these films to our attention, we try to have
these films shown in a classroom, campus
or community situation, and again the films
are often followed by discussion. Because
of their specific use to raise consciousness,
such distribution of women's films now
seems more radical than standard 35mm
distribution in movie theaters, so that what
is being done out of necessity, opening up
new 16mm circuits, may end up benefiting
women more than admission of women's
films into the channels of regular distribution. content of the film, conventional expecta-
With the preliminary schema in mind we
can proceed to some elaboration of the
relations between the sub-systems. Each of
the sub-systems has structures and these
structures can "transfer" from one system to
another: that is, related structures can be
found in each sub-system and finding one
will provide information to understand
similar structures in another sub-system. For
example, Howard Hawks' films present an
image of the fraternity of worthy men (I call The idea of structures existing in each part
it the-boys'-club-syndrome), which derives
from Hawks' unconscious attitudes as well
as his conscious assumptions; this image
plays upon the audience's assumptions
14
T
1!//r __ -~ ... ._, - - -------,
a-=.-_, - - - - -- - (weak)- - ..... , ,,---- ---- .__.,
maker . film • audience milieu2
1
0011rector"
"di
~
1
~ t1 1 cri1tic
production/distribution
1
(includes marketing and consumption)
economic base, either capitalism or socialism
about manliness as well. Thus a co11s1deration found in the structures of perception, for we
of Hatari could draw upon what we know use words to identify what we see and these
about Hawks (found out from any statements structures are carried from milieu 1 through
he's made and from his other films) as well their actualization in some form of commun-
as what we know about audience psychology. ication to milieu~ However, the specific
We can assume that Hawks knew that certain situation of both the filmmaker and the
assumptions were made about manliness in audience plays a determining role, for the
both milieu and milieu • In distribution,
1 2 audience may not understand the creator's
this concept might again be emphasized by "style." Thus, Roseland confuses many
advertising photos of strong men hunting women, who react out of their own structured
animals from a jeep, with beautiful women attitude toward obesity and do not under-
looking on, or perhaps no women in the stand that the film's emphasis on Rose's
size was intended to convey the director's
respect for her as a monumental, almost
The maker of a film receives all of milieu 1 mythical, earth-goddess figure. Since Rose is
and additionally has her/his/their own indivi- presented in cinema-verite style the audience
dual psychology, historical situation, and reacts as they always react to a fat person;
creative imagination-which only some people there are no structures in the film to over·
in the filmmaking process are allowed to use. come the ambiguity of attraction/rejection
Reaction against their milieu is a driving which the image of obesity generates.
force for women making films and shapes
both the content of the films they make and A film is made over a period of time. The
work can influence the filmmaker in this
within or on the margin of the film industry. process. This is particularly true of
documentaries or of films connected with a
Feminist critics have shown particular specific political struggle, which may change
interest in the topic, the Image of Women; the consciousness of the fi.lmmakers in the
that is, in the way advertising and media ·course of making the film. Although there is
images of women (created by and reflecting feedback from the work to the makers at
the needs of men) shape the present image the time the film is being made, once the
of women in feature films, the choice of film is completed the makers (cast, crew,
actresses, female characters' behavior-and director, producer) become part of the
also how these images shape us. In watching audience and/or distribution if the director
a film, the audience draws on its knowledge or producer retains any control over the
of the convention of the Glamorous Woman, showing of that work. Video typically
a convention they know has a history. The offers more feedback than film because it is
way a Glamorous Woman is portrayed comes usually shown to small groups by the makers.
from structures and institutions in milieu~ With film tt)e audience generally has only
structures or conventional attitudes in the the feedback of deciding whether to buy a
director's mind, structures in the form/ ticket or not.
tions (structures) in the audience's mind, and Although film is basically one-way communi·
structures and institutions in milieu. 2 <5 1 cation, small groups of women filmmakers
Sometimes a director will consciously play showing their films to other women are
with visual and verbal structures already struggling to make film a communicative
present in milieu~ which is what Royanne process. However, even in terms of women's
Rosenberg did in her documentary films, audience or consumer choice still has
Roseland where she played off her own very little to do with shaping-in advance-
admiration for a very fat woman against the the content or form of films.
audience's preconceived notions and
uneasiness about obesity in women. The film-audience relation is one to study in
detail, particularly historically, for the film
shapes the audience's mind as well as draws
of the system is a step toward freeing us on conventions already present in milieu)
from writing about only the film or only For example, do teenage women want to
the maker-film-audience segment. For fall in love because of real experience or do
example, the structures of language are they want to live up to the myth? Film is
13
one ideological product among many that the film is over. describe in greater detail the radical political
has kept "selling" the myth of love. In the use of their films.
economy, the myth is used in advertising to The production-di stribution system, interac- The Critic's Personal and Political
sell products: it implies love is guaranteed ting directly with all five other sub-systems Stance
with an object's purchase. Feminist and technical and critical mediations, is the
filmmakers such as Nelly Kaplan attack the determinant system within the whole: it has In addition to and related to her theoretical
love myth in its representation in the cinema the greatest impact of all the sub-systems on framework, the critic brings to bear on films
precisely because it is an oppressive myth the whole. In most countries, film production her own likes and dislikes, education, class
incorporated into the super-ego of women. has been institutionaliz ed so that feature (usually middle), and-of special concern to
However, although women filmmakers and films are made in remarkably similar ways. us- her relation to the women's movement
women critics attack the love myth as And women are not predominant in the and her social and political practice. Intel-
oppressive, few have attacked the entire production of films. We know that Russian lectually, the critic must be aware of her
dominant concept, which sees romantic and Eastern European films are also generally critical preferences; for example, which
love as necessary for a woman's major sexist, and we may or may not be satisfied aspects of the above schema does she
satisfaction in life. Thus, few films show the with The Red Detachment of Women (I am consistently deal with in writing a film
possibility of a woman's living happily with the content, but not the form - review? In addition, any woman who begins
without being in· an intense emotional/ reminiscent of Seven Brides for Seven to write feminist criticism soon notices in
wxual relation with one other person, i.e., Brothers-nor with Chinese restrictions on what ways her reviews differ from others on
being part of a "couple." Christina Rochefort, film production). It is a phenomenon that the same film - and this is information that
whose film and novel Les Stances a Sophie · Godard noticed when he talks about Mos can fruitfully be passed on to her readers,
attacks the concept of romantic married love Films-Paramo unt. Even though the films are for by learning about what is sexist (or
still relies on the very concept of love to produced under a socialist economic system, feminist) in reviews, readers learn more
describe woman's fulfillment in her the films are still oppressive and similar in about the film process as a whole. One's
Utopia as she presents it in her book form to capitalistic films.6 own immediate impressions of a film, a
Archaos. Couldn't we imagine women living vignette of how the entire audience was
happily together without being in a "couple" Women and Film needs to document in detail responding, and one's emotional reactions
situation, or imagine them deriving their the position of women within the process are details that give liveliness and immediacy
major satisfaction from areas other than of production of Hollywood films. We to a review.
intense sexual satisfaction? This is not must also note how it is that women can
meant as puritanical, but many films have begin to produce films more or less However, it is only when the critic writes
shown male adventurers, scientists, soldiers, independen~l y-tracing the sources of with her politics up front that the readers
fliers, businessmen, etc. as getting their available income and distribution. Even can respond in kind and make a political
primary satisfaction from a role other than though we have felt the impact of the critique of both the film and the review.
that of romantic love (or, as the other women's movement in our daily lives, the Otherwise the reader may dismiss the
option is for women, from fatherly love!). direct input of the women's movement or of reviewer's judgment as, "You ·(the reviewer)
the woman consumer on the general feature liked that film and I didn't." I expect a
When writing about a feminist film, or film market is almos.t nil. Indeed, films are woman writer to let me know where she
about any political film, the critic must not constructed with an eye to the reality Qf stands not only in relation to the women's
evaluate what effect this film hopes to have social relations but rather continue to reflect movement, but to various aspects of that
on its audience. And what effect it actually male (and bourgeois male) ideals. Distributors movement (e.g., liberal reformist, radical
has. Does it intend to provoke specific do not ask us what kind of films we want to lesbian, separatist, etc.) and to socialist
changes in milieu 2 ? How? If milieu 2 is left see. politics as well. As a socialist feminist, I
relatively untouched, the critic can note this may have political disagreements with
and set forth her ideas on more radical Women are struggling to open alternate another socialist feminist critic, such as
uses for film. A film which is a mere social circuits of distribution 7 because the Joan Mellen, about her specific politics, but
critique ends with an audience saying, "Isn't established distribution agencies reject when she presents a definite position (as
that terrible! I cried to see it." A more politically sensitive films. However, these Joan does), my reactions are both clear and
radical work shapes the audience's mind, rare alternative circuits--distr ibuting 16mm politically principled. Thus her reviews go
leaving the viewers with structures which go prints, usually in colleges and schools- reach far beyond being a mere consumer guide-
beyond their consciousness prior to viewing. mostly the already "convinced." It would the mark of criticism in the established
They then have a tool with which to'reevalu- be better for women if there were a mass bourgeois press.
ate that which they had P.reviously accepted feminist distribution linked to political
as "natural." In a didactic radical film, such activity; at minimum, to audience education. When a woman works out in her criticism
a change in consciousness should be Since the critic plays a crucial role in her ideas about class, sexual politics, love,
accompanied by a picture of how things can distribution, Women and Film can publicize women's goals, money, authority, etc., this
be changed, which is a necessary precondition and encour_age the work of women's gives her criticism real political strength.
for the audience's acting in a new way after alternative distribution circuits and also ·When a w ,oman wants to write about new

15

14
uses for women's films, it is particularly valu- that are not abstractions- the feminist specific woman, during a hospital strike, but
able to bring to bear her own organizing exper- critic finds herself coming to terms with the she places much more emphasis on the
ience in the women's movement. For by wri- fact that she, like most women, still enjoys relation between class, sexual, and racial
ting criticism informed by theory and political ,these films. We have not abandoned oppression and on the need for united action
practice, a feminist critic makes a political Hollywood nor the whole bulk of past films. than on the delineation of a character that
critique of film and film criticism, which in However, and here women in audiences might serve as a model on which to specifi-
turn makes it possible for the readers to already differ, some women flatly reject cally pattern our lives.
respond to her on a number of specific films sexist in content but their definition
levels. On the one hand, the reader can of a sexist film differs from woman to We also need more films that delineate
respond with "I don't agree with what you woman. women's situations, women's problems
~aid about class or race in that film or with without showing the women characters as
your political analysis." Or the reader may At this point the feminist critic finds herself strong, liberated or rebellious. An accurate
give a contrary political interpretation to· a criticizing films other women may praise portrayal of women's oppression is just as
film: "You say the film is progressive for a and finding reasons to like films others may rare as accurate portrayals of racial oppression
number of reasons; however, I think the reject as sexist. I can give a few examples -since films are usually made by white males.
major character, with whom we identify, from my own reviewing experience. I In particular we have no feature films
sold out. These are the reasons why." The rejected Carnal Knowledge as a smug film presenting a view of the lives of lesbians.
point is that the critic owes it to her readers .appealing voyeuristically to precisely those Such films could be realistic and not heroic
to make her own basic assumptions perfectly men "denounced" in the story of the film; and serve the function of raising conscious-
clear so that the reader's response may also other women, reading the film on the level ness, for they would at every point be set
be lucid. of content, saw the film as an attack on in the context of women's oppression.
sexism. Similarly, Cries and Whispers was
I myself tend to evaluate radical reviews generally hailed as a "women's film" but In the analysis of the content of films, the
both in terms of my theoretical schema and Constance Penley denounced Bergman's critic can draw on anthropological, sociolo-
the politics of the review. That is, I ask if manipulation of women's experience, his gical, and economic concepts and/or use
the reviewer considers more than the form mystification of that experience only to feature films to illustrate these points.
and content of the artifact, the film, and serve his Art. Again from my point of view, Obviously film, like literature, is a structured,
treats the whole film process? I also expect I enjoyed A Clockwork Orange and Lolita, artificial work; there is a great danger in
to be able to evaluate the reviewer's political• reading Kubrick's satire as misanthropy referring to the characters' experiences as if
premises critically, which she is asking the rather than misogyny. I put in these personal they were part of lived reality. However, the
reader to do if she sets them clearly forth. examples to indicate that it is at this level choice of subject for a film, costume, makeup,
that feminist film criticism currently engages locale, social class, dialogue, psychological
Form and Content of the Film8 movie goers in lively debates, and that traits, social interaction all enter a film from
analyses of content from a feminist perspec- the context of the maker(s)'s milieu. Claire
Most film criticism has traditionally centered tive are both popular and useful. Johnston in Nores for a Woman's Cinema
around an analysis of the artifact, the film. cautions against an analysis of women
Although not sufficient as an exclusive Because of the example of some very talented characters in film by means of reference to
approach to film, a feminist perspective women who have given us images of strong, sexism in th~ society at large because she
should be applied to an analysis of the form unconventional, rebellious women in film, sees these female characters often as male
and content of both traditional narrative critics such as Naome Gilbert (Women and inversions. However, most of the articles in
film and women's films. We are oriented to Film Issue #2) have emphasized the need for Women and Film that deal with specific
write criticism of the film itself rather than women directors to give us new female role films make references to social phenomena
the whole film process (milieu 1 - maker(s)- models in film. While equally enthusiastic freely and fruitfully. Some areas that have
film - audience- milieu2) because of the about seeing such strong women characters, not been explored, and hopefully some of
close relation between film and literary I see a danger in raising the strong-female the women going into anthropological film
criticism. We bring to film criticism New role model to the level of prescription, i.e., making can help us here, are studies of
Critical, psychoanalytic and structuralist "This is where women's film should go." On proxemics in film - the distance between ,
approaches already applied to literature in the one hand, the whole concept of hero characters as indicative of social mores-and
the academic world. Auteur criticism is, for (or anti-hero) in narrative film is a carry-over kinesics-gesture and movement as deter·
example, marked by a psychoanalytic from nineteenth century romantic literature, mined by social convention and as revealing
approach- the search for themes, archetypes, and certainly Eisenstein's example has shown conventions- for such studies could open up
underlying psychological patterns. that an emphasis on a single character's fate new dimensions in our understanding of the
and interior development is neither necessary mechanisms of sexism in both art and the
Since most films are sexist in both form and nor particularly desirable. In I am society that engenders that art.9
content- and this includes documentaries, Somebody, Madeline Anderson shows the
feature fiction films, and experimental films role of women, even concentrating on one Studies of women and the media today

16

15
 inevitably consider not only how women are an equivalent female assassin or females to waste the price of a ticket; economically
sex objects but how women as sex object employing that assassin or a comparable film reviewers serve a necessary function.
(and its corollary: mother) serves an female target to be assassinated-as if any of However, by expanding criticism to include
economic function. Women and Film has this were desirable. Male characters are a critique of the whole film process, by
had articles on two of Godard's films in given attributes of power much more than writing for periodicals open to a broader
which he examines the implications of female characters ~re. perspective on women and film, and by
women's role as an object to be consumed, working to help the practical cause of women
as did the feminist critique of the First Forms for conveying sensuality are almost in film, we can go beyond our assigned role
Annual Erotic Film Festival. Significantly completely male. We don't even know yet as consumer guide. Already, women critics
Carol Davidson points out that although what the visual form for a female erotic have joined forces with women's. studies
Godard in letter to Jane says he is movie would be. Women so far, even when courses and women's film festivals. Key
criticizing Jane Fonda, the star, as a function making films, have found it hard to break articles in magazines have been the reviews
and not as a person, he not only sees her as through to making new kinds of films with ,of the New York Women's Film Festival,
a function but uses her as a function as well. new forms. Technical experimentation with articles in two issues of Film Library
Would as many people have gone to see the media has so far been done by male louarterly, special articles on women directors
letter to Jean-Pierre? filmmakers. There are few women making and women's film in Take One, Film
experimental films, pushing the medium Comment and The Velvet Light Trap.
The Politics of Form itself as far as they can, perhaps this is Because of these articles and the brochure
because the technical/chemical/mechanical on women's films from the Toronto Women's
Most critics do not separate their discussion side of film has been traditionally of more Film Festival and the list of women's films
of form from the content of the film, interest or more accessible to men, women available in the United States that is
this is appropriate enough if one considers being socialized to enter cinema through its published by the Women's History Research
form and content as finally inseparable, but aspect as art. 10 Center, women, ourselves as critics included,
it is not satisfactory if the reviawer has are just beginning to know the range of
simply failed to reflect on how the form Godard talks about a bourgeois camera style women's films. 11 Some of these films are
affects the content. At the same time, in and rejects traditional documentary or being shown in courses, but too often just
considering a large number of films, we can cinema verite. These only reproduce the so- the same few are shown over and over again.
see that film form and the way of photo- ·called '~normal" way of seeing things;· Women are pressuring the local film societies
graphing women in general has in the past certainly the subject of a film is never reality to include women's films in their programs;
been inherently sexist. Makeup, the selection but only the way the maker(s) sees something.and hopefully, we as critics will be able to
of women with certain size breasts, halo Feminist film criticism should offer sisters devote ourselves to a serious study of these
lighting, the whole visual iconography of making films, perhaps especially documen- films. The distribution of the films women
women characters, and so forth, can be taries, a critique of the form of their presen- are making may well be aimed at the 16mm
analyzed in detail to write the story of tation. There is a great temptation to film circuit or the exchange of video tapes.
sexism in film. But even more, in considering women activists or the average woman living
film form, one should analyze where women out her life and to let the subject "speak Such films deserve more than a liberal
are not, what attributes they are not given. for herself." However all cinema-verite dates viewing, where anything made by a woman
fast, and in particular the filmmaker who is hel.d as equally valuable as anything se.
In an adventure film, men find fulfillment thinks the subject is speaking for himself/ Rather we must use our capacity as feminist
and self-definition through direct physical herself (as Leacock/Pennebaker in David or critics to see what is in these films and to see
action, initiated by themselves for the end Don't Look Back) ends up putting the how these films fit (or can fit- and we can
of their own integrity. Women are· not filmmaker's opinions about class, sex, race, promote them) into the film process as a
allotted the same range of physical action, etc. into the form of the film. It is better whole. Already a film such as the The
and when they do act, their actions are . to be aware of one's own presuppositions Woman's Film has proven its effectiveness
usually more circumscribed. To give an and state them directly, either visually or in women's courses because it deals with
example, Eve/ Knievel, Two Lane Blacktop, verbally, so that they will be immediately women's issues across class and race lines and
The Last American Hero, and American subjected to a conscious critique by the considers economic issues as well as personal
Graffitti show men initiating such actions audience. ones. We do not have to promote just films
to prove their identity (both social and having a didactic fun'ction, but I would hope
personal identity) as drag racing, stock car Functions of Criticism that it would be from feminist critics that a
racing and motorcycle stunts. The women in woman director gets her best critique.
these films do not initiate such actions If she writes mostly about the content and
independently but relate to the actions of form of specific films, the feminist critic
the men and are dependent on them. One faces the problem of just fitting into a slot
can take a movie such as Day of the Jackal already prepared for her- that of writing
_and note that it would be unlikely to have a consumer's guide to film. No viewer wants

17

16
Notes
1 Claire Clouzot's le Cinema francais depuis 4 The radical critic wages what Umberto Eco
la nouvelle vague is the best available history calls "semiotic guerrilla warfare," by which
of French film since the early 1950s. It is he means that we must enhance the gap
published by the Alliance Francaise in their between the transmitted and the received
series, "Ou en est la France?" (Paris: Fer- message so as to broaden the receivers'
dinand Nathan, 1972). Marie-Claire Ropars- freedom. To cite Eco on this tactic-"ln
Wuilleumier wrote film reviews for Esprit political activity it is not indispensible to
throughout the late fifties and sixties, and is change a given message: it would be enough
the best reviewer I have ever read. In two or (or, perhaps better) to change the attitude
three pages of Esprit she gave a wealth of of the audience, so as to induce a different
analysis and detail not found in the work of decoding of the message-or in order to
any other critic. Her collected reviews are isolate the intentions of the transmitter and
in l 'Ecran de la memoire (Paris: Seuil, thus to criticize them. In this sense, semio-
1970). In addition, her book De la litterature tics becomes not only a cognitive discipline
au cinema (Paris: Armand Colin, 1970) is a which enables us to understand how com·
structuralist study of film narrative and film munication works, but also a pragmatic
history. Her theory is clear-sighted and a activity, intended to transform communica-
neglected contribution to the subject of tion processes." "Towards a Semiotic
film structure. Penelope Gillian writes for Enquiry into the Television Message,"
The New Yorker and Renata Adler was the Working Papers in Cultural Studies 3, p. 121.
New York Times daily reviewer. Adler's This journal which offers a radical approach
collected criticism is available in book to cultural studies, is published by the
form in A Year in the Dark. Susan Sontag's Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies
essays "Theatre and Film" and "Godard" at the University of Birmingham, England,
are key works in both of these areas: the and the Spring '71 issue of the journal has a
first can be found in Against Interpretation bibliography of works in English on kinesics,
(New York: Farrar, Strauss, 1966); the proxemics, and semiology-all areas of non-
second in Styles of Radical Will (New York: verbal communication applicable to the
Farrar, Strauss, 1969). Gilliatt and Sontag study of film.
have both successfully entered the field of
filmmaking. 5 Eco has also written an important essay
explaining how convention enters in as a
2 This schema was first presented in a paper, determining factor on each level of film
"A Systematic Approach to Audience perception. This essay appears in French in
Response to Film" by Charles Kleinhans his book la Structure absente (Paris:
and myself at the Student Conference on Mercure de France, 1972) but is more
Film Study organized by Oberlin College accessible in the French journal Communi-
and held in Washington, D.C. in April, 1973. cations 15-16, in which issue one can also
find a master bibliography on semiology. In
3Such an approach was taken by Bertolt English, less readily available, the article has
Brecht in his long essay on what happened been translated as "Articulations of the
to the film of the Threepenny Opera and the Cinematic Code" in Cinemantics 1 (January
lawsuit that he brought to court. A summary 1970).
of the essay can be found in Cineaste V:2
(Spring, 1972), pp. 34-37. 6 "Brezhnev-Mosfilm claims that it is attacking
Nixon-Paramount, but in reality it is
supporting it"-Wind from the East. I cannot
make any excuses for Godard and Gorin'"
sexism in letter to Jane, ~t their _discussion
of and search for a revolutionary film style
in le Gai savoir, Vent d'est (Wind from the
East), Pravda, and luttes en ltalie (Struggles
in Italy), plus their analysis of the reaction-
ary nature of so-called "progressive" cinema
are instructive for women who seek a totally
new cinema, a non-sexist one.
18
17
7 New Da•y Films, 267 W. 25th Street. New
York, New York 10001.
Cinema Femina, New Feminist Talent, Inc.,
250 W. 57th Street, New York, New York
10019.
Women's Film Co-op, 200 Main Street,
Northhampton, Massachusetts 01060.
8 1 do not wish to open up that old aesthetic
controversy about form and content.
Oeviously_ there is no content without form
and vice versa, and form is only the form of
its content, content only the content of
some form. Structuralists and semiologists
use the distinction between signifier and
signified, but in English it is difficult to
read across -ier/-ied if one is not already
used to the terms.
9 1 myself have written an article on· the
application of semiological analysis (specifi·
cally Roland Barthes S/Z) to film study. It
will be in the spring issue of Substances, a
journal publithed by the University of
Wisconsin French Department which will
devote an entire issue to structuralism and
film.
10 1n the last issue of Women and Film,
Sharon Smith described the pioneering
work of Mary Ellen Bute and Marie Menken
as experimental filmmakers. Women's film
festivals in Toronto and New York have
shown some experimental films by women,
but these films are not as accessible for
rental as narrative films, nor have we
considered what role these films play in a
feminist cinema. We have still not exploited
super-8 technically as far as it will go. We
neglect experimental film because of lack of
money, knowledge, or support and reinforce-
ment. I cannot separate out cause and effect
here but only plead for a greater support of
experimental filmmaking by women.
11 Films By And/Or About Women (Women's
History Research Center, 2325 Oak Street,
Berkeley California 94708; $5). This is a
useful to~I, a whole book of listings with a
brief description of the content of each film.
It does not make political and/or aesthetic
judgments.
 19

18
 Beyond Theory
of Fil111 Practice:
Introduction: Critique and Auto-Critique
The following interview with Noel Burch took place
in Berkeley in the fall of 1973. Burch had spent the
summer teaching in \he Cinema Studies Department
at New York University and was en route to Japan to
do research on a forthcoming book on Japanese
cinema.
We have chosen to include a brief introduction be-
cause of the importance, we feel, for us as well as our
readers, of illuminating some of the contradictions ap-
parent in both the text and methodology of the
interview. We are aiming first to analyze briefly some
incongruities on the part of Burch (critique) and
second, as part of our learning process and evolution,
to analyze our own responsibilit_y and critical function
within the context of the interview (autocritique).
Critique
One of the most glaring and widely manifested of
Burch's inconsistencies is centered in what we see as a
contradiction between his political theory and his
personal practice. Evident not only in several theoreti-
cal remarks made during the interview, but in Burch's
overwhelmingly paternalistic-pedantic attitude toward
us both as women and as film critics/students, this ap-
parently elitist gap in his avowed and insistent Marx-
ism, functioned to undercut his stature both as a film
critic/theorist and as someone sympathetic to the
women's movement. Burch's eagerness to discuss his
own critical leaps and bounds since Theory of Film
Practice was coupled with an apparent lack of interest
in Women and Film's evolution since the last issue,
which he condemned as "sociological."
We found Burch consistently evasive when posed
questions about what, within his context, constitutes
a political film. His definition seemed informed pri-
marily by a traditional Marxist sense of class struggle,
and dependent upon an analysis of the means of pro-
duction of the film in question. We found this defini-
• tion "correct" in a strict Marxist sense but perhaps
too narrow and idealistic in terms of its practical ap-
plicability (and certainly for a feminist theory of
film). A significant omission, however, from Burch's
discussion of political film and politics in general, is
any mention of sexuality or sexual politics.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
20
19
Auto-Critique
It should be noted here that since "interview" often
implies a hierarchical exchange between people, we
are working on constructing dialogues, where we all
participate equally. Of primary importance to us, is a
deep concern not only with that person with whom
we are ex.changing ideas, but our own group processes,
our interaction within the context of that exchange.
In a previous dialogue with Christiane Rochefort
(W&F 3-4), we were fortunate to have been able to
know Christiane before the actual dialogue took place.
Because she was both a friend and a feminist, the re-
sulting exchange was less determined by the attitudes
you will see reflected in the Burch interview.
We accept responsibility for the outcome of the Burch
interview, for not attempting to restructure it along
lines more attuned to our own interests and sensibili-
ties. Probably the singlemost important factor which
determined our collectively passive role was what we
see as internalised authoritarianism, which was mani-
fested in our lack of assertion when faced with an
authority figure (Burch). In short, we capitulated to
our sex role conditioning.
Confronted with our failure at the Burch interview,
we have been evolving a more self-conscious group
practice. In concrete terms this means a more rigorous
definition of our goals and methodology: discussing
beforehand exactly what we want to accomplish and
communicate in the dialogue; and evolving a mode of
questioning not only more supportive of each other's
line of thought, but more rigorously attuned to our
collective interests.
An Interview
with Noel Burch
W&F : The first thinq I'd like you to go was felt as a deficiency with respect to the masses talking and the language evolving in
through 1s how your theoretica l concepts have 19th century novel and all the ideologica popular speech, as we all know. After all it's
l
gone beyond what you were thinking when implicatio ns it has. in the ghetto and elsewhere that the language
you wrote Theory of Film Practice. changes the most rapidly and the most
For example, I find it absolutely fantastic radically whereas- 1'm saying very elemen-
NB: Well, in terms of autobiogr aphy, that it is not until 1909 that they modified tary facts known to linguistic science since
because it has to be brought in briefly, I was the shutter-i t was a very simple thing to do-
Saussure- the written language is essentially
involved in May '68 and became radicalized. so that you didn't get the flicker effect conservati ve. It belongs to the bourgeois ie
My po litical radicaliza tion did not affect anymore. The fact that today flicker cinema essentially .
very immediate ly my perception or ideas is a very important part of contempo rary
about film; but it did get me interested in filmmakin g is very significan t I think. There And the spoken language does not
New Amercian Cinema which I had always- essentially
are parallels between Lumiere and Warhol belong to the bourgeoisi e. The conservati ve
rejected quite out of hand. I hardly knew which are quite obvious. There are jump- nature, the conservat ionalist nature if you
the cinema and I wasn't fundamen tally cuts in Lumiere which are ·interestin g. He prefer, of written language as opposed to
interested in it. After May '68 I became very did cut the film; it just didn't bother him
the tendency to evolution of spoken language
interested in it, realizing obscurely at that that there was a jump-cut. constitute s a kind of conflictin g element
time that there was some kind of relationsh ip
and, as I say, a kind of image or reflection of
between let's say vanguard artistic practice Anyway, along came Griffith and other class struggle.
and vanguard political practice, a relation- people. Obviously Griffith is not the one-
ship which I find absolutely fundamen tal apparently Billy Bitzer is the great man who But cinema does not have this double situa-
now, and which is very fundamen tal of did all this. Even Edison was trying to tion . There is only one class, and I should
course to many pe..ople in France, but which reproduce life, you know. It's fantastic how say even one caste within that class, who
is not very fundamen tal here. Then I began Edison's is so completel y an ideological are speaking cinema, writing cinema, and
at least to read because, as Annette project. I mean he tried to reproduce sound. another class, which is to say everybody
(Michelson) points out, I was completel y self- For him sound and image absolutely had to else practically , who has only been taught to
taught. I have no university backgroun d of go together and when sound couldn't go look at films, to hear them and so on, and is
any kind; it was all from just making films with image he lost interest completel y. deprived of any possibility of acting upon
and watdl ing films, you see. And so I began this language. The idea that it is popular taste
at first just reading basic Marxist texts, the So that was the beginning of the ideas. And which condition s films is absolute nonsense.
Tel Que/ people and their forefather s, people the point is that by 1933 bread comes in and What condition s them
is the class and I should
like Foucault and Barthes. Also Eco has it beqins to become an industry of some sort. say the caste which is doing the writing and
recently had considera ble importanc e to me When the money came in of course it was speaking. It is a completel y one-way affair.
in terms of his semiotics. absolutely necessary that the people who
were supplying the money imposed their By compariso n, the reasons for the evolution
Now I see the history of cinema somewha t view on things. This is the way it happened . of verbal language are complex, but they can
differently . It is, granted, somewha t akin to It is not a matter of what the public wanted be found in part within the framewor k
what is expressed in this book [Theory of of
or anything of that sort. That is an absolute language itself. The diachronic study of
Film Practice], but more formalized . I see myth. The public in that sense doesn't exist. language is something which is legitimate and
the history of cinema in the west, that is,
admissible scientifica lly speaking. The
in Europe and America, very, very grossly I still have very serious reservatio ns with examinati on of cinema that way is com-
explained (it's the subject of this next- regard to a semiological approach to cinema pletely absurd because the reasons for
coming book) as basically about approxi- as is practiced by Metz, reservatio ns which these codes lie entirely outside of film- but
mately ten years during which cinema was in are essentially those
which you find in this 100% outside of film. They are ideological.
the hands of scientists or tinkerers or people issue of Screen {Spring/S ummer
'73). I think And they are 100% ideological.
who were basically just interested in a that the theoretica l justificati on for these
machine and the things it can do. Porter is restriction s would be in these terms: to treat By the way Metz somewher e has said some-
typical of a tinkerer. This period is film as a language is a very interesting thing of this sort, except that he is incapable
extremely interesting to study because you project, film particular ly from its codificati on of drawing the conclusion s which I think
can see all kinds of possibilite s that are from Griffith on. But I think that it must are indispensa ble : you cannot just go around
already being expressed that imply a certain be made clear there is a fundamen tal distinc- sampling cinema and saying, "Well here we
kind of cinema which is non-linear , which is tion between the natural languages and that have a
durative montage and . .. " Durative
a-causal, a cinema in which the idea of "language " of cinema. The distinctio n is that montage exists; there is no question about it.
narrative is present, but just barely. I mean, the natural languages are in a sense a kind of It's a figure; it is a syntagm, if you like,
there is the distance from the camera and dialectical process, that is to say the natural which exists in films. Durative montage is
things like that, the idea of person, the idea languages are a kind of a projection of the a series of shots repeating the same action
of the individual ization of character and so class struggle. You have people talking and but giving you the impression that it lasts a
on. None of this is present in a sense, and it people writing. You have essentially the long time - five men crossing the desert in

21

20
six different shots-that exists. But all Metz concept of deconstruction is something the audience which in the 30's came to the
is doing is attempting to describe something which is quite important to me. cinema, which is to say the bourgeoisie, are
bit·by bit, without any possibility of drawing clearer. They came because it talked and
a theory of film language from this, because · W&F: Do you want to define that? because it therefore acquired the principle
the connecting links, what organizes all this characteristics, the signifying characteristic
precisely, is not in the film at all. It's outsideNB: Yes, I want to. Let's leave the word of the theater; it acquired prestige, status
of film. It is within that corpus of represen- deconstruction for the moment because it's in their eyes. You just have to watch
tation which we call ideology. a more modern word than the actual origin what happened in the newspapers and how
of this concept, which can be traced back to the newspapers suddenly began treating
You can only understand, for example, the the Prague school and to Jakobson and cinema as it became a talking thing.
passage from what is so-ealled primitive Mukaravsky and work in semiotics which
cinema to that period from 1905 to 1920 involves the concept that there is an What happened with this expansion of
which is the period of codification, by way aesthetic message (I'm using the word now audience? Film became a bigger industry, a
of an analysis which I have not done at all, in the specifically semiotic sense) if you like, much bigger industry. And so we witness
an analysis of the way in which ideology produced through the subversion, through the second big takeover of, let us say,
produces itself in film and an analysis of the breaking down of, through creating a ideology, a takeover wh ich was comparable
what the codes of representation are with crisis in what we call the dominant codes of in a sense to the takeover of 1905-1915.
regard to this ideological production. That's representation in a given medium. This
the only way that a theory of the codes can language can be easiJy extended to practically O.K., that's an overview of the way I tend
be produced. I have vague ideas about it. anything. I've done very close analysis of to want to structure the problem, and the
It's a kind of hierarchical structure, not a flat Caligari, for example, in these terms and way in which my work wants to go now. I
structure. There are primary codes, second-· there's no question but what Caligari is a want to try and develop this hypothesis-
ary codes, there are all kinds. There are some very specific, direct challenge to break down that's all you can call it for the moment-
codes which absolutely have not changed practically all the elements of codicity as substantiate it, try to analyze as closely as
since 1910. There are others which are they were at that time. possible those very, very few films which, in
changing all i:he time, but they are to my my view, constitute an anti-ideological
mind secondary-for that reason. Then the very tragic but inevitable thing cinema, at least in these crucial periods of
that happens in 1932-33, is, of course, the film history. I would not pretend to be doing
For me The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari arrival of sound. 1'm extremely interested in this for the New American Cinema or any-
(1919) is an absolute turning point, one of exactly what this meant and why it is that thing like that where you obviously have vast
the fundamental turning points in the whole the sound film spelled absolutely the end problems of complexity.
history of cinema because it's the first film (with about one or two exceptions) of this
which produces this contradiction. It's the type of filmmaking for 20 years at least. The W&F: Would you mind touchirig on Fritz
first film which constitutes a deliberate and reasons, to my mind, are manifold. It's inter- Lang's Mabuse again and its seminal
systematic deconstruction of the codes of, esting to see why it happened, by the way, function?
well, Griffith~ codes. (I don't like to call in the Soviet Union as well as in America, or
them Griffith's codes because of course the Western Europe. In France, particularly, NB: I did a piece on it, which is published
poor chap- he isn't really responsible for suddenly the audience grew immensely, and in French in something called the Revue de
anything.) But from Caligari on, you have above all, a new class of people came to the l'esthetique. To me the first Mabuse (1922)
the 20's, which for me are an absolutely cinema. There were two polls taken in constitutes the end resu It, a kind of sum, of
privileged period in the history of film. You France in 1928-29. One of them said that all the work that had been done by Griffith
know who I'm talking about: particularly 7% of the French population went to films and others, including de Mille, up to that
Vertav, Dreyer, Eisenstein and Lang, whose at all. The other figure was 14%. In 1932 time. Lang was absolutely drawing rings
work is primarily on the one hand a about 40% of the population were going to around everybody else. That film, in terms
critique, an analysis, a breaking down, a the cinema. of the use C'f codes, what they call in France
deconstruction, as we say, of those codes, now "la maitrise des codes," the mastery, is
and an attempt in certain cases (I don't Which classes went to the cinema? In the unbelievable. Lang had it really, absolutely
know how ~o translate travail du significant) 20's and earlier, cinema was primarily a together. Mabuse is a film which, as illusion-
to do work on the level of the signifier as people's entertainment; it was the masses ist films go, really still works today com-
material as such, to organize the signifier who went to the cinema, obviously, not all pletely.
according to structures which are, let us say, of them, but nonetheless the bulk, the vast
dialectically opposed in some way perhaps bulk of the filmgoing audience was the urban In a sense it is a culmination. That is, cinema
to the structures of the signified. This is proletariat, plus a fringe of intelligentsia. had accomplished this implicit project which
really one of the very, very seminal periods, Together they constituted an audience which was to essentially produce a kind of literary
one which I think we have to go back to was perhaps a little more open. The positive genre within the film medium with specifi-
constantly to understand a lot of things characteristics of this audience are hard to cally filmic technique, producing certain
about film. I should say right now that this define, but the negative characteristics of types, prowcing modes of representation

22

21
 which were the closest possible equivalent The whole notion of_continuity, or shot-to- use subversion instead, I don't care.) Insofar
to a certain mode of representatron in the shot continuity, is completely zapped out in as those sets are reduced to the signifier of
theater or in literature. That's a rather vague Caligari, even in shots within a single madness, let's put it that way, or fantasy, or
statement ... but the point is, practically sequence: the use of "vignettes," of masks, whatever you want to call it, the signifier
all of cinema, in a sense, all of what I call the actual designs of the sets, the fact that no longer has the same signified.
dominant cinema, can be said to descend you cut from a given plastic space to another
·from Mabuse. And if Lang came to America one which is totally unlike it. There is But this seems to me what makes Caligari
and so easily and masterfully exploited the absolutely no credibility for the whole really a beginning. Because nothing
codes which then existed, it was because he notion of continuity; this film hardly carries like that had been done before. It was
was, if not their inventor, one of the continuity. Caligari is in a sense a strategic impossible, by the way, for anything like
codifiers and one of the absolute masters of return to primitive cinema in order precisely that to have been done before, because the
criticism. to deconstruct accepted codes. (For example, codes were not sufficiently constituted. It
a film like (Vertov's) Man with a Movie would have been meaningless. I mean, there
W&F: I see Caligari as a partial deconstruc- Camera is an absolutely rigorously decon- are people who come out and say, "Oh well,
tion of a certain kind of police film, when it structed film.) But nevertheless, Caligari, Griffith is deconstructing codes too.'~
calls attention to those aspects of itself, but though obviously not as developed in any Griffith isn't deconstructing codes because
it also is a construction in itself. But I don't sense as Man with a Movie Camera, is a he was on the uphill side of the thing, and
see Caligari as a deconstruction in a total sense. cinema of deconstruction. The modes of it wasn't entirely together yet. It is true
deconstruction are indeed borrowed from enough that there are moments in his work
NB: Actually, fundamental codes are being Expressionist theater, which was itself a in which his attempt to put together a
called into question in Caligari on all levels, theater of deconstruction and in that sen~ coherent space out of separate shots produces
in particular the absolutely fundamental one an anti-ideological theater. editing which is extremely exciting to us
of the graphic codes of depth, of illusionist today, like the assassination of Lincoln
depth. Caligari is a film which presents itself One more very fundamental element of non- sequence in Birth of a Nation. But if you
as an image of depth. In other words, the linearity in Caligari which seems to be look closely at the sequence, you see that
signs of depth, of perspective in particular, cjbsolutely fundamental in this respect is the tie's basically mis-judging things, for example,
are there. At the same time they are codes famous ending which everybody has regarded cutting from certain close-ups to long shots
borrowed from the graphic arts. Borrowed as a concession, which of course is just utter and actually you just can't see John Wilkes
are certain signs which designate the bullshit. But the fact of the matter is, the Booth up there, but he is up there. And he's
artifices of linear perspective as artifices and people who made this film, particularly trying to carry continuity; he doesn't
create the illusion, if you like, or rather the Mayer who was a very smart person, were succeed. But of course, in a sense, Eisenstein,
impression, of the flat image. When people quite aware of how they could use the I'm sure, was very sensitive to these, well
in the film start moving at the same time, ending. And what did they do? At the end let's say, somewhat involuntary operations.
back and forth and in and out-these sets are of this film the cha,racters leave their bench The relationship of Eisenstein to Griffith can
in fact physically very deep- you have at and they go back to this crazy-this same be found there.
the same time a contradictory element which set-the asylum yard. You are in what has
comes in here, the notion of depth. I mean, suddenly become another level of reality, I don't know if you know the original
the only guarantee of depth that you have and you can say, "Ah, this is all a fantasy version of (Porter's) The Life of an American
on the screen in any case is the fact that in this guy's head and he's really insane," Fireman, which is an absolutely fascinating
people move; there is movement in depth, in which supposedly takes all the ambiguity film in which you see a sequence composed
a sense. I'm simplifying immensely but this, out of it. But of course it simply multiplies of two shots, one of which shows the inside
nevertheless, can be said to be true within a the ambiguity because the main guarantee of a house, the inside of a room with a
certain framework of reference. of the fantasy, the sets and their unreality, woman going to the window. The first shot
the wild imagery and so on, is maintained shows the outside of a building.You see the
You have present in Caligari (thi~ is just one throughout the last part of the fi Im, even woman appear, then disappear. The fireman
aspect of it) a fundamental element of though it is posited'as a new degree of goes out, goes into the window, takes out
contradiction between the flat surface of the reality. the woman, brings her down, gives her to
screen and the repr~duction of depth in the somebody else, goes back in, takes out the
film. (This is, of course, essential to film in Well you know, one can find examples of baby, comes down. Then you cut. You see
general, is part of the real process of film.) this in literature, and so on-it's something the WC?f11an in the room. She goes to the
And this reproduction of depth on a flat which is not absolutely unheard of. But window. She lies on the bed. The fireman
screen is inscribed in Caligari as such. Now certainly in cinema this type of absolutely comes up into the window, takes the woman,
insofar as the reproduction of depth on a flat fundamental, irresolvable contradiction (and goes down the ladder, comes back, gets the
screen is a fundamental contradiction with in terms precisely of the notion of codicity) baby, goes back down the ladder.
regard to linearity and the notion of illusion- is a subversion of the very notion of codicity.
ism in, say, Griffith, I consider it to be an (I don't like the word subversion, I prefer Well, obviously he's inventing in a sense the
element of deconstruction. the word deconstruction but if you want to reverse field. But at the same time, for all

23

22
 The Great Train Robbery.

point is there's a total ambiguity as to

whether or not the sign of the fade-out/fade-
in is a sign for flashback, fantasy, dream or
something like that, or, on the contrary,
future ellipsis.

W&F: The continuity is based not on a

narrative continuity but on a plastic kind of
thing and so you have no signals ...

NB: What seems to me interesting in regard

to the idea of deconstruction is a reflection
upon the codes per se, in other words, the
actual signs which you are used to reading as
having a given meaning. That, I think, must
be understood as what I mean by deconstruc-
tion. So that when you are dealing with this
fade-out/fade-in, you see, basically you are
obliged to ask yourself on some level, "What
did that fade-out/fade-in mean? Did that
mean, as I say, flashback?"There are very
kinds of reasons which are a little complex In another film of Porter's which is absolutely few signs at our disposal in films. They have
to go into, he does not get into cross-cutting. fascinating, Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1o or 12 been codified in a contextual sense. They
The shots are successiv(;!. We're dealing with tableaux of the film are absolutely incompre- are linear and univocal precisely in terms of
a completely non-linear situation here. He is hensible if you have not read the book. Can their context. The dissolve will signify, let us
working towards the reverse field. In 10, 15 you imagine anybody making a film today say, flashback when somebody says, "Ah ...
years later it's going to be completely which would be incomprehensible without I remember ... " or the music slows down.
codified. This is a step toward it. It isn't a people having read the book? In other There are 25 things that have to come in to
step toward Marienbad, as somebody wrote words, the film was something which over-determine these signs because they are
somewhere, but it is so objectively because referred or had reality only in terms of not in themselves adequate. There are not
it's the uphill grade; it's the constitution of things outside it. This is absolutely incon- enough of them to make them really
the codes. ceivable today. These are ways in which univocal.
that earlier cinema had implicit in it a kind
Similarly- what's the other film of Porter's of naive non-linearity, an openness. That's what makes it so difficult to discuss
which is so famous? The Great Train Robbery. codicity in filr,1, because it's not just a one-
This film was entire_ly shot from a mile away. W&F: Is Straub doing this kind of decom- to-one thing. Codicity is essentially a stance,
Little figures are running around and they position, deconstruction? to my mind, much more than it is anything
have no individuality, a fundamental failing else. Anything can be encoded, even though
in primitive cinema with regard to ideology. NB: Oh, certainly, yes, he's one of the most it may in another context be completely
The notion of character, of personality, of interesting, for me. deconstructed. Take Easy Rider. In the films
person is almost completely absent from of Robert Breer, single-frame editing was
these films. But Porter sensed this lack and W&F: Could you talk a little about him? totally deconstructive and implied an open
he added a shot which you know, a fairly thing which you read all kinds of ways, and
close shot of a cowboy shooting at the NB: Well, I've only done really serious work there's absolutely no linearity at all in any of
camera, in order to introduce an element of on Nicht Versohnt/Not Reconciled. It's a the films of Breer. Hopper's film, on the
personal involvement, of specific facial very special kind of film. It's precisely the contrary, is completely encoded by context.
individuality and so on. process of working out the diegesis, which is Single frame editing becomes a kind of
the process of reading a film, and which signifier of either drug hallucination or a
involves a complete deconstruction of certain kind of social experience and so on
What's interesting is that that shot was
everything. There's a scene in which this and so forth. There's no difficulty. Anything
supplied in a separate roll at the time, 1903,
can be encoded in cinema.
which could be placed at the beginning or the guy who has been beaten up by the Gestapo,
end of the film as the projectionist wished, or whatever, is lying on his bed, with
you see. So I mean obviously things were not bandages, I think. I think he closes his eyes, W&F: That suggests that the codes in
and there's a fade-out. (I may be wrong cinema are continually breaking down and
yet fixed. The idea of a film that begins
about these things.) And then you have him continually being reformed in new ways.
here and ends there was not yet absolutely
sure. in a woods, or on the grass, with a girl. The NB: Yes, but not codicity. I would make a

24

23

fundamental distinction.
W&F: Codes but not codicity?
NB: Right. There are a certain number of
concepts which are fundamental to domin-
ant dnema. They are implied, first of all, by
a certain number of fundamental codes. For
me, I would say ... (I'll confess I'm not sure
enough to define any codes) that certainly
the notion of linearity is absolutely funda-
mental, that's been decided by Hegel. The
notion of linearity seems to me absolutely
fundamental to dominant cinema in our
society.
W&F: Not any more though, do you think?
NB: Yes. What I call dominant cinema is the
movie that's playing down on Grove Street
right now. I mean, the films of Michael Snow
are not dominant in this society.
W&F: Do you have any fantasies perhaps of
how one bridges that gap between, say, the
films of Robert Breer and Easy Rider, or
Godard and what's playing down the street
in terms of filmmaker, or in terms of the
film critic?
NB: I'm not quite sure what you mean by
bridging the gap.
W&F: It seems that Godard, and all his
experiments in terms of deconstruction, is
really operating in a vacuum. He's speaking
to people who are engaged in very like-
minded projects. How does he communicate
to a general audience?
NB: He doesn't even communicate to them,
on the whole, if you like. Nobody in this
society, nobody except- you know, present
company excluded, and of course that's only
a figure of speech- has learned how to read
films. Reading films is something which is
practically nil. I mean for me, it takes about
as long to read films as it does to go through
psychoanalysis, and for abo1.1t the same
reasons.
W&F: Films in general or particular films?
NB: No, films in general. And this reading will
have various end results, to my mind. (I'm
relative about this but in the sense that
Easy Ridtlr.
Cinethique understands this.word, I me.anJ ~any years. Gertru<!e is to my mind one o~
I feel that when you've learned to read t;he world's most difficult fiJms because it is
films you will see how, let us say: the films · · a film which is perceived by 99% of all
of Raoul Walsh are informed ideologically people as a totally not only transparent and
from A to Z and you will be able to illusionisflilm, but as a completely academic,
perceive what is going on in Dreyer's old-fashioned film. Whereas Gertrude to my
Vampyr, if you take a film which I've done mind is·one of the most radical films in the
a lot of work on, and which I consider to be history of narrative cinem~.
one of the really important non-linear films.
W&F: You seem to put the emphasis on
W&F: And you say nobody's reached the reading as a kind of skill that individuals
stage of being able to read? learn, whereas I would think learning to read
films would be a collective practice informed
NB: Well, people who have gone through by the science of film criticism as it develops.
these five years of analysis. Sare there are
people who are capable. On the whole they NB: That's right, but that's when the revolu-
are filmmakers, by the way, because the tion will have occurred, and there's no doubt_
practice of filmmaking is extremely that it's for tomorrow. Right now it is an ·
important. I don't say all filmmakers know absolutely individual process. It was not an
how to read films, but nonetheless, I learned individual process when we had a school in
to read films by making them. I didn't learn Paris where we could do this work all year
by thinking about them or going to see them. round for almost 50 people. If I've been
On the whole people I know who just go to teaching for eight years, it's because indeed
see movies, just sit on their ass and write I feel it's something which can be ... you
about them, have a hard time learning to know, it's like analysis. I mean there's group
read films in the sense that I mean, that is to therapy too. And the point is, there are all
say read them as a gestalt and as a complex sorts of ways. But you're not going to
thing. modify the perception of the masses until
the structure of the society's changed. And I
W&F: When you say "reading" films do you mean really changed in. a way which ·
mean looking at them as somewhat apart is probably impracticable in our advanced
from you, more of an objective viewing democracy.
rather than a self-connected one?
W&F: One of the questions that we wanted
NB: No, not an objective viewing, simply to ask you was along these lines. What ways
a viewing which, let us say, reinstitutes the are there- open to teach people how to read
existence of the signifier. That's the whole films? What position should film criticism
problem, basically. It can be reduced to that. take? Is it a process that can be achieved by
The fact is, the signifier, which is to say all just instructing people?
these things that are on the screen, we
non-read them as something which is else- NB: No, Absolutely not. The only way you
where. We are continually displacing our can do it is to have people make films with a
perception of films into this sort of diegetic theoretical orientation. That is to say, to
world, you see. Dreyer's Gertrude is ... make films within a context in which they
there's this girl, she has a husband, she had a are continually being led to question, and to
lover and look. This is not Gertrude; this try to bring out to themselves the theoretical
happens.to be the chain of signifieds. But this implications of the work they are doing. It's
has nothing to do with the film, which is a probably possible, particularly with very
series of signs. But to read these signs in young people, maybe even with children, or
their complexity ... The point is, there is a at least let's say young teenagers. But it has
disjunction of signified and signifier in to involve practice. As I said before, this
Gertrude which is extremely important, whole metaphor of language is to me
which is extremely systematic in regard to inevitable: people have to learn to talk before
Dreyer as the filmmaker of systemics. I they can learn to read Joyce. After they
know of no filmmaker whose major films learn to talk, they have to learn to write, and
are as incredibly systematized. That's what so on. It depends on what kind of framework
we're blind to, I as well as anybody else, for . this is practiced in and taught in. Obviously
24
it isn't just by going to a film-making he treated the image in such a way that the wrote me a paper in which he said, "Really,
school either, by any means. coded elements were essentially attenuated I don't like your vocabularly. I don't see
very strongly. why you have to use words like diegesis
W&F: Don't you think that the importance instead of words like narrative line." Well it's
of films like Straub's is precisely to teach 0.K., it's a night shot. It fades out. And this quite clear, I think, that that's exactly what
people how to work with films in this way, fade-out comes almost immediately after the problem is. When you don't distinguish
or to begin to deconstruct films? this shot has been established. And so between narrative line and diegesis, then
essentially this fade-out seems to be a kind you don't understand what diegesis is. And
NB: If you take an audience of 500 people of arbitrary signifier related to what was this notion of imaginary referent is funda-
w.ho will sit through a Straub film-by the happening before. But then, the image mental.
way that's hard to find, although you will reappears-bright daylight streaming in the
find exceptions. I've seen Othon three times windows, overexposed and so on. And I think one of the interesting definitions
and every single time 90% of the audience suddenly, retroactively, this whole sequence one can give of die,sis would be to go back
has walked out. And that's been at the takes on a kind of coded notion, that is to to a film like la Region centrale. This is to
Cinematheque in Paris. It certainly is true say nightfall-the fade-out is signifying me an extremely important film, precisely
that there will be here and there some guy nightfall, passage of night, more exactly, insofar as it's a film in which the diegesis,
who already is working along the same lines. and day coming in. That is to say that these diegetic time and space, is exactly co-
It's not just out of the blue. It isn't some shop- elements which essentially up to then were extensive with the process of production
keeper who's going to walk in and suddenly completely just part of the images going by, which is the shooting of the film. Obviously
see the light of day because he's seen a in other words were completely un-coded, the editing is excepted of this. And this is
Straub film. It can trigger off some kind of decoded, disencoded, suddenly acquire probably the first film I know of in which
glimpse of these problems, but it's extremely briefly, very briefly, a notion of codicity. this is true-this is absolutely a fantastic
rc:r-e. achievement-in which basically the only
You have it of course much more evidently thing that is happening in this film is the
I'll take this from another angle. I did some with the people coming in. This guy comes film being made. I made my students under-
work on Wavelength (Snow, 1966-67) in in and dies on the floor, and establishes stand diegesis precisely by this example of
London this year, which is the first time I diegetic space and time. Well he falls off the La Region centrale. I think they may have
had really seen the film seriously, attentively, screen completely. And obviously every- understood through that, and of course we're
and I was very struck by a fact which no one thing that happens after that has nothing to dealing with a very specific case, but in gen-
seems to have discussed. (I had a big do with the notion of diegetic time flowing, eral diegesis in films is what people are
argument with Annette Michelson about and yet at the same time when this girl comes generally talking about. You know, there's
this.) To me this film can be analyzed very in and says there's this guy lying on the floor, this girl, there's this guy ...
much in terms of the notion of the decon- everything which has taken place, even
struction of codes. Just to take one tiny though it had no codic nature, retroactively
example, and one which is not unrelated, takes on this quality. W&F: Could you specify what you consider
by the way to what I just mentioned about a "reading" to be?
the Straub film-I don't know if you recall I think Snow is very aware of these problems
the film very well; obviously it's the sort of although he doesn't talk about them when NB: Well, it depends upon the film. I think
film which is hard to remember moment by he gives interviews ... I think that there is that's very difficult to say. An awareness
moment. But there is a moment in the film, a very definite sense of that. Everything of codes or at least of codicity. An-:J an
after a lot of gelatin changes and different behind that window is very, very striking. awareness of how they are functioning. I
kinds of things happening to the image, These cars going by all the time, and what- think an awareness of process. Now, the
which have undeniably flattened it out and ever is happening outdoors, the butcher shop, ;oint is that there are two ways in which
given it some kind of graphic space and above has this quality of being sort of like the real process exists in a film. It exists, obviously,
all have completely zapped out the notion of world. All these things that are happening to no matter what the film is involved in, no
time, of diegetic time, of time behind that the image are happening inside th is room, matter what anything is involved in.
screen somewhere ... Suddenly we return while outside, a kind of diegetic time and
to a "normal image," a normal image being space is still going on. In other words he Let's talk about an awareness of process with
that which you get if you follow the has managed to inscribe within the film both regard to a film of Vincente Minelli, to take
manufacturer's instructions for the film. (I the notion of diegesis and its opposite, which somebody whom I hope is not controversial
mean, it's the only way to define it.) And is to say simply an image being projected on at all. With regard to Minelli, process and
you get-what do you get? You get an the screen. And certainly I think La Region the process of production is a specifically
evening shot. It's dark outside. Lights are Centrale can be analyzed in this sense. la ideological process, and reading this film is
on. It's empty. Nobody in the shot of course, Region Centrale I think is perhaps even more the awareness of the way in which ideology
but you really do very definitely think, interesting in that respect. is producing itself in this film. I think for me
"O.K. we're in an evening situation." (That there's absolutely no question about h, that's
comes, I think, to everyone.) In other words, I remember at the end of the term a guy what reading is.

26

25

And then of course, I'm speaking from a
given position. I'm a Marxist and I'm
speaking from a Marxist position. Now,
from the same position, reading a film like
Potemkin, to take a more complex example,
is ~irst of all reading how the inscription of
process in the film is the transformation of
ideology. That is to say, there is work on the
signifier in certain parts of Potemkin, which
involves a real transformation and one which
is a particular deconstruction of the notion
of continuity. But also Potemkin is a contra-
dictory work ins9far as there are elements in
Potemkin which are in my opinion totally
ideological, totally encoded.
Now a reading would involve in this case
distinguishing between these two things,
which is extremely difficult to do. The
cultural blackmail of a film like Potemkin or
simply the ideological weight which one
attaches to it has made it very difficult to
do this analysis. And when I wrote this it
caused quite a bit of stir. But I think that's
inevitable. It is also involved with a film like
Dziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera.
Reading is a tremendously complex affair
involving many, many viewings of the film
and involving a reading of all the inter-
relationships which are involved, and the
interrelationships in that film are almost
infinite so that it's a very long job. The
reading can take almost all your life.
W&F: Is reading comprised of seeing and
understanding, or is it comprised of
speaking about film, writing about film?
La Region Centrafe.
it-that analysis has to be verbalized. Now
we may come to a time when indeed
analysis will simply be a spontaneous social
process and will function as part of the life
process, the life cycle, and it will no longer
be necessary to verbalize it. This is a possibil-
ity.
You understand it's very much associated
with analysis, this whole business of learning
to read films. And I don't think one can
dissociate it from the categories of psycho-
analysis because I myself have been aware of
what it has cost me to teach myself to just
look at and to read films fairly attentively.
It has taken tremendous effort of 12 or 13
years. And I see it in my friends. I mean I
know exactly what it has cost them to get
this work done. Now, once one has done it,
I mean one feels somewhat in the position
of Freud going through the auto-analysis
NB: Yes, it requires verbal formalization which took practically all his life. Once one
essentially. That's a very good point, at this has done it, one can perhaps point things
stage, precisely because one is isolated. out to others and get others in on it, speed
, . . things up for others possibly. There's no
I m doing work on Japanese cinema now, and limit to how this can be done.
it seems that the relationship of the Japanese
spectator-at least at a certain period But I do think that, for the moment, so long
anyway-to images was, I think, very as we are involved in this insulated situation
different from our own. And I'm sure he of going against, and radically against, the
could not verbalize for one second the fact dominant ideology, it is inevitably verbalized,
that he's reading. Look at Kabuki, look at as is political consciousness which is the
the Japanese theater. And this is not being same thing basically. Political consciousness
read as transparent. There are some people can start with someone getting hit on the
who think, "Well, yes, people cry at Kabuki," head, that's for sure. But that's not, as you
and therefore it's ju~ diegesis and there is no know political consciousness in itself. It's
awareness of the fact that the signs are the construct: who hit you on the head, and
inscribed on the scene. But that's bullshit why he hit you on the head, and who told
I think. him to hit you on the head, and why did
he tell him to hit you on the head, and
There's a fantastic thing that you may have what are the economic, what are the
noticed in [Donald] Richie's history of production relationships? You experience
Japanese cinema, which is very inadequate their effects. But the production relationship
in many respects, but which has some very is an abstract concept which has to be for-
interesting pieces of information, and one malized in order to end up in what we call
of them is that in the very early days of political consciousness, even rudimentary
Japanese cinema they always had to explain political consciousness.
to the audience how the projector worked.
That was part of the performance. There W&F: This is really the same subject but
was a theater in which apparently the going back a little. You said that you became
audience was sitting like we are here and politicized in May '68 and following those
the projector was there and the screen was events.
there. They were watching the projection
rather than the film, you see, which is NB: Yes.
fantastically interesting.
W&F: How do you think you changed, or
I mean it's obvious isn't it. At least I, being how to you think that you then saw yourself
something of a Lacanian, would insist upon, differently in relation to film, and film in
27
26
relation to revolution?
NB: It's very simple actually. Up until 1968
I conceived of myself as somebody who
was going to one day become a famous
filmmaker and make movies. And I was
perfectly willing, it seemed to me quite
natural, that one has to take a lot of shit
to do this, and, you know, go through all the
games-in spite of the absolute evidence that
I was not made for this in any way. I haven't
the agressivity, what it takes to make it,
what Godard has eantially, and what very
few people have, which is to-make it in this
racket and still remain somewhat intelligent.
And I didn't have this but I kept nevertheless
denying the evidence. There was a complete
contradiction here, a complete refusal of any
political commitment despite the fact that
I was where I was because of a sort of a
semi-political gesture.
In '68 all these barriers sort of broke down.
I got involved with working with other
people, which I would not have been doing
before. And involved in the sudden realiza-
tion that Marx was talking about things
which interested me. I'm sorry it has to be
this naive. I was very apolitical. 'it must be
understood, I was radically apolitical, to an
extent which is sort of hard for me to believe
now. And, in any case, I saw myself as a sort
of a filmmaker. (laughter) No, you know,
someone who was going to make movies.
Since then I realized that basically I had to
contribute with something else, and I think
I would rationalize that now, in thP. sense
that the students whom I really like, whom
1~m really interested in are sort of filmmaker-
theoreticians. I mean, they're people who
are artiwlating the two practices. And for
me they're the only students I really care
about. There aren't all that many of course.
It's a rather rare thing. But in that sense,
that's what I regard myself as. Now when
I can make a film, when I feel a need to do
something in a given area of filmmaking, I
try and do it if I can. I teach. I try to get all.
these things together now.
At the time I was earning my living as a
translator, primarily. And I hated that. I
considered myself a filmmaker. And I was
absolutely furious when anybody
introduced me as a translator. I think that's
very typical of a certain apolitical attitude,
you ~e. not to realize how one's earning
28
one's living.
W&F: But did you start focusing on some-
thing else in film as a result of more political
awareness?
NB: Not entirely. I would say not. I would
say simply it came into focus. In other words,
what I've been fuzzily - I think I've been
basically running after the signifier ever since
IDEHC.* I mean I wrote a paper in IDHEC
which I remember was all about what I call
cinematic ideas, a stupid concept, but in
which I was trying to get at something which
didn't have any form ~tall in the beginning.
And there was this thing I wrote for Film
Quarterly. There was a vague idea ... I think
it was one night when I got absolutely stoned
out of my mind and suddenly had this idea
about classification of the matches, which is
the first part of the book.
By the way, I should point out that much of
this book has been written stoned. I mean
it unblocks me, essentially. That was the
breakthrough. But the point is, I didn't
know how to inscribe it in any theoretical
context- well, theoretical in the Althusserian ord4ttr to read them, and to learn to make
sense of theoretical, in other words, the
Marxist sense. I certainly would have been
incapable of doing it then, and I'm not
absolutely a master of it now; I mean I can't
pretend to have mastered Derrida or
Lacan despite these flippant allusions.
No, the change has been one of, you know,
what political consciousness is, basically? It's was
realizing where one is, that is to say where
one is situated and where things are situated
with respect to others. It's relationships. It's equipped emotionally or intellectually to
understanding relationships.
W&F : But it's also recognizing what one has
to do, and so I'm finding it hard to under-
stand how you've incorporated your political
consciousness into what you have to do,
recognizing your position but also what is to
be done.
NB: Well, there are several things to be done.
I consider that there is a theoretical front on
which there is specific work to be done,
which is what I'm talking about now. I was
involved in political activit',1 of a very
different nature for some time. My
affinities have changed since then. I don't
want to go into this too much, but I will get
27
involved I think more perhaps now, since
1've been to America, to the seat of power.
I've got different ideas about this.
I think that I intend to push further my
political practice as such, but it is obviously
by definition, in many ways separated out
from one's theoretical practice. I mean if
you're going to go out and distribute tracts,
this is obviously a practice which is consistent
with your theoretical practice, or at least
one hopes so. Althusser sells Humanite on
Sunday. It's part of his practice. Now insofar
as I feel there is a specifically cultural front-
the class struggle has various fronts, and one
of these fronts is a cultural front. It is a big
mistake to consider that there is no more
art. Because there is art. The bourgeoisie
produces art, and it belongs to the bourgeoisie.
The struggle on the artistic front is a
specific struggle which has its own require-
ments.
I do believe that in order for this theoretical
struggle to have any content, it has to be
related to a practice. This is part of what I
was saying before, about making films in
them. But it also means an involvement in
the political struggle, if one's temperament is
such that one can relate to a political
struggle. I will admit immediately that, first
of all, my radicalization came when I was
38 years old, which is a little late. And I
have difficulty relating to certain aspects of
political struggle, particularly in France. I
involved with ultra-leftism at that point,
which I no longer feel so much kinship with.
I don't think everybody is necessarily
deal with certain types of political activity.
W&F: Do you think there are films that are
political and if so, what is a political film?
NB: r'l'ou can always pick up the CinethiqU8
distinction about deconstruction films as
opposed to militant films as opposed to
Marxist-Leninist films, which I feel is
absolutely absurd. I don't think you can
make these definitions in the abstract. I
tend to feel that there is indeed vanguard
artistic practice which has a very direct
relationship with class struggle no matter
what the manifest content of the film
happens to be. That's why I consider Mike
Snow's films to be vanguard films in that
sense. I also think that it is certainly true As for the distinction between Marxist- Communist or the Japanese Socialist Party
that the film medium (and by the way when Leninist films, though I have CP sympathies , or the UFW or it could be Radical Feminists
I say film I mean video, anything audio- I certainly find, for example, absolute shit or it could be other groups. 1 think we are
visual, and I tend to feel probably video is a film like Apollo. I mean Apollo is a sort of talking about political struggle and when I'm
more useful than film in this respect) is one neo-realist reconstituti on of a strike and with a group of women obviously I under-
of the tools that any militant group c~n use, occupation by the workers in a factory in stand what you mean by political struggle.
but I think primarily as a text, as information . Italy, made by the CP with tra;ned actors I may disagree with the way you situate the
I think there's an importance in minimizing and made completely Hollywood . women's struggle within the general frame-
the extent to which the ideological modes of work of the class struggle.
representati on are employed. That's \Nhy I I've seen some remarkable American militant
had this very severe criticism with regard to films, particularly some women's films. W&F: One way of producing a politically
the films that you mentioned to me at noon-
effective film or an anti-ideolog ical film is to
Christianne Rochefort's and Nelly Kaplan's jW&F: Which ones? deconstruc t the codes of the dominant
films. cinema in the film. Another way is to have
NB: Well, the film about the Detroit Union the film grow out of a concrete political
I'll tell you what for me is an exemplary struck me as a \!ery remarkable example of struggle, to somehow give evidence to the
political practice in films-the films of a the kind of thing which Ogawa and his process of making a film within the film, and
Japanese filmmaker named Ogawa and his group have done. Not when I saw it in have that film used specifically to clarify the
group. The only film that is generally avail- England at the National Film Theatre. I political struggle. The films of Nelly Kaplan
able here to my knowledge is cal led mean there it's a show again. But I had the can be seen, I think, as doing these things.
Peasants of the Second Fortress. It's a film feeling seeing the film and trying to see how The fact that her cinema is commercial and
made by a group in Japan who were involved it might have been used and might function, is feminist raises a different question ...
very directly and personally in the seven that a film must grow out of political activity.
year struggle of the peasants of an area near Insofar as possible I feel the people who No. There is a complete misundersta nding
Tokyo who were trying to keep their land produce the film should be those who are here. When I say come out of a political
out of the hands of the governmen t who involved in this political activity, and the struggle, I mean literally and absolutely. I
wanted to build a new airfield there. Now film must have as its reality its use in mean by its production . For me there is an
this is very interesting because it is a struggle this political context. Once it comes out of absolute incompatib ility here between being
which grew from a typical peasant- this it can be interesting to look at but it's produced by whoever it was who produced
conservative "my land" thing to a struggle totally transformed . that film with $100,000. First of all, it's
with real political content through the expensive- $100,000 that you haven't got
contact with the students. These films were W&F: Could it be that you're taking a and neither have I and neither has your
used within the struggle because the peasants narrow view of what political struggle is? group. Obviously these facts I am citing
became involved in the developme nt of these Because when you keep talking about determine the writing, the ''ecriture," the
films and in what they showed. The group political struggles or the kinds of films that language, if you like, of this film; they
itself was then involved with propaganda would be made in association with political determine everything about this film. The
throughout Japan, showing these films in struggle, you're talking about class struggle manifest content of this film may-weakl y,
different cities. as defined as, say, peasants or factory workers in my opinion-ec ho some of the concepts
insurgent against the boss or against the to be found in the writings of feminist
Now these films are shown in America and fandlords. When we're talking about a theoretician s. But that is absolutely all one
they are a spectacle. These films have political struggle we're talking about women can say about that film. This is in no sense
political reality in Japan, in their uses in against man or women trying to redefine a film which develops out of a struggle.
Japan. They become art, so to speak, and men ...
more or less interesting when they are NB: Well, that's a political struggle too. I There is a film being made now apparently in
shown outside of there. They are exemplary was talking about Janie's Janie as a political Paris, or starting in Paris, by
the M LF~the
in the camera work, in the concern for pro- film. only women's group in France, a radical
cess. There are all kinds of ways in which group as well. They've found some bread to
these films really try to inscribe within the W&F: So then it would be just any women do this film. I'm not saying that you can't
actual "ecriture," the actual "writing" of making films for other women? have a lot of money, but the point is where
the film, the notion of learning, process and did that money come from and what's got to
so on, because people are continually NB: No. It's political struggle. I can define be done with that film? We know what the
learning how to fight and learning how to political struggle if you like. Political struggle future of Nelly Kaplan's films are. I mean
organize. One of the exemplary things about involves first of all an organized group or everything about that film sets it in another
this is that it isn't just a film. There are some- organized party of some kind which is system which happens to be Z. No, I think
thing like 15 films and there are altogether involved in its conception of political that when I say coming out of the Movement
about 35 hours of projection. They've struggle. Obviously this conception is going or a movement, I really literally mean by its
stopped now because they lost. to vary whether it happens to be the French "means of production and by the way it's made.

29

28
W&F: O.K. Let's move on. What effect, do exactly what happened. He wanted to use I say there holds more or less true.) We
you think, did the introduction of sound sound and film equally. developed a method of working together
have on the development of deconstruction which was stimulating, which involved really
of the dominant codes of cinema? NB: Yes, I understand. I agree 100%. a kind of theoretical practice joined with
Eisenstein's writings at the period of his the filmmaking itself.
NB: I remember the first or second year of greatest productivity are the writings to be
the IFC, which is to say after this book was taken seriously. The late writings indeed are Then we got the idea for our latest film,
written, and at a time I believe when Michel ideological. But to say it's ideological pressure which simply was that there would be some
Fano had come in and given a few courses. I is to simplify matters because it's obvious kind of a semantic gesture, in other words a
was having a discussion with one of the that these concepts are embryonically camera movement or something like that
students who was saying, "Gee, you know he present in some of his ideas and practices of The dramaturgical reason for this gesture,
was handling this problem of sound. He's the 20s. I mean, Vertov would never have separated, say, five minutes from the actual
really terribly difficult and we're really gotten the point. Never. No matter how they gesture itself, would be sort of crazy and
having a hard time getting down to that bound and burned his feet. Eisenstein was let's say deconstructed. (I didn't use those
because when we came into this school, we always, always, always, involved in various words them.) It was just a joke for us. But
just thought that somehow the image contradictions which became more and we kept talking about this film ... if this
produces the sound, you know. I mean, you more acute as obviously the pressures happened, if that happened. We started
take a picture of something, and the sound increased from outside. But it is more elaborating in our heads, and slowly but
comes along with it, so to speak. complex than that. One mustn't reduce surely, we got to the moment where we had
Eisenstein's development simply to the fact to shoot this film. We didn't have any money
The idea that there are two tapes-an image that it was those nasty Stalinists, you see. One at all, but we had credit. We shot the film in
track and a sound track-is something that mustn't forget that Eisenstein was Stalin's three days.
people are not even remotely aware of in favorite filmmaker.
any sense, and therefore are not aware of Basically it's a film about meaning: how
the fact that essentially these are two W&F: What about your own films. Earlier meaning is produced and how this meaning
different productions that are happening. you said you'd tell us your ideas behind can then be destroyed by th~ images them-
There is this notion of the image producing making Novitiae. selves and how eventually you can make an
sound, which very soon became the dominant ultimately meaningless film in the ft>tal sense.
notion in films all over the world as of NB: I have a dream, actually, which is Or rather an utterly polysemic film, in other
about 1933-34. But not in the first sound setting up extensive laboratory experiments words which really is full of all kinds of
films-and I'm thinking about Enthusiasm for exactly how the codes are read. I have possible meanings. To take one very small
and I'm thinking of Deserter and I'm thinking ideas about how this could be done. That example: there's a woman alone in her
of even Mor Vampyr. There is a sense obviously is something which requires a apartment reading, going out to get
already- and Sternberg had this sense too- great deal of money and I don't see who's cigarettes. You watch the door until she
that there was a notion of dissociation that about to put that money up. comes back. Finally the telephone rings. The
the two tracks could be used simply or woman picks it up and says something. Then
dialectically in some of the ways I perhaps As far as I'm concerned, my main filmic she hangs up and stands staring off into
suggest in this book. practice has not been the making of Novitiae space. And this lasts three minutes. After
but has been the eight feature length films 30 or 40 seconds the whole thing becomes
But the dominant concept is that basically that I made with Andre S. Labarthe for the absolutely warped back to the level of the
the image produces the sound, you see. And program called "Cineastes de notre temps," film itself which is to say, nothing. In other
this really goes back to Edison and his whole for French television which was a program words, someone just doing things at the
idea of reproducing reality. The point is that which has now been discontinued because behest of the camera. It lasts an hour and a
many people took this up, including Eisen- French television has gone completely down half.
stein. He wrote an article, (I don't know if the drain as the government took over more
it's translated into English) but apropos of and more control. But this series, which I Unfortunately we haven't got the sound
Ivan the Terrible, I believe, in which he think is a very remarkable series in general, on yet. We want to be able to bolster up the
explains that basically the introduction of (aside from my own contribution to it) illusionist dimension with pseudosynch
sound eliminated the role, or at least consists of about 40 or 50 films devoted sound and unfortunately we couldn't shoot
diminished considerably, the role of to filmmakers, generally involving an inter- synch, so we've been trying to find the bread
montage. view and then work on this interview. In for this, and there's no bread to be found
other words we attempted to set up a kind because the film is just completely a mid-
W&F: He predicted in 1928 what would of laboratory. A kind of a workshop. People Atlantic film. There's nobody in France
happen to the sound film, saying, "Let's like Rivette worked in it and a lot of well- interested in this kind of thing at all. And in
hope that the sound film does not go toward known filmmakers as well. We were interested America the reaction has been, from the
the path of least resistance which is to make in developing a kind of essay form. {Actually independent film world, against the signs of
novelistic and play adaptations," which is I talk about it a little in the book, and what illusionism. They're there on purpose, of
30

29
course, but I mean they're there, and people W&F: Was that Annette Michelson? of parametric analyses that you do in the
are very disturbed by this. book, it couldn't be science, and you almost
Ha. Well, actually, I'm very interested NB: No. Not at all. But she has a small role, say that it couldn't be science. But, for
of course i_n having your reaction to it is true. example, Cahiers from a certain period, say
Novitiae on one of these days because ... from 1968 to 1972, was proposing a kind of
Nobody here has seen the film presumably ? W&F: This is something that has been incipient science of film criticism using
This is really biography, autobiograp hy. I bothering me for some time. Metz says that specifically Lacan and Althusser and Derrida.
don't know whether this is so interesting to there are perhaps an infinite number of codes And it claimed to be scientific as I under-
anybody but ... I'm a masochist, ok? I'm involved in any particular film. You can't stand it by looking not just at the structures
a sexual, come-out-of -the-closet masochist exhaust any particular film or text without of the film as it exists, which is seems to me is
and this film was an attempt to stage my somehow exhausting the culture that's at what your book addresses, but specifically
fantasies, on the one hand, because of course work on it. It seems to me that you give some addressing what is absent from the structure
obviously one's fantasies are deeply involved kind of priority to certain kinds of codes. of the film - structuring absences, what they
with qne's relationship to ideology and so called the constitutive lack. This purports
on. I mean, this is particularly American. My to be scientific because by virtue of Lacanian
hang-up is specifically American and some- NB: Right. Absolutely. I think the whole psychoanalysis and Althusserian Marxism you
thing which I identify as American, as the code system is ideological ... If Metz's claim to a scientific knowledge of ideological
most American thing in me I suppose. view is the semiological point of view; I can productions .
say that the semiological point of view is
W&F: Separate from the female state of a completely positivistic point of view NB: You know, that's basically my position,
masochism in relation to ideology. It's a which I reject out of hand. It is pre- now, as it was not in that book, except that,
different kind of masochism. cisely insofar as no hierarchies are in- the whole question of whether Lacanian
scribed in it that we're dealing with a psychoanalysis is a science in the same
NB: Oh, it's a very different kind of relation- positivistic, descriptive,
so-called phenomen- sense as biology is a science is a very heavy
ship. ological point of view, and phenomeno logical question. It is even a question whether lin-
in the worst sense of the term, that is to say, guistics is a science. By thl!' way I personally
I was amused with the idea of making a film hypothesis of the
phenomeno n, which seems avoid the word scientific completely
which would be absolutely but to the to me completely invalid. 'because I would simply use the word
ultimate degree a kind of figuration of my
critical and the word Marxist and a few other
fantasies and at the same time experimenti ng I think that only by realizing that there are ·words. Even the notion of
Marxist science is
with various aspects of film language which primary codes and secondary codes, let us a concept which has been somewhat
interested me. I worked a great deal on that put it that way, and tertiary codes and so discredited now. Serious Marxists I know
film. It took me two years to make it because on, that there is a whole structure of codes, don't speak in those terms.
I had no money and I had to do everything can one understand. the relationship of
myself and also because I was very much codicity to ideology. But that is not Metz's That's all begging the question, you see.
concerned with trying to work on certain concern, in any sense. Because they are all speaking within and work-
problems. And it makes a very strange film ing within a specifically Marxist context,
I think, because it is, I don't think I know of W&F: What if we leave out Metz. which I am too, but I am also aware that
any other film which quite has this kind of there are unfortunate ly other contexts in
marriage. It's read very ambiguousl y. It's NB: Well, that is not the concern of the this world.
always read as a kind of critical thing. It's "pure" semiologist. Look, the point is that
never, never in any sense related to me. I am interested in semanalysis, in other .1 am not pretending to any kind of scientific
People just refuse to deal with the possibility words, as Julia Kristeva conceives objectivity ... My reading of films is
of it, and
that it's a personal thing, which is very inter- that is to say a normative approach. determined by a very definite political stance.
This
esting. I mean it was highly praised. I got sort of objective analysis of films can lead to It's "d'ou je parle." One has to identify one's
prizes and all that sort of shit. It's very inter- a sort of refined description post of observation .
of films. But I
esting to read what's in the articles. Tel am not interested in the description of films.
Que/ people, particularly , were regarding I am interested in the theory of film
this as a very interesting critique of the production, which is a very different thing,
comic strip ideology and things like that, and that is not what Metz is concerned with. *lnstitut d• Hautes
which of course is not what it's supposed to Etud• Cinemato-
be. On the contrary, it's an associate of the W&F: Let's graphique.
get to the question of the possi-
fantasy world. I think it stands up in certain bility
of a science of film criticism. One thing
respects, but it's a bit short. It should have I wanted to ask you was whether you con- *Movement de la
been a little longer. Actually it was supposed sider a science of film criticism Liberation des Femmes.
impossible.
to be but the main actress got a little bit It seems to me that because of the impossi-
tired after a year. bility of quantifying the results of the kind

31

30

Glossary
Semiology, semiotics: Semiology aims to take in any
system of signs, whatever their substance and limjts;
images, gestures, musical sounds, objects and the
complex associations of all these, which form the
content of ritual, convention or public entertainment:
these constitute, if not "Languages," at least systems
of signification. (Roland Barthes, Elements of Semio-
logy, p. 9)
Diachronic: Across tlme, considering linguistic pheno-
mena as occurring over a period of time; evolutionary,
historical.
Signifier: "The plane of signifiers constitutes the
plane of expressiorl'(as opposed to the signifieds
which constitutes the plane of content). (R. Barthes,
op. cit., p. 39). For example: In the Highway Code,
the red light signal can be broken down into s1gnifier
and signified-the signifier is the color red, and the
signified is the meaning "to stop." The union of the
signifier and signified constitutes the sign (the red
light).
Reading: Involved in a semiological approach to film
study, the treatment of films as "analytical, an under·
standing of how the film is understood, of how it sig-
nifies, of its system(s) of intelligibility." (Screen,
Spring/Summer, 1973, p. 224). An awareness of codes,
process, and how they are functioning in the film.
Transparency: Equivalence established between the
representation and that which is represented.
Ideology: Burch is using "ideology" in a Marxist
sense (drawing from Althusser's For Marx). Ideology
is the "lived" relation between persons and their
world, or a reflected form of this unconscious rela-
tion, for instance a "philosophy," etc. It is disting-
uished from a science not by its falsity, for it can be
coherent and logical (for instance, theology), but by
the fact that the practico-social predominates in it
over the theoretical, over knowledge. Ideology is an
essential element of every social formation including
a capitalist, socialist, communist, or whatever.
Illusionist: Classical bourgeois cinema is based on
illusion: through emo~ional identification with char·
acter, conditioned responses to linear narrative, and
analogical representation the viewer enters the film
and participates in a seemingly unconstructed and un-
mediated "reality."
Linear, notion of linearity: The notion of one to one,
cause and effect relationship; in films the idea of
doing away with multivalence, ambiguity (i.e., linear=
univalent, unambiguous).
32
31
Theory of
CONSTANCE PENLEY
Noel Burch's first book, a collection of
articles serialized in the Cahiers du Cinema,
has been very useful to film scholars and is
sure to be even more widely used now that
it has been translated. The book presents
an analysis of the basic parameters of the
film medium and a description of the
possible ways the elements of the film
grammar can interact within a film.
For Burch the basic unit of film language
is the transition between shots and the
possible "matches" involved. He categorizes
all the possible spatial and temporal
articulations between shots, includes an
excellent analysis of the two types of
screen space (on- and off-screen) and talks
about editing as a plastic art. The first two
sections of the book are the most useful-
the last two sections "Perturbing Factors"
and "Reflections on the Film Subject" are,
by Burch's qwn admission, interesting but
rambling comments on a variety of film
topics-certainly not the meat of the book.
Most importantly, Burch gives us an
analysis of film in terms of the materials of
its construction. Burch's film grammar is
based on the building blocks of film, not OIi
notions derived from theater or literature.
Rather than yet another impressionistic
version of cinema, we have in Theory of
Film Practice an analytical tool, a concep
apparatus to take to the "reading" and
making of films.
Annette Michelson, in a helpful introduc ·
places Burch historically as not the
descendent of the sociological humanistic
film criticism of Agee, Warshaw, etc., but
coming from the aesthetic and critical
concerns of twentieth century music and
painting with its commitment to exploring
the parameters of each medium in a refle ·
manner. Michelson also places him histor·
ically within and against Bazin's theory oh
"cinema of transparency ... a style
grounded in mimesis, positing 'faith in the
image' as generating the kind of spatio-
temporal continuity that would guarantee
the integrity of the dramatic action as the
vehicle of the phenomenal world's
'ambiguity.'" Even though they were pols
opposites, Michelson suggests that Bazin
and Eisenstein were concerned with "the
politics of illusionism" and she considers
Burch to be joining the debate from withil
modernism and film practice.
Film Practice:
Analysis & Review
There is however a fundamenta l problem selections and ommissions as ideologically scribe out many important formal considera-
with this book which should not go unnoted informed. tions.
by the many people who will undoubtedl y
read and use it. Noel Burch will not allow Christian Metz in Langage et Cinema Burch's disrussion of Warhol's Chelsea Girls
questions to be asked of him about this book (Larousse, Paris, 1971) levels a strong attack offers a good example of important filmic
(see Women and Film interview). He says against mechanistic materjalist concepts of consideratio ns that his theory overlooks. He
that.he has gone so far beyond it (due to cinema: "The definition of cinema in terms praises the film for innovations of the
his radicalization in May 1968 and his of the materials of expression follows a camera's role: it is "sometimes a voyeur,
intellectual involvement with Marxism- fairly accepted pattern. The notion owes its sometimes a participant, sometimes a
semiology) that he does not care to answer· success to the fact that it offers a type of
'distancing' devi,;e through the use of jerky
questions about his theory as seen in this unity for the filmic fact which is, so to pans and zooms, sometimes merely a
book. In his preface to the English language speak, discretely spectacular: it offers a
director's tool determining what is seen on
edition of Theory of Film Practice and in kind of homogeneit y which is based directly screen through very conventiona l setups."
footnotes he humbly offers his apology for on the technical and sensorial aspects, a Burch attacks the film for its lack of
the book being "superficial ," and "needlessly coherence of a material order." (pg. 17).
structural rigor becau5' of Warhol's pre-
and unenlighteningly peremptory ." He also This is like a description of Burch's book- scription that the film be shown in the form
apologizes for his naive confusion on the he posits the essence of cinema as being the of two reels being simultaneously projected
ideological implications of artistic practice, "organic," "total" unity of the materials on two adjacent screens with more or less
but says that, rather than revise or edit, he of the medium exclusively. Burch's theory random alternation between their sound
will retain one particularly bad paragraph in is focused on film as an autonomou s object tracks (the projectionis t arbitrarily chooses
order to "leave it as specific testimony to -the only concerns for the filmmaker should the order). Th-is "openess" which Burch
the intellectual confusion that explains be purely formal: the systematic working-oo t deplores only allows a few "isolated plastic
many of the book's inadequacie s." However, of all the possible formal permutatio ns in a effects produced by the fortuitous juxta-
he also says in the preface that the things he manner similar to serial music. Metz's semi- position of two images." Because Burch will
has learned do not actually "negate the ology, on the other hand, demands the study only admit formal, plastic concerns (mainly
basic premises of the book." He implies of film not only as a cinematic "language" the matches between shots) to be in the
that he has somewhat superceded his but also as a social system. He will not allow domain of film he completely misses the
original aesthetic conceptuali zations and cinema to be defined just within its own important statement being made, one thats
even revamped them on political grounds. specific codes (eg. montage, camera move- far from being an "extra-film ic" concern:
What is curiou!: is that, even though he ment, optical effects, interaction of visual Warhol is here subverting several fixed
was given opportunity for revision and and aural elements, etc.) but insists that notions on the nature of the well-made film
addition to the book (see his introductio n cinema is a matrix of the specific and the including the convention that the organizing
and footnotes) he merely offered his non-specific or "rultural" codes (eg. codes principle of a film be the causality of the
humble apologies, said he was beyond all that are within the culture but also within narrative events.
that now, and dropped it. This seems to be the film-codes of dress, perception, symbol-
a rather sleazy rhetorical stance for a good ism, etc.). The totality of film (seen as lang- There are other examples where Burch
Marxist to take toward his own material- uage and as system) must be seen as a com- dismisses important work being done in film
especially since, in the light of Marxism- bination of the specfically cinematic and because it cannot be accounted for inside
semiology this book would be a prime the non-cinematic cultural codes. It is his mechanistic materialist conception . He
example of petit-bourgeois ideology; it is particularly important to think it this way very scornfully dismisses the young German
truly surprising that he offered no more self- if any attempt is to be made to determine filmmaker Werner Herzog (specifically Fata
criticism of his own work-at least a self- the function of ideology within the film both Morgana): "Film form, it would appear,
criticism that would enable the readers at the level of content and of expression. simply cannot exist without some kind of
better to situate his theoretical formulation s.
underlying dialectic; the mere linear alterna-
Some aspects of his aesthetic theory are so Following Metz's critique of the kind of tion of disparate images does not suffice
politically reprehensible (eg. his diatribe on film theory practiced in Theory of Film to create a film." (pg. 73). What is important
the need for the total separation of aesthetics Practice, it can be seen that much of what about this film is that Herzog is able to make
and politics, art and life (pg. 133) that, given is left out in Burch's conceptuali zation is us totally aware of the camera without
his supposed present consciousness, they determined by his fetishizing of cinematic using very many cuts; his films are all about
should have been entirely left out, com- specificity and his refusal to acknowledge the camera's relationship to what is being
pletely rewritten, or extensively commented anything other than purely formal material filmed. It is impossible to see Fata Morgana
on. consideratio ns to be within the province without being overwhelmed by a multitude
of his filmmaker of the future. As we shall of questions about why that material is being
Rather than lambast Burch for this myster- see, not only does Burch's theory not permit filmed that way. But for Burch this is not an
ious lapse, I will attempt to situate his theory ~nalysis of ideological determinati ons in the important consideration because it is not a
in such a way that the readers and users of film, it doesn't even work as a good formal rigorously controlled plastic interaction among
this book can better understand Burch's analysis because it is so narrow as to pre- shots.

33

32
Burch sees camera mowment as a secondary
dialectic; it is just a devi'ce that helps build
the frame-it only becomes important when
seen in interaction with camera movement in
other shots. He therefore dismisses Max
Ophuls' innovative freeing of the camera as
"frenetic arabesques. arou}1d the actors'
movements."
Often Burch will eliminate filmmakers that
his theory can't account for by the back
door-they won't be openly condemned
but will be dismissed bJ comparison to a
truly great structural!¥ rigorous film. Burch
is avidly complimentary ot Resnais' last
Year at Marienbad, that primer of mis-
matches. The fi Im coo~ have been generated
from a program of Burch's theoretical
concerns. By comparison, many other film-
makers are seen as "~n" and unrigor-
ous. When speaking:Of .fea,-Marie Straub/
Daniele Huillet's N~ 't/.ersohnt, he says
that its use of the f l ~ "best represents
the contemporary a ·11;1de" but that
Marienbad has a "completely different and
infinitely more fertile approach." (pg. 62)
Burch's idealization ot the shot transition
makes all other cinematic devices so low as
to not even warrent making grammatical
distinctions among them. He calls dissolves
and wipes "mere variations on the straight
cut"; as we are beginning to understand from
a semiological analysis, each of these devices
"mean" very different things in the code of
cinema.
An overwhelming conceptual problem with
Theory of Film Practicf] is the vagueness of
Burch's use of "dialectic" to describe all the
possibilities for the rigorous structuring of
the formal elements. The reader could
probably accept the word just to get on
with the reading if Burch himself didn't so
successfully undermine his own term in a
single paragraph. He admits the word's
vagueness and attempts to clarify it by
saying that it is interchangeable with
"structure." He then goes on to collapse
totally the concept bv saying that he's really
talking about "rhythm..11 Thinking about
film in terms of its "rtlVthm" as Burch has
defined it gets you nowhere that you haven't
been before with allthe other bad metaphors
that have been applied to film.
There are some other curious gaps. Although
at the time Burch wrote the book he had an
34
admitted ignorance of American "under-
ground" experimental cinema, that still does -,
not explain his overlooking of the work of
Maya Deren, perhaps the most important
theoretician/filmmaker in the history of
American independent cinema. Knowledge
of Deren's work, because of her involvement
in distribution and publicity for the New
Amercian Cinema movement, is far from
esoteric-in the light of Burch's concern for
theoretical cinema, this is a rather giaring
lapse.
Another curiosity is Burch's footnote to his
chapter "Nana, Or the Two Kinds of Space."
He says that instead of using as text Renoir's
Nana· he could just as well have used
Vera Chytilova's Something Different
Certainly Renoir's work has had a great deal
more exposure and opportunity for critical
feedback than Chytilova's. Given the incredi·
ble sexism that women filmmakers must
fight in order to get their work even
acknowledged, it wou,d have been most
helpful if he had done his analysis on
Something Different rather than Nana, and
his statement implies that he already had it
formulated. Giving a footnote saying that he
cou Id just as well have performed his
analysis on Something Different is not the
same as doing it.
It may be possible that parts of Theory of
Film Practice could still be useful to film
students if its serious limitations and
ommissions are kept in mind. We can hope
that Burch's two forthcoming books ("a
study of the concept of form in Japanese
cinema, the other a history of the develop-
ment of Western film language from 1895
to 1935") will have the theoretical under-
pinnings and political self-awareness that are
lacking in Theory of Film Practice.
33
 C.W Th. Dreyer'• Gertrud.

Birth of a Nation.

36

34
Wo111en's Fil111 Daily
BARBARA MARTINEAU

lf 1f ¥
-
1f )f ¥ ¥ 1f
------ -
·f 1f ¥ 1f 1f ·¥- 1f 1f 1f 1f
- lf 1f lf }f
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one issue only! produced during August 1973 by Barbara Halpern Since June 1972 there have been four international
women's film festivals-by dint of a lot of crazy
Martineau. with a lot of help from her friends.
traveling and support from the Canada Council I've
managed to attend them all, or at least some of them
THIS IS THE YEAR OF WOMEN AND FILM!
all. (Missed every grand opening and closing and a lot
in between, but I saw a lot too.) The problem now is
MAJOR WOMEN'S FILM FESTIVALS IN FOUR COUNTRIES how to tell about that kind of mind-changing, life-
changing experience, seen from my own little corner.
Women Make Good in Films The very nature of the women's movement, of worn·
Can Canadian women make good Canadian films en's films, of Canada now in relation to these things,
Some women make good films makes the conventional formulas useless. A list of
Do good women make films well? "good" women film makers, or almost any category
What good are women's films? at all somehow eludes the need to redefine the cate-
Take in a good woman's film today! gories, to question what is good about women's films
and how films affect women, especially, for our pur-
What are Canadian women's films?
poses, women in Canada.
Are films good for Canadian women?

FIRST So, after filling notebooks with facts and assumptions

and false beginnings and middles and endings I began
to construct the highly subjective collage of facts im·
pressions and thoughts which I have called Women's

INTERNATIONAL Film Daily. It is subjectivity in pursuit of a greater

objectivity. In remembrance of a short-lived publica-
tion some of my former students and friends in Toron-

FESTIVAL to once ran, it is a newspaper, or an attempt at one. I

hope readers will find some of the pieces useful in

OF WOMEN'S FILMS
their own reconsiderations.

5th Ave. Cinema- New York City-June 5-21, 1972
15 programmes of short films 13 narrative features 4 feature-
length documentaries
Conference on Women in Film-forum discussions: The Image of
Women in Film, Scriptwriting; Women in Television; Programming &
Distribution; Editing; Acting; Directing; Making Documentaries; Is
There A Female Film Aesthetic?; The Image of Men ·in Film
Tickets can be ordered by mail (unreserved seats) at the cost of $2.00
for each afternoon program and $2.50 for each evening program.
"Women Filmmakers:. Doors Opening" by.George Gent-N.Y. Times,
June 15, 1972:
... An outgrowth of the new female self-consciousness fostered by the women's
liberation movement, the festival has brought together under one cinematic roof
many of the world's leading women film directors and producers for the exhibi-
tion and discussion of women's role in film history, both as subject and as crea-
tive artist. "The First International Women's Film Festival vvas organized to en-
courage women film makers, who are said to suffer from notorious discrimina-
tion in the field. It is also designed to provide an outlet for selected works, and
to serve as a forum for the exchange and dissemination of the woman's 'point of .
view.'" - Festival press release, June 11, 1972
The opening night premiere of " The Girls" by Swedish direc-
tor Mai Zetterling . .. a benefit performance to offset Festival
costs. Tickets are $25.00 for a seat.
"Many of those attending were wary. Another festival without
at least some free showings- what about those who couldn't
afford a ticket? Where was the daycare center for those wom-
en with children? What about the selective audience that could
attend daytime screenings? Does the festival address itself to
non-white minorities? In the end these and other questions
went unresolved. All festivals face them, yet none come near
to the inberent radical nature of this one ............... .
Half of tHe short films were documentaries, and half of these
again, concerned with feminist and radical feminist issues.
This commitment to educate, change consciousness and sensi-
bility showed itself to be unal ienated: that is, carried over to
the process of film making itself: a film crew working collec>
tively without hierarchy and specialization; a film crew work·
ing on an equal basis with the "subject" in decision-making
and production; and a film crew recognizing distribution of
the product to be integral to the process.
-Dora Kaplan, Women & Film, No. 2

36

35
'EDINBURGH 'WHVSTUDV
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S
FILM FESTIVAL FILMS?
The Women's Event Do women's films form a distinctive group? Is it a red
August 21-26, 1972 herring to suggest that there is or is not a women's
14 features, 3 feature-length documentaries, film aesthetic? Films establish their own criteria,
13 shorts, 3 women's seminars Two Festival events are which we find useful or not in terms of other kinds of
likely to transfer to the criteria (social need, political conviction, cultural re-
National Film Theatre in inforcement) -it is unjust and misleading to approach
THE WOMEN'S EVENT London, which is also a step any film as one of the genre, "woman's film," and ex-
step in the right direction.
"Edinburgh was a wom- A major retrospective of pect it to measure up to predetermined values (es-
en's event sandwiched Douglas Sirk will be graced pecially male-predetermined values). Same thing holds
between slices of woolly
by the director himself: for Canadian films.
Sirk left for Hollywood
white chauvinism and when Nazi Germany be-
wry male 'feminism' " - came untenable, created
But it remains true that films made by women have
highly-colored symbolical been neglected on a large scale or adversely judged be-
BHM, Take One, Nov.
1972 melodramas of which "Writ- cause made by women. And then there are many fac-
ten on the Wind" (August tors making it difficult for women to make films at
21, Cameo) is perhaps the all, ir, ·luding the belief that women can't (shouldn't)
The questions this kind of event should raise cannot be con- best known, had a consider- make films. Same thing holds for Canadians. Also,
fined to a mere enumeration of women's achievements toge- able background in the
ther with a plea for greater opportunities within the film in- theatre and is much respec- women have been treated differently, conditioned dif·
dustry. The central issues center round how far women direc- ted by film historians. ferently for so long, that when they set about work-
tors have presented a critique of their position within society, Lynda Myles has organized ing with images of the world it is likely to be a differ-
or, alternatively, how far they have merely reflected the dom- a women's session: it sounds ent world with different images than those of men.
inant ideology. As a focus for discussion, we have included a a humorless idea; but the This is true even when the technical means of presen-
number of films which have emerged from the Women's assembly of women direc-
Liberation Movement, including THE WOMAN'S FILM, A tation depends on skills learned from men. Substitute
tors, past and present, is
WOMAN'S PLACE, and WOMEN, ARE YOU SATISFIED hearteningly formidable.
"Canadians" for "women"; "Hollywood" for "men."
WITH YOUR LI FE? which challenge this ideology in varying That might even bely Lib-
ways. It must be admitted that a great many women directors erationlst theory, but Kate So, we look at women's films to find cultural roots-
present no critique whatsoever of their position within society Millet's "Three Lives"
and appear to subscribe totally to the myth and rhetoric of to find images of women and their world(s) made by
(August 22, Film House), women. Doing this strengthens our sense of being sub-
the dominant ideology, which is, incidently, far less mono- Jane Arden's "The Other
lithic and stereotyped in the cinema than is commonly be-
Side of the Underneath" jects regarding a world where we have creative roles,
lieved. This kind of event also raises the question: Are there rather" than objects existing only to be looked at and
(August 26, Film House),
specifically feminine values which emerge from the work of
women directors? Must women directors totally reject mascu-
and Midge Mackenzie's manipulated by others. Canadian people share with
"Women Talking" (August women some of the ptoblems involved in emerging as
line values and invent something entirely different? Or, con-
24, Film Housel will un·
versely, what function does the feminine critique of ideology
doubtedly come on ideo-
users of the tool of film as opposed to being tools of
have? -Festival handout those who have used film-(e.g., the colonised mental-
logically strong. Nelly Kap-
lan's "Dirty Mary" and ity).
Women are fighting not just against the world of real- "Papa Les Petits Bateaux"
ity, but against the world of male fantasy as well. The (August 25, Cameo and BUT what about women (Canadians) who want to be
fetishistic view of women which dominates so much August 26, Film House) are
expected to be good by any- regarded as men's (American's, etc.) equals? Who de-
of the cinema is as important as the social and psy- body's standards, and so is mand that their films be judged in comparison with
chological portrayal of women characters. Women "Le Fruit de Paradis" by films by men. Who look in women's films for an an-
have to transform cinema myth as well as cinema re- the Czech director Vera ~rogynous, "transcendent " quality. It seems under-
ality: female fantasy must be released. Women's cine- Chytilova (August 22, Film
House).
standable that people who've been put down should
ma should impinge on the unconscious as much as want to come up, but the problem lies in defining
men's. where "up" is. Do we want to be integrated into a rot-
ting system? BUT surely one can attack the male-
-three excerpts from the Festival programme. based positions some women take without attacking
the women, and at the same time recognize what val-
ue there is in their work. Women's work which shows
strengths of perception and creativity is useful to our
development of self-confident awareness .

•
37

36
 WOMEN'S CINEMA
"El Topo" might be de-
scribed as an hallucinogenic
Western out of Fellini and
Bunuel. Its hero stalks,
kills and rapes his way a-
cross a desert filled with
prophets, freaks and mad-
men.

~s:s·s •:s••= •:•a•: s:s. .:s:E-{'I

"Red Psalm"- M1klos Jancso The National Film Theatre-London

First and last reactions to the film must cJentre on the
camera movement, which provides the structure of
the film and the key to its analysis. But surely in be-
tween there is room to ask about the use of naked
women on precisely the same level as horses: i.e.,
something to do with the natural roots of the people,
the willingness of the women to fight with the only
weapons they are presumed to have ... Throughout
the film assorted peasant maidens wander through the
crowd in simple shifts of virginal white. In the final
sequence one maiden wears a simple shift of blood red
as, gun in hand, she stalks the oppressors of her peo-
ple. After the revolution, if still alive, she will no
doubt resume her virginal white.
"The Fruit of Paradise"- \/era Chytilova
Chytilova's Eve, who wears a white flower, is married
to a very dull man, and attracted to a fascinating
stranger, who turns out to be an assassin. He kills
blonde women and stamps the red number 6 on their
bodies. A bureaucratic assassin. After a sequence
where the stranger binds Eve to a tree with serpentine
gestures, magically changing her white dress to red,
Eve kills him and finds Pravda, truth, a blood-red
flower of violence- she offers this to her husband and
he refuses in horror. The color symbolism is intricate-
ly extended here as it is in "Red Psalm." But here the
woman defines her colors- in Jancso's film she is de-
fined by them. Here she is protagonist-there merely
symbol.
-BHM, from my Edinburgh diary
April 1 - June 2, 1973
36 short films 33 features 2 feature-length documentaries
1 open screening of women's films series of women's seminars
(after considerable, distortive press dismay, a final seminar was
opened to men)
tickets approximately 40p ($1.00)
John Player lecture by Nelly Kaplan
THE NATIONAL FILM THEATRE- LONDON
"The conventional view about women working in Hollywood ... is
that they had little opportunity for real expression within the dom-
inant sexist ideology; they were token women and little more. In
fact, because iconography offers in some ways a greater resistance to
the realist charact.erisations, the mythic qualities of certain stereo-
types become far more easily detachable and can be used as a short-
hand for referring to an ideological tradition in order to provide a
critique of it ... Dorothy Arzner certainly made use of such tech-
niques and the work of Nelly Kaplan is particularly important in this
respect. As a European director she understands the dangers of myth
invading the sign in the art film, and deliberately m~kes use of Holly-
wood iconography to counteract this." - Claire Johnston, organizer
of the London women's cinema season, in "Women's Cinema as
Counter-Cinema," from Notes on Women's Cinema, edited by Claire
Johnston and discussed in seminars during the season.
Q; What about the feedback to you? Have you learned anything
from what critics have said?

NK: Not yet. I hope, someday, maybe ...

-
- from an interview with Nelly Kaplan by BHM, same pamphlet as
above

38
37

The films of Agnes Varda are a particul arly good ex-
**
ample of an oevre which celebra tes bourgeo is myths
of women ... Her films appear totally innocen t to the
workings of myth; indeed it is the purpose of myth to
fabricate an impress ion of innocen ce, in which all be-
comes 'natural .' Varda's concern for nature is a direct
**
expression of this retreat from history: history is
transmu ted into nature, involving the elimina tion of
all question s, because all appears 'natural .' There is no
doubt that Varda's work is reaction ary: in her rejec-
tion of culture and her placem ent of women outside
**
history her films mark a retrogra de step in women 's
cinema. - Claire Johnsto n, as above.
At the time of "Le Bonheu r" there were a few wom-
en coming up to me who said, "You betraye d us." I
**
remember that very well. Because they though t I was
defending the right to be selfish- against them, which
means against myself as a woman . No. I was trying to
show the cruelty of the myth of "let's try to be al-
ways and simply happy," which implies, for a man,
**
the myth of "if she is nice and quiet and at home it's
enough." These myths depress me. At the time of "Le
Bonheur" I just wanted to illustrat e them in the con-
text of a sweet sweet film full of cruelty. I didn't de-
nounce the myths, I over-uti lized them. Now after
**
ei~t years I wouldn 't do it the same way. - Agnes
Varda, intervie w with BHM
This is the other side of the questio n: why study wom-
en's films?
**
Can we assume that because most critics neglect or
condemn women director s that it is the fault of their
respective theories , or should we attribut e this to the
fact that most critics are men?
**
**
**
**
*
38
HOW STUDY
WOMEN'S
FILMS!
Theorie s of film criticism tend to constru ct a priori
systems of value judgem ent based on the assump tions
of those who use them (ruling-class men). That is, a
film will be good (or great) if it shows such and such
qualitie s (of balance , harmon y, thought fulness , say)
and voids such and such mistake s (fratme ntation , ang-
er, irresolu tion, perhaps ). Convers ely, having decided
that a film which appeals to oneself is good (or great).
one may justify that decision by finding in it values
already establis hed as good.
Since women , given differen t treatme nt, differen t con-
ditionin g, may work in differen t ways from men, a
priori value judgem ent is particul arly irreleva nt to
many women , as it is to men and women from colon-
ised culture s-for instance , Canada .
What is needed is a way of studyin g women 's films
on their own terms, and an interest ing aspect of wom-
en's films for me is that many of them suggest them-
selves how to go about studyin g them. That is, they
are radical films-t hey have radicali sed their own struc-
tures, making themsel ves accessib le rather than mys-
terious. The viewer underst ands it is a film she is see-
ing, and she is aware of the process es used to attract
her interest , introdu ce new concep ts, or change her
mind. (This of course was said by Brecht about thea-
tre.) It is not necessa ry to bore the viewer- that is
linked with mystifi cation. (An exampl e : in Michele
Rosier's film about George Sand, George Qui?, there
is a brief revolut ionary sequenc e in which the screen
is alternat ely all red and all black, while the sound
track conveys noises of revoluti onary violenc e and de-
scriptio ns of the events. The director later said she
didn't want to exploit violenc e but to indicate its sig-
nificanc e.) (Anoth er exampl e : in Mireille Dansere au's
La Vie Revee, the final scene shows the two girls rip-
ping pictures of men from their walls, images which
have represe nted an unneces sary dream life. This tear-
ing of images unobtru sively reflects on the nature of
film-ma king, of this particul ar film.)
Semiolo gy, the study of signs, which is a strong inter-
est of the London Women 's Film Group, can be useful
here. Still, we must underst and the semiolo gists and
that isn't easy. As I see it, the great promise of semi-
ology is the possibil ity of "readin g" differen t art
forms on their own terms, asking how films mean.
Radical films can be seen as films which make their
structur es accessib le rather than films "about " radical
activitie s. What I mean is, a film about Canada may or
may not be a Canadia n film. And narrativ e structur e
is only one of many structur es in a film. (Susan Sontag
said of "Brothe r Carl:" "It's about being a black and
white film made at a time when virtually all comme r-
cially distribu ted films are in colour. It's about six ac-
39
tors, all speaking English with foreign accents," Film The Argument: Why and How study women's films
in Sweden, No. 2, 1971.) --
why: cultural roots ............ how: get rid of a priori
There is so much to see and hear in any film, so many
patterns to choose from, especially once we've become making our own images ........... see what's there
aware of how much is possible. We need ways of de·
ciding which patterns to emphasize. We also need to transcending our objectification
be aware of how our reactions are influenced by our
own conditioning, interests, circumstance, etc.
make
It helps to study films by one director. This is a basic
kind of auteur analysis. We can see how patterns other
than narrative and plot develop (one director may con-
centrate on using certain kinds of music, or editing
techniques, or in:iage patterns). The importance of
this is not in revealing the personality of the director,
not at all. What we learn is how plot and narrative can
be subverted or dominated by other structures, and
hovv three individual plots may add up to a new way
Df seeing a basic problem, such as the way women live,
and/or how to show the way women live.
A circle of sorts establishes itself: why study women's
films implies how study them, because it implies that
they haven't been studied well before.
WOMEN le FILM
women and film June 8 - 17 international festival 1973 economics of film production and reflects women's
la femme et le film admission free Toronto, Canada
1896-1973 St. Lawrence Centre
daycare provided daily, free
videotapes and alternate screenings
panel discussions, speakers, workshops
screenings from one p.m. to midnight daily
Toronto festival followed by eighteen-city tour of Canada
*NB: the Toronto festival, unlike any preceding international wom-
en's film festival, was funded, enormously funded, by the government
of the host country.
"In three and a half months we screened over 400 films. The experi-
ence of discovering an enormous chunk of women's history was ex-
hiliarating and, sadly enough, surprising ... Decision-making became,
quite naturally, a collective process ... working with women exclu-
sively was a new experience for most of us." -Deanne Taylor, from
the Programme Notes.
40
39
values and learn to
tools: semiology;
auteur analysis:
(these tools must be
watched for chauvinist
bias.)
connections eyes and ears
take into account
subjectivities and
. . . . . . . outside pressures.
" ... we have seen certain patterns emerging in films
made by women. On the r:nost obvious level, a dispro-
portionate number of films made by women are sh
and in black and white. This relates direcdy to the
position within the industry. On a deeper level, we
are watching the evolution of a woman's film aesm.
tic, and are taking tentative steps toward defining it
We have noticed several thematic trends in films m
by women: one which investigates women's world of
births, children, home, marriage, and domestic prob-
lems, and one which features independent, self-defin-
ing women as the central characters. Reversals of the
traditional media images of women have also im-
pressed us: the prostitute who is neither repentant
saved by a heart of gold, the women who are friends
rather than rivals, the career woman who is fulfilled
and human, the woman fighter who saves the day.
have also seen parodies and plays upon such images:
Gunvor Nelson's TAKEOFF is the ultimate strip-
tease, with the stripper's breasts, legs, arms, etc.
tively removed in a comic extension of the stag-m
tradition.
Two Ganadian women emigrated to the U.S., where
they became major stars. Mary Pickford and Nell ·
man ... Nell Shipman, unlike Pickford, returned to
Canada to direct two films. Her most valiant effort
was ''The Golden Yukon" ( 1919), which she starred
in, photographed, and directed.
"Canadian women's involvement in film production
has been inevitably linked to the history and growth
of the film industry in Canada. Feature film produc-
tion was virtually non-existent until the early 1960's,
and women's participation in the industry was rare .
Thematically and technically, simple and personal styles 111ark a
ttend towards the humanizing of the camera eye. Close friends, rela-
tives, and admired acquaintances of the filmmaker often become the
characters of the films, and besides acknowledging the mechanics of
film production, these films show us that filmmaking is a human pro-
cess. The relationships between the people working on the film and
the people on the screen are neither mysterious, objectifying, nor
hierarchical." - Kay Armatage and Linda Beath, Programme Notes

. . . as directors, in the mid-sixties Sylvia Spring in

Vancouver and Mireille Dansereau in Montreal started
to work on features which weren't released until 1969
and 1972 respectively. ("Madeleine Is;" "La Vie
Revee"). Spring and Dansereau's long-delayed, low-
budgeted, poorly exhibited films reflect the problems I
of all but the few box-office successes among Canadi-
an feature films ... at present there is not one feature
film by a woman in process.

·········~~•** ********** ********** ********** *******

Canadian Home Movies
The 8 mm camera purchas-
ed by the husband can gen-
erally be used by the wom-
an and child (the last to be
liberate'dt. The woman takes
t h e ~ , • holding this

STATEMENT
Women's films must be seen in the light of revolutionary aesthetics. Wo01en must
piece of technology in her
eager IJ(lnds Jafraid to make
an exp mistake) she
makes a l,Qtky pan across
the t>eact;, to find Jim. and
develop revolutionary aesthetics. The context for a revolutionary aesthetic is the the dog at Lake Scugog.
struggle by emerging peoples to gain control of the tools which have previously been
used to control them. ·'Jim and the ·oog at Lake
Scugog" ·s,an i!'lteresting
film, a true example of
This past year of women's film festivals should be seen not merely in journalistic Canadian folk art. A per-
terms as a series of newsworthy events, but as a developing tendency of crucial im- sonal view of Canada, never
portance for revolutionary aesthetics. to be reviewed. Because
shaky pans; jiggly zooms,
and some, out-of-focus sec-
Question: What is a revolutionary aesthetic? tions of the sky are wrong
things. "there's a right and
wrong ~y of looking at
Answer: What is revolution? the sky in our society.

8 mm. home movies have

Question: Why has Lina Wertmuller's excellent "Film of Love and Anarchy" been developed a visual language
panned by the critics and not released outside Italy? built,yp partly through SO·
called errors; an important
folk aree, as important as
Answer: What was that title? the personal and naive art
hidden in barns, garages, a
CREED: All systems are potentially oppressive. Ar.., system controlled by anyone and in the Qack forties a-
cross Canada. Possibly our
other than those directly involved with and affectea by it is oppressive. richest expression ·is the hid-
den culture of our land, the
folk art tradition.

We have little knowledge of

what women have done in
8 mm. film. But we can on-

41

40

ly refer to the great num-
bers of folk artists such as
Lea Caron of Quebec to
make our guess. The guess
is that it's rich and unex-
posed. Maybe we should
pay attention to this kind
of film- lowly, non-com-
mercial, attendent to sun-
rises, cutting the baby's
hair, picnics, birthdays. In
doing so we might raise our
consciousness to the point
of seeing the Canadian grass
roots.
Being a colonized nation,
we are generally ashamed
of what we are. It's easier
to jerk off to the latest
American film no matter
how idiotic. But many of
us are now looking at the
home-made film product
from the farms, suburbs,
factories. Some cannot em-
brace this kind of film as
film per se. Home-made
film, footage is passionate,
it glances at mountains, a
lake, the snow falling in the
garden, the over-red faces
at the Aberfoyle fall fair,
joyous in their isolation, in
the Canadian field of basic
badly-spliced film records.
What has filmmaking got to
do with Canadian identity
and Canadian independence?
How do you avoid Amari·
can ownership in your own
film?
Canadian women In English
Canada have very little of
their own film tradition to
draw from in the commer-
cial areas. I would rather be
influenced by a working
woman's film (one who has
shot fifty feet of 8 mm. film
for the first time) than by
anything done by anyone
else in the world at this mo-
ment. Her vision will help
me create greater solidarity
with Canadian sisters in
farms and suburbs.
We and she are part of an
intricate and devastating
problem, that of being a
colonized person and a
woman. - Betty Ferguson,
Garonce Mapleton, Judy
Steed, and Joyce Wieland
42
FILM
BECilNNINCi
a short story by Barbara Halpern Martineau
First shot: aerial view, Busby Berkeley style, of male
dared to question no matter what form it has taken
transvestite semiologists arranged in a pattern resemb- during its history: the matrix of the Stoic sign.
ling Marlene Dietrich in drag; they are bobbing up and Thiswouldbetocallintoquestionsemiologyitself, but
down in place singing a catchy little tune called: withouttheclaimofmetasemiologytofurnishthefinal
"What Does that Nail Polish Mean, Baby, Are You rulesofthesemioticproject. suchasemiotics, thatlwill
Feeling Mean Today?"
callanalyticalsemiotics, asemanalysis, would, onthe
contrary, attempttoanalyse, thatis, todissolve, the
VOICE OVER: ''This specific type of signifying prac- constitutivecentreofthesemioticenterprisesuchasitwas
tice carried out through langue but remaining irreduc- positedbytheStoics, a n d t h i s w o u I d m e a
n t he
ible to its categories has always troubled science. Un- interrogatio nofthefunda mental
der the name of magic, madness, or. in more orna-
m a t r i x o f o u r c i v i I i s a t i o n, g r a s p e d in
mental fashion, literature, it has been submitted to its ideological, neuralgiclocus." (nonsic)
various attempts at recuperation into rationality but - Kristeva, ibid.
has always resisted as bearer of a surplus of significa-
tion that the system of the sign is unable to contain. II. DISSOLVE to same again, VOICE OVER:
It may well be that this surplus is seen more distinctly
"Loi V. Ste(n is the matrix; all my books come from
when focused in the light not of an attempt at con-
tainment in a sign system, but of a semanalysis orien- that book." - Marguerite Duras, interview, June,
1973.
tated towards that pre-signifying and pre-conscious
work, a work that the text exposes." - Julia Kristeva, "It would have been an absence-word, a hole-word,
''The Semiotic Activity," Signs of the Times: Intro- whose centre would have been hollowed out into a
ductory Readings in Textual Semiotics, Cambridge hole, the kind of hole in which all other words would
1971. have been buried. It would have been impossible to
utter it, but it would have been made to reverberate.
Cut to Stagecoach style saloon scene with Christian Enormous, endless, an empty gong ... it would have
Metz (dean of French semiologists) leaning an elbow made them deaf to any other word save that one, in
on the bar. Three writers from Cinethique (French one fell swooi:) it would have defined the future and
movie magazine which has been arguing with Metz) the moment ... By its absence this word ruins all the
fill the entrance, backs to. the camera: others, it contaminates them, it is also the dead dog
on the beach at high noon, this hole of flesh. How
Metz: "Semiology is a descriptive enterprise, its ma- were other words found? Hand-me-downs from God
terial is exclusively composed of faits accomplis." knows how many love affairs like Loi Stein's- affairs
- Langage et Cinema, Paris, 1971. nipped in the bud, trampled upon, and from mas·
sacres, oh! you've no idea how many there are, how
Bursts of gunfire punctuate the response of the Cine- many blood-stained failures are strewn along the hori-
thique staff as they wipe out the saloon: zon, piled up there, and among them, this word,
which does not exist, is none the less there; it awaits
"Our project ... is characterised by its consideration you just around the corner of language, it defies you-
of film practice as an ideological practice. It is norma- never having been used- to raise it, to make it arise
tive in a political sense ... When we seek to describe, from its kingdom, which is pierced on every side and
it is only in order to establish laws of intervention ... through which flows the sea, the sand, the eternity of
we seek less to classify films than to make class films." the ball in the cinema of Loi Stein." - Marguerite
- Cinethique, No. 13/14, 1972. (This and above quo- Duras, The Ravishing of Loi V. Stein, 1964 (trans.
tations translated in Screen- Special issue on "Cinema Richard Seaver, 1966)
Semiotics and the Work of Christian Metz," Spring/
Summer 1973.) 111: DISSOLVE to same again (Julia Kristeva riding
into the sunset), credits roll by (any words will do~
FINAL SCENE:
I. DISSOLVE to Julia Kristeva riding into the sunset,
VOICE OVER (gradually garbled and indistinct):
''Taking as its point of departure the difference be-
tween the various sign systems, semiotics could begin
to investigate its very-constitutive kernel element; the
sign and the scientific discourse it permits .. . Semio·
tics could then try to analyse that which it has never
41
NEW YORK pioneered, was haughty, exclusive, fan-
tastically exciting and democratic in the individualistic
American way. little money, lots of films, conven-
tional "esthetic approach. Organized by Kristina Nord-
strom. See my article in CINEMA CANADA No. 2.
EDINBURGH was a thrifty Scots week sandwiched
into the woolly white chauvinism of the Edinburgh
film festival. Organised by Linda Myle of Edinburgh
and by the London Women's Film Group, especially
Claire Johnston and Laura Mulvey, suspected of ten-
dencies towards semiology, intelligent choice of films
and two meaty seminars, theoretically open to all
women, practically exclusive.
LONDON was a two-month season organised for the
National Film Theatre by Claire Johnston. That
meant it had the resources of the British Film Archive,
also the uptightness of the N FT to contend with.
Spread over two months of evening and weekend
showings, it was intended mainly for local, working
women and housewives-in fact it attracted a great
many tourists as well. Claire's knowledge and energy
redeemed otherwise insoluble problems of shoestring
budget and nasty press. Her very full programme
notes should be published as a useful resourte; she
also edited a pamphlet published during the season by
the Society for Education in Film and TV (the same
people publish Screen): Notes on Women's Cinema,
London, 1973.
The other side of the coin was a certain exclusivity of
insistence on either semiology as a basis for theoretical
discussion in the seminars, or, as very few women had
the needed background for that, only the most diffuse
discussion of likes and dislikes. After London I was
faced with the necessity of coming to terms with sem-
iology, which meant reading the most unreadable
texts imaginable. Nonetheless exciting in its implica-
tions-I've decided I can only bear it if juxtaposed
with comic strip surrealism and libertarian anarchism.
And music. More of that next time.
TORONTO was inspired by New York and able to
draw heavily on the informational resources of New
York and London. Lots of money from LIP, Canada
u
Council, the Government, little expertise on the part
of the staff (or fear of displaying expertise as domina-
tion). Organised by a staff of nine, backed by a com-
mittee of fourteen, with parallel committees in the
eighteen cities across Canada covered by the post-
Toronto tour. There were the advantages of collectiv-
ity and the disadvantages of redundancy, some confu-
sion and misunderstanding particularly in outside
communication, the appearance at least of some over·
spending. I don't count political struggles and diffi-
culties of interpersonal relations as disadvantages-
they're inherent in the development of collective
work. But I do think available skills and knowledge
could have been used more economically. Also, more
clearly defined criteria for the selection and presenta-
tion of films (a more visible, radicalised structure)
would have been useful. In accordance with my view
that auteur analysis is useful if modified by women, I
would have appreciated some retrospectives (even
one). But even the most glaring faults seem to me to
be of the sort that one learns from, and the achieve-
ment of involving local women who hadn't previously
had access to media on such a large scale would have
to be called a miracle if the hard work weren't so
much in evidence.
Free admission made an enormous difference to the
atmosphere of the festival.; one woman I overhearcj
put it succinctly: "I feel much freer to experiment in
seeing films when I know if I walk out I'm not wasting
money." And another aspect of the "atmosphere"
which I th1nk marked Toronto was the newly-develop-
ed sense of resistance to colonisation, the sense of
Canadian womanhood, not in any way hostile to wom-
en from other countries, but very much aware of the
positive values of Canadian culture. This provided, for
me, the necessary counterbalance to the emphasis at
the London festival on re-reading Hollywood films.
Such a re-reading is valuable and provides a strong ba-
sis for understanding women's films made in spite of
the system. BUT those of us who've grown up oppres-
sed by the multifaceted Hollywood image of women
need to understand other approaches to film-making,
the Lake Scugog school, for instance.
43
42
 WHAT I HAVE LEARNE-D IN
A VEAR OF WOMEN'S
FESTIVAL-GOING
1. Seeing films oy women is shattering and transform- I've just checked the new, glossy, expensive World En-
ing when you're a woman brought up on films by men. cyclopedia of Film, which claims to be "the most
comprehensive film encyclopedia available in any
Because: you know it's by a woman. It's woman's ere· language." With the exceptions of Leontine Sagan and
ativeness rather than her reproductivity we're seeing. Astrid Henning-Jensen, none of the film makers men-
tioned above are listed. A few other interesting omis·
Because: you see things you haven't seen before in sions are Liliane Cavani, Storm de Hirsch, Marie
women's films-e.g., films from a woman's point of Menken, Larissa Shepitko. Mabel Normand is listed as
view including as part of the film's world things wom· an actress-deep in the entry it is remarked that she
en do: housework, nursing babies, being strong, angry directed some films. And other reference books are no
about injustice, intelligent, articulate, oppressed, mis- better-The International Encyclopedia of Film, Peter
interpreted, funny, wry, witty ... in-their own right, Graham's Dictionary of the Cinema, and Georges Sa·
rather than as adjuncts to men. doul's Dictionary of Film Makers are all notable for
their omissions of women directors. There is no book·
Because: you start looking outward, around, instead of length study of a woman director. In Peter Graham's
of looking at how people are looking at you. You can The New Waw there is a nice picture of sixteen
identify with the director, the maker, the seer, or with French New Wave directors-all men. Agnes Varda,
the active woman's role; you're not limited to worry· whose film la Pointe Courte heralded the New Wave
ing about your failure to be a voluptuous star, or iden· five years before it began, is conspicuous by her ab-
tifying with meek victims. sence. It is entirely appropriate that Graham begins
So, women's films are essentially political and useful the book with a comparison of the New Wave to Eng-
in some way (even if the director is male-identified we land's Angry Young Men.
can respond to that as a meaningful problem-as op-
posed to the nonsensical problems (for us now) of 3. The films (if not yet oestroyed) are there; I suspeci
how male directors fantasize about women). And of a growing audience is there; but except for the festi·
course as this all applies to Canadian films, so ob- vats, they're not getting together.
viously it does to Canadian women's films. Now at
this point the universalist argument rears its liberal It is clear that existing modes of film criticism have
head. It's a good argument, about not putting people not helped and most often have aggravated a bad situ·
into slots, not being isolationist, segregatio.nalist etc. ation.
But as we've been put into slots for so long, we have
to see the slots in order to emerge from them. And It is clear that we have to dispense with the systems o1
it's not as if the present situation were anything like a priori value judgments which have acted as barriers
universal-the films most people get most opportunity between us and our culture.
to see were made by men and come from Hollywood,
which leads to the next point. Before setting up any new systems perhaps we'd bet·
ter find our culture. Within that process. working val·
2. A large number of well-made and generally inter· ue judgments would evolve and change with changing
esting films by women, made from the beginnings of states of consciousness.
film making until now, have been neglected, lost, de·
stroyed, not shown, ignored by· critics or panned We need to find the old films and the new ones and
(more, proportionally speaking, than films by men). rescue them and show them and talk about them and
Examples: films by Alice Guy Blache, Nell Shipman, show them again and make new films.
Marie Epstein, Astrid Henning-Jensen, Lois Weber. '
We need a women's film centre, run by women, with
Women directors who've developed comprehensive an archive, a film theatre with regular showings of re·
bodies of work have had absolutely no attention as trospectives and new work, a library, resources for
such from the auteur critics who've prided themselves making films and learning to make them, and resour·
•
on digging up unappreciated talent. Examples: Doro· ces for generating publications.
thy Arzner, Jacqueline Audry, Muriel Box. Women
directors in the process of doing this are ignored by Wouldn't Canada be a good nlace for this?
critics when they're not being panned. Examples:
Lina Wertmuller, Marta Mesaros, Stephanie Rothman.

44

43
An Interview with Tra Giang
at the .Moscow ·Film Festival
CAROL WI KARSKA
I. The Mood up in the official atmosphere of detente and
in speaking with me about it drew what
if time and space are a priori to all interpre-I thought to be rather Procrustean parallels
tation, then it's appropriate to begin by between our national histories. As they
saying that Moscow is a long way from here. talked about the American Revolution and
Fifteen minutes alone in Red Square can be the Spirit of Independence, I thought about
a key to understanding something of the our history of genocide and greed and in this
temperament of the USSR. Standing there, connection remembered the special motor-
I am overcome by the same vertigo which I cade escorting the honored guests from
feel when I stand on a mountain and Vietnam to the Grave of The Unknown
consider the historical weight of where I am Soldier. I asked them how they reconciled
standing. I am awed by its largeness as I am the detente with the motorcade honori,1g
awed by the space which is the Square. Since the Vietnamese. They were uninterested in
Red Square is of human design, however, its the question and seemed generally uncritical
grand scale in relationship to my own size, politically. They did seem very interested,
its architectural proportions, have political however, in the latest Chicago and Rolling
undergirdings. The heroic nature of the scale Stones albums, and in the approaching
is one that induces me to feel that the space availability of Pepsi-Cola in the USSR. This
I move within is larger than myself, and like insistence on the spirit of Soviet-American
a large meadow surrounded by mountains, detente negated the possibility of any
this space asks me to regard the architectures believeable response to Watergate despite
(The Kremlin) which enclose it. This is a the fact that the proceedings were in full
swing as Brezhnev was on his way to
space which says a lot and its message is
further weighted with the presence of Lenin's visit the US just one month earlier. There
Tomb, a reminder of the human impetus, a was no official criticism of the US by any
reminder that people create what such spaces Soviet du ring my stay. (In fact, at a birthday
imply. All of the population is invited to party I attended in Moscow a toast was
participate in the great dream, the promise made "To President Kennedy and Marilyn
of the revolution. Slogans and billboards en- Monroe.") There was, however, plenty of
couraging the workers, opened copies of criticism of the US in the content of the
Pravda encased in glass can be found all over films from countries that suffered most from
Moscow, and here there is a seemingly the US Foreign Policy: Cuba and Vietnam,
unending queue to see the embalmed body most notably. Interestingly enough, through-
of Lenin which rests in the Square. Countless out these films, the common metaphors fot
people stand for quite a long time to see the decadent capitalism was rock music and
first permission for such a personally owned Coca-Cola. The Festival, at any rate, did
public space. For the people, Lenin is a begin with a documentary on the official
tangible metaphor for the revolution and in talks between Nixon and Brezhnev which
him the body politic is preserved. The had led to the atmosphere of rapprochment
Square is only a five minute walk from the then permeating the Kremlin and I couldn't
Hotel Rossia where the eight hundred guests help but wonder what was going through
of the 8th International Film Festival (repre- the minds of the representatives of the other
senting 89 countries) were housed and so I '37 countries watching the film. They could
walked there very soon after arriving. The "lot be watching this film without some
beauty of it is such that if I experienced discomfort (especially the small nations'
vertigo, it was a transcendental one. The representatives) since it was quite clearly
heroic scale also informed the Festival, for expressed in the film that the two great
I returned to the hotel and met an interpreter powers cou Id guarantee peace in the world
who explained that the opening night films by the compounded threat they represented.
of the festival wou·ld be shown in the Palace I was quickly admitting the possibility that
of T-he Congresses, where the CCCP meets, the USSR was as· fui°I of contradictions as the
in the Kremlin. Imagine a US film festival USA.
screening in the Senate or contrast this to
the atmosphere of Cannes! . 11. The Films

My interpreter as well as the other young A singular advantage of attending the

Soviets I met there were very much caught Moscow Film Festival is the accessibility of

46

44
films from Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
The differences between the portrayals of
women in films from politically divergent
countries would make an interesting study.
The women's liberation movements have
certainly had their effect on western cinema
and it is interesting to note the perversity
with which most scriptwriters and directors
are able to prop'agahdize (wittingly or
unwittingly) for the old order at the same
time that they ask us to recognize their
heightened political consicousness on the
woman question because they included a
"career" woman in their films. This is meant
to quiet the criticrsms of feminists; however,
its tokenism is recognized immediately, and
one has only to examine how the woman
functions in the film (as opposed to looking
at her condition or status) to see how in·
sidiously the film insists on the conservatism
that initially informs- it. Throughout most
of the films shown at the Festival, the
woman is not permitted a presence in and of
herself. Unlike the men, that is, a woman's
place in the film seems to need an emotional
justification. The focus of each film still is
not what the "new" woman's life is about
rut how her new life affects the lives of the
men. The portrayal of the "new" woman
seems an unsubtle propaganda for her
quietly moving back into the roles that have
been hers for too long already. The story is
as old as time that man falls in love with
woman (not because of a need in him but
because he is seduced or enchanted) and for
love, the filmic man Is made to look foolish.
A critical reading of the same is that he
looks foolish because he stands alone holding
the cards to a game that the new woman
refuses to play. She knows it's a deck marked
in his favor and it is for an unwillingness to
renounce their own corrupt values that men
oppress others. Perhaps it might be said that
what offers itself as criticism of film has
become too personal a reaction on my part.
That may be, but I do take it very personally
when I sit through film after film showing
women as either weak and therefore socially
inconsequential or Just strong enough to
ruin the stellar careers of their noble men.
For example: Jean-Louis Trintignant plays
a man who is driven to betray his leftist
comrades because he is 'tired of hiding
behind' his wife's prof~sional 'skirts' in
L 'A tttmtat; in the Mexican entry, Those
Years, Roho play~·the role of Maximillian's
46
ambitious wife who drives him to become changes that foreign invasions on Vietnam
the tyrant he was; lngerid Vardund in Lina's have imposed on the family, in general, but
Wedding (Norway) plays an independent and more specifically, on the lives of the women.
strong woman who, when she applies this Throughout the film the women are strong,
strength to the love she feels for a man, compassionate for one another and mutually
overburdens the possibilities and leads them respectful. For love in this Vietnamese film,
both to destruction; in Day for Night, men and women stand equally against those
Leaud's love for the leading lady is little ex- who would make it impossible for them to
cuse for the absolute foolishaess he as a char- dream.
acter demonstrates throughout; Faye Dunaway "For us women writers the revolution
in Oklahoma Crude is a woman who fights signified a war of liberation in two sense.
intensely, toughly, and coldly for her piece of For us it was not only a change in the
the nation's wealth in oil and who is also on general social condition but our own
the threshhold of giving up the action by the emancipation as well, a release from the
end of the film and all for love; Bulqaria's older, patriarchal order ... literature was
contribution to the Festival, Affection, is prepared to deplore her fate, But the
about a menage} trois ... we know that revolution was needed to lift her out of
everybody is getting fucked while at the servitude.
same time we know who's getting fucked Cam Than, North Vietnam
over. There are few films, indeed, that are
free of the paranoia over what an equal and The following interview took place in the
fair society would be like. There are few Hotel Rossia. Besides Tra Giang and myself,
films that do not reinforce the male as five men were present: two Soviet interpre,
dominant either by overt statement or by ters (one who tral"~lated from Vietnamese to
an unflattering speculation on another order- Russian, one from Russian to English) and
ing of society. Tati (Brazil) was a fairly three Vietnamese filmmakers. The language
ambitious treatment of a woman raising her owes some of its style to its being distilled
daughter without the help of a man; and through two interpretions. A multiplicity of
Man from Maisinicu (a very unpolished film) interpreters, however, could have no effect
portrays women and men as equally fit to on Tra Giang's attention to the political
fight and die for their political beliefs situation which manifests itself throughout
(Cuba). Most of the films from smaller It is well to bear in mind that terms such as
countries which have been in an economi- "American aggression" which have become
cally dependent relationship to the US and diluted and cliched by our media, have all
recently emancipated themselves implied in of the significance and presence that living in
their films an awareness that exploitation of a war-torn country can cha,:ge them with.
all orders is dangerous. In reality, the roles of
men and women in these countries CW: What event in Vietnamese history woo
(especially Cuba and Vietnam) after their you cite as having a major effect on the lives
revolutions, have been changing. The films, of Vietnamese women?
then, call the roles of both men and women
into question; not as capitalist films, to TG: I would say that the Vietnamese women
guarantee the petrification of those roles, are very grateful to the oldest revolution of
but to change them. the Vietnamese,. the Revolution of August
1945. Up until this time, women were trea
111. The Interview as slaves in Vietnamese society. That is, until
after 1945, women were considered to be of
I met Tra Giang after seeing the film in no more value to society than as breeders of
which she played a woman separated from children and keepers of the household.
her husband as a result of the war in Vietnam. However, after the revolution, during which
17th Parallel: D8'/S and Nights impressed laws were made relating particularly to the
me deeply. Naturally, because 1'm an rights and status of women, the social and
American I found watching this film a very political life of the communities changed;
humbling experience, rut it was the strength and therefore, by the time of American
of the women and unity in their struggle aggression in Vietnam, women played a larga
that was inspiring. The film speaks to the role in the life of the country and served the
45
Vietnamese efforts in the capacity of women represent women's participation in Nguyen Dinh Thi
scientists and teachers, for example, as well the struggle for liberation. They are called (Notes on the Cultural Life of
as soldiers. "long-haired soldiers.") It is not by chance The Democratic Republic of
that I became influenced by the women Vietnam, by Peter Weiss)
CW: The film impresses me as focusing on mentioned here (Ut Tich and her like) and
the sufferings of women in particular during when I was participating in the film, playing CW: It must have been incredibly difficult
the war. Would you like to comment? a North Vietnamese heroine, I tried to to film 17th Parallel during the fighting ...
express my inner world through the character,
Tguen Hai Ninh (Director of the film): I while still trying to represent the heroic TG: Yes ... The last shots of the film were
would like to say something. We chose to character of these women as best I could. made under very hard conditions. At the time
focus this film mainly on the efforts of of the shooting, Nixon launched air raids in
women during the war and also their suffer- ON: The heroine in the film, like Ut Tich, is the north and south simultaneously, bombing
ing and this, perhaps, produces the illusion fighting the Vietnamese affiliated with the various provinces. It's a universally known
that the women su.ffer more than the men Saigon Puppet Regime while her husband is fact that the U.S. is a rich country and I
do ... It's really a difficult thing to be fighting the same enemy in the north. I know think you know that our country has been
objective. It's so difficult to tell, now, who that you were born in the south and am attacked by 'oppressors throughout many
suffered more from the war. It is my wondering whether you and your parents centuries and therefore our country is very
personal opinion, however, that the woman are divided politically? poor. Our population, not surprisingly, has
suffers more because she is sometimes also a been engaged in surmounting difficulties-of
mother and therefore responsible for more TG: It's true that I.am from South Vietnam. working while trying to fight off our enemies.
than her own safety; and also because she When I was a little girl I went to the north This precondition is true of our creative
seems physically more frail than a man and with my mother and settled there. My fattter, efforts as well. You can imagine our trouble
naturally would suffer more. meanwhile, remained in the south. He's while participating in the making of this film.
engaged in literary work and his views are At the very time we would be shootinq, for
TG: Aside from the .daily problems of women affiliated with the Liberation Fr.o nt of South example, an air raid would take place, so we
asserting themselves in a patriarchal society Vietnam. One of the great tragedies of my would have to call tanks in for support. They
to change their roles, the main hardships that country is that many families have been would try to defend us while we were shooting
women in my ·country experienced in more divided as my family has been, that is, one by flanking us. We were still in a very dan-
recent years are confrontations with the member living in the north and one member gerous situation. The tanks (our tanks), then,
problems brought about by foreign in the south. We have had this problem ever were to represent American tanks in the film-
aggression. Especially during Nixon's since the violations of the Geneva agreement. as if they were attacking a Vietnamese
acceleration of the war on Vietnam last There is a saying, "Rivers may dry up, village .... Still another problem in making
year, for example, the women had a mountains may crumble, but nothing can the film was time. There were quite a few
difficult time. Most women had three main stop our march to freedom-nothing can bombings at the time the film was to be shot
tasks: they raised children, took part in the break our spirit." Neither will this tragedy, and this made it impossible for us t'o shoot
social and civil life of their communities, and this dividing of our families, break our on schedule. Every bombing break had to
struggled in the battlefields. The fact that I struggle. We only hope that soon we may be be taken advantage of- and then to shoot as
am an actress did not and does not exempt reunited. much as possible. These quiet times were
me from these other duties; so I had, then, unpredictable ...
four occupations. So the Vietnamese women "They shared work together, lived together.
are very strong and there are often many and since time immemorial had made CW: How long did the film take to complete?
heroines among them. One well known to common cause against natural catastrophe
all of us is Ut Tich who, while raising six and enemy attack. A joy, a sorrow, a TG: From mid 1971 to the end of 1972 ...
children, took a very active lead in the difficulty, had seldom been experienced As I said before, it was shot under very dan-
guerilla movement in the south. Her life and alone; as a rule many shared in it. They gerous conditions. Aside from the time
deeds are very much repeated. 1'd like to cite all know what sharing means, without problems in shooting created by the wide-
these lines by her: "The women of Vietnam much being said about it. Denial, endless spread bombing, technical things like
will struggle to the last thread of clothing toil, the death of a loved one: every one sounding the film became problematic. We
and then to the last drop of blood." There of them has been equally subject to these sounded most of the film in a special studio
are quite a few women like her in both the things. And leave-taking, waiting: to be in Hanoi, but were sometimes forced to do it
north and the south. Such women you can able to live at all we have to learn to wait elsewhere in a car hidden in a bomb crater
find in the film we brought to the 8th for each other . ·.. One of the cruelest and sometimes even in the open air. So even
International Film Festival. ... (I know that weapons of the enemy in the South is to with editing, etc., we had to find out whether
you are opposed to the American aggression tear families apart, separate children from it looked like the bombings would continue
in Vietnam and also notice your long hair. parents, take the husband away from his for a long time and only then cou Id we
There is a saying in Vietnam that long-haired wife by force. Thus they try to extirpate chance continuing our work.
culture at its deepest root." ''Tra Giang" continued on page 110.

47

46
 ·1ew East
German Cinema:
NORMAN R. SEIDER
FILMOGRAPHY
1965: We Understand Each Other
1966: Then Spring My Heart
1967: Siberia, My Home
1968: Songs Make People
1969: Here and There
1970: She
1971: Portrait of Walter Felsenstein
1971: Portrait of Palucca
1971: Portrait of Paul Dessau
1970-71 :The Peasant Women
I r 1972: Haying Weather
1973: Tay - Ho, The Village in the Fourth
Zone
Gitta Nickel is a gifted, energetic and com-
passionate film director, writer and editor.
She has been making prize winning films
since 1965 and is certainly one of the very
best documentary filmmakers in the German
Democratic Republic. Her reputation is
widely known throughout all of Europe,
where she is frequently a juror in inter-
national film competitions, a special tµest of
film festivals and an engaged participan,t in
· film fi'lmposiums B11d panel discussions. Her
films tell their own stories through the
·individuals she portrays. There is no need for
narration. Each film expresses a very
definite feeling for humanity and a marvel-
ous sensitivjty.
Many of the concerns of her films are
completely universal. Much of the barrier
that language differences present is overcome
by the perfection of her visual concepts and
her directorial and editorial expertise. She is
I, I undoubtedly a filmmaker of the first rank
and one who will gain international promin-
. ence in the years to come.
t film was made in Siberia and was called
47
QUESTION: Gitta, please tell me how long
you have been making films?
GITTA NICKEL: Since 1965.
QUESTION: How did you begin in film?
GITTA NICKEL: I studied at Humbolt
University in Berlin. Actually, I studied
lower school teaching. I specialized in the
teaching of the German language and German
literature. Than I went to the Studio for
Popular Science Films to become an appren-
tice. I didn't really fit in there so I changed
to the Studio for Feature Films. I became
an assistant director and worked with
Konrad Wolfe, who is one of the very best
directors in the DOR. I also worked with
several other directors including Ralph
Kirsten. This was a very important period in
my life. It was a period of great learning.
Then I met Karl Gass who is one of the best
known documentary filmmakers in the DOR.
I worked with him for several years keeping
one foot in documentary films and the other
in feature films. I finally found that I was
really drawn to documentary films because
they are so direct; so much closer to the
thing I really want to do. In 1965, I directed
my own first film . The first three films I did
were in connection with one particular
subject: the question of German-Soviet
friendship and relations. To be specific, the
first film was about a kindergarten in a
section of Berlin where most of the Soviet
soldiers were stationed. The situation in this
school was sort of experimental in the sense
that both German and Soviet children were
together. It was very interesting. The next
film was about a cultural group, a singing
and dancing group of Soviet soldiers who
were stationed here, and about their travels
around the DOR and their relationships with
German people.
QUESTION: Did you use a narrator for these
early films?
GITTA NICKEL: No I did not. The indivi•
duals told their own sto~ies and established
a definite point of view. This was the start
of the style I now use. Let's say that it began
to emerge at this point. Anyway, the third
Siberia My House. It was about a big new
power plant in Bratsk, one of the biggest in
the world, and about the people building it.
An Interview
with Gitta Nickel
After this film, I again turried to subject
matter dealing with DDR. The first film was
concerned with the song movement here
which is very similar to the American
"hootenany." This is a very popular envolve-
ment in the DDR. There are approximately
three thousand such song clubs found in
almost every school, apprenticeship and
factory. Quite often, the people write their
own songs and compose their own music. My
film was about the "grandaddy" of these
clubs, one located. in Berlin, that started it
all. By the way, the concept was started here
by a Canadian who had learned it from Pete
Seeger.
QUESTION: What was the premise of this
film? Was it concerned with the attraction
of a singing club to people?
GITTA NICKEL: Yes and it also dealt with
how the members got their ideas for songs,
how the songs arose and why they were
written. There are no critical aspects to this
film. It is more a description of a situation.
The viewer gets to know some of the members
through the film. Small portraits of these
people begin to emerge. However, it does
not penetrate too deeply. It is a nice jolly
film which is pleasant to look at but not so
important. More important for me is a film
called Sie, which when translated in this
case, means She. It deals with the practical
problems of women trying to achieve equal
rights and emancipation. We present a
garment factory in Berlin where women
work at sewing on an assembly line. We meet
and get to know four different women from
different groups and backgrounds. One
woman works on the line, another is a trade
union functionary, a very fat and interesting
woman, a very good person. The third
woman is a production director and the fourth
woman is a doctor. She is a gynecologist and
an intellectual. We found, with regard to the
question of equal rights, that we've trained
huge numbers of women at college who have
received their diplomas but usually end
up as deputies. It is almost always the men
who are the bosses. Since this film deals
exactly with this problem, it is both a critical
and important film.
QUESTION: You are saying that there are
problems of equal rights for women in the
DOR?
GITTA NICKEL: Of course there are
problems. We have all of the laws which
guarantee equal rights here. They are on the
books, but how the women themselves
achieve these rights, how they put them into
practice, remains to be seen. There are all
kinds of problems. For example, not every
woman who works has the possibility of
bringing her child to a kindergarten or
nursery. A great many do, but there is
never enough room for all of them. This
remains, for the present, an unsolved prob-
lem. There are a huge number of nursery
schools and kindergartens, but never enough
to fill the demand. You must realize that
eighty-five percent of the women work here.
-Of course we have equal rights here, but not
every man has understood this.
QUESTION: Are there many women
working in film?
GITTA NICKEL: No, there are relatively
few. Fewer than in New York.
QUESTION: How many women film direc-
tors are there in the DDR?
GITTA NICKEL: There are only two that I
know of.
QUESTION: How many camerawomen are
there?
GITTA NICKEL: There are none in film,
but there are a number in television. Televisior, myself. In this regard, I direct, I edit, and I
is very different. There is a greater percentage write as well. However, sometimes another
of women working in that industry as direc-
tors and camerawomen. However, I do not
know the answer as to why that is so. Per-
haps it is because television needs more
· people since they produce so much more.
Film exacts a terrific responsibility. Fewer
films are made than television programs.
They must turn out alot of material. It is
easier to break into a field where so many
people are needed, than into a field like
cinema, where each film is a monument.
There is a tendency in television for the
women directors to be fairly anonymous.
Their names are not so well known. In fact,
I can't even think of any.
QUESTION: Are the men just as anonymous? and could not adhere to a rigid script.
GITTA NICKEL: In general I would say
48
yes, though a few names do stand out. Most
of the names are lost in the enormity of the
indU$try.
Ql!JESTION: How many women work on
your production crew?
GITTA NICKEL: Two, a production direc-
tor and an assistant director. However, when
we go abroad, the crew is male.
QUESTION: Why?
GITTA NICKEL: We can't find a sound
woman or an assistant camerawoman•.
Besides, I have a regular team that I work
with all the time. My cameraman is very
important to me. He sees as I do. His eye is
my eye. If I found a good woman, I would
take her. I am certainly not prejudiced.
au EST ION: Do you personally edi_t your
films or do you use an editor whom you
supervise?
GITTA NICKEL: I edit myself. It is most
important for me to do so and I would not
let anyone else do it. I must do it alone. I
must have the film in my own hands. I like
to experiment and try one thing or another.
With someone else, there is always the
possibility of back and forth discussion,
little disagreements, possible resistance to
ideas. I don't want to worry about what the
other person is thinking. I want to do it all
person writes the scenario with me. I have
never done a film written by someone else. I
couldn't do that. I will also work without a
script. I will work from a general conception
as I did in my recent film, Tay Ho, which was
made on location in Vietnam. I knew exactly
what I wanted and actually the story really
tells itself. Often, I will write a scenario
because it must be submitted in order to get
the commission and the money for produc-
tion, although I don't actually stick to the
exact script. For a documentary filmmaker
that would be impossible and as you well
know, so many things happen when you are
shooting;.you must be able to make immedi-
ate changes. Anyway, I am far too restless
QUESTION: Do you personally select the
:ubjects of your films?
GITTA NICKEL: Usually yes. Mostly yes.
Occasionally, I get a commission to do a film
for television. There have been three such
films and they have been portraits of famous
people. one of whom was Walter Felsenstein,
the head of the Comic Opera in Berlin. He is
one of the most famous opera personalities
in the world. I did another portrait of
Palucca, a famous teacher of modern dance
and a third portrait of Paul Dessau who is
one of our most famous composers. He
worked with Brecht and Eisler. I think well
of these films, but I don't want to do too
many since they tend to become routine.
QUESTION: How did you get started on
your Vietnam film? Did you have to
approach someone or a group?
GITTA NICKEL: It was my idea to this film.
When the war was drawing to a close I wanted problems that this film concerned itself with
to be there before it actually ended so I
could be there on the exact day that the war
stopped. Luckily the peace came earlier than
expected. I got there a little late as a result
of my proposal getting snagged briefly in a
bit of red tape.
QUESTION: To whom do you make proposals should
for films?
GITTA NICKEL: To the Dramaturgical
Committee of the Studio For Documentary
Film. They work out a yearly plan of work
for the studio.
QUESTION: How are you paid? Do you
receive a fixed salary?
GITTA NICKEL: I get a fixed sum each
month as a director and I receive a special fee
for scripts I write myself. For several years
the studio has also worked out "predicates"
which are listed as good, valuable and
especially valuable. If a film is awarded one of The film does not ignore this situation. It
these "predicates," the filmmaker receives a
bonus.
QUESTION: Would you say that this is an
incentive program 7
GITTA NICKEL: Yes, it does create incentive.
It is a pity that we don't have this in all areas.
Many people do a great deal of work on their
own and are not rewarded in this manner or
at all. Of course many people do things on
their own without a special material incentive.
50
' But you can't expect,people to labor all of the want to make films that have apparent or.
time on purely a moral basis. We have incentive second truths.
programs in many offices. factories and places
for work. Often it is successful, though some- QUESTION: Are any of your films avai
times it is not. with English subtitles or with an English
translation?
OU EST ION: Gitta. do you .feel creatively
fulfilled at the Studio For Documentary Film? GITTA NICKEL: Yes. Sie is. However,
English is not very good. It was,not done
GITTA NICKEL: Absolutely one hundred -vith subtitles. but with English com
percent!
STATEMENT: It would be valuable for
QUESTION: Would you discuss another film films to be seen in the United States,
that is close to you? especially at this time when so many
films are being made by women.
GITTA NICKEL: A favorite film of mine and
an impprtant one. is called Haying Weather. GITTA NICKEL: I have heard that the
It was made after Sie. I think that I succeeded Museum of Modern Art in New York is
best in this film. I think it was my most considering a retrospective of DD R films.
artistic film. I was able to take apart the Perhaps this will be an opportunity for
to show my work.
in a very direct and honest way. Everything
that is portrayed and said 1s honest and true. STATEMENT: I certainly hope so. I am
The film is also critical; it has many critical that American audiences would be inte
aspects. For me, it stands as an example of in your films both from the standpoint d
what a documentary film ought to do. We, technique and content.
who make documentary films. should take
part in a situation which is developing. We
play a role in it. I hate to be a
chronicler or commentator of my period anu
my society. I hate to be that. I want to take
an active part in the process that is going on.
This way, I have the feeling that I have helped
to set something in motion; that I have had an
effect. This was precisely the case in this film.
Haying Weather deals with a farm village. We
remained in this village for a long time.
QUESTION: What was critical about the film?
GITTA NICKEL: The film was critical of the
situation that existed during the early sixties.
There was a very difficult and complicated
situation in agriculture during those years.
tells the truth about it and it allows the
people to speak openly.
QUESTION: Where was this film shown?
GITTA NICKEL: On television and in
theatres. I believe it has been shown in all of
the film theatres. I noticed, from being
present at many of the showings, that the
audience was able to identify with the truth
as shown in the film. For the future., I never
49
 Evening-Dawn Graphics

51

50
Lives of Performers
CHUCK KLEINHANS
Lives of Performt1rs, directed by Yvonne
Rainer. 1972, 96 min., b&w, 16mm.
Distributed by Visual Resources, American
Film Library, 1640 Sroadway, New York,
N.Y. 10036.
"Lives of Performm 11 about .... " The
statement cannot be completed, for the film
does not rely on simple equation, on
syllogistic logic, on 'tause-and-effect thought
p~tterns. But It would be wrong to say that
the film is "poetic," for that word connotes
a certain looseness or ambiguity which would
not do justice to the fllm's careful and
precise thought. Nor could one say that the
film was "personal" for it does not indulge in
the private symbolism and meaning we
associate with personal films; yet Lives of
Performers is a profoundly personal film in
the sense that each viewer will experience a
very individual and unique response.
Let me start obliquely then, and say that
Lives of Performers belongs generally within
the direction of the contemporary arts which
is concerned with constructing an art work
that provides a complex matrix for the
audience, and which therefore allows each
viewer to have a unique experience of the art
work. The film has limits, boundaries, but it
is also immense; each viewing would elicit a
different response from the same person.
Many experimental or aesthetic films
basically present a maze or a puzzle with
only one way out, only one answer.
Imagine a film. that Initially startles through
exploiting one potential of cinema: say one
edited as a continuous uninterrupted series
of lap dissolves, or an experiment in the same
pattern shifting from black to white or
positive to negative. Such films, once the
path is found, simply provide the same
experience over and over with each viewing.
For Lives of Performers we could use the
metaphor of the labyrinth. There is an
entrance, and an exit, but in between as one
inexorably progresses In space/labyrinth
(time/film), each viewer can move along
various levels, side passages, parallel
corridors, detours, and so forth.
To be descriptive: Yvonne Rainer, one of
America's leading dancers/choreographers,
founded the Judson Dance Workshop in New
York eleven years ago. Her film shows
dancers in practice, still and motion pictures
of dance productions, and dancers as·actors
52
I
playing out an elaborate and repetitive drama
of interpersonal relations. Both the sound
track and visual track serve to further,
counterpoint, repeat with variations,
interrupt, and comment on each other.
Technically, the film is an elaborate
exploration of basic dance elements
generalized to the uniquely cinematographic:
stasis vs. movement, silence vs. sound, black
vs. white, life vs. art, flat vs. plastic, ritual vs.
natural, natural vs. cultural.
Lives of Performers has three recurrent
interrelated themes: performer/performance,
human interrelationship, and cliche. It begins
with dancers practicing exercises. lmmedi-
ately we are presented with multiple
identities or roles: (1) the "real person" we
see, (2) the dancer, (3) the dancer as
performer for other dancers (as performers),
at the practice session, and (4) all of the
preceding doubled by presence of the
camera (they are performing for us) and
(5) the presence of a tape recorder giving
a non-sync-sound track of instructions and
talk during the exercises. As the film
progresses, the multiplication continues:
the dancers are also (6) players in a drama,
sometimes (6a) directly, seen playing roles
on camera, sometimes (6b) as voices-over
reading a script for the drama, or (6c)
commenting voices-over on the visual track,
or (6d) within the drama, taking the role of
dancer. Plus (7) standing "outside," the
dancers are sometimes (on the soundtrack)
commenting on, through summary, laughter,
or aside, any of the preceding. It is the hall
of mirrors effect of films, plays within
plays ... a Pirandellian multiplication of
identity.
But it is not done on the cheap; rather 1t all
fits within an explorati.9n of our lives as
performances for others-performances in
which we become trapped ourselves, unsure
of when or how or if we can get out and be
authentic, be who we really are. The film
does not propose, finally, that we can get
out, or even that it is desirable to do
so, though it does show the agony of
being within the situation. In this, it is not
a pessimistic film, but rather stating for its
maker, "what is."
Lives of Performers is (or can be, for a
sympathetic viewer) an intensely personal
experience, for an elaborate and multiple
drama of human interaction runs par~llel to
the performer/performance theme. The film
51
is subtitled, "a melodrama"; the melodrama
consists of re-enactments of (apparently)
personal experiences from the dancers' lives.
Thus one repeated and recurrent dramatic
line has the situation of a married woman
both attracted to and repelled by her
husband, who is undecidedly going back
and forth between her and another woman.
The second woman, herself alternately
attracted/repelled later establishes a relation
to the first woman. Each of the three is
indecisive, thus we have theme and variati
with mostly variation as relations and
patterns are repeated again and again. Each
performs for the other-that is the essence
of relation-but by seeing the repetition,
can also see that for the most part all of
these performances within relationships are
cliches-basically inauthentic- and rely on
cliches: verbal, physical, emotional, psycho-
logical, and intellectual.
This complex multiplication is emphasized
throughout by an implicit series of questi
the film sets up. For example, the opening
sequence of dance exercises, quite naturally
shows a group of people doing the same
repetitious physical actions. and then each
one doing the same exercise with their own
time/rhythm, producing an individual
asymmetry within an overall symmetry. Thi
implicit problem which grows in the vie
mind is this: this is all repetition, and it is
necessary for dancers to master technique,
but at the same time, repetttion can
become cliche in interpersonal relationshi
Is that inevitable? The melodramatic lines
and actions re-emphasize this problem, for
being cliches, they exert a powerful effect
engaging the viewer precisely because all
of us act in repetitious/cliched ways. The
effect is to set up reverberations in the
audience. Especially for anyone who is
presently in or in the past has been in the
situation of being one of a three-person
sexual interrelationship and attempting to
work out the complexities of the situation
when it is not functioning to the satisfact'
of all three. (Perhaps three is too narrow:
two would do.) Of course the very fact of
cliche and repetition gives psychotherapists
material to work on, and it explains why
one can see friends (having distance on
them) either going through the same
pattern again and again (with variation) or
changing old patterns and growing into new
ones. (Of course the inverse is that it is
damnably hard to see one's own patterns ,
being so close to them, and even harder to
will a change of them.)
Thus the film's multipli city. In one sequenc e
of exercises, shot silent, a basic acting
exercise is shown again and again:
A and B are seated talking in a room. C
enters and shows the reaction of _ _ __
A's reaction is
---- - ; B's is
----
(A similar cinematographic exercise is to
take the preceding and shoot it ( 1) as a
single long take, (2) as a shot sequenc e,
(3) with a static camera, (4) with a moving
camera, (5 ... ) etc., etc.) W.e have in such a
situation a multipli city of relations and
individual concept s of relations. Thus with
A and B alone there is A's relation to Band
B's relation to A. When C arrives the number
of relations increases from two to six, plus
we can then add what A thinks of the dual
relation B-C, what B thinks of the dual
relation A-C and what C thinks of the dual
relation A-B. We can also add the reflectio n
of each on the situation (e.g., what C thinks
of the realization that B has a reaction to the
dual relation A-C, etc. Actually the presence
of a camera adds a silent voyeur, D, and
further multipli cation since the audience has
all of the above relations /reaction s available
plus its own relation to each separate one.
These multiplic ations produce an effect that
might be called "reverbe ration." Reverbera-
tion is then, the multipli city of passageways
and levels in the labyrint h of the film. And
additional aesthetic effect is gained in the
film through the interplay of form and
content, which generally through out the
film oppose each other. To make a crude
schema: [see page 54)
The embracing term for this crude set of
oppositions is the concept of cliche. That is,
through the film's positing of a series of
oppositions, we learn, in an intuitive , not a
directly rational way, the nature of cl iches:
filmic cliches, interpers onal cliches, artistic
cliches, and "real life" cliches.
The reverberation effect allows the audience
to examine cliches and to critique them, but
inaunique way for each viewer. One's
response is unconsc ious and conscious,
emotional and intellect ual; it is a response to
form and content and to the interplay of
alt" the separate element s.
That said, the film might seem incredib ly
difficult to understa nd and experien ce, but
it isn't. All of our minds perform such
immensely complic ated activities every day.
This film transfor ms the complex ity of
everyday life into art, which makes it
immensely easier to analyze the complex
activities into parts. Lives of Perform ers is
more delibera tely complex than the average
fictional narrative film. The latter, a Holly-
wood film, say, stands in a rather simple
relations hip to "life": it is mimetic , that is
it imitates life, or is an artistic represen tation
of it. This kind of film, as Andre Bazin was
fond of saying, is a "window on the world."
The fictional narrative film is especially
appealing to audience s because of its
apparen t closeness to "life." Even when
various delibera tely "artistic " element s are
added to the fictional variation, as in
Bergman's Persona or Fellini's 8½ these
especially aesthetic devices such as delibera te
psychological symboli sm do not so much
jeepen the work, but expand it horizont ally
through symboli sm, ambigui ty, irony,
metapho ric elaborat ion, and so forth. These
art films are, elaborat ing Bazin, "greenho uses
on the world." In contrast , Lives of
Performers chooses a differen t approac h,
which could be called self-reflective. Rather
than seeking closeness to life, Rainer's film
eschews the concept of mimesis and sub-
stitutes a critique of mimesis. In this, her
film is like some of those of Jean-Marie
Straub, such as Othon. We could say such
films are blueprin ts for window s and green-
houses on the world.
An example of Lives of Performers as a
52
self-reflective stateme nt is found in the
introduc tion of the melodra matic situation s.
To a visual track of a still of a dance perfor-
mance amid a table of papers, a script is read
by several of the dancers. The script has
several characte rs conversing, but the reading
is extreme ly flat and especially irritating .
until we realize it is delibera te: we can also
hear the readers turning the pages of their
scripts: Finally, another voice gives a
"natural " recall of the situation read. The
effect is to make obvious the cliches of the
script. The mimetic Hollywo od film never
betrays a consciousness of its verbal/
behavorial cliches; in fact it does its best
to·hide them. Similarly, one could say that
Persona, for all of its very consciou sly artistic
construc tion, does not so much intend to
expose verbal/behavioral cliches (or
perform ances, we might call them) as to
laterally elaborate them. You can analyze
them yourself in viewing Persona, but the
film itself does not require you to do so.
Lives of Performers does require you to do
so. This is not to say that Rainer is
superior to Bergman; it is to say that they
are distinctl y differen t. Lives of Perform ers
is highly conscious of its artistry, of its
artificiality, of its assault on the easy
"identif ication" demand ed by more repre-
sentation al films.
It should not be assumed, however, that
"more complex " is somehow aesthetically
or politically better by its very nature.
Consider a case in point from Lives of
Performers. In one sequenc e a woman
approach es a man to talk about their
relations hip. The sound-o ver summar izes
her intention s, and adds, "She showed him
her solo." Then in a single long take, this
woman's solo dance is shown. It is exceptio n-
53
form sound and visual track theme and variation
approximates approximates
content melodramatic situations uniqueness of interpersonal relations

ally well-performed and meaningful within need, unless we are simply to be amused at
the film's development to that point. (I wandering through it again and again (and
hesitate to call it "expressive" because of the through the complexities of our own lives in
unique ambiguity of solo dence. Dance is a relation to others, our own performances),
stylized presentation that uses the limits is a map of the labyrinth. I am reminded of
of the human body. Thus dance, given the the feminist critiques of psychotherapy and
Inescapable concreteness of the dancer, has the slogan of the magazine Rough Times
a limit on its abstractness, no matter how (formerly the Radical Therapist): "therapy
nonrepresenta tional it may be. Compare means change, not adjustment." In the last
William Butler Yeats' question, how can you analysis, lives of Performers speaks of
tell the dancer from the dance?) As the solo change, but only for individual change. And
ends, the visual track cuts back to the couple without social change as well, change of
close together and the voice-over says, individuals is finally adjustment to an
"He said, 'Why did you show me that? I've oppressive society.
seen it a hundred times before.' " (para-
phrased from memory). This remark is both
(1) probably true since they are both dancers
within the same company, and (2) a cruel
response to her attempt to give, to show, to
perform for him. Within the film this much,
and all the various individual reactions (the
reverberation effect, above) can be exper-
ienced and understood. What cannot be
understood from within the film is that the
cruelty of his response is an example of
male chauvinism. Granted, the phrase "male
chauvinism" is overworked, imprecise, ...
cliched, as a term. But the term stands for
an undeniable reality. Thus it is also a
conceptual and liberating phrase. It is
conceptual because it deals with more than
specific (and perhaps ambiguous) cases, and
it is liberating because it provides a larger
understanding, a social and political
understanding of life and one's relationship
to it. (Similarly, a friend once remarked to
me that she had always thought the phrase
"American imperialism" was a piece of
crude left sloganeering and propagandizing,
until she learned, through anti-war activity,
that indeed, there was such a thing as
American imperialism.)

Lives of Performers is a fascinating film

which is useful for study, for learning about
film and about ourselves. It is especially
useful for filmmakers and film students
interested in breaking with older forms of
film. (Caveat renter: the film is not recom-
mended for the general film club audiences
unfamiliar with or unsympathetic to experi-
mental film.) However, Lives of Performers
implicitly shows that only when an explicit
political view is at the basis of a film can the
film function as a meta-commen tary on the
situations presented within it. As it is, Lives
of Performers is a labyrinth, but what we
~

53
,Germaine Dulac:
First Feminist Filmmaker
WILLIAM VAN WERT
"Puis l'essentiel n'est-il pas que nous soyons
nos maitres, et les maitres des femmes, de
l'amour, aussi?"
"What is most important, is it not that we be
our own masters and the masters of women
and also of love?"
Andre Breton, Manifestes du surrea/isme,
1924. (page 28 in the Gallimard French
edition)
In the ten years between 1920 and 1930,
French film established itself as the equal
of the American, Russian and German
cinemas; more improtantly, it showed a
skeptical world that film was indeed a
serious and formidable art form. Freed
from its false reputation as a sub-genre of
theater or photography, French film in this
decade began to command respect and
appreciation from artists and audiences alike
for its potential both as product (document)
and as performance (fiction). It attracted
painters (Duchamp, Picabia, Leger, Dali) and
poets (Breton, Desnos). They foresaw very
dearly that film would become an immensely
popular art, a means of reaching audiences
beyond the bookstores and museums,
beyond national boundaries of territory and
language. They believed that the cinema
had almost messianic powers, that through
film the post-war audience could be restored
to a lost innocence, away from rationalism,
determinism and naturalism toward the
ancient art of pure sensation and environ-
ment.
By far the most important and the most
prolific filmmaker of the decade was
Germaine Dulac, whose film style proceeded brings in the mail. Mr. Beudet (played by
from psychological realism and symbolism
through surrealism to documentaries and
formal attempts at transposing musical
structures to film; her ultimate goal was that extends to all women, including his wife. By
film at its highest level of achievement
should become a visual symphony. Yet
Germaine Dulac has been largely overlooked fully, even greedily, because the mail offers
or else slandered by most film histo'rians.
One reason might be that Dulac cannot be
put into categories: for example, she was
making films before the above-mentioned
Surrealists, and she was still making films in opera that evening. Beudet excitedly shows
the 1930's when most of the Surrealists had the letter and the opera tickets to Madame
stopped. Another reason might be that
Dulac's films have never received wide
distribution, either in France or elsewhere.
This second reason is linked with a third two subjective point-of-view shots to show
reason, perhaps the most important reason that Madame Beudet clearly understands
of all: Germaine Dulac was intensely the Faust story (male fantasy, female victim)
interested in the image of women in film. all too well. Mr. Beudet's reactions, when he
An analysis of both an early film and a cannot comprehend his wife's indifference or
later film of Dulac demonstrates thats.he lethargy, are always violent reactions, like
was the first feminist filmmaker. pounding his fists on his desk. Dulac can
deftly show in one such shot of pounding
Her 1922 film The Smiling Madame Beudet fists that Mr. Beudet demands attention
could really be retitled "The Original Diary both through pouting and brute force.
of a Mad Housewife." It is one of the few
films of the decade in which women are not Madame Beudet's reactions to such situations
fragmented, not shown as sexual freaks, not are always symbolic, that is, to be under-
stripped in close-ups or through editing to stood on at least two levels. Outwardly, she
reveal a bleeding mouth, bared breasts or maintains the docile posture of a subdued
buttocks. It is one of the few films of the housewife, but inwardly, through Dulac's
decade in which a woman is main character. use of point-of-view shots, she shows
herself to be capable of many imaginative
The film is heavily influenced by French fantasies. Such point-of-view shots are clearly
Symbolism (especially Baudelaire) in recognizable in Dulac's films, since they
content, by the theater in its use of type- involve the use of slow-motion, or wide-angle
acting for everyone but Madame Beudet, lens-distortion, or some means of trick
and by D. W. Griffith in its form: the use of photography. For example, Madame Beudet
sentence fragments in the titles to convey looks at a picture of a male tennis player in
pieces of dialogue, the use of shadows to a book. The tennis player becomes her
separate the mundane from the mysterious, symbolic lover, her agent of revenge upon
and the use of highlighting on the heroine. her stupid husband. Against a completely
In later Dulac films, narration and theatrical black background, the tennis player swings
acting and sets will disappear ("One can his racket in slow motion. In Madame
move an audience without characters or Beudet's fantasy the tennis player enters the
actors, without having recourse to theatrical room; we know that he is part of her fantasy,
means: for example, the song of train since we can see through his body to the
tracks and wagon wheels."). But here we walls behind. While the real Mr. Beudet
must remember that her main character is continues to sit at his desk, an imaginary
a housewife. Dulac was more concerned Beudet is picked up and choked by the
here with psychic sex and violence than with tennis player. The usually unsmiling
the fragmented physical sex and violence of Madame Beudet smiles and even laughs
the later Surrealists. heartily. The real Beudet, meanwhile, think-
ing that his wife is making fun of him, pulls
Action begins in the film when the maid a gun out of his desk drawer and puts it to
his head. A title: "Parody of suicide. A joke
Arquilliere- accepts his mail gruffly, often perpetrated on dear Mrs. Beudet."
because he thinks it contains more bills to But since Madame Beudet does not look,
pay. His gruff treatment of the maid he puts the gun down.
contrast, Madame Beudet (played by When Mr. Beudet leaves for the opera,
Germaine Duirnoz) accepts her mail grate- Madame Beudet is left alone in the unlighted
room. At times like this, when she is left
her a temporary escape from her boredom. alone, we are given glimpses of the depth of
In one of Mr. Beudet's letters is an invitation her personality, of all the suppressed life
from his friend Mr. Labas (played by Jean forces within her. She picks up a book of
D'Yd) to a presentation of Faust at the Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil, and turns to
"The Death of the Lovers." For each line
that she reads, a corresponding shot of
Beudet. Confronted with her indifference, objects in the room both reinforces the
he asks her angrily : "How is it that you don't verbal line and undermines it by the inherent
want to understand Faust?" Dulac inserts banality of the objects. She reads: "Our beds
55
54

are filled with soft smells," and we see a
shot of the Beudets' unused bed. She reads:
"And pillows deep as graves," and we see
two stacked but again unused pillows. She
reads: "And strange flowers on the shelves," ·
and we see the flowers that Mr. Beudet
always arranges in the center of the table,
but that Madame Beudet always rearranges
off to one side. Her reading epitomizes the
whole film, epitomizes the agonizing
differences between imagination/potential
(poetry) and her own frustrated existence.
She walks to the window. A title tells us:
"Always the same horizons." The next shot
we see is that of the jail, both in her mind
and also physically across the street.
At this point, blocked by the walls that
surround her, she returns to her fantasy of
the "lover" coming to save her. As the
blurred image steps through the closed door,
the face slowly comes into focus: it is the
smiling, mocking, demonic face of Mr.
Beudet. Her enslavement is so total that her
husband dominates even her fantasies. His
face is especially grotesque, because Dulac
uses a wide-angle lens to both flatten and
enlarge the facial features. Madame Beudet
takes the real gun out of the drawer and
loads it. Then she goes to bed.
The final sequence of the film is a return to
the opening tableaux shots. Mr. Beudet is
again at his books, this time looking at all
the household expenses. He has the maid call
his wife in to account for all the expenses.
He cannot, however, begin to approach a
rational conversation. He begins pounding his
fists again, then pulls the gun out and puts it
to his head. Madame Beudet, who knows
that the gun is loaded, jumps back in fright.
He says: "It's you who deserves it more than
me." He shoots the gun into the room, and
there is a quick cut to the cat running
downstairs, an incredible insert to convey
the shock and sound of the gun going off.
Immediately we see a flower vase broken.
Mr. Beudet runs over to his wife and hugs
her, his back to us, her drained, expression-
less face to us. "So you wanted to kill
yourself?" he says. "But how could I
possibly live without you?" he says,
squeezing her stiff body. Behind them in a
picture frame, a drama finishes with a story-
book ending. There are puppets in the
mirror. A man and woman hug, then a
curtain comes down. Then the word
•
The Sealhe/1 and the Clergyman.
''Theater." This excellent mise-en-abime
.metaphor, like that of the poetry, is typical
of. Germain Du lac's amazing ability to cap-
sulize whole worlds of feeling in brief, static said: "Sadism-protest which leads to revolt
shots, and to use the symbolic possibilities
of the camera, animating the inanimate
(the tennis player, the imaginery "lover,"
the mirror) or conferring special importance
to objects, while making into statues people
whose existence contains little hope of true
feeling.
Dulac gives us one last title: "United by
habit." In the last visual of the film, Mr.
and Mrs. Beudet are walking down the street. as men fancy them to be in dream and
Mr. Beudet tips his hat to a passing priest.
His hat tipped, he turns his face briefly to
the camera. All we see of the "smiling"
Madame Beudet is her back, and we realize
with a chill that she is nothing more than a
showpiece for her husband on the street,
that she is no better off outside of the house consistently portray women as fetishists
or in the provinces than she was inside the
house or in the shadows of the city. She is
a victim, without future, without escape.
In the years following the release of The
Smiling Madame Beudet several Dada
painters turned to film, trying to write
automatic films, films without plots, films
that produced visual shocks through
innovative close-ups, fragmentation of
objects and rapid editing. Francis Picabia
collaborated with Rene Clair to make
Entr'acte, Marcel Duchamp made Anemic
Cinema and Fernand Leger made Ballet
Mecanique. But the first truly Surrealistic
film was Germaine Dulac's The Seashell and
the Clergyman ( 1928, script by Antonin
Artaud). In this film she exploits the
Freudian symbolism of her male colleagues.
She ma.kes a film in their style, in order, at
the end, to expose male. fantasies. For this
reason, the clear distinction between
objective reality and subjective point-of-view As he passes through the frame, the camera
shots that exists in The Smiling Madame
Beudet no longer exists in The Seashell and
the Clergyman. Before looking at the film,
it would perhaps be interesting to note what
the Surrealists appreciated in later non-
surrealist films.
Since most of the Surrealists vvere men
(Leonor Fini is an admirable and astonishing woman, he is seated and pouring liquids. Ht
exception), they tended to admire certain
films for reasons that would be offensive to
most women. For instance, they loved King
55
Kong, especially the scene in which Kong
rips off Fay Wray's clothes. Apropos of
scene, Ado Kyrou, a leading Surrealist cri
after passing through love is the only one
that has value for man. " 4 They Ioved von
Sternberg's The Blue Angel (1930) for the
many shots of Marlene Dietrich's thighs,•
seen by a roving, caressing, fondling came
They loved Groucho Marx's sadistic handl'
of wealthy matrons and Harpo Marx's com-
plete surrender to his own libido. The
portrayal of women in all of these examples
is never as women actually are, but always
fantasy.
In the Surrealists' own films, the same male
fantasies and stereotypes of women prevail.
They exalt free sex and violence, yet they
do not discard the double standard. They
transvestites, phenomena which sexologist
John Money says occur mainly in men. Or
they portray women as castrating mothers
or mindless nymphomaniacs. They portray
women as statues, as machines, as half-
animals. What films like Man Ray's L 'Etoill
de Mer, Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou and
Cocteaus's Le Sang d'un Poete propose is
that men see women with their eyes openly
as they had always seen them with their
minds: as sexual objects to be fragmented
and possessed. The one exception is
Germaine Du lac's The Seashell and the
Clergyman.
In the opening shots we see the back of a
woman, seated at a table. She is pouring
liquid into bottles, then throwing them on
the floor. The glass breaks and the liquid
becomes smoke. A fat man dressed in
military uniform walks in slow motion, his
feet high-stepping in a kind of goose step.
gets a beautiful close-up of the sword
(phallic symbol) trailing behind him. And•
the woman continues to break bottles, he
levitates behind her, his head sticking to the
ceiling. The scene fades.
Enter the clergyman (Alex Allin), a thin,
nervous, "effeminat e" priest. like the
is pouring them, however, into a seashell.
The colonel comes in and stops him. By the
repetition of the opening scene, by substitlt
 ting the priest for the woman and the focused on the sword of the colonel after squeezing the woman into a little ball and
seashell for the bottle, it is suggested that he had walked out of the frame. In one trapping her within his fists. His hands still
the colonel represen ts a kind of sexual brilliant shot, Dulac shows us that the priest closed, he walks over to the ball, which seems
stereotype of aggression for both the priest identifie s both with the colonel
and with more like a vault or prison or tabernac le
and the woman, that the priest and the the woman. He does not want to possess the now, given his actions. We see her face, a
woman are to be compare d and contrast ed, woman, the real woman, sexually captive inside the ball. This shot identifies
; rather,
and that the priest and the colonel are rivals he wants to become her, he
wants to become even further his sexuality with hers, since
for the woman. his idealized embodim ent of her. He wants his face had been a captive in the ball earlier.
her to become, like the seashell, a symbol The film ends with this shot of her face in
Images and sequence s objectify ing the sexual that he can
possess without risking himself the ball, and we are left wonderi ng whether
overtones of religious confessi on reveal the sexually
. Later the priest runs backwar d into this final shot is Surrealis m or realism, a
prurient and violent nature of religion. the church, his refuge, his womb, where twist of the unreal (or more-tha n-real). or
After a long series of shots in which the he backs up to the pedestal with the ball whether it is rather a turn of the everyday
priest locks doors and twirls keys first as
restored . He motions with his finger for world, women as sex objects trapped inside
phallic symbols and then as masturb atory someone unseen (presum ably the woman) to the crystal-ball prisons that are the minds
symbols, we see the priest chasing the come in. A close-up of the curling finger, of such men.
colonel and the woman. In a beautifu l shot.
shot in slow motion, is here a tremend ously
Dulac shows us the woman, who holds her
powerfu l shot. The film created a great deal of controve rsy
dress up with one hand, while the colonel
when it first came out, since Artaud, who
holds his sword up with his opposite liand: Up to this point, the film has been typically had written the script, publicall y claimed
thus, the dress of the woman becomes and faithfull y Surrealis tic, the dreams and that Dulac had betrayed his scripts, had
visually linked with the sword of the colonel fantasies, the slow
motion and dissolves, the destroye d his original idea of what the
and the metapho r is concreti zed. split screens and editing upon associati on film should be. Indeed, at the first showing
rather than upon linear narrative or cause- of the film, Artaud and Desnos disrupte d
In a later shot. eight maids come into a room and-effe ct, all represen ting
the inner states the whole audience by screaming from the
and begin dusting. They are dressed in black of the priest, making his interior
world the first row. Desnos: ''What is Madame Dulac?"
and white, which links them with the only world, the outer world, equating Artaud: "She is a cow." Artaud enlisted the
religious life. They begin to dust a huge ball religion and violence and sex. But
here, for help of the other Surrealis ts in denounc ing
on a pedestal in the center of the room. As the final shots of the film, Germain e Dulac Germain e Dulac, for having, as critic Alain
they dust, the face of the priest begins to chillingly breaks away from Surrealis m Virmaux says, "feminis ed" the script! The
emerge in the ball. From the priest's point toward realism, in order to expose the priest was suppose d to have been played by
ofview, the effect is that of a harem priest's fantasies for whay they pathetic ally Artaud himself, accordin g to Artaud. As
masturbating him. The women leave, and are. For a moment , we are no longer inside such, the priest was to have been much more
the priest comes in with the woman for a the priest's disorien ted mind, but rather masculine, and his fantasies were to have
mock wedding. The "priest" officiatin g at outside, watching -the real priest. Contrary been filled with.ma sculine rage and fury,
the wedding is, of course, the colonel. Then to the usual Surrealis
t method in film, not revealed as the pathetic fantasies of a
the ball, which has been covered up Dulac moves from the subjective point-of - hung-up priest. Regarding the film, Ado
(representing the priest's sexuality covered view shot here to the objective , authoria l Kyrou, filled with self-righteous indignance,
up) is unveiled (the priest is "corning out"). camera shot, for
these final shots cannot reported : "The script is very beautifu l;
The priest picks up the ball, but since he is possibly belong to the priest's fantasy world. filled with eroticism and fury, it could have
impotent, he drops it, and it smashes into In other words, up to this point, the priest been a film in the same class as Bunuel's
little pieces on the floor, correspo nding to that we've seen is the priest within the L 'Age d'Or, but Germain e Dulac betrayed
the visual of the woman breaking bottles on unseen thinking
priest's mind. Now we see the spirit of Artaud and made a FEMININE
the floor in the beginning of the film. The the real priest; now we clinically observe his film. Artaud, who wished to play the role
priest's face is seen among the pieces of last fantasy from outside. of the clergym an and participa te in the
glass. He picks it up, and it becomes a
shooting and editing, could do nothing
seashell. The priest sees his face upside- That we are in the realm of realism is about it, since Germain e Dulac had delayed
down in the seashell. The seashell, thus, is poignant ly brought out in this shot of the the original shooting date, knowing that
both a religious-and a sexual symbol: it is real priest holding, hugging, squeezin g, Artaud would than be taken up with other
asymbol of suppress ed sexuality , of sacrifice. fondling -empty air. _If we were still in
his obligatio ns.' 12 Bettina Knapp also recognizes
fantasy world, we would of course see the this cry of indignance as a masked cry
In another scene the priest begins to more priest fondling the woman. But we are not. against feminism, but even she refuses to see
toward the woman, and we see that his black The woman, who has only been there in
the the extent of Dulac's feminism in the film;
cmock is cut in two and that there is a long mind of the priest, is now absent, as in
reality her interpret ation of the film remains
flowing train to his cassock, a replica in she has always been absent. AfMr squeezin g couched in Jungian terms of a?imus and
black of the woman's white evening gown. empty air, the priest begins to choke the anima. 3 Only Alain Vlrmaux , of all the
The camera focuses on the train after the air. His hands close up, as if he were
priest walks out of the frame, just as it had French critics, recogn1zes that The 'Seashell
"Germai ne Dulac'' continue d on page 103.
57

56
Heart of the Avant-Garde:
So111e Biographical Notes
TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY SANDY FUTTERMAN
One of the most important figures in the de-
velopment of Fre"ch cinema, Germaine
Dulac was an independent, sensitive, pro-
gressive filmmaker and film theoretician as
well as an ardent feminist. Her passionate
interest in experiment and new ideas and her
devotion to film as a serious art form have
earned her respectful consideration as the
"heart of the avant-garde." She was a
militant activist for an intelligent, free, "pure
cinema," and her work (both theoretical and
practical) crystallized the fundamentals of
cinematic art. She continually strove to
reconcile cinema as a means of artistic
expression with its inherent commercial
contingencies.
Born November 17, 1882, in Amiens,
Charlotte-EI isabeth-Germaine Saisset-
Schneider grew up in a middle class envir-
onment. She spent the earlier part of her
childhood moving between Paris and Saint-
Etienne or Compiegne where her father, a
cavalry captain, was stationed. Later she
went to live with her grandmother in Paris,
where she studied music (especially W!lgner)
and became interested in photography. In
1905 she married Marie-Louis Albert Dulac,
an agricultural engineer. Eager for a career,
58
she went into journalism and from 1909 to
1913 she worked on the staff of "La
Fran~aise" (a feminist publication), inter-
viewing famous women and composing
"portraits." She also worked on the editorial
staff of "La Fronde,'' a radical feminist
journal of the time. She gave up interviewing
to become the drama critic of "La Francaise,
and during this time one observation she
made is revealing in light of her later theor-
etical works on film: she found the comic
opera to be the "definitive form of theatre"
because of its combination of words and
music. But she was beginning to be convinced
that it would be through the cinema that
she would exteriorize her artistic ideal-
"Of all the arts, not one has been able to
sum up my feelings like the cinema. Only
through the image have I been able to
express all of my thoughts." 1
In 1914 Dulac helped her friend Stacia de
Napierkowska with the filming of Caligula,
and thus familiarized herself with the
rudiments of filmmaking. Late in 1915 she
founded a production company with Irene
Hillel-Erlanger, her first scenarist 2 and Albert this way to the development of French
Dulac. The first film, Les Soeurs Ennemies,
57
was distributed by Pathe. Since a great many
men had been called up to fight in the War,
this was an opportune moment for a
wqman entering the film industry: the arrival
of a woman in the studios was accepted and
even encouraged. 1916 saw the production of
three more films, all written by Hillel-
Erlanger: Glo-Le-Mysterieux, Venus Victrix,
and Dans L 'Ouragan De La Vie.
In 1917 Dulac made an episode film ( a
serial), Ames De Fous, for which she herself
had written the scenario. Although some •
critics objected to her "impressionistic"
technique-her use of back-lighting, silhou-
ett~s. and shadows, Dulac felt that her
"suggestive method," which possibly took
hold of the public without their being aware
of .
. it, accounted for the popularity of the
film. She wrote:
Ames De Fous "made me understand that
beyond precise facts and events, atmos-
phere is an element of emotion, that the
emotional value of a film lies less in the
action than in the subtitles it exudes
and that if the expression of an acto; is
obviously of value in itself, it can only
attain its fullest intensity by a comple·
mentary play of images coming in reaction
to it. Lighting, camera placement and
editing all appeared to me as more essential
elements than the production of a scene
uniquely played according to dramatic
laws."3
Already Dulac was articulating a conception
of cinema as art, cinema in which artistry
was more important than commercial value.
She was positing an evocative cinema, one
which aimed at creating effects rather than
producing plots with commercial audience
appeal. .
Eve Francis, who starred in Ames De Fous,
introduced Dulac to the filmmaker and writer,
Louis Delluc, another significant figure in the
development of the French cinema. Together
with several other radical filmmakers they
formed a group known as the "Impressionists,"
often referred to as the "first avant-garde."
This movement concentrated on developing
a cinema which was truly French and truly
cinematic. Because of their efforts, film-
makers in France were able to learn from
foreign films. (Some of the films relevant in
cinema were Intolerance, The Cabinet of
on Germaine Dulac
Dr. Caligari, Chaplin films, The Aryan (a
Western produced by Thomas Ince), The
Cheat (Cecil B. DeMille), The Phantom
Chariot (Victor Sjostrom).
The fruitful collaboration with Delluc was
cut short by Delluc's untimely death in 1924.
Before making La Fm Espagnole (1919)
with Delluc, who had written the screenplay,
Dulac made one other film, Le Bonheur Des
Autres (1918). In this film, a theatre
sequence occurs in which Eve Francis plays
the role of Hamlet. Delluc praised the sheer
beauty of the film's rhythm, tone, and style,
declaring, "That, to me, is cinema." 4
La Ftte Espagnole was praised by some
critics (who called Dulac's directing "remark·
able" and "first rate") and harshly attacked
by others. But in trying to capture the
exoticism of the American Westerns, Dulac
and Delluc encountered numerous obstacles;
it was due to Du lac's ingenuity that the film
didn't seem entirely artificial. Since the film
couldn't be shot in Spain (it was done in the
South of France), Dulac avoided general
shots and concentrated on details like walls,
isolated benches under trees, etc. Most
notable in the film is the fiesta sequence,
which was shot in a quasi-documentary
style. Aesthetically the film was recognized
as revolutionary in its technique in spite of
the shortcomings posed by material difficul·
ties.
In the period between La Fete Espagnole
and The Smiling Madame Beudet ( 1922),
Dulac perfected her technique and formulated
her theories of psychological characterization
in film. La Cigarette (1919) evokes an unreal,
vague atmosphere. La Belle Dame Sans
Merci (1921), based on a scenario by Hillel-
Erlanger, achieved what Louis Delluc called
"the touch, the sensitivity, the sense of
distillation, a sort of style which makes you
think of Manet at his best." 6 In La Mort Du
Solei/ (1922) Dulac tried to render a psycho-
logical state objectively by inserting a "sen-
sitive commentary" into a key scene of the
film. Through the play of light and shadows,
she tried to evoke the spiritual state of mind
of the character. This visual evocation was to
be "equal in intensity and cadence to (the
value] of the physical and moral ambience." 6
Unfortunately this scene was cut from the
film, evidently because the spectators were
disturbed by the psychological elaboration
which interrupted the action. In addition to
these three films, Dulac worked on several
projects that were never completed: two
films based on novels-Werther and Manon,
a short film inspired by "Le Lac" by
Lamartine, and one based on "Le Cachet
Rouge" by Vigny.
La Souriante Madame Beudet appeared
in Paris in November 1923. It had been
adapted from a play by Andre Obey which
had attempted to apply the "theory of
silence" to the stage. The film depicts the
provincial existence of a sort of Madame
Bovary, married to a merchant in Chartres,
who seeks escape from the tyranny of her
husband and her insipid life through an
imaginative and vivid dream-world. Previous
films had experimented with rendering the
psyehology of the characters (Feyder's
Crainquebille and Delluc's Fumee Noire,
Le Silence, and La Femme du Nulle Part);
Dulac elaborated on this precedent by
attempting to objectify psychological states,
discovering cinematic techniques to translate
the thoughts of her characters into visual
terms. In order to present images as seen
through Mme. Beudet's imagination, Dulac
utilized all of the technical resources of the
cinema-distortions, superimpositions, slow
motion, unusual camera angles, etc. In
addition to this meticulous use of the sub-
jective camera, Dulac concentrated on the
use of specific detail to elaborate on the psy·
chology of the chai:acters.
This film established Dulac's reputation as a
talented artist, however she still had diffi.
culty obtaining backing from producers who
were more interested in commercial value.
She became a sort of legend in the studios,
as rather picturesquely described by Andre
Daven:
"Her fingers made up of rings, her wrists
adorned with trinkets, an ankle circled
with gold. A cane. She smokes, smokes.
Her right hand twisting a cigarette, her left
anchored in the pocket of her suit, give
conviction to what she does. At the studio
she ignores people, hours, meals. Smokes,
smokes. Vehemently she rushes about.
Lashes herself forward, and spurred on,
gives orders. She is perfectly urbane ...
and smokes, smokes." 7
In 1921 Dulac visited Hollywood, where
she met D. W. Griffith, and was greatly
58
impressed by the level ot technical efficiency
in the Hollywood studios. Upon her return,
hoping to appeal to a more general audience,
she went to work for the Societe des Cine-
Romans, (these were serial films, a very
popular genre during that period). She made
Gossette (1922-23), a film in several episodes
which was praised by critics for its technical
virtuosity. Dulac was extremely interested
in the psychological value of the image; this
concern is at the basis of her unique style.
In Gossette this was evident in her careful
attention to lighting and the use of close-ups,
as well as a sort of "visual symphony" which
included shots of nature-fluttering leaves,
scythes cutting wheat, shafts bending, etc.
Marie-Anne Malleville, Oulac's assistant,8
says that Dulac visualized each film at the
moment the scenario was written; thus she
was able to follow the shooting script very
closely and was only rarely forced to impro-
vise. Her acute visual sense is one of the
hallmarks of her art.
Le Diable Dans La Ville (1924) was a feature
film which allowed Dulac to concentrate on
her aesthetic preoccupations rather than on
the plot requirements of the melodramatic
episode-film. Of this film about fanatacism in
the Middle Ages she said:
"[It] will be my first film in which
movement is important. It is a film of
crowds, a bit satirical, with a slight
tendancy toward caricature. The soul
which stirs about in my film is that of
a small town in the Middle Ages. And
its activity will necessarily be an activity
of the masses, with all its elements: the
leaders, the figurehead authorities,
the peaceful flock, the discontented
flock. Jean-Louis Bouquet has written
a very successful social satire."9
Reminiscent of Caligari, the film was shot
entirely in the studio, using sets for every-
thing, including the exterior shots.
After this film, Dulac became an indepen-
dent director again, making Ame D' Artiste
(1925). This commercial spectacle was made
in collaboration with the Russian director
Alexander Volkoff and based on a play
by Christian Molbeck. In addition to
relying on the spectacular scenes, elegant
costuming, and elaborate sets particular to
this type of film, Dulac was able to concen-
59
trete on cinematic artistry as well. This
resulted in wide acclaim from the critics who
compared the powerful opening sequence to
the violent scenes in Griffith's Broken
Blossoms and praised the feelings of simul-
taneity created by her skillful parallel
montage.
With La Folie Des Vail/ants (1925) Dulac
moved further into tPie realm of abstract
expression, creating a sort of filmed poem
freely inspired by a Maxim Gorky story. The
fable of the eagle and the snake provides a
symbolic oackground for the story and
through the careful use of superimpositions
(roads, clouds, fields of flowers, over the
violin) Dulac creates a film of suggestive
evocation in which music and images are
harmonized.
In Antoinette Sabrier ( 1927), taken from a
successful Parisian play, Dulac again recon-
ciled commercial appeal with artistic
efforts, making a popular film that revealed
"profound psychol"ogy" through cinematic
means, particularly through the use of
lighting to convey spiritual states of mind.
Continuing her efforts in the cinematic
avant-garde, Dulac made La Coquille Et Le
Clergyman ( 1927-The Seashell and the
Clergyman), based on a screenplay by
Antonin Artaud, in which the images, by
giving active form to human psychology, were
to reveal a whole occult life, with a language
and logic of its own. According to Artaud, it
was to be a film of pure images, having no
underlying psychoanalytical, metaphysical,
or human meaning, a film describing true
states of mind without any attempt at
clarification or demonstration. Although care-
ful study shows that the film is not very
different from Artaud's scenario (even the
vb.ual "tricks" that Artaud complains of
were suggested in his scenario), the argument (1928i and Etude Cinegraphique Sur Une
between the scenarist and the director
created a great uproar. Artaud felt that
Dulac had totally misunderstood his inten-
tions; a riot broke out at the screening of
the film in which Artaud's partisan~ declared ination and growth of a lima bean in slow
"Germaine Dulac is a cow," while other
spectators vehemently protested the in-
coherence of the images. In spite of this
total confusion, The Seashell and the Clergy- for a while to make Le Cinema Au Service
man is a classic of Surrealist cinema and a
landmark in film history.
60
Dulac continued her pursuit of "pure cinema,"
a cinema in which a sort of visual music
would replace subject, in which objects
would become symbols. She wrote:
"I'm evoking a dance! A woman? No! A
line leaping about to harmonious rhythms.
I'm evoking a luminous projection! Precise maker. She played a major role in founding
matter? No. Fluid rhythms. Harmony of
lines. Harmony of light. Lines, surfaces,
volumes, evolving directly, without arti-
ficial devices, in the logic of their forms, in bringing quality foreign film, to France.
stripped of all meaning that is too human,
in order to elevate themselves more
successfully toward abstraction and give
more space to feelings and to dreams:
total cinema (le cinema integral)." 10
This was achieved in L 'Invitation au Voyage
(1927), a visual illustration of the Baudelaire
poem in which the evocative suggestiveness
of the images achieved a truly cinematic
equivalent of Symbolist poetry. Dulac con-
tinued to make experimental films of musical
inspiration, films removed from both theatri-
cal and literary influence. In further elabora-
tion of the "cinema integral" she states:
"The pure film we all dream of making is
a visual symphony, composed of rhythmic
images which the artist's feelings alone
organize and project on the screen. A
musician's writing is not always inspired
by a story, most often it is through the
inspiration of a feeling. Jardin sous la
pluie [which is what Mme. Beudet plays
on the piano] by Debussy or Prelude de la
goutte d'eau by Chopin for example, are
the expressions of a soul's outpouring, a
soul reacting. The only story there is
that of a sou I that experiences and
thinks, and yet we are moved by it." 11
Disque 927 (1929) (-note the pun), Variations
Arabesque ( 1929) are all abstract cinematic
evocations of music. Germination d'un
Haricot (1928) is a documentary done in
time-lapse photography, showing the germ-
motion.
In 1927 Dulac left abstract experimentation
De L 'Histoire, a sort of newsreel montage.
In 1928 she returned to narrative with La
Princesse Mandane, freely adapted from the
59
novel, L 'Oublie by Pierre Beno'i't, which
bined the imaginary and the real in a
fantasy-adventure tale.
Dulac considered her activity of militating
to encourage love for and interest in the
cinema as important as her work as film-
cine-clubs (film societies) in France. In
1922 she was elected secretary-general of
Cine-Club de France and was instrumental
She later became president of the Federa .
des Cine-Clubs; she travelled and gave
illustrated lectures all over Europe, discu ·
her theories and inspiring interest in film as
an artistic medium. J-K Raymond-Millet
describes:
"In order to illustrate her lectures, she
always brought with her a little film on
the germination of lima beans. It was a
"speeded-up" [time-lapse] film: you saw
a shoot emerge from the ground, grow,
develop, lean in the direction of the light,
grow one leaf, another leaf. There was no
plot. And yet, this birth, this develop-
ment, this stretching toward the sun, the
source of life, the synthesis of all of
nature's forces of creation and renewal in
this puny little shoot, this was as exciting
as a drama.
Yes, Germaine Dulac went everywhere
with this little film; so that whenever
·we saw her, we'd joke with her:
'Here's Germaine Dulac and her lima be
we'd say.
She'd laugh. She knew that behind this
innocent joke was our admiration, our
respect, our love." 12
Whenever she went to speak she generated
enthusiasm; she was able to excite her
listeners and make even the dullest subjects
interesting. She was an inspiring teacher at
the Ecole Technique de Photographie et
de Cinematographie. Her activity as film
activist was not without its disappointments.
The journal "Schemas," intended to be a
vehicle for theoretical articles, folded after
the first issue. Othe·r activities of Dulac's
included filming the background for a
theatrical production, "Tour de feu," but
she regarded this simply as a means of eamin
money; her real concerns were for truly
cinematic creation.
With the advent of sound, Dulac expressed
• both her enthusiasm for the sound film (as i
her conception of "visual symphony") and
her aversion to the talking film. She felt
that the potentialities of the sound film
were not being fully exploited, so long as the
emphasis remained on words as a text for
dramatic representation. Sound could be
used as a whole new dimension to cinematic
art, as later elaborated by Eisenstein in his
theoretical writings. Thus Dulac stated in
1929:
''Theoretically, I'm against the talking film,
but in a certain way, which is perhaps
particular to me: If I hear talking for an
hour and a half, I get tired .... But if I
object to the talking film, I am for the
sound film. In love with harmony, I know
that one can play with images .... The
ideal talking film would be one in which
there was only a single word, a cry, a few
exclamations to reinforce the image.
Besides all that, there would only be room
for silence .... Passionately fond of music
and film, I use the scund film to realize
my conception: to make a synchronous
orchestration of sounds and images and
not a bastardized and banal recording of
music. I'm afraid we may be ignoring
exceptional artistic achievements which
would within the next few years come to
fruition."13
For a short time she was adjunct direc.tor at
Gaumont but left to direct newsreels,
"France-Actua/ites-Gaumont" ( 1930-40).
Even these weekly news films were marked
by her personal style and her unique cine-
matic sense. With the occupation of Paris
Dulac stopped her work on newsreels.
In July of 1942, after an illness which had
lasted several years, Dulac died. Charles Ford,
in his biography of Dulac, makes note of the
difficulty that the French press had in
printing her obituary-a single article in
''La Revue de J'ecran" (printed in unoccupied
Marseilles) had to have Vichy authorization:
"Bothered by Dulac's non-conformist ideas,
disturbed by her impure origins, the censors
had refused the article which, only after a
vigorous protest by the editor-in-chief of the
magazine, appeared three weeks late. Even
dead, Germaine Dulac still seemed danger-
ous ... " 14
Dulac's theoretical writings, appearing at a
time when the cinema was just becoming
conscious of itself as an artform, are essential
contributions to film history. Her tireless
efforts to elevate film to the status of a
serious art form bespeak the dedication and
sincerity of a true artist:
"One may consider avant-garde any film
whose technique, used with the intention taken from Dulac's theoretical writings is
of advancing the expressive capabilities
of image and sound, breaks with estab-
lished traditions to seek new emotional
responses in the strictly visual and
auditory realm. The avant-garde film does
not aim solely at the mass audience. It
is both more egocentric and more altru-
istic. Egocentric, since it is the personal
manifestation of pure thought; altruistic,
since it is divorced from all considerations
save that of progress. The sincerely mo-
tivated avant-garde film contains, some-
times beneath inaccessible appearance,
the essential seeds of discoveries capable
of advancing cinema toward its future
forms. The avant-garde grows from both
the criticism of the present and the
intuition of the future!1 5
Dulac's entire career is characterized by her
efforts to harmonize artistic concerns with
the commercial demands of cinema. She
combined the penetrating insight of her
aesthetic theories with the practical exper-
ience of working with the studios. This is
evident in her statement:
"We accept the responsibility of making
commercial cinema. We've said it before
and we'll say it again. To be more explicit:
When a backer confides his work to us,
we must not only follow his general
directives faithfully, but we must bring
to the work all our attention and all our
effort: a simple question of honesty. For
the cinema of tomorrow, it's a different
matter. We"have the right and the responsi-
bility to prepare the future." 16
Ford is not scanty in his assessment of
her importance:
"Germaine Dulac ... is to be considered
the most important of the seven theoreti-
cians who so greatly contributed, during
the silent period, to define cinema's
essence and to delineate its aims and
limits. Louis Delluc, Canudo, Jean
Epstein, Bela Bel~zs, S. M. Eisenstein, and and in this light it is truly edifying, for it
Karol lrzykowski are her companions
in this exalted adventure. She is superior Germaine Dulac is one of the most significant
to some of them in that she was able at
times to reconcile what seemed irrecon-
cilable-aesthetic demands and economic
imperatives-and to have expressed in
'
60
clear and accessible language theories
which the others often set forth in
hermetic formulas.'' 17
A selection of quotes (chosen by Ford)
perhaps the best illustration of her theories
of film and her understanding of the poten-
tialities of cinematic art.18
"The more we rid ourselves of the anec-
dote in order to advance toward visual
cinema, the more we work for the
seventh art."
"The cinema as we conceive of it, at the
present time, is only the reflection of the
other arts. However, it's too important to
remain merely a reflection, we must free
it from its chains and give it its real person-
ality. In its technique, it doesn't derive
anything from already existing arts."
"The play of lights, the combinations of
gestures, times, languid phrases, choppy
phrases: each image deriving from a dif-
ferent sound, and contributing to a
melody. This is how the art of the cinema
can express itself in its movement and its
technique."
"We may lack faith in ourselves, and
that's the cause of our trouble. Our so-
called inferiority in cinematic art has
given us this unfortunate critical obsession
which leads us to seek perfection through
the correction of our faults rather than
through the development of our good
qualities. We believe less in the latter than
in the former. Instead of seeking inside
ourselves, having lost confidence, we look
to the accomplishments of others, over in
America, and try to conform to their
standard,. The time has come, I believe,
to listen in silence to our own song, to try
to express our own personal vision, to
define our own sensibility, to make our
own way. Let us learn to look, let us learn
to see, let us learn to feel."
This last quote can be interpreted both in
terms of cinema and in terms of feminism,
inspires strength and encourages self-esteem.
influences on the development of the cinema,
both for her work in terms of the apprecia-
tion of cinema as a viable art form and for
her formulation of its aesthetics at a crucial
point in its history.
"Heart of the Avant-Garde" continued on page 1
61
 Mother of
the New Wave:
Agnes Varda Filmography

1954 La Pointe Courte - chronicles the
commercial rebellion of a fishing village
blended with the problems of a man and
woman staying there but uninvolved.
195 7 0 Saisons 6 ch9teaux - a short fi Im
commissioned by the French Government
Tourist Office which casts the sophisticated
beauty of fashion models against the classical
beauty of the castles in the Loire Valley in
France.
innocence of a young man who, without
stopping loving his wife and children, begins
to love another woman.
1966 Les Creatures - a pseudo-5<:ience-fiction
story involving an author and his wife who
has been in an accident,
1966 Far From Vietnam - on which Agnes
Varda collaborated with Goddard, Resnais,
Marker and others.

1958 Du Cote de la cote - also for the Tourist 1967 Uncle Yanco - a short film recording
Office. A short, humorous film that demysti- the director's pleasure at finding her old-
fied the Riviera. Greek-hippie-uncle-painter who lives on a
boat in Sausalito.
1958 L 'Opera Mouffe - the impressions of a
pregnant woman drifting through the social 1968 Black Panthers - filmed at an Oakland
scene of the Mouffetard section of Paris. demonstration against the trial of Huey
Newton, containing interviews with a number
'1961 Clt!o from 5 to 7 - the crucial moment- of black activists.
1½ hours, the exact time of the film-in the ·
life of a popular young singer who awaits the 1969 Lion's Love - made in Hollywood with
results of tests determining if she has cancer. Viva, Warhol's Superstar, and Jim Rado and
Jerome Ragni, authors and stars of Hair, a
1963 Salut /es Cubains - a short film anima- cinema-verite style account in English of
ting the 1800 photos Agnes Varda brought new stars and the Movie Mecca.
back from Cuba into a documentary com -
bining socialism and cha-cha-cha. 1970 Nausicaa - made for French television,
a half-fiction, half-documentary account of
1965 Le Bonheur - filmed in the colors of
Greeks in France, which was banned for
Impressionism, and set to Mozart, the film
moral and/or political reasons.
investigates happiness and the sense of

62

61
An Interview
with Agnes Varda
JACQUELINE LEVITlN
What has your experience been as a
woman filmmaker in France? Were
you involved in the women's move-
ment?
When I started to make films, which was 19
years ago, there was no women's movement
in France. There were women doing things
here and there- in writing, in painting and
music. But there were very few women
making films. I didn't ask myself if it would
be difficult for me as a woman to make films;
I must say I didn't start with an inferiority
complex. I just thought I would like to
make films, so try. Years later many girls
came to me saying they would like to make
films, would I write a letter for them because
it is so difficult for a woman to make her
way in this society of men-which is some-
times true. But I always respond that, though
it may be true for society, you should not
think like this yourself, but rather "you are a
human being, you want to make films, is it
difficult or not." That's the point. If society
is anti-women, let's face that little by little.
But that shouldn't be your starting point of
view. And I say that because I never thought
of myself as a limited human being because
of being a woman. I never thought I was
"half a man." I never wanted to be a man.
I was a photographer. I had started with stills
of whatever I could find-children around
me, family, marriages, banquets, whatever
could make money. Then I became a photo-
grapher for the Theatre Nationale Populaire.
Nobody came to me saying "You are a
photographer and that is something because
you are a woman." When I was too small, I
would take a chair and stand on it-that was
the kind of problem ·! would h~ve being
30cm. shorter than any one else. But in other
things I never had problems, and people
were nice to me. Now everybody would like
to say that people were paternalistic, because
now in the feminist movement one has to say
that even women who have made it were
treated as "little things." I didn't think that.
I just did what I had to do-in the midst of
men and women, and I felt good.
And when I made my first film, La Point
Courte, I never had any problem such as the
camerman saying "Look, I can't listen to
you because you are merely a woman." I
would say, "I like that shot, or that distance,
make it sharper, or more contrast," or I I did the shorts- O Saisons, 0 Chateaux, Du
would argue about the depth of field, but it C8te de la c~te, and then L 'Opera Mouffe.
was technical conversation. When the film Then the desire came to make other movies;
came out I had good reviews, even though then I became a "filmmaker."
it never made back the money it cost to
produce. But no one said it was a minor It took me seven years to make another
film because I was a woman. Instead they feature, Cleo from 5 to 7-because I could
said, "You are perhaps changing something not find the money, because I had no
in the French Cinema and it's good." So I time to write scripts. I was taking stills,
never suffered any alienation as a woman in not because I was a woman, but because
my work. I was writing the kind of films that are
difficult to set up financially. When I did
How did you begin making films? Cleo, which is about a woman, I really had
in mind to make a film about a woman
I had written the whole script of La Pointe facing a great fear, and that fear makes her
Courte. It was finished, on paper. I thought think about herself. She discovers that she
I would never shoot it. I thought I would is a little doll, manipulated by men, a
put it in a drawer and look at it three years little girl who makes no decision, who sees
later saying, "Yes, at that time I was thinking herself only through other people's eyes.
about making a movie." And then a friend And in that hour and a half she starts to
came to me and said why don't you do it? I relate differently.
said with what? How? They said it's easy,
let's make it. The problem was to find I thought all my films as a woman, because
money, to ~et a crew, and to find people I didn't want to be a "false man" making
able to help me do it. We were all very films. I was trying to make films about
young, and had very little experience. But what I knew. When I was pregnant, I made
we lived together in a rented house. Every- a film about pregnancy, as I wanted people
body had to stay there and eat there because to share it with me. [L 'Opera Mouffe] In
we had no money to pay individual expenses. Le Bonheur I tried to understand the
We had to organize ourselves as a collective. sense of innocence.
And then we shot.
Little by little the feminist movement built
From the point of view of production, it was up and a lot of women started to think
really something revolutionary in 1954. I about their position in society. And in the
didn't even have the right to be a producer. last five years, it has become not only some-
We have a professional hierarchy in France thing very strong and good, but very
in which it's necessary to pass through the fashionable as well-which is the worst part
ranks, do five apprenticeships before of it, because it is "in" to speak about
making a film. And the same for the women. Ten years ago it wasn't "in" and
technicians. I didn't ask for my card. (It's
very funny after all, because I only got my
card entitling me to be a director 13 years
after my first film.) I didn't bother with
laws or unions, or get official authorization.
It was a way of eliminating the "taboo" of
Cinema, of the closed world of cinema and
its hierarchies. That's how it became a real
film. I was so sure that it was a one-time
thing-I never thought of myself as a film-
maker-I went back to photography after
that, making money since the film didn't
make any money. But, years later, someone
asked me if I wanted to make films for the
tourist office and I thought yes, it was
another way of making money, and maybe
later I will make other films. That's how
63
62
 u Bonh11ur
maybe in ten years, even though the move-
ment will be growing, maybe society will
have another topic to be excited about.•
Right now we are in the middle of it. S9
women come to me and say, "le Bonheur •
is shit, it's not a film for women made by a
woman. Society got you and you betrayed
us, etc." But when you have in mind to
show the cliches of society-and that is
what Bonheur is about-you have to show
the cliches. You don't have to say "Because
I am a woman I should absolutely make
feminist films because the feminist point of
view is not generally exposed." It is true
that I can now see my own films with a
new vision because of things which have
happened, because of books which I have
read, because I did a kind of self-
education on feminism, which we all do
now, because we have opportunities to do so.
Things are clear now. But they weren't so
clear ten years ago when I made le Bonheur,
even though I had already read Simone de
Beauvoir, and had discussed these things,
and had fought for contraception, sexual
freedom, new ways of raising children and
alternatives to the usual form of marriage.
I agree with the new generation of women,
even though I think they are wrong to have
a point of view even before starting anything,
and want only to express the desire to
change themselves and to change the image
of women in society. I think they are right,
and I am myself willing to do the same. But
I don't think it means we have to forget that
whatever women have made previously, for
or against women, has been a way for
,women to promote themselves, to come up
enough so that other women could speak
from a feminist point of view and make that
point of view clear. So I can say I am a
feminist. But for other feminists, I am not
feminist enough. But what I have done led
me to be a feminist even though I have not
made feminist films.
Do you think now that you would
like to make a feminist movie?
Yes, I would like to. But it would never be
my only aim. I would never think that I was
born only to express what women suffer and
what women have to change in society. I am
a human being and some things can be under-
stood as a human being. You don't have to
emphasize all the time that you are a woman.
For example, Womens , . . alone she has been m love or she should be
Ftlm Festivals. Maybe
64
Les Creatun,s
one or two were necessary ]ust to show what
has t,een done by women. But in another
sense it is really segregation, and racism.
Woman can be as wrong as men about
women and some men can be better. I
believe that Bergman, for example, knows
more about women than a lot of women.
Even though the identification of women
has to be made by a woman, 1t exactly
parallels the problem of the Black Panthers;
when black people started to raise their
consciousness, white people spoke for them,
were conscious for them. Then little by little
they thought they should think for them-
selves. That's what women are doing now.
And they are right. But it doesn't mean some
men have not understood. I don't think we
should put so much importance on the sex
of the filmmaker, but on what he is saying
about women and how.
Some feminist filmmakers think that
it is not only a question of revealing
the psychology of women, but of
presenting a "heroic" picture of
women, women who conquer the
condition of being a woman in a male-
dominated society and come to a self·
consciousness. Do you think that this
is the type of film that should be
made?
I think that each woman should come to
understand what she is and her position in
the world. But if you only consider that aim
you will produce the kind of films they are
making in China. They are raising conscious-
ness, for sure, but what a bore I It's the same
stupid thing as Westerns in which there are
good guys and bad guys and the good guys
should be the winner and the bad guy-you
will explain how bad he was. But what is the
point? I think it is brainwashing in the same
way. I realize something has to be changed
because the image of women in film has been
strongly built up by men, and accepted by
them, but also accepted by women- because
as women we have accepted that women
should be beautiful, well dressed, loving,
always and only involved in questions of love,
etc. It's always made me furious, but I
haven't up to now been able to change that
image. In films the only thing we are able to
accep~ in a wo~an is her_relationship with
~ove- 1s she ~r is she ~ot in love; ha~ she ~en
m love or will she ~ '" love. Even if she is
' dying of cancer and who wou Id come to see
63
Les Cr9aturn.
or she would like to be in love. Men have
another position in films. You have films
where the man relates with his work, films
of male friendship, films where he must
struggle and fight. But you never see a
woman relating to her job; you cannot
accept that the subject of the film would
be a woman doctor and her difficulties with
an operation, her patients, etc. You do not
see films in which a woman directs things, or
about how she does it or how she relates
with the people working with her. If a
woman has a job, it is usually as a decorator,
or as a secretary, or she wotks in a post
office. She has a job but it is never the main
theme. In most films the main concern is a
woman's relationship with love. And that
should be changed. I really think we should
prepare ourselves as women and as audience ..
Is that a self-criticism?
Yes, sure. But I couldn't do otherwise
because I couldn't have been able to make a
film. I wrote a script, I remember, years ago,
about a woman teaching New Math and
having to fight because it was the beginning
of New Math in France. They had to fight on
all levels-the parents, because the parents
would not accept the program, because they
did not understand New Math and didn't
want to lose the power they had at home
helping the child with his work. It was the
story of a woman facing the parents, giving
lectures, fighting the old methods of teaching
math. I would say that her private life
played a very small part. I could never raise
the money to make the film.
Producers want you to make love
stories because you are a woman?
No. Not because I am a woman but because
they only want women to be involved with
love in a film. They say nobody will be
interested in a New Mathematics teacher.
But things have changed because I remember
the American film, Up the Down Staircase,
in which the main concern was the woman's
relationship with her job. It was good on that
level. But that kind of thing is rare. It's
difficult to raise the money. And if I could
make Cleo about femininity and fear of death,
it is because the girl was beautiful. If you
told the same story about a 55-year-old
lonely woman who would care if she were
. '
 Le Bonheur
the film? Here you come to another point-
what the audience wants to see. Do you think
they want to see the truth? No , they don't.
Why should they see what they see around
them all the time. If you do a film about
union problems and a worker getting up very
early-you think people want to see that on
a Saturday night? No. They want some
entertainm ent, good looking people, a dream.
They accept to have their conscious ness
raised about something , but if it is in the
context of some entertainm ent. We shouldn't
forget that the movie is a popular art;
people go to movies to have a good time.
They don't want to be taught all the time.
That's why we have to change the image of
women, but we have to be carefu I not to
become such bores that no one wants to
listen to anything.
We all live with an illusion-o f beauty, of
love, of one's career, of power, etc. I don't most of the time, and they just want to see
know if the aim is to make people lose their
illusions, see what it is all about and how
they could handle it. I sometime s think that, lives. So one should be clever enough to
like in Le Bonheur, these people with their
illusions are much happier in fact than other rut in a way that would not be meaningle ss
people who know and can't face it. The point and empty.
is, are movies made to make that illusion
continue, maybe pointing at time9'tha t it is
not enough, or can they be made to show
people what is around them and what it
means? I cannot answer because I cannot
forget that movies, because they involve so
much investmen t that must be made back,
feature films (not document aries, super-8
or video where you can do social work),
are a mass art. Can we find a situation in
which you do not fool the audience yet still
entertain them? For example in Le Bonheur
I was trying to make the shape of the film
so lovely and nice that if you don't want to
face what it means you don't have to. You
can see the film as a beautiful bucolic picnic
painting and enjoy it as it is saying "He's a
little selfish but life goes on." You can also people to make movies. If the woman is the
start to think about what cruelty of
Nature means, what is the function of a
woman, how can she be replaced so easily-
so what is t~e life of a woman about? Does
it mean that ironing and cooking and putting
children to bed is enough, and that any
blond woman can do it for that man7 But
you are not obliged to read the film at that
level. So I was trying to make a movie clear
enough-I was trying, I really didn't succeed
well in Le Bonheur -but my aim was to
make a movie entertaini ng enough so that
people could see sort of a love story with a
little affair, a little drama, but not too much,
a feeling that life can be beautiful, etc. And
on another level, if you want to read it, and
make up your mind about what it means to
be a man, what it means to be a woman,
what cruelty it involves if you want to be
happy, how someone must pay for you, at
what age you can give another mother to
children- all these questions can be raised
after seeing the film. But it still looks like an
entertaini ng film. That's what I wanted to
do. That's why it's so smooth-b ut I overdid
it and it's not really good-I tried to make it
like a beautiful apple you want to eat. Be-
cause I believe if you make a very serious
film to raise conscious ness, people leave.
Most people go once or twice a week maxi-
mum to the movies, and because they are
tired and want to forget what their life is
a lot of nice things, or violent-b ecause they
don't dare to have so much violence in their
manipulat e the needs of the mass audience
Do you generally work with women,
do you think it is your role to
promote women in filmmaking?
It's not my role but I like to do it. I get
along very well with women, and with men.
I don't think "Well I've made it and they'll
just have to make it their own way." So I
had a lot of assistants when I was a photo-
grapher, which means I ta.Jght them in
two or three months and then they became
photograp hers, some very famous now. And
in films I always had women editors, and
assistants. If I can have a woman I take her.
If there is a man who does the job better
I take the man. It's in terms of needing good
same or better I would rather take the
woman to help her. But she has to train her-
self to qualify. Competit ion exists in movies.
It's difficult to make a film; you really need
good people. But I don't write my scripts
with women. The only film I worked on with
women was a film about women that I wrote
two years ago, but which I couldn't shoot.
The abortion film?
The abortion film about women in France.
64
I needed a lot of informati on and I knew
some women sociologists, doctors, etc. who
could help me a great deal to bring to the
film informati on and strong feelings that I
didn't have. But I worked with them two or
three months and then I wrote the script
alone. I enjoyed working with them, because
a collective conscious ness raises itself more
clearly when women work together.
Has the lltuation for women in film
evolved significantly in France since
you began?
Yes, enormous ly. I was almost the only
woman filmmake r at the time. So, you
might say I was fortunate , if it's fortunate
to be almost the only one. Men have had the
tendency to think of me as a "little phenom-
enon" because I was a bit the pioneer of the
New Wave. But it was a case of circumsta nce
and education . In other words let's say that
the identity of women is not tied particular ly
to the fact that I succeeded a little in doing
something in this profession .
I think that one can begin to speak of women
and film when fifty percent of filmmaker s
are women, since 50% of the populatio n is
women. There are two problems -the prolr
lem' of the promotio n of women in all
profession s in equal number to men, and
the problem of society: how can women who
still want to have children be sure to be able
to have them when they want, with whom
they want and how are we going to help
them raise the children. That's the big
problem. It's no use to think I'm going to
do this or that and then be completel y
blocked if one still wants to have children.
A woman has the right to think that her
biology will permit her to have children if
she wants them. If she wants to have three or
four children (even if it's a mistake from the
point of view of ecology) she shouldn't have
to think 'With these three children, what's
going to happen to my career." These
problems of the place of women in society
are very important . In the meantime there
is only one solution and that is to be a kind
of "super-wo man" and lead several lives at
once. For me the biggest difficulty in my
life was to do that-to lead several lives at
once and to not give in and to not abandon
any of them-to not give up children, to not
give up the cinema, to not give up men if
one likes men.
65
I remember when you spoke of
making The Creatures you said you
had been happy with yourself for
including a fight scene. Was it a kind
of proof of status in the male world
of cinema?
I was impressed because I thought it was
always said that a woman couldn't make a
fight scene, or war films, or things like that.
And I never wanted to make war films or
fight films. But for certain details of the
scenario it was necessary that two men fight,
and actually I had the inferiority complex
that perhaps I wouldn't know how to do it
and I hired a specialist to help me. And when
it was done I thought, "Oh, it's terrific; I've
made a scene where two men fight." But
after, I thought it was stupid because it was
useless.
So I had a slight inferiority complex that I
had a limit. And after, not only did I get over One can't justify this in logical terms; it was
this complex but I realized that this complex
was silly because the role of a woman is not
to prove that she can do all that a man can
do or knows how to do. On the contrary, the
role of a woman is to do what she feels she
· should do as a woman. And if she wants to
do things that are different from what men
do then all the better.
How do you prepare the actual film-
ing of a script? Is the choice of images
precisely worked out before you
begin filming?
Quite so. There is a part which is improvised.
By that I mean that there are two stages, the
stage where the film begins in my head-
often it's a place that inspires me: for la
Pointe Courte it was truly the village of La
Pointe Courte, f6r lion's love it was truly
Hollywood, and for Cleo in a way it was
certain streets of Paris. And when all the
production details have been settled, when I
know I'm going to make the film, I go often
to the site which will be the setting of the
film. I try to really understand the arrange-
ment of things, so that I can integrate (the
character) as accurately as possible into an
environment wh1cn explains him, justifies
him, attacks him or contradicts him, so that
one understands the dialectic between the
character and the environment. On the other
hand, I take notes to find a pP.rsonal line of
68
narration. Narration is not only important
to develop the plot, it is essentially composed
of my choices as narrator. And these
indications-I try to feel them, to not make
a mistake in how I interpret them. For
example, for the material in La Pointe
Courte I remember this particular detail:
I had an idea of a dialectic between wood
and metal. I had the feeling-I don't want
to explain it in symbols-that the main
character who was the son of a shipbuilder,
he who was born of the village, who had
his roots in the village-I linked him with the
feeling of wood, that he felt at ease when he
saw branches, when he saw ships made of
wood, when he touched wood. And she,
with her way of grinding her teeth, this
furious, aggressive character, who questioned
not only her marriage, but her position and
identity as a woman in relation to him-I
always imagined her as related to metal, with
iron, with rails, with iron fences, iron wire.
the feeling that I had. And I tried to use it
discreetly, but use it in the story so that one
can feel physically the opposition between
iron and wood.
It seems to me that one can divide
La Pointe Courte into the part that
concerns the village where a warmth
pervades and the part that concerns
the cou pie where one senses the
photographer.
Yes. But you feel all the more the presence
of the photographer because there is no
warmth. I mean by that that I was perhaps
as much the photographer in one part as in
the other, but it is evident that I was attached
to the village and to the villagers. And I
wanted to show that their life and their vital
problems of survival were very dear to me.
On the other hand I purposefully gave a
literary style and a stiff cold manner to the
couple, because I wanted to fight against
the tendency of fi Im to always create
dramas. When a man leaves a woman in a film
it is generally because he loves another
woman. When a woman leaves it is because
she has another lover. It was very rare, at
least in 1954, to question the idea of the
couple. It's a philosophical or moral
problem-however one wants to call it-not
of this specific couple, not if he had done
this or that but of the couple-their con-
versation was almost abstract. And asking
65
them thus to neither be particularly real,
nor kind, nor sentimental, nor physical, nor
sensual, auton:iatically I didn't make it easy
for the spectator to identify with them in a
"warm" way. Thus the coldness is the dis-
tance that I wanted between them and the
audience. And one senses the photography
since when one feels distance he becomes
a voyeur and one looks at the image itself.
Did you learn much from your
experience of working with Resnais
as your editor for the film?
Yes, when he edited the film he made me
realize that the cinema existed, that it had
its own long history. that there were some
beautiful films, and that there were things
that I had naively thought to invent and
which already existed. The idea must be
accepted that la Pointe Courte is a naive
film in the sense of someone who writes his
I
first novel thinking he is going to renew
literature and then is told "But Beckett has
already done this, and Ionesco that and
Joyce ... " So I wasn't pretentious. When he
said that several things were inspired by
Visconti-one can't say_inspired because I
had never seen a Visconti film- which
resembled Visconti, I said to myself that
now I would begin to reflect upon what I
could do that would be more specifically
personal.
Have you developed your own style
for directing actors?
No, I don't really feel that I am a good direc-
tor of actors. Perhaps it is because of my
idea that the setting and all the other things
express a great deal which is perhaps not as
well expressed in the acting. It's the opposite
of theater. I always thought that the theater
was so tied to the work of actors that the
cinema should turn away from the work of
actors and involve itself in what was left.
When later I directed actors, I tried to
prepare them, but not by speaking in
psychological terms. You have to speak to
them instead in concrete terms, saying "the
person you are playing is awkward, he puts
on his shoes like this ... " To indicate the
difference between eating slowly or fast, the
manner in which one picks up his fork, helps
an actor portray his character.
. "Mother of the New Wave"
continued on page 103.
 Barbara Loden
Revisited
MADISON WOMEN'S MEDIA COLLECTIVE
INTRODUCTION
Barbara Loden, acclaimed director of the
feature film, Wanda, has moved forward
I
impressively in her independent career since
acting in supporting roles (Splendor in the
Grass, Wild River) for her husband, Elia
Kazan, then receiving wide theatrical
acclaim in the Marilyn Monroe role in
Lincoln Center's production of After the
Fall, staged again by Kazan from the Arthur
Miller play.
Although she was heralded as a "virtual
newcomer" at the time of that 1965 pro-
duction, it had been almost a decade since
Loden first left her rural home in Ashville,
North Carolina to stomp through walk-
about roles on Broadway and chorus lines
at the Copacabana, the position relegated to
beautiful women in show business with
"bodies approaching perfection" (quote a
male reporter from the New York Times).
These years !Nt"re spent, as Ms. Loden once
commented, passively accepting roles with-
out ever realizing her own talents, all the
while seriously studying acting with Paul
Mann (In fact, she still works with Mann, in
training to become an acting teacher herself.).
The celebration accorded After the Fall
gained for Loden deserved confidence which
lead finally to the challenge of directing.
Currently she is reht1arsing an off-Broadway soldier-boy pick ups. She is the straggler,
musical with Galt MacDermott and Julie
Arena/, scheduled to open at the beginning
of 1974.
Her hope for the future is to make a film of have to physically place Wanda behind bars
Kate Chopin's The Awakening.
We of the Madison Women's Media Collective prison.
travelled to Milwaukee to meet with Ms.
Loden in conjunction with the showing of
her feature film Wanda, now re-examined
several years after its original relaese in light Could
of the attention of the women's movement.
Though a little shy and ne,rvous, Loden
anS1Nered our questions for hours in the
afternoon prior to the screening and
continued the interview late into the night.
From these conversations, Loden became
inextricably linked in this reviewer's mind
with the character of Wanda. As Loden
indicated, although she got the idea from a
true-life incident of a woman involved in
an aborted bank robbery, the character
66
Wanda came, "from myself," and bears
strong resemblence to Loden's own life
experiences.
It is therefore understandable that Ms.
Loden seemed keenly sensitive to feminist
critics who find fault with the film, although
their harshest criticism has been aimed
largely toward its pessimistic ending ("Ki,
don't want women like this shown on the
screen."). She said this type of criticism
denies the validity of the character of Wanda
and therefore denies her own exis'tence.
Ms. Loden is correct in her adamant
defense of Wanda's ending, the most vital
and moving part of the picture. It matters
little if Wanda complies with bourgeois
values of success and accomplishment. Kflat
seems more relevant is that Loden as a
feminist artist explores the situation of
women who are suffocated and destroyed,
the true "Silent Americans."
Wanda is never mythologized nor glamorized
and women of her position are too rarely
presented on the screen. Wanda is fired
from a job in a clothes factory becau• lhe
works "too slow." She is tardy to her own
court divorce proceedings, appearing finally
in the flamboyant garb of hair curlers,
capri pants and sneakers. Wanda is enerva'ted,
defenseless, passive-stranded in a world of
hiking down a road inhabited by male-driven
vehicles zipping past her. Wanda is the
ultimate victim of a sexist-capitalist society.
And Ms. Loden realized that she did not
(as with the real-life model) for the audience
to be aware that her heroine is indeed in
BARBARA LODEN
you talk about the 1972 New
York Women's Film Festival?
BL: I didn't stay at the New York Women's
Film Festival. I was invited to be on one
panel on women in film, but the moderator,
who directed the Kate Millet film, was very
vicious. A woman got up from the audience
to ask a question, and she attacked her for
absolutely no reason. She intimidated
everyone. Everybody got scared when she
yelled at this other woman, so nobody
67
 would say anything. After that, I decided I always kept this article, although I didn't Also I never really aimed at making a
to have nothing more to do with the festival. really know why. Then the New Wave came commercial movie. I felt, at best, Wanda
I didn't go back. I felt there were very bad from Europe, and I saw Breathless. After- would be shown in YMCAs or something like
vibrations, not really a collective, sisterhood ward I said, "I think this story could make that. I didn't really set my goals too high, so
type feeling. I didn't really know how to a film like Breathless. It should be made that that way I couldn't fail too much.
combat that type of atmosphere, so I way." Then I wrote it into screenplay form,
withdrew from it. using a criminal and a bank robbery incident. How long did it take to shoot the
But I made up the girl's character based on film?
My film Wanda was shown there, but I this statement that she made, and also from
wasn't present. myself really, ways that I had felt in my BL: We had a seven day a week shooting
life. It was all from my imagination or my schedule, but we didn't shoot everyday.
What do women today think of feelings. But the plot more or less is from Sometimes we didn't shoot every other
Wanda? this item in the newspaper. day. The time was spent finding locations,
securing locations, finding people, dressing
BL: I know a lot of women are insulted by Have you met the woman? places. For example, one of the incidents in
Wanda because they think it shows women
the film is a bank robbery. It was very hard
in a bad way. To me it's valid; it's like BL: No, though I wanted to talk to her or for us to find a bank, nobody would let us
showing myself and a way that I was. have some sort of exchange before I made use theirs. We were half way through the
People say, "We don't want to see anybody the movie. It took me a long time to find
picture before we found one. It was empty,
like that." Those are the people who out what prison she was actually in. I so we had to go in and dress it up, make it
wouldn't want me to exist, and they would called up the prison, where she still remains,
look like a working bank, put in machines
say that I was not valid or that I shouldn't even to this day. I asked the head warden,
and paper money. Of course afterward, we
be heard who was a woman, if I could have any had to clean it up and leave it just the way
contact with her, but I was told that she we found it, which I think was good practice.
I did read in Ms. magazine a woman's wasn't allowed contact with anyone. The
review of the New York Women's Film warden wanted to know why I wanted to get We never used any special lighting. We
Festival. She didn't think that women like in touch. would just put in stronger bulbs wherever
Wanda should be shown on the screen. The
lights already existed: We had to put in
reviewer said films should be shown about At the time I said, "I think her story is very quite a few bulbs in the bank, in those big
women who are achieving things and setting interesting, and I would like to write lighting fixtures. We had to spend a lot of
examples. Naturally we don't agree. The something about it." And she said, "Well, time doing things like that.
whole point of why I wanted to make the I don't think her story is very interesting, '
film was that these women never get a and I have to pass approval on everything We had a limited personnel working on
chance; nobody knows about their existence. that comes through here. I won't allow it." Wanda. There was just myself, a cameraman,
The woman who wrote this article really a sound man, and a fellow who ran errands
doesn't respect a human being like Wanda It was very mysterious, but they were very and would pick up things and deliver things.
who was unfortunate enough to be born into emphatic about it. So that was that. I But I like working this way instead of having
that kind of life. She can't be bothered with didn't try anymore after that because I other people do these things for me. We had
it; it's too boring. thought it would become too involved; and, a very leisurely shooting schedule.
after all, Wanda isn't really about that girl,
What was the original idea for Wanda? although I'm sure she has a very interesting · Wanda was the first film you directed. 1
story. I was just using the incident she was Were you influenced by your husband,
BL: I got the idea from a newspaper item involved in, you see.
some years ago. In the Sunday Daily News Elia Kazan's method of direction?
they used to have a feature called, "Did Did you enjoy being a filmmaker?
Justice Triumph?" They had true stories BL: 1've worked with him as an actress and
seen how he dealt with problems, continually
about murders and criminals, and this was BL: Yes, I liked the everyday working. To
working and not giving up. In that sense I
the story of a girl who was an accomplice to me it was a very pleasurable expe'rience, I
think he influenced me. He's one of the
a bank robber. Though the robbery didn't guess because it was my first time. I found '
best directors anyone could have.
come off and she botched it up, she st ill was I had a fantastic amount of energy. I never
sentenced to twenty y~ars in prison wi th no slept, and I was very high all the time.
But people are very surprised when they see
appeal. And when the Judge sentenced her, I couldn't let down because I was responsible
she thanked him. It seem;d she was very gl~d to all the people with whom I was working. Wanda and realize it is so different from
to get the sentence. Thats what str~ck_ me in I was very gungho, and I didn't think of the anything he would ever do. Although I think
reading this account: why would th is girl consequences of releasing the movie. I he's done some really good work, his
projects are not the type of things I would
feel glad to be put away? didn't allow myself to think, "Well, what if
be interested in, anymore than he would be
it's bad."
interested in what I'm doing.
68
l •i

67
I tried to get him to do Wanda, but he wasn't liminal, slow process. I don't think the I said, "Why don't you start with TV? Have
interested. He said he didn't know anything influence of a particular film could be the assignment that everbody watch TV one
about it, and I should do it myself. predicted. Yet I do think films have an evening, wherever they happen to be.
influence in the sense they are like myths. They're going to be watching anyhow. And
Did you think about making Wanda as They are like telling stories. the next day discuss it by questioning what
a vehicle for raising consciousness they saw .... Who were the women and
anong working class women? Do you think there is a particular what were they doing there with the men?
point of view which could only come What roles did they take? And what did
BL: I really don't consciously plan anything. from a female director? they think about?" This is a way that people
When I made Wanda I didn't know anything can be made aware of how they are seeing
about consciousness raising or women's BL: I was at a seminar at a festival of women things.
liberation. That just started when the film in the arts, where one of the discussions was,
was finished. The picture was not about "What is the Feminist Sensibility?" And the What type of films do you like?
women's liberation. It was really about the conclusion was that nobody knew.
oppression of women or people. I don't even BL: I like Satajiat Ray's films. My favorite
think it would help the people it's made We don't know what we feel or think at this film is Bunuel's Los O/vidados. That film
about to see it. In fact the people who were point. Ways that we always thought we and also others like Ray's Two Sisters and
in the movie from the anthracite region felt we're beginning to understand aren't Panther Panchali I could see over and over.
were rather disappointed that it was not a really us. We were told, in very subtle ways,
glamorous picture. It was not as exciting as of course, to think that way or feel that way, I like slow paced films. You'll notice Wanda
they thought it might be. or, "Oh, you're a little girl and little girls is a very slow paced picture. It was played
don't do this and little girls don't do that." more or less as an art film, not a commercial
Do you feel it is incumbent upon a Being a woman is unexplored territory, and film. It's not a film everyone is going to like.
film director to begin to suggest we're pioneers of a sort, discovering what it
alternatives? means to be a woman. Have you seen the works of
Mizoguchi?
BL: I really don't have any ready answer for What role do you see for film in
this question. This is something I've been helping to discover this consciousness? BL: Recently the Museum of Modern Art
trying to figure out myself for a long time. in New York showed some films by Mizo-
It should be enough for artists to present BL: If a film is made and says, "This is guchi. His films are very beautiful, although
something as they see it. If you examine about women and how they feel," I don't they are not easily accessible in this country.
works of art that have meant something to think anybody will go to it, including He was primarily concerned with the plight
you, say in literature or even film, they women. Everybody's getting very put off of women in Japan. He dealt with them as
didn't necessarily offer a solution. They by anything that smacks of women's libera- either geisha girls, a high form of prostitu-
were so human, and moved you and tion because they've just been inundated by tion, or they were very low ranking prosti-
touched you. Yet there was not necessarily a all the media. Every time I hear anything tutes. Most of his works were about that
solution offered to some kind of human about women's liberation I just say, "Oh, life.
dilemma or struggle. God, I don't want to hear about that any-
more." But the truth is, I really do. But it's Antonioni's films deal with women
I've seen films that have had effects, but I become a really glib topic, and it puts people who are very conscious of their
off. problems and very much oppressed.
don't know if they are necessarily good.
Battle of Algiers, I know, has told a lot of Do you like his works?
people how to have revolution or how to go That's happening at universities too.
about guerilla warfare. But I don't know if How do you present the women's BL: I think Antonioni's films are very
that's necessarily a good thing. People can issue without suffocating people? beautiful, and I love to watch them, but I
learn to be criminals from watching can never understand the women in them. I
television. BL: I was at a university recently where they never feel any sort of kinship with them,
were starting a course in women's studies. although I'm not saying that there aren't
I know that you can see things that will The teachers didn't know how thev would women like that.
inspire you and make you feel like a good teach it or what they should teach. They
person, tell you that there's a lot of good in said, "Our students are not interested. We I'm not really a student of films; I've never
you and that you're right and that you give them things to read, and they won't really studied them.
should try to be the better part of yourself. read them. We don't even ask them to find
But I don't know about bringing about any the reading material; we print it out and As an actress did you ever reject a
social change. I think they can but not in hand it to them. They still won't read it. part because of the production's
any immediate way. I think it's a very sul> The students only want to watch TV." a
portrayal of woman?

69

68
BL: A lot of actresses, including myself, Do you feel that you changed very
even before we heard anything about much for having gone through
women's liberation, just couldn't bring Wanda's character? And would you at
ourselves to do certain parts. We. just said, all change the rather pessimistic
''They're silly parts," or, "Those parts are ending of the film if you were making
no good," which meant they weren't human it now?
or real. They had nothing to do with being a
woman, but we didn't know it then. We
BL: By the time I finally made the movie, I
didn't put our objections in terms of, "See
had changed very much. Still I was making
how women are presented." It was not that
it about a former state that I had been in
type of thing. We just instinctively rejected which I knew very well.
them as being bad.
Yes, it's true that Wanda is a very pessimistic
Would problems have been avoided in film, and it could only be made that way.
working for a woman director? Now I would not make the same picture.
But I'm not saying that even that would not
BL: Years ago there were only male be pessimistic. I really don't know what
directors, even now I don't know of any might come. out.
Barbara Loden in Wanda.
female directors in the theatre. I do know
some, but they're working more in experi-
mental type theatre, you know, guerilla
theatre and types like that. Back then I
never questioned working with men; that
was the way it was done.

How did you respond to portraying

Marilyn Monroe in After the Fall?

BL: I never knew anything about Marilyn

Monroe, and I still really don't except what
I read in Life magazine once in a while. She
hadn't been dead very long before that so
it would have been silly to try to imitate
her, so I just worked on the role from
myself. Maybe if someone's been dead for a
long time, fifty years or something, then
you would research to find out about them,
what kind of life they had. But Monroe's
death was too close; it would have been
really intimidating. Instead of helping me, it
would have inhibited me. Someone just died
two months ago, and they you're going to
play them, that would really be silly.

But when I read that script, I thought it was

about me. When I read the part, I said, "Oh,
how did he know? How did he know about
me?" It's interesting because the way Maggie
is in the beginning of After the Fall is very
much like Wanda in this film, sort of
drifting around and not knowing what she's
doing, and then she becomes attached to a
man.

70

69
THIRD WORLD PERSPECTIVES:
FOCUS ON SARAH MALDOROR
It •s these images of closeness, collective responsibility and sharing,
rather than any speeches, that form the semantic substance of the
film. Just as the images of the water foaming and crashing on the
rocks at the beginning of the film are more than an indication of
physical geography, but part of the spiritual geography of resistance
and struggle.

Sambizanga.

If the women teach through gestures, other kinds of education take

place also in the film. The character of the tailor who makes his living
sewing garments in the city is important, for in the simplest and clear-
est way he explains the role of wage labor and the relations of ex-
ploitation and class struggle: "There are only the rich and the poor ...
it's the labor of the poor that earns money for the rich." The tailor's
shop is the center for education and action, and a part of that net-
work of solidarity that reaches even into the prison where Domingos
receives a letter of encouragement from an unknown comrade. More-
over this solidarity in struggle reaches across the boundaries of race
for Domingos dies refusing to reveal the name of the white man who
is a member of the resistance movement.

What the film does not show are the levels of colonial oppression; it
shows the surface manifestations of brutality but not the causes of
that brutality which lie in the economic relationship between Portu-
gal and its colonies. Neither does the film show how the developing
consciousness of the woman is translated into political action. What
is important, however, is that it shows the beginnings of that change
in consciousness. And if, when confronted with the seeds of con-
sciousness we ask to see the full grown plant, or considering the ab-
sence of Maria at the end of the iilm, we ask why she was left hold-
ing the baby and not grasping the gun, this may be an indication of
our own ignorance of the slow but certain processes of historical
change in Africa.
Sylvia Harvey

71

70
Some Notes on Recent African Struggles
Around 1960 almost all the countries of but for the first time since its inception vic-
Africa received their independence. The tory is now within clear sight.
For the moment, she lives together with her
colonial powers of England, France and
Some Notes on Sarah Maldoror two children aged 10 and 9-years-old in
Belgium saw de-colonialization as the best
St. Denis, a suburb outside Paris. She is
way to continue their economic dominance
Name tS really Sarah Ducados. currently unemployed, trying to find a
over these areas, Portugal, on the other hand,
financial backer for her next film which is
under-developed itself and without the
Born in France of parents who emigrated to be based on a play called. King Christopher
possibility of exercising economic control
from Guadeloupe in the French W. Indies. written by the renowned black poet and
over its territories, held on to its colonies and
philosopher, Aime Cesaire.
in the beginning of the 1960's, became
Married to Mario de Andrade, noted Angolan
entangled in a bloody colonial war against
writer and leader of the Angolan liberation
a number of ever-more successful liberation
movements: MPLA (Popular Movement for
the Liberation of Angola); FRELIMO
(Mozambique Liberation Front); and PAIGC
movement.

Founded Paris theatrical group "Les Griotes"

IITTAICES
(African Party for the Independence of
Guinea and the Cape Verdes Islands).
in 1956 where she adapted works by Jean-
Paul Sartre, Aime Cesaire, etc_
TIME TO
MARCH
Studied at Moscow Film Academy under
In 1961 Portugal had an army of 30,000 Mark Donskoi.
men in its colonies. Today, more than
200,000 soldiers have been brought in. But, Reviewed by Sarah Maldoror
Worked as assistant director under the
despite massive support from NATO-of Algerian director Ahmed Lallem on Elles. Sambizanga, co-produced by France/People's
which Portugal is a member-in the form of
napalm, tanks, fighter planes, in fact every Republic of the Congo. 1972. Directed by
Made first short film in 1969, Monangambt!ef. Sarah Maldoror. 35mm, color/103 minutes.
conceivable weapon at the disposal of the based on Luandino Vieira's short story "Le
Western powers, things are going from bad (Story-line: On the night of February 4,
Complet de Mateus." This film received
to worse for the Portuguese colonialists. several awards at several festivals including 1961, the first Angolan resistance fighters
Carthage, Tunisia. start out from a small village named Sambi-
The liberation movements are constantly zanga on their way to the colony's capital
freeing new areas from Portuguese control city, Luanda. They storm the Portuguese
1970, she acted in a fiction feature about
and are inflicting one defeat after the other colonial pri~on there and free many prisoners.
the liberation movement in Guinea-Bissau,
on the Portuguese forces. Last September, The date is an historic one: it was then that
PAIGC. The film was Algerian and called
the movement in Guinea, after liberating the liberation struggle, which continues up
Des Fusils Pour Banta (Guns for Banta).
more than 2/3 of the country, declared through today, began.
independence, naming the new country The
In 1971 she made The Future of Saint-Denis,
Republic of Guinea-Bissau. Similar develop- The film, which begins somewhat earlier,
a short 16mm documentary, based on both
ments are happening in Angola and Moz3m- deals with an episode during the beginning
documentary material from the days of the
bique. of this struggle. It tells the story of Domingos
commune and a contemporary description
Precisely what the recent overthrow of the of St. Denis which has a communist-run Xavier, an·Angolan construction worker and .
dictatorship in Portugal presages for the fut- administration. She also worked on a how he was arrested by the hated secret
ture of the African struggle is still uncertain collective short film project on the Paris police, tortured and finally killed. He dies
in detail, but it is clear in its overall implica- Commune, Louise Michel, La Commune et from a beating administered by black
tions. The national liberation movements con- Nous which is primarily about the ideas of puppet soldiers who work for the Portuguese
tributed significantly to the unrest that cul- Louise Michel, the most famous woman in when he refuses to betray a white comrade
minated in the seizure of power; their un- the Paris Commune. It was Michel who pu·t who has joined in the struggle against
ceasing resistance over a prolonged period of forward the idea of a new type of school Portugal's barbaric colonialist repression.
time caused an already poor nation to where girls would have the same rights to
stumble even more closely to the brink of education as boys. Both projects were pro- The film is more a study in how a people be-
economic ruin and an already oppressive re- duced by the French Communist Party in comes politically conscious than an actual
gime to lean even more heavily on its war- connection with the 100th Anniversary of description of the liberation struggle itself.
weary population. Whether or not General the Paris Commune. The story evolves tiy tracing the path of
Spinola's government has fully learned the Maria, the wife of Domingos, who tries to
lessons of the past-that full independence Finished Sambizanga in 1972. Received "Le find her husband, and, on the road, passing
for Portugal's colonies is unavoidable-re- Tanit d'Or" award at the Pan-African Film through one village to the next, discovers
mains to be seen, but, at the very least, he Festival in Carthage, 1972 and the Inter- what it means to begin to struggle against
has indicated his intention to move in the di- national Catholic Film Office award at the colonialism.) Note: this was written by the
rection of greater autonomy in the near Pan-African Film Festival in Ougadougou, editors of Film & TV; what follows is S.M.'s
future. The peoples' war is by no means over, Upper Volta, 1973. own article.

72

71
To begin with, this is a story taken from our will to become an independent nation:
reality: a liberation fighter, one of the many, could it be true that \IIJe Angolese were like
dies from severe torture. But my chief them, the Portuguese ... no, that wouldn't
concern with this film was to make you be possible!
Europeans who hardly know anything about
Africa, conscious of the forgotten war in I'm no adherent of the concept of the "Third
Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. World." I make films so that people-no
And when I address myself. to you Europeans, matter what race or color they are-can Ul)der-
that is because it is the French distribution stand them. For me there are only exploiters
companies who determine whether the and the exploited, that's all. To make a film
people in Africa will get to see a certain filmmeans to take a position, and when I take
or not. After 12 years of independence, it is a position, I am educating people. The
your companies-UGC, Nef, Claude Nedjar audience has a need to know that there's
and Vincent Malle- who hold in their hands a war going on in Angola, and I address
the fate of a possible African distribution formyself to those among them who want to
Sambizanga. know more about it. In my films, I show
them a people who are busy preparing them-
At any rate, I don't want to make a "good selves for a fight and all that that entails in
little Negro" film. People often reproach Africa: that continent where everything is
me for that. They also blame me for making extreme-the distances, Nature, etc. Libera-
a technically perfect film like any European tion fighters are, for example, forced to
could do. But, technology belongs to every- wait until the elephants have passed them by.
one. "A talented Negro ... " you can relegate Only then can they cross the countryside
that concept to my French past. and transport their arms and ammunition.
Here, in the West, the Resistance used to
In this film I tell the story of a woman. It wait until dark.. We wait for the elephants.
could be any woman, in any country, who You have radios, information-we have
takes off to find her husband. The year is nothing.
1961. The political consciousness of the
peoRle has not yet matured. I'm sorry if Some say that they don't see any oppression
this situation is not seen as a "g_ood one." in the film. If I wanted to film the brutality
and if this doesn't lead to a heightened of the Portuguese, then I'd shoot my films
consciousness among the audience as to what in the bush. What I wanted to show in
the struggle in Africa is all about. I have no Sambizanga is the aloneness of a woman and
time for films filled with political rhetoric. the time it takes to march.

2 MONANGAMBEEE
In the village where Maria lives, the people
have no idea at all what "independence"
means. The·Portuguese prevent the spread of
any information and a debate on the subje-ct
is impossible. They even prevent the people
from living according to their own traditional
culture.
If you feel that this film can be interpreted
as being ·~negative," then you're falling into
the same trap that many of my Arab brothers
did when they reproached me for not
showing any Portuguese bombs or helicopters
in the film. However, the bomb only began
to rain on us when we became conscious; the
helicopters have only recently appeared-you
sell them to the Portuguese and they buy
them precisely because of our consciousness.
For, not too long ago, people here believed
that all that was happening in Angola was a
minor tribal war. They didn't reckon with
by Nadja Kasji, Africasie, Paris 1969.
(co-produced by C.O.N.C.P./Algeria, 1969,
directed by Sarah Maldoror, 35mm, b/w,
17 minutes.)
"Monangambeee!" When this cry went out
from hut to hut, from village to village in
Angola, even the bravest turned pale. Men,
women, and children fled and sought shelter
in the bush.
"Monangambeee" came to mean "white
death" to the people of West Africa. The
least it cou Id mean was certain deportation
with no return. Long ago, this cry was
Sambizanga.
sounded with the arrival of Portuguese slave
dealers. Today, the same cry, the same signal,

73

72
rings out over the length and breadth of
Angola-but today, it is the signal the
liberation movement uses to call for a villageonly in the local dialect the word actually
meeting.
Monangambeee is also the title of Sarah
Maldoror's film based on a short story by
the noted Angolan writer, Luandino Vieira.
Vieira was sentenced to 14 years in prison in
1961. He was then deported to the Tarrafals
concentration camp on the Cape Verdes
Islands where he shared a cell with two
poets: Antonio Iacinto and Antonio Cardoso.
Monangambeee was produced by the Con-
gress of National Organizations in the
Portuguese Colonies (C.O.N.C.P.)-the
· · coord"mating
Joint · body f or th e various
. oes no
.be t· f A
I1 ra 10n movements o ngo Ia, ozam b.1que M
·
an d G uinea- s·1ssau. Th'1s wast
. he f.1rst time
th at an Af ncan po 1 1ca 1 organization acte d
· i·t· • •
as a f ·1Im pro d ucer. Th e ·dI ea was th a t t he
film could be sold to TV stations and film
distributors around the world. It was shot
in Algeria with technical help from the
Algerian People's Army ana under the
supervision of the Algerian Liberation Move-
ment, FLN. There is only one professional
actor in it, the prison guard, Mohamed
Zinet. All the others are amateurs, but in
an extraordinary way, they have given an
intense eacpression to the dialog..ie they
speak. This is especially true for Carlos
Pestana who plays the prisoner, Lucas Mateus.
An Angolan woman visits her husband in
prison.The meeting lasts only a few minutes.
Before she leaves, she promises to give him
a "complet." The whole film is built on the
fact that this word has a completely different
meaning for the oppressors than for the
oppressed. The prison guard, who has
listened to every word spoken during the
conversation, immediately takes the prisoner
-Lucas Mateus-to the prison warden. He, in
turn, begins a brutal interrogation and then
says to his subordinate: 'He only needs a
suit ("complet" in Portuguese) when he
goes before the judge.'The prisoner is
suspected of hiding something and is tor-
tured. They question him relentlessly as to
where he had hidden the suit and for what
purpose he was going to use it. Lucas Mateus
understands nothing of his treatment. His
suffering seems to have no end.
74
Then, at the end of the film, he receives his
promised "complet" from a fellow prisoner-
means a meal made of fish and beans; com-
bined with palm oil and bananas. This is a
dish eaten e_very day by the poor people who
live in the miserable slums of Luanda,
Angola's capital city. It is only then that the
audien_ce understands that the whole thing
was a mistake ... I feel that this, in a very
clear way, illustrates the problems in
communication between the colonial rulers
and the native population."
Maldoror does not only allow the direct
development of the story to unfold; she
d t · 1 d ·be th th
. s1mp y escri .e game
. . e.
colonial henchman plays with his v1ct1m.
h d wh' h
. She recreates
. the atmosp ere un er 1c
the suffering takes. place and. the estrange-
.
ment people feel m a colonial society.
"I naturally could just as well have shot my
footage in a prison, which resembles all
others. But, I wanted people to get a feeling
Of how the Pr·1sons are in the Portuguese
colonies-packed full with people, completely
crammed. When the woman visits Lucas
Mateus, she winds up in a suffocating,
hermetically-sealed cellar atmosphere in Sambizan,-.
wh_i~h the men, all pushed_ t_ogether, are j~st
wa'.t'.ng. What are they waiting for? They re
wabitmdg tko be sent .~ay-to anywhere,
no o y nows ...
3 SARAH MALDOROR:
A WOMAN IN
STRUGGLE
(The following comments have been Sarah Maldoror has lived altogether three
excerpted from an interview with Sarah years in Africa: in Algeria, Morocco and
Maldoror by Elin Clason from Film & TV, Guinea.
Stockholm.)
"In Africa there's no such thing as a baby-
"I am one of those modern women who sitting problem. Children belong to everyone
try to combine work and family life, and there. There is always someone there to take
just like it is for all the others, it's a problem care of your children because it's natural
for me. Children need a home and a mother. for people to care about the children of
That's why I try to prepare and edit my films others. Here your children belong only to
in Paris during the long summer vacation you, no one bothers about them. That's a
when the children are free and can come European approach to children and has
along." nothing to do with European women not
73
having the time because they work." remains the slave of man. That's why she has she thus broke with the traditional passive
to liberate herself." role given to African women.
As for herself, Sarah Maldoror doesn't feel
that she's had any problems in her work But that which interests her most right now She said that it's not enough to just use
because she's a woman. When it comes to is the struggle against imperialism. "Because documentary material when you're trying
how her films are judged, she says that it is what is most important right now. to educate people. It's easier to get people
there are certain people who contend that People have to be able to find out about to go to a feature film which is about a man
it's possible to tell that it was a woman who why and in fact how, to struggle and to learn and a woman. And, besides, why do Africans
made these films. to identify those who are responsible for who are thrown on the screen have to be fat
war." and ugly, why can't they be beautiful?
"But, it's only reactionary men who say that,"
she says. ''They also say that it's noticeable Why doesn't she now live in Africa? Someone asked during the discussion for
that it was a woman who made these films what kind of audience the film was made.
because they're about women. Of course, "My situation is a very difficult one. I make
I as a woman, am interested in the problems films about liberation movements. But, the "I don't know what a "kind of audience" is,
of women. money for such film production is to be nor could I care less. The film is about a
found not in Africa, but in Europe. For that struggle which is going on today. I made the
Sarah Maldoror likes the films of Agnes reason, I have to live where the money is to film to illustrate this struggle."
Varda and Anna Karina. But, she doesn't be raised, and then do my work in Africa."
really find any common "female character- Sambizanga has been shown at several
istics" in films made by women. Every · "I'm against all forms of nationalism. What African film festivals and has been sold to
woman director makes the films according does it in fact mean to be French, Swedish, most of the TV networks in Western Europe
to her own personality, just like men do. In Senegalese, or Gualdeloupan? Nationalities and to Cuba. African movie theatres are
this vein, she also thinks highly of the films and borders between countries have to dominated by French producer!' and because
of Alain Resnais and Chris Marker. disappear. Besides this, the color of a person's of this, want neither to buy nor exhibit films
skin is of no interest to me. What's important on the liberation struggle. The people who
She herself is not active in any women's is what that person is doing." will thus get to see Sambizanga for a while
organization, but she does support those who to come will be mostly West Europeans.
are, and thinks that women who work Sarah Maldoror sees her task as being able to
around the Woman Question are right in inform people about the struggle being "People know nothing about Africa," she
doing so. waged against imperialism in Africa by the says. ''That's why I want to make my next
liberation movements there. She has faith in film about King Christopher, a Haitian slave
"I feel that all women in principle should the importance of such information. She who led a rebellion which ended in a
support them, even if they don't agree on believes that everyone can be convinced of the defeat for Napoleon, and then named him-
every issue, since it is w?n:1en who are justness of that struggle. For that reason, she self king.
oppressed by men, and it 1s wome~ w_ho . ,, doesn't want only small leftist groups to see
have to help themselves out of their situation. her films, but everyone: Africans, Europeans, "In this film I want to show that Africa also
Americans, Capitalists, Marxists ... has a history, that Africans are not history-less
She wants to show women who appear on the savages, but that there have been many out-
screen in her films as they are in real life. Two of her films were shown at the non- -standing people coming out of the culture of
These women can be beautiful, but they profit, alternative movie theatre in Stock- · Africa. Aime Cesaire has given me all the
aren't lifeless dolls. holm, "The People's Cinema:" Judging by liberty I want to re-work the script," she goes
the discussions which took place following on. "The film won't only contern itself with
"I'm only interested in women who struggle. the film showings, a part of the audience was events which took place more than 100 years
These are the women I want to have in my obviously let down. They hadn't completely ago, but will also deal with the Africa of
films, not the others. I also offer work to as understood her intentions and said to her today and will include documentary material
many women as possible during the time I'm that they felt that the woman in Sambizanga on Malcolm X, George Jackson, Amilcar
shooting my films. You have to support was too pretty, that the film was more about Cabral, Schou Toure of Guinea, and others.
those women who want to work with film. a single person than a political movement, The film will offer an answer as to why
Up until now, we are still few in number, that the woman's political consciousness African countries which got their 'indepen-
but if you support those women in film who wasn't completely made clear, etc. In short, dence' in the 1950's failed to keep it in the
are around, then slowly our numbers will the film wasn't revolutionary enough! true sense of the word. By using King
grow. That's the way the men do it, as we all Christopher as an example, I'll try to com·
know. Women can work in whatever field
Maldoror felt that the woman in the film had pare his failure with the failure of these
they want. That means in film, too. The main 'independent' African states."
her consciousness raised by the fact that she
thing is that they themselves want to do it.
left her village and set off on her own to
Men aren't likely to help women do that.
look for her kidnapped husband. By so doing King Christopher will be shot in Cuba. The
Both in Africa and in Europe, woman
"Maldoror" continued on page 110.

75

74
 WOMEN.'$
INDEPENDENT
CINEMA story, and an image track in which the

Reviews
Anielle Weinberger and Ginette Gablot
characters appear against a flat background.
They pass before the camera. The actors'
movements are written into the script, and
showed Jemina, Daughter of the Mountains for exa~ple, the icon~ra~h~ of stardom is
as part of the European Movement evok~d m ~e way Jemma 1s introduced-
programme at the Festival of Women's Films, feet fir st -in an ~cho ~f The ~arefo~t C,on-
held at the National Film Theatre in London tessa. The story itself 1s a straight chched
and afterwards they answered questions at ' r~an_tic one hinging on the paternal rela-
the Forum t1onsh1p between a tall dark stranger from
· "the town" and just-sixteen-year-old Jemina,
They began by discussing Hollywood who ends up a whiskey fuelled human torch
cinema: "What you notice about these films as her and the stranger's lips meet in one last
is how the social context has disappeared. long kiss.
All those smaller characters that populated
the Hollywood films of the Thirties and The film is effective in taking apart the
Forties are gone. The sole reality is the staple ingredients of the Hollywood film and
monolithic character, the man; one man, in presenting them shorn of mystificatory
whether it is Jeremiah Johnson or Dirty ".romance." "Hollywood" the filmmakers
Harry Callahan or Judge Roy Bean, with no suggested, "has met crisis after crisis by
context except that he lays down the law making minor adjustments in the apparent
and everyone is subservient to him. The content of the films it makes and buys and
older Hollywood filmmakers who can't sells."
accept the current code simply can't get
work-like Raou I Walsh. (There are some, By Verina Glaessner
too, who can work within this code and
question it, like Jerry Schatzberg but they Rental Info: Claire Johnson, The London
aren't exactly welcomed.) Women's Film Group, 7-9 Earlham Street,
London W.C.2.
Weinberger and Gablot said they were at
odds with the bulk of films shown during the
Festival because of their acceptance of
traditional form and concentration on Claudia Alemann's film The Point is to
content. Both felt strongly that any Change It is strong, investigative film
apparent success in dealing with women's journalism taken a stage further by its
situation through commercial forms was raison d'etre: a coherent dialectic structure
doomed to failure. "There is very little that leads the audience toward its conclu-
difference between Jeremiah Johnson and sions through a series of unassailable
Wanda ... that is the danger inherent in arguments. Claudia Alemann is a Marxist, a
looking at the problem of content alone. . . member of the Women's Cooperative in
• It is no good looking at women's problems Germany, and an ex-Film School student.
by themselves, or just the image of women in She was in London for the Festival of
the cinema- there is no point in segregating Women's Films, held at the National Film
ourselves, we have to look at the bare Theatre in London, and spoke at the
technical basics of cinema first, at the way Saturday Women Only Forum: "Up to now,
film is produced and then we can arrive at women's role in production has been that of
the definition of a form and a content to an industrial reserve army to be hired and
serve our struggle." fired according to the needs of the system.
There have been analyses of the position of
Jemina was shot very quickly and cost very the male working class, but not of the
little to make. It is essentially film as film working class as a whole and certainly not
criticism. The target is the image of women of the female working class. We tried to take
in the standard Hollywood film. They have the conventional analysis further. We started,
adapted a Scott Fitzgerald story, and the for instance, with the question of equal
film has two components: a soundtrack pay ... but when we began to look at the
which consists of a voice-over reading the work that women actually do, it became

76

75
clear that women don't do the same work as Claudia admitted to the problem, in Germany
men and so the demand 'eQual pay for
equal work' becomes a red nerring."
Her film looks at the whole structure of
rationalization involved in the process of
classifying work into "light" and "heavy,"
at the pay differentials involved, and at the side of filmmaking.
realities behind the piece-work system.
Alemann takes her camera onto the factory By Verina Glaessner
floor and shows us a floor-long vista of
assembly-line workers piecing together
minute components with hairline accuracy. Women's Film Group, 7-9 Earlham Street,
The workers are women, Then they go
home and work an additional forty or so
hours at "home duties." The film also
investigates what supposedly independent
doctors had to say about the overwhelmingly
high accident rate for women-four times
higher than that for men. (Most of these
women it was found, who went to work on
the assembly line at 17, were found to be
unemployable by the age of forty.)
Allemann's film places the stereotype of
feminine passivity firmly within the pro-
duction system. The degree of human misery
is located in the faces of the factory workers
talking about their "aches and pains," and
multiplied over through a series of statistics
into an irrefutable argument that functions
like a revelation. "We wanted to show that
we have to change these forms of work. The
power factor comes in when the woman
realizes that she is indispensable. There are
implications here about women's self-
confidence, their need for self-confidence."
The Point Is to Change It was made within
the Women's Cooperative, though Claudia
financed it herself, and it took about a year
to put together. The film had just been com-
pleted ten days before the festival screening
and had already been shown twice in
Germany to workers and students. Her
other short films including one about
women in Vietnam, are shown (as are the
other films made within the Cooperative) to
as many different kinds of groups as possible
-union meetings, church meetings, political
meetings, colleges, neighborhood groups, etc.
"We can reach the woman outside the
Movement bu't not the one who is totally
disinterested." For that project, she says she
would need television, an outlet which has
recently succumbed to the kind of policy
rethink that consigns women's films to an
occasional slot-admitting the trendiness of
the issue but nothing more.
as elsewhere, of the situation where mainly
middle class women make films about
working class women. Currently, the Women's
Cooperative is attempting to get round this
through introducing Super-8 in an effort to
familiarize more women with the technical
Rental Info: Claire Johnson, The London
London W.C.2.
PUT YOURSELF IN MY PLACE
Although the couple are young and hip, the
scene is a familiar one for the wife of a man-
on-the-rise. He unexpectedly brings home his
colleagues and expects her to entertain them.
When the wife complains, the husband says,
"I had to bring them home for business; put
yourself in my place." She does and puts him
in her place. He stays at home and she
becomes an executive, complete with male
secretary.
This role reversal works as more than a
gimmick bec-':luse the actors are not simple
76
caricatures of a man-woman or a woman-
man. They play their parts in a convincingly
realistic style. Filmmaker Francine Winham
has paid careful attention to nuances in
dialogue and mannerism. This realism forces
the viewer to deal with the reversed images;
as charicatures could be easily ridiculed and
dismissed.
The reversal of roles is a powerful tool for
.consciousness raising. When the woman and
her female colleagues flippantly discuss the
sexual attributes AND faults of "the boys at
the office," the humiliation involved in such
sexist attitudes becomes painfully clear.
Francine Winham, a photographer and
member of the London Women's Film Group,
wrote, directed, filmed and edited Put
Yourself in My Place.
Linda Artel
Womanhouse, a 47-minute film of Joanna
Demetrakas, is the most potent film
document I've yet seen on being female.
The film takes its title from a 1972 project
of the Feminist Art Program at Cal-Arts,
headed by Judy Chicago and Miriam Shapiro.
The group rented an old mansion on Mariposa
Street in Hollywood and altered its interior
through decor and set pieces, with the
objective of "searching out and revealing the
female experience ... the dreams and
fantasies of women as they have sewed,
cooked, washed and ironed their lives away."
They called it Womanhouse; it was open to
the public for six weeks. Demetrakas' film
takes us through this house and intercuts
with theatre pieces, interviews and moments
from the group's consciousness-raising
sessions. The result is by turns warmly
comical, chilling, and finally almost devasta-
ting in its impact.
The first stop on the tour is, appropriately,
the kitchen, whose walls and celling are
decorated with rubber obiects which at first
look like fried eggs but turn, increasingly,
into jaunty breasts-an old metaphorical
juxtaposition. The sinuous camera moves on
to an endless row of bright red lipsticks and
into a closet crammed with pointed-toe shoes
and fanciful clothing. A particularly effective
piece is a linen closet, inside which is a
2-dimensional cut-out of a woman-trapped
77
forever by stacks of immaculately-ironed
sheets. The bathroom is defiantly abrasive:
dozens of douching products line a shelf; a
basket overflows with blood-stained sanitary
napkins. An interview with three supposedly
"hip" (otherwise they wwldn't be there)
men revealed them to be repelled by all that
blood, succinctly revealing the continuing
stigmata of a woman's menstruation.
The theatre pieces, directed by Judy Chicago
and performed by members of the group, are
brilliant, and serve to reinforce, in a more
direct way, the stylized comment of the
house. Of these, the most moving and
somehow terrifying is ''Waiting," performed
by Faith Wilding. A woman sits in a chair,
her arms wrapped protectively round herself,
and chants a lament on the ecstasy and pain
of being female, underscoring women's
tendency to "wait ...
... for someone to hold me
... to feed me
... to walk, talk
... to wear my frilly dress
... to be a pretty girl
... to be asked to dance
... to become a mother
... for my body to grow old
and finally ... for the struggle to end."
The women of the Feminist Art Program
were the primary creators of this particular
work, but the film is an eloquent testament
to the possibilities inherent in collaboration
-that most denigrated term of the film
medium. Joanna Demetrakas, an editor ,
and filmmaker (Celebration at Big Sur), must
be applauded both for the personal sacrifice
and effort she gave to preserve this unique
artwork and for
the extraordinary delicacy witn which she
presents it. The camerawork by Baird Bryant
and Chris Burrill is fine and Demetrakas'
editing is especially sensitive. Although its
length and subject rnatter make its commer·
cial l)rospects problematic, it is beginning
to receive some attention. The Whitney
Museum in New York presented it for a week
in January and other institutions and festivals
are sure to follow suit.
Credits: Photography by Baird Bryant and
Chris Burril; Sound by Judith Dancoff;
Music composed and arranged by Rachel
Faro and Jim Henry Gannon.
Beverly Walker
78
WOMEN OF THE RHONDDA
WOMEN OF THE RHONDDA was shot in Wales in
the important mining area of the Rhondda Valley.
Three women-daughters, wives, and mothers of
miners..:..who lived through the epic strikes of the 20's
and 30's were interviewed.
From what they say comes a moving and significant
description of their relationship as women to one of
the most oppressed groups of workers-the coal mi-
ners. The women, Mrs. Adams, Mrs. Davies, and Miss
Boxall talk mainly of the dilemma of being trapped
by their deep empathy with the miners and the frus·
tration of their own unfulfilled ambitions. One had
wanted to be a vet, the other a seamstress, and the
third a teacher. While the men had 8-hour-a-day jobs
the women's work never ended. Says Mrs. Davies,
"It was my mother in the home who suffered much
more than the men-my brothers ended up the strike
very, very sunburnt,whilst my mother was worn out."
At 14, Mrs. Adams left home and school to work in
Surrey in order to help support the family while the
strike continued-women the accommodating work·
ersl Although these women had hardly any alterna·
tives in life, their bitterness is not directed against
their men for it is, as they say " ... the landowners
and the mine owners, they just reaped the benefits
for themselves." "We were slaves because they were
slaves to mine owners." The film ends with their song:
Baldwin and Co. have slammed the Russian dole,
They've made a mess and now they're feeling
sore,
They've got their brains at the wrong end as
you know,
That's all you'll hear the bosses shouting-
F I LL MORE COAL.
The ease, flow and the poetry of the film.evoked by
the openness of the women interviewed,are the result
of the rapport and political understanding of the
group of women who made the film. The camera be-
comes a comrade rather than an intrusive alien. The
competent editing (by Esther Ronay) intercutting
miners' work and women's work reveals the miners'
dependence, and therefore the owners' dependence
women of the Rnondda. even more, on housework. This is a significant refer·
ence to the current issue in England-the demand for
wages for housework (whoever has to do it).
"If women were paid for all they do,
There'd be a lot of wages due."
Women of the Rhondda (B/W, 25 min.) Contact:
csther Ronay, 67 Brondesbury Villas, London, N.W.6.
Siew-Hwa Beh
77

WOMEN AGAINST THE (INDUSTRIAL) BILL
This is one of the most important films made by
women in London. It was made in 1971 as part of the
campaign against the Industrial Relations Bill, essen-
tially an anti-worker bill designed to outlaw unofficial
strikes. The film is a series of interviews with a group
of women shop stewards-workers in an electrical
factory in Tottenham (North London) discussing the
bill and the reasons they are against it, how they
joined the union a year ago and the strength this has
given them, how they went on strike against the bill
without the support of the men in the factory, their
fight for higher wages, inflation and its obvious effect
on women, and the equal pay act.
The major significance of this film is that it has
brought out the struggle of women as workers at the
point of production. (Too many womefl f ilm·makers
have neglected the paid female labor force.) A touch·
ing point is made in one of the women's descriptions
of how the women got together in the first place. She
tells of how it was too cold to work one day and the
women stood together to warm themselves and finally
decided to confront the management about the heat·
ing problem. The strength that came from a solidarity
through recognition of their common exploitation by
management caused them to join the union. But strug-
gling within the union also made the women realize
that the male members cannot always be counted on
for support.and that finally it is the women who have
to carry on their own struggles, because they are the
ones (as mothers, housewives, and often sole earner/
heads of households) who are hit the hardest.
Although the discussion is centered around grave
problems they are carried out with a great deal of
humor and wit. This in no way negates their under·
standing that the Bill " ... is against the interests of
the working class and that the working class is not
gonna tolerate this bill, the only way that you can
make them understand is by some sort of action. And
the only action we can take, we've got no other way
of showing how you feel except by withdrawing your
labour."
Women Against the (Industrial) Bill (B/W, 20 min.)
distributed by Contemporary Films, 55 Greek St.,
London, W .1. For more information contact: Esther
Ronay, 67 Brondesbury Villas, London, W.W. 6.
S.H.B.
SYLVIA, FRAN AND JOY
Sylvia, Fran, and Joy examines the three
roles of housekeeper, wife, and mother. The
film cuts back and forth between three wom-
en as they describe and discuss their life-
styles with the interviewer. Sylvia exempli-
fies the woman who is working out a sharing
of both domestic and wage-earning roles.
Significantly her husband wanted children ·
and was willing to undertake the ensuing do-
mestic demands. Fran, having recently left
her husband in part because of her subsidiary
role in the marriage, is struggling to find a
new life and identity. The struggle is partially
fulfilled by her job with children ... a choice
she made without external impositions. Joy
is the traditional housekeeper-wife-mother
who seemingly accepts her role without ques-
tion. She believes in the validity of her roles
while we pick up the contradictions inherent
in her oppression as she talks of working
many hours a day and then scrambling to
put on a good appearance ,before the hus·
band comes home. However, the direction of
=;;=cr'.".'t the sequence is a critique of her rather than
the fact of her unpaid labor.
Although the film is competently directed by
Joan Churchill, it lacks the critical perspec-
tive of a dialectical connection between cul-
tural determinations and the roles of these
women. Sylvia and Fran are not shown fully
and analytically in their work situations,
Women Against the (/ndustris_l) Bill. thus undermining the significance of econom·
ics in these women's lives. The focus around
relationships with men suggests that libera-
tion only comes from either leaving a man or
marrying a liberated one. Processes of strug-
gle or possibilities of the beginnings of con-
ciousness are taken for granted. Socialization
is accepted as a given, thus embracing a view-
point that goad consciousness or false con-
sciousness is an individual trait (therefore
stacking the cards against Joy). Liberation
emerges from realization of potentially ever-
expanding alternatives in work and relation-
ships through consciousness raising within
groups in the women's movement. The possi-
bility of action springs from base support.
Finally the film, although made by an all-
woman crew, did not serve as an activity fa-
cilitating re-<Jducation for either side. Libera·
tion is seen as rooted solely within the indivi·
dual and as a private affair where any inter·
vention is considered rude. This is bourgeois
conditioning to keep women forever isolated
from one another.
Sylvia, Fran and Joy (B/W 25 min.) Distribu-
ted by A Churchill Film, 662 North Robert·
son Blve., Los Angeles, CA 90069
S.H.B.
79
78
 A 7½-MINUTE FILM revealed very traditional ideas about men- the audience. Some, myself included, thou;it
women relations. that filming such a fat subject automatically
A 7½ Minute Film is a story of paralysis and
held her up to criticism, especially in visual
waste set in the town of Colfax, Louisiana. It Unlike many other "interview" films, Living terms, but I know that the filmmaker felt a
is a beautifully shot film of a contemporary With Peter was fast-paced and the visual back- tremendous sympathy for Rose and was fas-
Southern belle packing and leaving home to ground made a political-feminist point. It cinated by her size. There were others in the
wait for a man at a bus stop-the man who was a disappointment for me, however, to audience who saw Rose as an earth-mother
never comes. The film is made to the music find that Weinstein went on to make a film figure.
and lyrics of "Delta Dawn" sung by Jackie on their marriage. In this light, Living With
DeShannon. According to the makers of the Peter seems to be a defensive justification of June by Martha Haslanger ( 1200 E. Univer·
film, the song was the inspiration for the a way of life that needed no defense. sity, Ann Arbor) showed with long takes and
script way before Helen Reddy made it fa-
a static camera, a middle class, middle-aged
mous. Welcome To The Beltless, Pinless Generation woman getting dressed and pu cting on make·
(Kay Goldstein, 3233 48th Ave., Minneapo- up before going out. In discussion, the film-
Although the film is a sensitive lyrical por- lis, Minn. 55406) is an animated compilation maker asserted that this was a sympathetic
trayal of a woman trapped by her environ- film that consists mainly of ads using images portrayal of a woman's ritual, but the audi-
ment and a life style that taught her to culti- of women or ads selling things to women. ence was generally unsympathetic to the por·
vate feminity as a marketable product and to The political point-beyond an exploration trait presented, seeing the film as a critique
seek identity and value through male protect- of the abuse of advertising-was not quite of make-up, jewelry, and the woman's bour·
ors, it is knowledge e,.xternal to the film. The clear. The juxtaposition of images did not geois life-style. I raise this point to indicate
limitation of the film lies in its purely de- achieve the kind of breakthrough to a new that ambiguities of audience response often
scriptive linear form and to the length of the concept that should come out of rapid mon- make it difficult to evaluate the way a film·
song, thus hindering any effective analysis tage in a political film (to repeat Eisenstein's will be.received.
situating the woman in a social/political con- point).
text.
Similarly, Post-Op Transsexual M/F presen·
The same critique can be applied to Woman ted a transsexual in her apartment and her
Nedra Deen who wrote, produced, and acted Is, which took images of women from classic
superbly in the film is, herself, a product of milieu, with the subject's voice-over commen-
(mostly male) painting and photography tary telling of childhood experiences, the op-
the South. The film is directed by Marni showing women in the following roles: mo- eration, parents' attitudes and understanding,
McCormack and shot by Joan Churchill. ther, wife, lover (significantly, no lesbian etc. in a way that was asking for more under·
images), worker (mostly 19th century images), standing of a transsexual's situation. Jeanne
For information contact: and revolutionary. The conclusion of the film Youngson, the director, 29 Washington
Nedmar Productions flashed the title of these roles in rapid succes- Square West, New York 10011, obviously
1265 N. Havenhurst sion and then "Woman is PERSON," but had a rapport wim her subject. This film
Los Angeles. CA 90046 there were no images of woman as person. presented the transsexual's desire to dress in
S.H.B. The montage of each sequence did not evalu- traditionally "feminine" clothes, such as
A Review Compilation of Films shown at ate the images, sexist or non-sexist, male or lace peignoirs, at a time when feminists re-
The Ann Arbor Women's Film Festival
female oriented, or produced by a man or a ject such clothes as forcing women to con·
(Feb. 6-10, 1974)
woman, although the soundtrack often did. form to a narrow, male-oriented standard of
For example, an increasing crescendo of beauty.
Living With Peter, one of a series of autobio- babies crying accompanied the section, "Wo-
graphical films by Mirian Weinstein (27 Sey- man is Mother." (The film was by Sandy Os- The same issue of make-up and beauty that
more St .• Concord, Mass. 07142), goes be· tertag, 156 Gray Avenue, Webster Groves was raised in the above two films (make-up
yond cinema verite to make a witty political Mo. 63119) ' being treated as a ritual in one and as a way
point about attitudes towards marriage. Both .
into the woman's world in the other, was al·
the subjects' words and the settings in which 1:he p~oble_m with cine~a verit6 and in!er-
so an important visual .element in the film
they are .interviewed
. reveal character and view films 1s that. they give the
, impression
.
Diane, which contrasted the life of a single,
social attitudes. The filmmaker's lover Peter that surface reality, a persons environment
emotionally isolated actress in New York
groggily (he had just woken up) discus~ , or a ~rson's wor~s "spe~k- for themselv~s."
with pictures of the harsh life on the plains
(in the bathroom) what he thought of living By ei th er ~egl~ting or_hiding th~ anal_ys1s
with Mirian and later stretched out on a and selection inherent in every film, cinema of Nebraska, where she was born and raised.
Her make-up was a mask, put on to main-
couch and covered with an afghan, he more verite and_ intervi~w film~ are often di~honest,
cogently reminisced on the course of their for they give the 1mpress1on that the f1lm- tain her role in New York, which covered
love. maker, in her effort to present a complete the haggard, angular face of a plainswoman,
picture of a woman gives an ambiguous one, revealed in a shot of Diane without her make-
To each person interviewed, the filmmaker and there is usually both criticism and admi- up at the end of the film.
asked the same question, "What do you think ~ati~n built into the portrait, but the critic-
of Peter and my living together?" Mirian ism 1s not openly expressed. Thus Royanne Diane is by Mary Feldhaus-Weber, c/o David
filmed herself on her unmade bed, and Rosenberg's Roseland (distributor, Vision- Westphal, Brandeis Univ., Waltham, Mass.
Film Department.
filmed her mother in the kitchen of her fami- quest, 7715 N. Sheridan. Chicago) dealt with
ly's suburban home. Peter was filmed in a an obese working class woman who talked
The best of the art films used experimental
way that revealed both his love for Mirian in about her life, especially about her joy in
techniques to present an archetypal image
what he said and her love for him by the way motherhood. We saw Rose in her living room
which either made a political point or just
she showed him on film. We make a value sitting on a sofa along with her stuffed ani-
stuck in the mind as a beautiful image. As a
judgment about each of the characters-the mals, and we also saw her in her bed giving
thing of beauty, Willow Tree by Marlys Skel·
hip couple was concerned with a vulgar kind birth to her youngest child. It was a vivid
ton (5336 26th Ave., Minneapolis, Minn.
of security; the mother at first seemed liberal portrait, but because Rose was so fat, her
33417.) showed a winter landscape shot in
about her daughter's relationship but then image and the way it was presented without
color film negative with a background of elec-
comment created an ambiguous response in
80

79
tronic music. Royanne Rosenberg's Autopsy ity of generations, although the film does not d'est and slapstick like Waiting for Godot)
(Rosenberg, 243 Elmwood, Evanston, Ill. state that the lives of the first two women with a patter on issues about women that are
60202) was the most accomplished of the are in any way connected to the other three. frequently raised in the Movement, treated
art films shown. Two kinds of shots were in- Visually, the film has a professional quality here in a wacky, irreverent and yet sympa-
tercut: shots in slow motion of an actual and is the kind of film that would be useful thetic way. Julia LeSage
autopsy of a grey-haired man, and a static in a classroom situation or public lecture
outdoor shot using a deep-focus composition where sex roles may be discussed in a non-
of a grey-haired man standing near a jetty threatening way. (Contact Darlene Marvey, Take Her, She's Mad, a half hour tape made
and a woman standing in the distance down 3555 Hamilton, Wayzeta, Minn. 55391, for by FEMEDIA and shown on "Open Studio
the pier. It was a Jungian type image, again rental information about the collective's Television" channel 9 in San Francisco last
a dream l'mage, and may have been about films.) year, was shown at the women's Media Con-
love or separation-both things were suggest- Apple ference in .Berkeley. This is one rare occasion
Pie (Cheryl Gaudio, c/o Carlos Corti·
ed. nez, Language Dept., University of Maine, ~hen an alternative show was nominated for
Orono, Maine) showed the process of photo- an Emmy but it is to its credit that it did not
Two short experimental films by Michele Ci- graphing an FDS ad. receive the award. It's too radical. The lang-
Particularly effective
tron (925 W. Dayton St., Madison, Wis. was the model's demonstration of all her uage is strong, employing four letter words
53715) made a feminist point and provided "looks," including her wholesome, apple-pie that would be bleeped out on commercial
models for other filmmakers who might want one. T. V ., thus undercutting the effect of some
to use the format of either film in another of the most powerful prose/poetry ever writ-
way. That is, one film was made up of file An I.S. Soap Opera (Pamela Johnson, Box ten.
cards flashed at a rate that represented the 182, Hiram, Ohio 44234) showed an Ivory
passing of time during a day, and the other Snow box with a tear running down the mo- Written by Beverly Michaels and adapted for
film was an overlay of fine fabrics and jewels ther's face on the cover. Television by Marta Segovia Ashley, the tape
and silhouettes of women practicing karate. is a startling and emotionally packed rendi·
This latter film, Self Defense, started out in Memorabilia (Donna Deitch, 413 Howland tion of the wretched existence of an Ameri-
color with no figures, and an electronic mu- Canal, Venice, Ca. 90201) satirized the Nix- can Housewife trapped in the contradictions
sic sound track. Slowly the figures of women on era in one long take of a robot walking of a culture that perpetuates double-bind sit-
in outline came into focus, first moving past a cemetary and a Nixon poster. uations. A local actress Jan Stratton is on
singly against a background of "women's camera alone for 30 minutes sustaining one
things" then moving forcefully in unison, Your Home Is You, a fifteen minute film by of the most powerful performances ever seen
free of that background. The title Self De- Martha Haslanger ( 1200 E. University, Ann on television. We watch her ruminating on
fense flashed on at the end. It is a brilliant her failed marriage, desires, misgivings, fears,
Arbor, Mich. 48104) has a voice-over reading
film. and brave moments. We see her propelled
from a booklet of advice to brides, while the
Citron's April 3, 1973 was a film in which visuals were pictures of model homes and towards schizophrenia-a sane response to
color cards represented the activities of three model meals. The idea of taste depends on oppression and powerlessness.
different women; each activity was hand· socialized patterns of consumption which
written out on a card, and the flashing of the appear "natural" to the upper-middle class. This was the first project the FEMEDIA
cards was timed in proportion to real life. As When translated into "rules" for lower mid- group undertook and their success was cer-
we read the cards and noted the rapidity with dle-class and working class women in these tainly not due to male technicians who lost
which they were flashed, we saw the activi- bride booklets written to sell products, the their professionalism when it came to a wom-
ties of women presented in film in an un- consumption codes, this "taste" appears awk- an's project by lowering the boom mike into
stereotyped way. ward and ridiculous. "What every woman the frame and whispering in the wings. The
knows" in the upper classes (to identify studio condition of having to produce an
Home Movie (Jan Oxenberg, Women's Film china plates by their translucency, crystal by entire tape in the three hours certainly did
Co-op, 200 Main St., Northampton, Mass. its ring when tapped) was wittily exposed as not help. But the power and competence of
01060) wittily combined a variety of film a superficial and foolish definition of a wom- the performance, script and direction make
styles to make a political comment about les- an's role, especially in combination with the the subtle male subversion ineffectual. Un-
bianism. Oxenberg took her family's movies exaggereated visual picture of ideal homes fortunately few will ever get to see the tape
of herself as a baby and blew them up to 16 and home life filmed in a glaring yellowish for certainly the networks will not air it-
mm, with the voice-over commentary humor- red tone. commercial or educational-for as the woman
ously querying about a lesbian's identity. Was says, "Henry Miller says fuck and cunt and
the child already lesbian? How did a lesbian Women Make Movies, Inc. (257 W. 19th St., he's applauded. I say it and I'm a neurotic,
look or act? In the same vein, there was N.Y., N.Y. 10011) has far inexpensive rental maladjusted woman-oh yes, castrating femin-
home movie footage of Jan as a cheerleader. the films made at the Chelsea Picture Station. ist." The tape presenting truth on several lev-
lntercut with the shots of the woman's past These include two films on rape, Fear and els hits close to home and is too serious a
life were shots from lesbian rallies and de· Paranoia Blues; two on women:s marriage threat.
monstrations and shots from the woman's roles, Domestic Tranquility and For Better
life now. or For Worse; one portrait of an old woman, For information contact:
Just Looking; and one portrayal of a Chelsea FEMEDIA
The Continuous Woman, made by the Twin Community activist, Katie Kelly. c/o Beverly Michaels
Cities Film Collective, showed moments in 2216 Summitridge Drive
the lives of five women, who told what they Involved in this group is Sheila Paige, whose Beverly Hills, Ca. 90210
think about their womanhood. A black 50 minute Women's Happy Time Commune, S.H.B.
teacher, a young lesbian, and three genera- the zaniest feminist farce I've ever seen, is
tions of women from a white, middle-class also distributed here. This latter film deserves
Minneapolis family were shown in their every- a full-length review, but let me just say it
day environment. The film stressed what all combined a sophisticated attitude toward
five have in common, especially the continu- cinematic farce (a western a la Godard's Vent
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Sanka, Pink .
Ladies, & Virginia .Sli111s
GERALD PEARY
Alice Guy-Blache, first woman director and Perhaps the most successfu I of all silent mitted Dorothy Arzner to direct, William De·
owner of Solax studio, made a heralded tour screenwriters was Frances Marion, who com- Mille felt that he had fulfilled his female quota. '
posed ten of the Mary Pickford hits including
of Sing Sing in 1914, sat in the electric chair,
and came away disturbed that such a dis- Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Polyanna. To his credit, however, DeMille did hire the
grace as Sing Sing was allowed to stand. Marion was among the first writers to work first "gag woman" in movie history in 19281
"I would not think that the electric chair closely on the set in the actual making of a former Follies girl named Beth Brown.
would be dreaded very much by a prisoner pictures. When she and director Marshall She appeared daily on the set of Tenth
who had suffered the tortures of the dark Neilan were associated with !'Kary Pickford, Avenue, creating comedy ideas for the Pathl
the trio of co-workers were famous as
damp, little cells he is forced to live in here," production ...
Madame Blache told reporters ... artistic collaborators. In addition, Marion
was a full-fledged director in her own right, In 1930, Dorothy Farnum, American
In the same year, 1914, in which she spoke both writing and directrng The love light scenarist, signed with Osso Films of Paris,
out for prison reform, Alice Blache also in 1921 for Mary Pickford and making Just France, to produce two of her own stories in
made a film, The lure, attacking the white Around the Comer in 1922, adapted from a both French and English versions-Toujours
slavery racket. Although passed by the Fannie Hurst story for Cosmopolitan Pictures. J Toi (Always Yours) and Mon Petit Homme
National Board of Censorship for motion (My little Man)- on a combined budget
pictures without a single change, The New In 1925, she formed her own production of four million francs. Farnum, contracted
York Times labelled her movie "malodorous" company, Frances Marion Pictures, backed to choose her own directors and artists for the
and lumped it with other white slavery sex- by strong western financial interests. She project, became probably the first woman to
ploitation films of the same era . . . wrote scripts and supervised the production, hold an executive position with a foreign
which were then released through the company.
In 1915, the Edison Company hired their Producers' Distributing Corporation ...
first woman director, Miriam Nesbitt, already ... Surely no woman director in history
a leading actress at that studio. Nesbitt not A little-remembered woman director of the was treated with the respect and reverence,
only wrote and directed but also starred in early silent days was Grace Cunard, a former much like a queen, afforded Dorothy Daven-
A Close Call, an incredibly ambitious North stage actress who appeared in movies with the port (or Mrs. Wallace Reid, as she chose to can
By Northwest-type vehicle beginning at the Biograph, Lubin, Bison, and Universal herself) during her American tour in 1923.
World's Fair, venturing into and through an companies. Her most celebrated acting role She travelled the country propagandizing in
opium den in San Francisco's Chinatown, was as the star of the serial, Lucille love, behalf of Human Wreckage, her movie
and concluding in an on-location chase The Girls of Mystery, at Universal, many inspired by the untimely death to drugs of
through the Panama Canal . . episodes of which she wrote, some of which her actor husband, box office idol, Wallace
she directed. In 1916, Cunard entered a Reid.
In 1921, William Jennings Bryan made an successful partnership with Francis Ford,
unlikely announcement that he planned to older brother of John Ford, at Universal. Typical was the reception in St. Louis,
write stories for the screen. The scenarios by Over a series of pictures, they took turns where five hundred city banners announced
Bryan were to be produced and directed directing and acting, with Cunard writing all her appearance; where the health department
by his daughter, Ruth Bryan Owen, who the scenarios. contributed ambulances and wagons for
already had put together one feature, Once Mrs. Reid's parade; where the Mayor pro-
Upon a Time, filmed at Miami, Florida, with Grace Cunard was a fearless actress, forced to claimed Anti-Narcotics week and greeted her
a cast of 250 "fashionables" who wintered take time off in the hospital on several at the train station with two brass bands.
there, along with the resident Community occasions for injuries sustained on the set. The parade included twenty-five carloads of
Players of Coconut Grove. Her courting of danger applied off the screen disabled veterans from the American Legion
also, to driving her automobile. Said Cunard: Hospital and eighty taxicabs with signs on
Once Upon a Time, taken from a story in "I am a perfect devotee of motoring, and their spare tires advertising the moviehouse
The Arabian Nights, was shot outdoors in simply must take time for a spin in my showing of Human Wreckage.
Florida scenery with anonymous aid from Lozier car. No speed is great enough to please
"one of the most prominent directors in the me, and I have been severely reprimanded If Mrs. Wallace Reid was the kind of woman
world," his identity never revealed. Ruth several times already." director whose moralistic goals the audience
Bryan Owen explained, "But I, myself, was appreciated, what of the treatment of other
the director, and I will act in the same ... Whatever happened to Zelda Sears? In women more professionally oriented?
capacity in my coming pictures." It does not November, 1927, the DeMille organization Witness one of the great chauvinist even~ in
seem, however, that Ms. Owen made another announced that Ms. Sears, who had written film history, a 1930 meeting of the London
movie, nor that her father, W. J. Bryan, musical comedies for the stage and filmed Film Society at which only works of women
came any closer to becoming an actual script· acting auditions, would soon begin direction film directors were viewed to see if the
writer than President. . . of her first feature. Was it ever made? "feminine stamp" could be detected.
Apparently not. Perhaps because he had per- According to Variety, " ... the boys didn't

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81
 see anything of the sort. The program was
very little worse than usual, and most of the
stuff might have been made by men just as
badly." The only film which was appreciated
was Dorothy Arzner's 1927 Fashions For
Women. A British movie made in 1929 by
Dinah Shurey called The Last Post was
razzed and hissed untH the movie was taken
off the projector in the middle-to cheers
from the audience. As for Germaine Dulac's
The Sea Shell and the Clergyman, the
Variety reporter had this to say: It" ...
served to show how sexy the women can
be when it comes to pictorial symbolism.
Film was full of educated dirt." The 'boys'
went back to male movies by the next
meeting .

. . . The first woman film distributor was

Margaret J. Winkler, former secretary to
Harry Warner in the pioneering days of
Warner Brothers Studio. In 1921, she
started on her own with one product to sell:
the Felix the Cat cartoons. These were so
successful that by 1924 Winkler offered to
theaters a variety package: Burton Homes
travelogues, 'Kid Kaper Comedies,' a series
of two-reel subjects based on the poems of
Edgar A. Guest, and the prize of her package,
a series of combination cartoon and live
characters, the 'Alice Comedies,' produced
in Hollywood by a young animator named
Walt Disney ... JACKIE
Possibly the first film made entirely by
women was a Swiss 1928 agricultural work
(title?), 6,000 meters in length, produced
with funds secured by public collections.
DEEI\Y~ COOPER
George Canty, of the US Department of
Commerce, was a perceptive witness to the
grand filmic event. He told Variety that he
was most impressed with the scenic view of
lne
the Swiss mountains ...

Turncoat Department: During the fierce anti-

suffragette period of 1910-1914 at virtually
with Irene RICH - Roscoe ATES
I
all the tiny studios, Lubin used its star char-
AK OR PRODUCTION
acter actress, Mae Hotley, to portray its
. various feminist foils. Wrote Motion Picture
World, "When in the Lubin photoplays you
s,o,, . I ~ Contit1•it, '7 uonord Praslml
see a comely old woman, a shrew or a
suffragette, that is Mae Hotley ... " LDWYN-MAYER ~k~tt
Apparently there was little to differentiate
the three parts .. .

Whatever happened to Elizabeth Pickett,

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82
 another talented woman apparen tly cut off " ... I used to be a good deal of a sentimen- among the women at the school {including
from directing in Hollywo od at the brink of talist. But many years of hard work drove it a young Ginger Rogers) but never really rose
a promising career? Wellesley graduate out of me. And after nine years of making above the common place because of the
Pickett first got into movies while directing motion pictures if I see anything clearly, it is unbeara bly stiff, rank amateur presence of
one-reel propaga nda films for the Red Cross that the frothy, unreal picture is doomed . RKO contract player, Bruce Cabot, in the
after World War I, in addition to writing The time can't be far off when ... male lead. Cabot was infintely better suited
herself the bulk of The History of the Red (audiences) .. . are going to even more to King Kong the same year than to being
Cross. willingly pay their nickels and their dimes part of the world of the forgotte n Wanda
to see a flesh and blood person whom they Tuchock in this forgotte n sound film.
She then went to work at Fox making one can recognize ... than to see a dummy
and two-reel Fox Varieties - writing, concoct ed out of all the impossible virtures
directing, editing, and titling on the average , scenario writer could imagine."
of eight short subjects a year. "I have written
with the camera on some thirty or forty Ms. Weber had purchase d an old estate in
Varietie s," she stated in 1927. The first of California and was converting it into her
these many assignments had been an on- own studio, where she and her husband ,
location short shot in her native Kentuck y, Phillips Smalley, could make pictures to be
King of the Turf, which proved the inspira- released through Universal. While obviously
tion for John Ford's feature, Kentuck y happy about the' new surround ings, Weber
Pride. Fox had been so pleased with Pickett's still cautione d the reporter , ''The public isn't
work that she was assigned to edit and title going to know that I stood in the shade of a
the Ford picture. California pepper tree when I directed such
and such a scene. It is the quality of picture
In 1927 Pickett announc ed, "I want to write which comes out of that studio by
which I
and direct my own pictures ." And Moving shall stand or fall." She pledged: I shall labor
Picture World predicte d that " ... an hard and long to make them construc tive
interesting decision will be handed down pictures of real ideas which shall have some
from the front offices when her present intimate bearing on the lives of the people
two-year contract ... ends in March, 1928." who will see them."
That decision must have proved otherwise
than "interes ting" to Pickett, to put it Lois Weber made her last Hollywo od movies
mildly. It appears that she never was allowed in 1927, the year in which women
directors,
to direct a feature film ... with the exceptio n of newcom er, Dorothy
Arzner, were phased out of the industry .
One of the first persons hired officially as a She was only forty-five at the time,
at the
"picture editor" was a woman, Katherin e prime of her career. She might have pre-
Eggleston, who became an employe e of the cipitated her own downfall by
a brave act
Mutual Film Corpora tion in 1913 at their of defiance at the end. Proclaiming absolute
newly complet ed Reliance Studio. Eggleston autonom y over her moviemaking, Lois
was hired without movie experien ce on the Weber refused to direct a movie called
basis of her wide-spread literary reputati on Topsy and Eva because United Artists
in popular publications. She was the author- assigned "gag men" to the project. " Weber
ess of Misdirected Education uiven to Girls wanted the movie made in straight dramatic
in the Public Schools, serialized in The sequences and therefor e walked out. UA was Rebecca of Sunnybro ok Farm.
Women's Home Companion and Loretta' s forced to recall a male director , Sam Taylor,
Looking Glass, which ran daily in Boston, on loan to MGM, so that the Duncan Sisters
Baltimore, and Philadelphia newspapers ... vehicle could go through .

Undoub tedly the most successful and re-
spected woman director in the whole silent
era was Lois Weber, who made films from
1913 through the advent of sound. Once a
missionary worker in the slums of New York
and Blackwell's Island among impoverished
young girls, Weber was concern ed particularly
with .attainin g "slice of life" realism in her
pictures. She told an interviewer in 1917
I
... Dorothy Arzner was the only woman
director working in Hollywo od from 1928
until Ida Lupino in 1949, with one exceptio n:
a movie called Finishing School at RKO in
1933, was co-direc ted by Wanda Tuchock ,
normally a scenarist. This movie about a
girl (Frances Dee) forced to attend a snobby
school by her social butterfly mother (Billie
Burke) showed promise in some of the scenes

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THE IDEOLOGICAL MASSAGE:
REVIEWS OF COMMERCIAL CINEMA
SUMMER WISHES, WINTER DREAMS
If you're a feminist going to see Summer believe they're watching a "women's film," as a primary and fundamental dilemma.
Wishes, Winter Dreams, expecting a film this is a "made for men movie." Made to
about "an ordinary woman," here's a conform to men's fantasies about themselves 4) Rita's moment of truth is when she
chance to reconsider. Don't get me wrong. as husbands (a rare, gentle view but sees her problem objectified. Her husband
I liked it alot. But compared to my expec- idealized and false nevertheless). The movie comes to life crying at the site of a World
tations (raised on literature by women, but makers could not get inside Rita's head. We War II battle where he killed three men. He
intensified by the publicity), this movie was see her from the outside, as a mystery, as too feeds off the past. She sees how futile
just one more baby step for the film her family sees her. As men see women. The that is. Those men are dead; her son is
industry. observations are accurate, even sympathetic. alienated from her. She learns to accept
these realities and to begin living for the
Joanne Woodward plays the "ordinary But it's like reading D. H. Lawrence: when- present.
woman" Rita: fiftyish, v,,hite, well-te>do ever he observed and empathized with
(her husband's an ophthalmologist) and women, he wrote about them as well as a But she is delivered from the past in much
well-kept (she walks around in a full-length woman could. But whenever he imposed his the same way women in this culture are
fur coat). Granted that on the sociologist's phallic theories onto the story, he showed delivered of our babies: through the help of
minutely graded class scale she'd rate only the limitations of his male experience. He man. As if it weren't our own body deliver-
a solid Upper Middle, still she's developed couldn't create an explanatory theory about ing that baby. Or our own selves capable
as a Hollywood glossy, rather than as the why women acted as they did. He could of solving our own problems. It's a valid
mother, daughter, or sister of us all. theorize about Male or human experience. enough ending, believable in that men can,
That was the first disappointment. But not Female. Not until we lead fully sometimes, help us. But when are women
androgynous lives, lives without Female and ever shown helping ourselves? Or each
In other words, Tillif Olsen's working Male roles, will women or men be able to other? Or when are women ever cast in the
class women have not yet hit Hollywood. take that step beyond observation and role of "doctors" for men? So if the
And I'm pretty sure I don't want them to; empathy into a creative interpretation of message is "Count on• your man," well
a male-controlled film industry couldn't do the other's life. that's the kind of passive dependency that
justice to them. This i:novie was perhaps helps cause the problem!
the best it could do. Only when truly So in Summer Wishes we are presented with
"ordinary" women control our own film the following implicit theory: Rita won't At the end of the movie, Rita decides to
portrayals, will truly ordinary women be sell the family farm after her mother's sell the farm, accept her son's alienation
seen on the screen. death, because of the ·memories it holds. from her, and move to a smaller apartment.
(Ergo, she lives in the past.) She rejects her The audience is supposed to feel that it's
But the greater disappointment was finding husband's clumsy advances. (Ergo, she is all to the good. The problem is solved.
that this movie wasn't even mostly about "frigid.") From the title we understand She'll be living closer to reality. Well,
her. It's a movie 1) about a woman, 2) from that the wishes of her youth have not that may be a valid solution to the problem
a (sympathetic) man's point of view, been realized, and that now, in the of living in the past. But if there is no
3) about a human problem, 4) which a approaching winter of her life, she lives in place for you in the present, what is solved?
sympathetic man and his man's past bring dreams. Her husband tells her "you don't A movie about us owes us at least a
to resolution. have enough to occupy your mind." recognition of the real problem. Summer
Certainly we see her performing the usual Wishes addresses only the symptoms.
1) Yes, the story revolves around Rita. We empty nest, housewife roles: shopping,
see her getting reading glasses (getting old); visiting her mother and daughter, having The movie is disaooointina on another level, •
lunching with her mother (herself in 20 leisure time. Any woman in the audience too. Rita's son is alienated from her because
years); antagonizing her daughter (by her could realize that Rita's ''problem" is that she rejected his homosexuality. Sure, it
very presence); her son (by rejecting his she was raised Female: which means living happens. And lots of people think home>
homosexuality); and her husband (by your life for others, having no control over sexuality is a sickness, too. So we can toler-
refusing his sustenance). But with him, it, having foolish wishes in youth, and only ate Rita and her husband when he reassures
there's a difference. Balsam plays the dreams to live on in middle age. her that their son was "born that way-/'
nicest man this side of Heaven. Rita gives Rita isn't "at fault." But the director
him quite a lot of shit in the course of the 3) But the movie proposes that her problem could have countered their prejudice.
movie, but he is never anything but totally is merely a human one. The sequence we're Instead we're shown the son's first lover:
supportive of her. And just because he's so shown from Bergman's Wild Strawberries an arrogant, simpy-looking ballet dancer out
sympathetic a character, so unlike most underscores how age and uselessness hit men to shock Rita and be generally hateful.
men, most husbands, the movie becomes his. as well as women, driving them into the Instead of drawing upon outdated steree>
Even lying down, men win. more intense life of memories and dreams. types, instead of showing same-sex love as
By defining Rita's problem as human, not mother-hating rebelliousness (to be "cured"
2) In spite of its emphasis on character and Female, women's oppression is treated as a by maturity?), the movie owed its audience
situation, which leads the audience to subcategory of human malaise, rather than an up-to-date version of gayness as a role-
"Summer Wishes" continued on page 103.
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84
 Tokyo-New York
Video Express
KYOKO MICHISHITA
A three-day video showing entitled,
"Tokyo-New York Video Express," began
on January 7 at Tenjo Sajiki in Tokyo,
featuring 14 videomakers from Tokyo and
16 videomakers from New York. Shigeka
Kubota, a video artist who lives in New York,
brought more than twenty video-tapes to
Tokyo-tapes by such artists as Susan Milano,
Julie Geiger, Shirley Clarke, Woody and
Steina Vasulka, Nam Jun Paik, and Joan
Jonas, as well as, some of her own work.
This was really the first time that so many
videotapes have been shown in Tokyo. Tenjo
Sajiki, the small theatre which is normally
used for the rehearsals of Shuji Terayama's
experimental theater group or for-experi-
mental film showings, was sold out as more
than a hundred and fifty persons showed
up every night.
Shigeko Kubpta, who has had a number of
showings in New York, showed her Video
Girls and Video Songs for Navajo Sky and
Allen Ginsberg. (She accompanied the
latter, playing the same little wooden
instrument he was using in the video.)
Although neither of her works shown at
this time related directly to the women's
consciousness theme, she herself was the
most convincing, living example of an
independent woman who could enjoy and
develop all the abilities and talents she was feminist nature, she said that she had never
born with. Shigeko introduced and
commented on all the tapes during the
whole five-hour program each evening. She
is hoping to come back to Japan this summer working on a project of taping the wisdom of
to hold a women's video festival here.
Susan Milano's Transsexuals introduced
the theme of today's sexual revolution by
depicting those who had been oppressed by
conventional society. It strongly conveyed
the message that sexual liberation would be
obtained by destroying the concept of "a
normal sexual relationship" already
established in everyone's mind. All over
the world the women's movement is also
trying to deny those written and unwritten
laws which prescribe normalcy for women
in order to regain the potential power,
creativity ,and tenderness which are innate
to women (as well as to men). "What is
normal" has been used over and over again
as one of the most effective means to oppress
~ople.
86
85
Julie Geiger's half-hour work, Spring Sowing,
succeeded in having the audience share the
experience of the two women in the tape.
One woman cut the clothing of another
woman, who was lying on the floor-from
her brand-new boots to her underpants.
It was one of the most sensual experiences I
have had with video. There was a pleasant
tension all the way through, and the women
in the video as well as the audience seemed
to feel that they were gradually regaining
their sense of their own bodies.
The general trend in the Japanese video-
makers' works has been predominantly
conceptual as it is in any other field of art
in Japan today. Fujiko Nakaya, one of the
founders of Video Hiroba, a group of artis1J
from various fields who are interested in
video, showed Statics of Eggs which she
made as part of her primitive technology
series. Two channels showed how Fujiko
herself and another woman tried to make
raw eggs stand on the tables, and another
channel showed the closeups of eggs which
were finally made to stand. She was originally
planning to have the audience try to make
the eggs stand while showing her video, but
an unexpectedly large audience made it
impossible. In answer to the question whether
she was interested in making tapes of a
really experienced discrimination for being a
woman. Fujiko, who studied fine art at
Northwestern University, has been recently
the aged people, commissioned by the
Leisure Center, a subsidiary organization of
the government.
Shoko Matsushita's Straight Flush was a
continuous shot of a merry-go-round taken
through three pieces of triangular shaped
glass with the sound of an old fashioned
musical box. ·
There were two tapes by Japanese women
whose intentions were to make an impact on
the viewers by presenting the problems
Japanese women are facing and forcing the
audience to re-examine the traditional con-
cept of what women should be. Mako
Idemitsu, who has spent several years in Los
Angeles and New York, showed her first
videotape, What a Woman Made. She shot
pieces of Tampax, which she has used
during her period, which were hardly
recognizable as Tampax; some of them even
resembled the black and white versions of
her husband's (Sam Francis') prints. With
these static images came a very affected male
voice reciting a parody of all the teachings
in one of the recent best selling books titled,
How to Raise Girl Children, written by a
former baby sitter for the children of the
Royal family: "The only important thing
you have to bear in mind as you raise a girl
is that she will eventually get married. Try to
make her grow up to be only a feminine,
gentle, wise and beautiful woman with poise
and modesty ... A woman who is neither
praised nor criticized by others is a truly
. . .
feminine woman. Intellect is harmful to a
girl," and on and on.
Since three hundred thousand copies of this
book were sold (not as joke books), Mako
was worried, thinking of the possibility that
the viewers of her tape might take the
narration very seriously and miss the parody.
But the viewers proved to have a good sense
of humor. Mako, who recently held a one
woman show featuring several of her 16 mm
films including Womanhouse at one of the
galleries in Tokyo, says that she would not
have realized what the real problems were if
she had not attended consciousness raising
meetings in Los Angeles.
,Another work with strong feminist con-
sciousness was Liberation Within My Family,
my first videotape, under the serial title
;'Being Women in Japan." It was also the only
documentary videotape among the Japanese
pieces shown in the program which had a
specific social and political me9Sage to
communicate to the audience. I am also the
only person with a journalistic background
in the Japanese videomaking circle. After
studying journalism at the University of
Wisconsin, I held a few different jobs while
free-lancing articles on women's issues for
magazines both in Japan and the United
States.
Until I met one of the co-founders of the
Global Village last August and saw Lesbian
Mothers by Norma Pontes and Rita Moreira
and Lifestyles, I had thought that the print
medium was the most effective means for
raising women's consciousness. When I saw
these two videotapes, however, I was
literally shocked with their power and
vividness in conveying the messages, and
what's more, it was fun watching them. I
thought that an article of several pages, and
a half hour videotape, both carrying the same
message, would never compare in their
effectiveness for reaching out to the
audience. I decided to start making
videotapes instead of spending so many
hours in writing one article, which the people
I wanted to reach would never read anyway.
Liberation Within My Family is a very per-
sonal video diary. The problems n1y sister's
family confronted when she had to undergo
brain surgery twice last year were really
issues in the women's liberation movement.
The most important thing I found in making
Liberation Within My Family is that it is
much more difficult to change the conscious-
ness of my immediate family than to appeal
to the consciousness of a greater number of
invisible people. My mother, who turned out
to be the main character in my first video-
tape, is convinced that she never treated the
girls any differently from the boys in
bringing up all of her nine children, but
most of the boys have grown up to be the
men who do not necessarily fight against
the present oppressive system toward women.
I guess that when the girls and boys are
brought up in the same way,
the girls will grow up to see a discriminatory
social set-up and fight against injustice done
to women while the boys will continue to
support the present system which benefits
them. After all, we women do not have much
to lose in destroying the present system
which took men two thousand years to
construct.
87
86
THE MOVIE CHANNEL
THE RAPE OF WOMEN ON T.V. by Judith Taylor
In the 1973-74 season, television has begun to ex-
plore, albeit tentatively, some of the issues the Wom-
en's Movement has raised since its inception. The fo.
cus of these programs has mostly been limited to a
strictly bourgeois-defined interpretation of feminist
issues: the issues are seen as purely personal struggles
of individual women usually around relationships with
men; the women are-mostly white upper middle-class;
there has been no real investigation of the institution
of marriage,· or the exploitation of women as workers
(as opposed to professional women). In short, most of
the programs that deal with women's issues (series
such as Maude, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Diana;
specials such as The Shape of Things; movies-for-
television such as· Tell Me '111ere It Hurts) do not con·
tain an analysis which places the individual woman's
concerns in the context of larger social and economic
issues.
On the other hand, it is almost impossible not to deal
with a broader perspective when you are examining
the issue of rape, society's most overt and violent act
of male domination. This is clearly a crime agains.t
women that only begins with actual physical brutali-
zation by an individual. It extends through the law en-
forcement agencies and legal system, and spreads.
through general societal attitudes towards women.
The Women's Movement, through organizations such
as Rape Crisis clinics and Rape Task Forces have been
doing a great deal of active propaganda to bring the
rape victims' plight to the attention of the general
public; as a result some of the cruel legal parapherna-
lia is being re-examined. Some reforms are inching·in-
to existence, but the picture is still bleak.
Recently, two movies-for-television, with vastly differ-
ent success, have attempted to deal with thi~·~ssue
very much in the public eye. Although both attempt-
ed to be progressive, only one of them, A Case of
Rape, actually educated the audience in a clear and
direct manner, without any mixed messages.
The first of these, Cry Rape, was disappointing. After
a promising start, it copped out entirely. For the first
half-hour, the viewer sat riveted as the movie cut back-
and-forth from scenes of a young woman coming
home from work, eating, getting undressed-to the
preparations of her would-be rapist, staking out her
apartment, breaking-in. The suspense created was al-
most unbearable; when he did rape her we actively
participated in her terror and disgust .
.
88
87
The writers, Leonard Freeman and Will Lorin, had
spent much time researching the subject, even had
consulted the L.A. Rape Crisis Clinic. It could be ex-
pected, therefore, in the latter part of the show that
what would follow was the drama of Betty Jenner's
further humiliation and maltreatment after she re
ted the rape. To some extent, the show did this .. lt
realistically showed the sly questioning of the policl,
the cold, sterile examination of the doctor, then
probing questions of the detectives, the blatant
tions of the defense lawyer. We watched the other
rape victims drop the case when the harassment and
pressure became too much for them, while Betty
ACauofRap11. gedly persists in bringing charges.
Just as the show seemed to immerse itself with Be
struggle for justice against all the odds, the entire
shifted its focus. The drama's center was transformed
into the story of a young man who is picked up and
brought to trial for the rape. This guy looked exactlr:
like the man who we had seen rape Betty. The show
turned into a suspense-mystery-was he really the ra-
pist? He has a mother who suspects him, an ambiti
defense lawyer who doesn't believe him, a sister who
... Well, you get the picture. The mind and cha
the experiences of the strong central woman char
got lost in all this.
Cry Rape/
The result of this shift was simply disastrous. The
ience was manipulated to feel more sympathy for the
rapist-suspect than for the rape-victim. To top it off,
the burden of guilt shifts onto her; at the end, Betty
actually apologizes to this guy. (They found the ml
rapist [ whew I] who was, honest to god, a dead-ringar
for our hero.) And he doesn't even accept her apol
but turns on his heel and walks, free at last, from the
courtroom, into the sunlight.
As the program purported to be exposing the sexist
bias of the legal system, it was absolutely maddening
to see this very same bias reinforced in the structure
and impact of the film. The final message becomes
Cry Rape/ about innocent men accused for rape. And this,
in N.Y. only 2% of all men on trial for rape in 1973
were convicted, amounts to vicious distortion. We're
back to the old myth about vindictive horny women
taking poor, innocent boys to trial for crimes they
never committed.
This doesn't even have to be a conspiratorial move of
the part of the producer-writers to subvert the show's
real subject. Their unconscious but all-pervasive sex-
ism, coupled with the show business mentality, which
always thinks it knows what "the public wants" (i.e.,
how could "the public" watch a show centered around
a woman?) was quite enough in itself to entirely mud·
die the movie. The result is a schizophrenic hodge·
podge politically, and structurally, which ends up ex·
plaiting, not illuminating, the issue.
A Case of Rape was far more successful, though it was
not without its faults. But its political perspective in-
formed into artistic choices far more consistently, and
the result is a total, not fragmented, work. Through
the rape of one woman and its effect on her life, this
movie began to explore some facets of the complex
nature of male supremacy endemic in our entire soci-
ety.
Ellen Harrod, like Nora in A Doll's House, starts out
a "happy," childlike, dependent wife/mother and
through a traumatic and shattering ordeal learns that
her reality is not as she previously perceived it. Ellen
is forced to see the true structure of her life: the actu-
al rape is only the most obvious and violent example
of the way all women in our society are perceived and
acted upon daily.
Part of the program's effectiveness lay in its illustrat-
ing quite clearly that the physical rape by the rapist
is only the most overtly brutal manifestation of the
way she is treated by everyone, from her husband, to
her wider circle of friends, to the institutions that sur-
round her. Ellen's marriage is a model suburban
"ideal marriage." No family in the commercials seem
happier. Her relationship with her husband is extreme·
ly, bu.t subtly, role-oriented. (So subtle that I wasn't
sure until half-way through the show that even the
producers knew what they were doing.) Ellen's hus-
band never has to resort to physical coercion to dom-
inate het; however, his control is complete. He patron·
izes her, coddles her, "adores" her. She constantly is
responding to him, especially in their sexual relation-
ship, where he always makes the advances. As Ellen
totally, and unconsciously, accepts her role, her hus-
band can afford to be benevolent.
After Ellen is raped, her humiliation (and real, debili·
tating passivity) leaves her unable to report the crime,
even unable to tell her husband about it. When she is
raped and beaten a second time by the same man, she
does report the crime. We go through the grueling de·
tails of her treatment by the police. In a powerful, ex·
cruciating scene, Ellen, naked except for a sheet, is
photographed by the police photographer. Pitifully
vulnerable, int~nsely shaken, she is forced to humili·
ate herself a second time as she drops the sheet at his
command as he rapes her body with his camera.
The second half of the movie deals with both the de·
terioration of Ellen's marriage and her experience as a
rape victim on trial for no crime. In both spheres, pri·
vate and public, she is treated like a tainted, even
guilty, sinner. Both processes move along grimly and
inexorably.
The rape has precipitated the revelation of the true
nature of Ellen's marriage. Ellen's husband's psychic
cruelty is now implicitly paralleled to the rapist's vio-
l lence. His first reaction to the rape is, of course, to
try and make love to her. He is completely insensitive
t.o her needs and feeling; rather, he behaves as though
·something has been done to him. (Though it is never
---------- stated and it is unclear how much this was conscious·
I
ly analyzed, it comes across that he feels his property
has been violated and is attempting to repossess what
•
has been taken away from him by another man.)
Ellen's response is to withdraw. She is beginning to see
that she is, and has always been, alone. As the pre·
trial and trial ordeal go on, her husband becomes in·
creasingly self-preoccupied: worried about his career,
his image as a "man,'.' both of which are suffering, he
feels, because of the rape. He has no energy left to
give Ellen any support, or even, as she realizes sadly,
to love her. She has to become more and more self·
reliant, going into herself, gathering strength with the
knowledge that in her suffering there is no help from
any sources except her own center.
The trial is really ugly. The young rapist is dressed up.
spiffily, smiling winningly. He is armed with a female
defense lawyer (more on this later) and a young and
pretty fiancee who "believes in his innocence" (ob-
viously, as the lawyer infers, with a fiancee like that,
•vho would want to rape an "older woman?")
88
 The defense lawyer tries to prove, by distorting and
twisting every possible angle, that no rape has taken
place at all, but only a vindictive accusation of a sex-
hungry, spurned woman. Miniscule, trivial details of
Ellen's past are brought in, distorted, and thrown up
as evidence of Ellen's "fallen woman" status. (Only a
good, chaste, obedient woman deserves society's pro-
tection; indeed, only a "good" woman can be raped.)
The final scene is gripping. El:en is alone. She has left
her husband in the corridor, where he has finally
blurted out what he has always believed: that she led
on the rapist; that she "wanted it." The verdict comes
down: Not Guilty. With disgusting bravado, the rapist
comes over to sneer victoriously at Ellen. The prose-
cutor is annoyed, says its a shame, and yielding to the
claims of his social life, goes off to play tennis with
the defense lawyer. (This was a great touch: the court-
room enemies, are class allies, basically on the same
!lide.)
Ellen stares ahead, seeing deeply into the lonely fu -
ture, left only with her strength. A voice-over tells us
this is a true case: the rapist was picked up and finally
convicted after he attempted to rape another woman;
and the Harrods were divorced. End of show.
A word about the casting. Elizabeth Montgomery as
Ellen Harrod was very effective. Audiences automati-
cally identify her with the darling Samantha of "Be-
witched." She is also a fine serious actress; both these
factors insure a kind of built-in audience sympathy.
Elizabeth Montgomery cannot possibly be identified
with any stereotypical idea of a woman who wants to
be raped. When she is accused of seducing her rapist,
that built-in sympathy automatically works in favor of
the film's point. If it can happen to Elizabeth Mont-
gomery, it can happen to anyone.
Some important major criticisms remain. First, Ellen
was without any woman friends to support her. Her
only friend was a shallow, insensitive woman who was
sexually titillated by the rape. This is really stacking
the cards; in reality, most women, in the Women's
Movement or not, have some friends to whom they
can turn and get sympathy and warmth. (And, who
are not turned on by the idea of being raped.) Second-
ly, it was intolerably cheap to make a woman the de·
tense lawyer. Had it been pointed out that this wom-
an was cruelly used by the male-dominated system to
persecute a sister- that could have been a very pro-
gressive statement. As it was, it came across that wom-
en are their own worst enemy. Also, if the lawyer is a
woman~ it suggests that even though Ellen Harrod gets
screwed by the system, other women are making it.
Thus, a victim is "balanced" by a success.
90
89
Another glaring regressive political statement was the
prosecutor's inference that a working class, minority
jury could not possibly sympathize with the plight of
a middle-class woman. This reinforces the idea that
the less powerful and poorer are more sexist and
therefore more responsible for protecting the preroga-
tive of rape than the class in power and its institu-
tions.
What we have not seen, and cannot be expected to
come from a major network, is an exploration which
explicitly connects rape of women with a capitalist
society's attitude and treatment of women in general,
minorities, working class-any exploited and power-
less group. As Susan Griffen says in "The Politics of
Rape:"
"Rape is not an isolated act that can be rooted out
from a patriarchy without ending patriarchy it-
self. The same men and power structure who vic-
timize women are engaged in the act of raping
Vietnam, raping Black people and the very earth
we live on . ... No simple reforms can eliminate
rape. As the symbolic expression of white male
hierarchy, rape is the quintessential act of our
civilization, one which, Valerie Solanas warns, is
in danger of 'humping itself to death.'" 1
1Ramparts, September, 1971, Vol. 10, p. 35.
TELL ME WHERE IT HURTS ... by Elizabeth Sullivan
Among the onslaught of movies made for television,
only a handful have even featured women, and fewer
still have attempted to deal with women's issues. The
best of these was Tell Me Where It Hurts, produced by
Tomorrow Entertainment, and sponsored by General
Electric. It appeared as one of a series of films dealing
with various social questions which GE is offering up
in a liberal attempt to convince viewers that they are
a "people oriented" corporation- that our interests
are their interests!
Nevertheless, a good little film was refreshingly slip-
ped into the commercial fare of network television.
Written by Fay Kanin (who won an Emmy for the
teleplay) and directed by Paul Bogard, the film is pre-
sented skillfully in a personal and unassuming format
which is easy for both men and women to identify
with. It is a veritable primer on the surface issues of
women's liberation (especially as they relate to middle
class housewives), though it fails completely to deal
with the social implications of the material presented.
Tell Me Where It Hurts focuses on a middle-aged wom-
an involved in the process of making a decision which
will mark a turning point in her life. Maureen Staple-
ton sensitively portrays Connie Manone, wife of Joe
(Paul Sorvino) a Los Angeles veteran cab driver. As
the film opens, Connie is leaving unannounced from
their modest frame house in a lower middle class
neighborhood. It's early morning, but she cooks no
breakfast, she packs no lunch pail, and she leaves no
message. She is off, leaving Joe fast asleep. We find
her deep in conflict, seated ironically in the midst of a
shopping mall, and from here we follow her thoughts
back to the events which led to this moment.
Connie is nearing fifty, and her last child at home is
college-aged and soon to fly the coop. This daughter,
Lynn (Ayn Ruymen) is a zealous feminist. In fact she
comes dangerously close to being something of a car'ir
cature, but is saved by a sympathetic performance,
and especially by the fact that a young woman just
"turned on" to the women's movement might well
come on as strong as Lynn does. At any rate, she is an
excellent contrast in life style and values when com-
pared to her mother and her mother's friends.
When Connie mentions that she is hostessing a lingerie
party (a la Tupperware) Lynn challenges the meaning
of the ritual. Connie counters that it's an excuse for
her and her friends to get together. Lynn simply asks
her why they need an excuse, adding that women all
over the country are getting together to share their ex-
periences. The seed is sown.
At the silly frilly gathering we meet Connie's friends.
The giggling and chatter instantly reveal the superficial
and isolated quality of these women's relationships to
one another. The group includes Riva (Doris Dowling),
assertive and confident; Edna (Pearl Shear), obese and
mushy; Louise (Louise Latham), quiet and dignified;
and Agnes (Rose Gregorgio), sweet and exuberant.
At the close of the party some women linger on, and
at Connie's urging, they begin to speak more personal•
ly. The tenor of the exchange transforms dramatically.
What a moment before had been cackling hens, have
become serious, intelligent human beings. They reveal
some very basic feelings about what it means to be a
women in this society, and immediately the years of
isolation begin to melt. They decide to meet again,
and the process is begun.
Two women are lost initially, one from pure fear, and
Louise because her husband forbids her participation.
But the remaining women are thoroughly caught up
in discovering themselves, both through their con-
sciousness raising sessions (they're never referred to as
such) and through outside activities such as a feminist
poetry reading at the women's center of Lynn's col-
le~.
.
In contrast, the husbands' reactions are stifling. At
bes.t they make light of the women's new found sister-
hood. Joe shows some mild antagonism but is mainly
unresponsive, interested only in his bowling game and
TV football, exhausted by long hours of nerve·
wracking work. In response, Connie begins to waken
from the numbness of almost thirty years of marriage
to the reality which surrounds her. Her feelings cul-
minate in a decision to find a job outside the home-
against the wishes of Joe. (For Louise the choice is to
leave her husband, and for Riva it is returning to
SCt\(?OI.)
rt is at this point that the film resumes the opening
sequence, and basically it is here that the film weakens
in terms of content. Connie gets the first job she ap-
Tt1II Mt1 Wht1re It Hum. plies for (highly unlikely) in a complaint department
of a toy manufacturer. She is ecstatic when she defi-
antly_ reveals the fact to Joe, who by this time is start·
ing to come around to the realization that things need
to change in his attitude. However, I doubt that the
43% of women employed in such dull, underpaid and
traditionally female positions were overjoyed at Con-
nie's job being the prospect for "liberation." Nor do
I imagine that most housewives (except perhaps those
nearing middle age as Connie is) would see the added
burden of a job as any form of freedom. Housewives
of an average size family already put in at least 80
hours a week in homemaking duties, which are ex-
pected of them whether they work outside the home
or not.
Still, for Connie, the job will mean contact with the
outside world, and the independence (though limited)
of her own income. These are progressive moves for
her, indeed prerequisite to any further development.
Whether or not her employment is insurance against
the fate of Connie's mother-in-law (an elderly woman
who sits idly awaiting death in an apartment above
the Manones) is questionable, though this is the film's
implication. Such naive assumptions are indicative of
the film's lack of awareness as to the social source of
the problems presented. It only follows, then, that
the film is void of any politically conscious alterna·
tives. Rather, the solutions- job, school, divorce- are
vague. Change is advocated only at a personal, and
therefore limited, level. But, at least the process of
Connie and her friends getting in touch with some of
their own needs and rights is believable and encourag-
ing. Taken as a whole the film could only be a positive
experience for people to see women shedding their
fears and confronting one another (and their hus-
bands) honestly- a necessary first step forward.
11
90
 The Berkeley Wom~n
a'nd Media Conference
THE WOMEN IN MEDIA COLLECTIVE
Well over 400 Bay Area women active in media took
part in the first general Women and Media Conference,
entered in (and sponsored by) the University Art Mu·
seum, UC Berkeley on March 16 and 17. These wom-
en stepped into a super-charged and hyperactive time
and space participating in one intense workshop ses-
sion after another, forced by an abundance of riches
to choose from among seven to ten different work-
shops every hour and a half.
Professionals in both commercial and alternative Bay
Area media and women looking for jobs exchanged
ideas, know-how, and trade secrets in seven areas:
video, television, film, photography, radio, print·
media, and publicity. In addition, there was a video
viewing room, continuous screenings of films by Bay
Area women, a session on grants and funding, and a
legal workshop. The Pacific Film Archive (also
housed in the Museum) had evening screenings of five
feature films directed by women for the sell-out audi-
ences. The entire event was documented by six roving
video teams, plus numbers of audio recorders and still
photographers.
The event was organized by a feminist collective
which, by a miracle of parthenogenesis, emerged from
among the women employees of the Museum (along
with several UC graduate students). In the following
sections you will hear the voices of different women
in the Media Collective on the subjects closest to
them.
Organization
"We organized the festival almost entirely during
lunch hours. Th.ere was no break with reality for us.
We were at work, most of us, to support some kind of
media career outside the Museum. That fact helped
bring us together and gave us a basis for action. We
did not go deeply into our theoretical differences, but
rather found a common ground of shared values and
worked from there. That had negative as well as posi-
tive aspects, but our differences did encourage a varie-
ty of positions in the Feminist Movement."
"Having learned how form affects coment, we were
anxious to avoid structural carry-overs from the pater·
nalistic academic system. We din:ided that small work·
shops could provide the most efficient exchange of
information in the least alienating manner. We wanted
to de-centralize and so we scheduled a huge choice of
workshops. In a sense, each participant could program
her own festival. We wanted to de-emphasi:ie hier-
archy and so we asked women to be workshop leaders
(resource people) who not only had professional ex·
perience but, as one woman commented afterwards,
92
91
who also had a willingness to share knowledge, even
when sharing could mean increased competition in an
already crowded field. As for content, our aims were:
1) to examine existing images of women in media (as
subject/object and as worker) so as to define new
ones; 2) to provide practical information on: a) jobs;
b) access to equipment and information; c) technical
know-how."
Television and Video
The workshops seemed to fall roughly into three
areas: 1) Video as an individual art form exploring
new ways for people to relate to each other, as well as
to the medium ; 2) Groups involved in public access
production, or alternative ways of getting video out to
a larger audience; 3) Wom6n in broadcasting, or how
to work within the system.
Many of the positive aspects of video were pointed
out. There is the "instant" playback factor which can
be shared by the group, plus the possibility of reusing
the tape- if you screw up, just erase and try again.
This has greatly helped to liberate those of us who
have always been labeled "mechanical illiterates"
and not dared handle film. Also, there were none of
those "techy" types one so often finds in male groups.
In the first category, workshops by Julie Geiger and
Sue Rannels led groups through exercises in using
video cameras to express new ways of relating to and
seeing things. Each woman acted both as camera-
woman and as subject of a tape in these workshops.
In the field of public access, Joan Passalacqua ex-
plained the legal aspect of broadcast and Cable TV
and the FCC rulings which dictate how they are to
operate, plus what the public can do to see that these
guidelines are respected. Several themes were common
to all workshops dealing with public access: 1) How to
get the public interested in cable and informed about
their right to public access; 2) How to get access to
money and equipment in order to produce for public
access.
In the area of broadcast TV, Oralee Wachter and
Diane Cohen from KTVU Channel 2 in Oakland
briefly described their careers and long hard road to
getting a woman's show on a local station. "We were
so devoted to -the idea for this series," said Oralee,
"that we were willing to accept their terms: KTVU
would pay studio time but not salaries." And so
WOMEN'S CHOICE, which each week features an
interview with a woman over 30 who has made a hig
change in her life, went on the air.
Video Viewing Room creation, and this is what survival images are about.
Space and equipment were provided for continuous One woman stated that she had trouble relating to
video viewing. A relaxed, intimate viewing room was this kind of art, i.e. art that she found too personal.
considered an important aspect of the festival because The assumption being made here is that the "best"
it provided an atmosphere where intense interest- art is not personal but rather should express common
sharing and identification was possible. Subjects of feelings. Another woman cut off the discussion by
special interest to women were covered by tapes on announcing that she had the answer to this contro-
rape, a women's health collective, changes in women's versy. She had been working for five years trying to
lives resulting from their changing self-images, lesbian- find the form in which to express the art of and for
ism and feminisl'!I, the well-kept secrets of women be- the people and she finally had it in the form of a
tween the ages of 55 and 66; and one which was re- half-hour radio tape. She said that she, too, had been
quested over and over on women and madness. In- doing "personal" art five years ago. But now she had
cluded as well were two tapes created as conceptual come up with this radio tape that she invited us all to
art pieces, an interview with a soap opera addict and hear in her workshop. She was willing to share this
an interview with Mae Brussel who talked about her radio-time capsule which we could swallow so we
government conspiracy theory. The video work seen wouldn't have to go through this "personal" art peri-
at this festival reflected a much stronger emphasis on od-implying that it is most definitely an infantile
work concerning the documentary and issue-oriented stage of development and something we all must work
aspects of the medium." through. Liz stated in her defense that she believed in
what she was doing, but no one in the audience chal·
Photography lenged this woman. Lesson that I learned: We all still
Several workshops were held on photography ranging feel intimidated by the word "political," and do not
in emphasis from the art historical overview of wom- yet trust our own subjectivity.
en in photography to the current situation in photo-
journalism. Film
The film workshops covered film theory, production
Rita Mendelman's workshop gave an historical over- and distribution, participants meeting with women
view of women photographers, showing slides of film-make~, teachers of film, sound technicians,
works by Margaret Cameron, Margaret Bourke-White, scriptwriters, distributors and film critics.
and Imogen Cunningham. We then talked about works
being done by women in our own time such as Diane Dorothy Wiley's workshop provided a chance to meet
Ar bus and Judy Dater. Rita showed us some of her and talk with a Bay Area independent film-maker in a
own work in slides as well as some originals. She uses casual, non-competitive and genuinely open atmos-
a coll• technique in her work, usually with two or phere. This was largely due to'Dorothy's manner
three images at a time. Placed next td each other, which vaporized the myth of the elite artistic genius.
these point up the differences between doubles She talked at some length about herself as a mother
which invite comparisons between the two images, and an artist-she has come to consider herself as a
and triples which cause you to see the images in a wife and mother first, an artist second. This surprised
series moving from one to the next, thereby looking many women in her audience, yet the screening of
for changes or progressions rather than differences. THE BIRTH OF SETH ANDREW KINMONT pro-
voked a discussion of natural child-birth, not of the
Liz Sower's workshop centered around the theme of film. She said she often has to film with a baby on
survival images-the use of one's own personal myth- her arm, however she has her own studio'and is sup-
ology in art. The precise meaning of what Liz was get- purted by her husband.
ting at unfolded as she began showing slides of women
artists close to her own sensibility, such as Marsha Dorothy showed several other films including
Bailey. We saw a series of slides documenting the life SCHMEERGUNZ, her first and best-known film, in
cycle of one of Marsha's sculpture pieces-a woman which she inter-cuts images of the Miss America pag-
who was hung against a wall with her arms out- eant with images of a pregnant woman throwing up, a
stretched, dressed in white with a color bull's eye woman's hands cleaning out a clogged drain, etc., to
target replacing her vaginal area. Liz told us how this comment on the role of the American housewife, and
piece was emotionally loaded for Marsha, representing MISS JESUS FRIES ON GRILL, a film inspired by a
many of her feelings about being a woman artist, and news article about a bizarre car crash and its gruesome
after exhibiting the piece, Marsha bumed it. The piece consequences as stated in the title- Miss Jesus was a
became a phoenix image having been burned yet real person. After the article appears on screen, the
coming to life for Marsha in new works. The point rest of the film is devoted to long takes of an infant's
Liz made was that one grows through the process of recurring cycle of anguish and calm, provoking the
viewer's meditation about life's agony and pain.
93

92
After screening several of her own films, Freude Bart-
lett discussed her one-woman distribution center,
Serious Business Company, which distributes two cate-
gories of films-films by and about women, and
"films as art" by women. She gave the pros and cons
of distributing films on a rental basis as opposed to a
purchase basis. It is much more lucrative to sell films
(to libraries, for example) than to rent them.
Freude also screened (after hours) a number of films
which festival participants had brought with them and
gave them realistic advice on the prospects of distribu-
tion. She considers her own work to be essentially un-
distributable. I would describe her films as poetic
mood renderings-usually with a golden-oldie rock
sound track-which don't stand up to the structural
rigors of the Great American Underground, nor con-
form to the narrative expectations of the standard
American short. They're terrific.
Dorothy feels that her films are her personal expres-
sion and that any interpretation of them is possible
and acceptable. Canyon Cinema distributes them; she
is completely uninterested in what happens to the
film after she finishes it.
Money
A money session was held at the end of the festival.
Unfortunately there were no surprises. The large na-
tiona~ foundations were unable to send representa-
tives, while representatives of Bay Area foundations
could only be sympathetic in the face of talented,
productive women without the money to accomplish
their work. The two foundations which expressed a
definite interest in funding women's projects-the
Vanguard and Point Foundations-have, as they
pointed out, limited resources.
Conclusion
The collective energy of all participants will be re-
flected in the Directory of Women in Media, a publi-
cation of information about women involved and
interested in media fields-including talents, skills,
projects, employment, affiliated groups, images and
influences. We hope the Directory will continue the
work of the Festival, facilitating contact among wom-
en and urging recognition by people with money and
oower.

Betty Chmaj's double slide presentation of the

"Image of American Women" was one of the most
exciting, profound, coherent, and lucid presentations
on this subject to appear. The first step toward finding
new images for women is to analyze the sources and
implications of the old stereotypes. Chmaj analyzed
the stereotype of women in the media-film, TV, ad- .
vertising, children's literature, and art-and how the
images carry over from one media to another. Her in-
cisive and perceptive analysis was organized into cate-
gories headed by questions like, "Who put the negli-
gee in the seventh reel?" (speaking to the convention
of the independent, career woman who falls for love
and marriage ~Y the end of the film), or "Who put the
apron on the badger?" (speaking to the conventional
role of mothers, animal and human, in children's
books.)

Betty Chmaj's workshop was unusual because, al-

though many of the film-makers projected women on
the scr·e en, neither they nor their audiences were in-
terested in theorizing about, for example, whether
woman's screen image was different when filmed by
a male or female consciousness. There were very few
questions of a theoretical nature.

Julie Geiger's Spring Sowing.

94

93
Super-I News
JOYCE NEWMAN

Many women have become involved in Filmmaker Carol Sones is doing a special Filmmaker Kira Gale has experimented with
teaching Super-8 filmmaking in several project on Super-8 filmmaking for the South home processing of Super-8 film and a
different settings in New York City. Silvia Carolina Educational Television Commission technique known as "solarization." Her
Goldsmith has been teaching women about in Columbia, South Carolina, a state net- techniques for home processing are covered
the aesthetics of film, as well as filmmaking work of five public TV stations. She is in January/February 1974 issue of Super-8
techniques at the Womln's Inter-Art Center, working on feature films, films for children, Fi/maker. Kira can be written directly at
549 West 52nd Street, New York, New animation, and public affairs programming. 1616 North 51st Street, Omaha, Nebraska
York 10019. The center offers many types The project is speciaHy funded by the 68104. Her films can be rented.
of classes for women. Filmmaker Louva Corporation for Public Broadcasting and
Irvine has been running basic filmmaking the National Endowment for the Arts.
sessions at the Center for over a year. Up
in Westchester, a group of women has Filmmaker Susan Ingalls has been involved
started a cooperative called the Film in operating The Loft, a dance, film, and
Workshop of Westchester, 635 South arts center (84 Kraft Street, Bronxville,
Broadway, Tarrytown, New York. Members New York 10708), and she has extensive
include Elinor Stecker, who writes for experience working with the Leacock/M.I.T.
Super-8 Filmmaker and who can be sync-sound system for Super-8 filmmaking.
contacted for information through the She has written for the New York State
magazine. Council on the Arts on the subject of Super-
8, and has received a grant to continue her
Recently, Storm De Hirsch, an independent work.
filmmaker who has worked in both 16mm
and Super-8, as ·well as 8mm, held a Tips and Product Information
screening of her films at the Millenium Film
Workshop in New York. Her Super-8 films . - For information on filming childbirth with
were mentioned in Jonas Mekas' column in Super-8, readers can contact Donald
the Village Voice. She has been working on Zimmerman, in care of Super-8 Filmmaker
a series of "Cine Sonnets" shot in Super-8. magazine. Zimmerman filmed his wife's
Each one depicts a separate theme and delivery (in a hospital) and is knowledgeable
their form is a kind of visual poetry. Storm on the problems involved.
De Hirsch lives in New York and corres-
pondence to her can be addressed in care of New professional Super-8 equipment from
Super-8 Filmmaker magazine. Kodak permits filming with a 200-foot
Super-8 sound cartridge which will give you
Eileen Gordon Zalisk and her husband, Bob, about 10 minutes of continuous shooting
recently returned from a Super-8 film- at 24 fps. Equipment is reviewed in Super-8
making expedition to India. They are very Filmmaker, January/February, 1974 issue.
knowledgeable on the problems of film-
ing in India, as well as on the various types An lnexpensiie animation stand, under
of Super-8 sound eQuipment now available $100, will be in production this spring
for low-cost sync-sound filming. from Ox Products. Any Super-8 camera
can be used with the stand and it is priced
In Lexington, Massachusetts, Yvonne Ander- within the budget of most independent
son has been conducting workshops in filmmakers. Contact: John Oxberry, Ox
Super-8 animation for children, teachers, Products, 180 East Prospect Avenue,
and other interested individuals. Yvonne's Mamaroneck, New York 10543. A review
organization is called The Yellow Ball of the equipment is in November/December
wo·rkshop (62 Tarbell Avenue, Lexington, 1973 issue of Super-8 Filmmaker.
Massachusetts 02173). Information on work-
shops and techniques used in Super-8 There is a new, ,evised edition of Indepen-
animation with children, can be obtained dent Filmmakin.Q bv Lennv Lipton ($5.95.
directly from her. Straight Arrow Books, 1972). Includes up-to-
date information for filmmakers; an
excellent overview of the problems of
working with Super-8 and 16mm.

95

94
'The 2nd Annual
Wo111en 1s Video Festival
PAT SULLIVAN
Before the installation of TV in every home, The star of the festival was a thirty-minute Also included in the festival were a number
video was not the isolated, passive pastime documentary of war-in-progress called The of "video compositions" such as Sarni Klein's
we condemn today. In the early 1950's, Streets of Ulster. Louise Denver and David Watermill. In this, the images of dancers were
when few people had their own sets, TV Redom spent three months on one street, the electronically repositioned and multiplied to
viewing was a community event. Gatherings Kashmir ~oad, in Northern Ireland, recording form compelling patterns. Thus, a dance was
were organized around interesting programs the confrontations between Catholic and created that was one df form and movement
and people had a lot to say about this Protestant factions. The result is a tape in space, rather than one of story or even of
exciting new entertainment. Each "television disturbing in its familiarity and stunning in mood. Watermill was done on color tape, and
first" was eagerly awaited and hotly its detail. The faces of the people become the color changes, at one time subtle, at
discussed, as the worl'CI came rushing into known to us, as if we were family visitors another vibrant, were an important part of
each living room "through the miracle of who might at any moment be asked to join the composition. Seen on a black and white
television." But commercialism captured the the fighting. As such, we go into a back alley monitor, the work lost much of its impact.
airwaves, and video experience was diluted to during a street battle to watch small children
the prime time slush that now fills the chop bricks for others to throw. We are The striking feature of the festival was the
networks. As costs soared and advertisers present at the funeral of an eleven-year-old revival of communal viewing. The audiences,
demanded programming based on proven boy, beaten to death by a Protestant mob. which varied widely in size and composition,
formulas, innovation died. Attempts by non- Later, we listen as the boy's hate-filled were attentive and responsive to the tapes
professionals to create their own program.- mother declares proudly, "My son died for being shown. They not only listened, but
ming were aborted, and television passed Ire land. I'II stay and fight to the death for a also felt free to discuss among themselves, to
permanently from the hands of the people. free Irel and." The Streets of Ulster is not so react vocally to the images on the screens,
Or so it seemed. much a viewing experience as it is even to doze when bored. The excitement
participation in the rage and despair of the generated by such active viewing added
But with the development of half-inch video- people of the Ka~hmir Road. As a way for greatly to my own enjoyment of the event.
tape, hand-held cameras, and portable decks, people to discover the bigotry and hatred Being puzzled or amused or even angered by
video has been returned to the people, and behind the news clips of Northern Ireland, it the responses of the other viewers forced me
they are enthusiastically seizing their is a powerful and moving work. to search on the screen or in my mind for
opportunity. Women, until recently the the origins of my own reactions. The
untouchables of professional broadcasting, "People discovering themselves" was the them participants in the Women's Video Festivat
are finding half-inch video a medium ideal for of Women on Women by the Women's were discovering or re-discovering video as an
the joy of self-exploration and the venting of Television Project of Portable Channel, artistic medium that demands response.
rage. Topics which never found their way on Rochester, N.Y. lntercutwith filmed
to the male-dominated home screen are now commercials of the mythical TV woman This year and last the festival was in a
being covered by women video artists and were a real women's group's comments on "primitive state," according to Ann Volkes,
exhibited through an ever-increasing number the nee~ for a "flood of positive images" on who did the art work. All tapes which arrived
of closed-circuit systems. the video screen. With this as a goal, the on time and in playable condition were
women show us how they mastered the shown, the only condition being that they be
The Second Annual Women's Video Festival equipment and developed programming primarily the work of women. Next year,
in New York City (September 28 - October which reflected their own values. One very however, as more video artists become aware
14) was designed to bring the work of video effective segment was from a series they did of the festival, the committee expects many
women together so that all might have the on creative women in the Rochester area. more entries. Susan Milano, who is already
vital feedback necessary to artistic growth. Viveca Lindfors, interviewed during a planning for next year, says there will be a
Organized by Susan Milano and Shridir Bapat, rehearsal of / Am Woman, speaks candidly selection board, and the tapes chosen will be
the festival was co-sponsored by the Women's about her own difficulty, even as an actress, included in fewer showings. However, the
lnterart Center, a feminist organization for in stepping beyond traditional life roles. Her committee also hopes to take the festival to
women in the arts, and The Kitchen, an deep concern for the pain of women in college campuses, and perhaps abroad, so
independent viewing center for videotapes. transition is evident in the works we see her that the work of American women can reach
The quality of the more than fifty tapes rehearsing for / Am Woman and in her frank the wider audience it deserves.
shown varied greatly, but an exciting range of
interaction with the video women. Tapes For information about the Women's Video
video styles and purposes were represented. such as Women on Women will appear more F t' 1 ·t
Many tapes were documentary or of propa- d ·tt I es 1va, wri e:
a~ more as d I erent groups ea~n to_use WOMEN's INTERART CENTER
ganda value. Others were poetic or designed videotape to create programs which fill needs
· f'1e d by commerc,a· 1 b ro ad casting. 549 W 52 d S
to entertain. Some were of primary interest unsat1s · est n treet
to women, while a significant number demon- New York, New York
strated how video can be used by any group
to effect community change.

96

95
 The Painted Face
Of Capitalism
TREVOR PATEMAN
The Technique of Film and Television Stage make-u p can be fitted quite easily an overall pattern or concep t of beauty.
Make-up for color and black and white. into a natural ist aesthetic. Thus, Kehoe This means, in short, that we create a perfect
Focal Press, L9ndon and New York, writes that its purpose is "to counter act symme try of beauty for each individual
Revised edition , 1969. the effects of the distance of the audience woman " (p. 59).
from the players in terms of facial
In the course of a project on the semiology definiti on and to compen sate for the Of course, this only displaces one conven-
of television programmes, I though t that it intensity of lights on the stage which wash tional concep t of beauty (the oval face) with
would be useful to supplem ent my critical out the natural facial coloring and 'flatten ' another , "a perfect symme try of beauty for
viewing schedule with a reading of some of the features of the actors" (p.171 ). each individual woman ."
the technical manuals produc ed for the use
of the various sorts of technic ian involved Second , making up an historic al character
In addition to corrective make-up, charact er
in program me produc tion. So it was that I can easily be though t naturalistically as
make-up is non-assimilable to naturalism
came to read Kehoe's book on film and involving the make-up of an actor to look where there ere no pre-exi stent representa-
TV make-up, a leading work in the field. exactly like the historical charact er whom tions accepte d as the correct represe ntations
he represents. Of course, the criteria for of the charact er, or where there are no
The critical review which follows seeks to (exact) likeness can only be other socially- represe ntations at all, because the charact er
show how naturalism, as the historically produce d represe ntations of the historical is novel. Here the make-up artist is thrown
domina nt aestheti c for the produc tion and charact er, and these, though conven tionally
back upon his own resources, and whilst a
evaluation of films and TV programmes, accepte d as faithful likenesses, may be no charact er's make-up can be created to seem
infuses Kehoe's theory of make-up, even such thing. Think of represe ntations of natural by making it compar able to that
though the actual practice of make-up Shakespeare. of other members of a pre-exi stent paradigm
described is inconsi stent with that theory,
(thus, a pseudo-historical pirate can be made-
which I then interpre t as ideological. Where the historical charact er is a mythol o- up to bear a family resemblance to known,
gical one, a naturalistic represe ntation is still historical pirates) this method becomes more
What I have done for a manual on make-up possible so long as other, prior, representa-
and more difficul t the smaller the number
could easily be done for the leading tions of the charact er exist which are
manuals which exist as codific ations of the accepte d as being correct representations. of membe rs of the reference paradigm.
knowledge of even the most humble arts Indeed, such an approa ch-aim ing to strike
The same applies, for exampl e, to clowns, a "chord of recogni tion" (p. 160) in the
involved in film and TV produc tion, such where an actor can be made up naturalisti-
as graphic design, lighting and musical audienc e-precl udes any attemp t at radical
cally to represe nt a clown (itself, however, novelty, which may be an importa nt
scoring) a non-nat uralisti c image). conside ration (for exampl e, in the creation
of outer-space creatures).
The art of make-up is perhaps least Other areas or genres of the make-up
amenable to coheren t domina tion by artist's work cannot be so easily assimilated Third, and finally, the naturali stic "impul se"
naturalism, though there are areas of make- as the two preceding ones. Thus, in reality, may be checked by the need to satisfy the
up which can be assimilated to this "straigh t" make-up fuses with "correc tive" audience's demand s for or expecta tions of
aesthetic and it is worth noting these at make-up, that is, improvement of the face in racially or nationally stereotyped characters,
the outset. terms of conven tional standar os of facial which are evidently non-naturalistic.
beauty, which may be specific not only to
First, there is that area or genre of age and sex but also to the medium : Kehoe Kehoe is no fascist as far as I can tell. In the
"straigh t" make-up which corrects for the suggests (p. 58) that the oval face became original (1957) preface to his book he makes
distortions produc ed by the photog raphic the correct (most beautiful) face for a
or electron ic medium . If the unmade -up a point of referring to recent scientif ic
woman to have just because of its amena- research and asserts that "no individu al
face will appear more blotchy on the bility to photogr aphic lighting. Make-u p
screen than it is "really " (i.e., in normal characteristic of any national group should
artists no longer strive to ovalise every be constru ed as a valid criterio n for the dis-
daylight viewing conditi ons), then let it be woman 's face; according to Kehoe, a new tinction of this particul ar group" (p. 13-14)
made up to appear just as blotchy on the aestheti c principle has triumph ed, that of
screen as it i$ in reality, but not more or and this on the ground s that research
coordinative compa tibility. He explain s as indicates that there are no such individual
less blotchv . Such a make-uo oractice will follows:
bring appeara nce and reality togethe r in a characteristics. Yet in his chapter on Racial
way very perfect ly acceptable to naturalism. and Nationa l Types, caught between this
''We coordin ate as a whole the elemen ts of theoretical position and audience demands,
Make-up here serves to overcome the limita- the face and hair; second, conform them to
tions of another medium and to exclude he is forced into the following compro mise
the present modes of daytime or evening position :
awareness of the presence of that medium . make-up and wardro be combin ations; and
(In a natural ist perspective, monoch rome- third, with make-up, accomplish the most
film and TV were tremen dous limitati ons ''Today , with constan t intermarriage there
importa nt new point in beauty: use the indi-
on the realisation of a natural ist work). are fewer cultural ly characteristic national
vidual's own features as they are to create types than in previous generations.

97

96
 PHOTOPLA Y,S

National and even racial barriers are down

in almost all countries. It is often difficult
to distinguish national types until they
*
every fault or blemish in their faces. Reality
in this case often becomes unpleasant, and
the effectiveness of the actor's characteriza-
through their faces. If this is, however
crudely, the form taken by sexual domina-
tion, then the work of the make-up artist
speak in their own language or in English tion is often lost because the audience may will be subordinate to and reproduce this
with a definite accent. Even many national be distracted by the absence of make-up. form. One of the main tasks of the make-up
costumes have disappeared today; however, However, if commonness is desired, the artist becomes that of facilitating the facial
costume is an excellent aid in national amount of make-up should be cut down or expression of female character. Thus
characterization in period productions. So, else applied so as to create a character make- Kehoe:
although we shall try to avoid the obvious up" (pp. 20-21 ).2
prototypes, we must still characterize the "The most important feature of the face is
different nationalities by a form of proto- This passage bears close examination for the the eyes. They form the focal point we look
type distinction wherever it is necessary for way in which it jams together the justifica- at when talking to another person. They
make-up purposes" (. 135). tions for naturalistic, straight make-up, for mirror the thoughts and character of a r;,erson,
"corrective" make-up and for make-up as and thus become the center of interest in
Thus it is that in his picture reference file, such opposed to distracting documentary the face. More make-up products are made
the make-up artist will have separate sections techniques. for the eye area than for any other part of
for "China (Free and Pre-Rev.) also ancient" the face. Lovely eyes are the prime accom·
on the one hand and on the other "China "Distraction" occurs when the medium plishment of Coordinative Compatibility.
(Red)" (p. 274). Is noticed. In documentary, according to
Kehoe, there is a danger that we notice a "Next are the lips. From this feature comes
Kehoe's problems intensify when he tries to face "as such," instead of "seeing" it as the words, the smile and the kiss. In rest or
formulate a general aesthetic for make-up nothing but the (transparent or invisible) in motion, they must appear soft and youth·
art. In the previous section, I have tried to medium for th.e expression of character, ful, yet clean-cut and expressive. Dark lip-
show what types of make-up can and can not which is what his naturalism requires. Kehoe make-up shades add age to the face, high-
be assimilated to naturalist perspective. frequently formulates his standard of techni- staining lipsticks contain dyes that slow the
Kehoe tries to assimilate them all and thus cal perfection, that is, part of his aesthetic, lips to become dry and unprotected, weird
arrives at confused and contradictory formu- in terms of the invisibility of the make-up colors destroy the place of the lips in the
lations of which the following (from his medium. Thus, he writes that "All make-up overall portrait of coordinated beauty.
justificatory section What Make-Up Can Do) which appears as 'make-up' is unnatural Instead, from the research conducted by the
is probably the fullest: looking! A good natural make-up in any film and television studios, where women
medium is not an apparent one, but one that must be beautiful to succeed, are selected
"Many people ask 'Do I need make-up for is so well applied that it is complimentary the colors to fit the overall pattern of this
television or motion pictures?' The answer is to the woman who is wearing it" (p. 61 ). concept. Light and lifelike, yet warm and ..
invariably 'Yes, if you want to look natural soft, they make the lips inviting, desirable
and to y-0ur best advantage.' The reason for This quotation comes from the chapter and youthful" (p. 59).
this is simple. The normal pigments of the Straight and Corrective Make-up. This
skin vary in different hues of redness, chapter, like most in the book, deals mainly The make-up .irtist is complicit in whatever is
blueness, yellowness and brownness, all of with the make up of women. Indeed, just as the culturally-established practice of
which televise and film in different tones. street-.Near make-up is largely a characteris- physiognomy, that is, of the reading of ,
Such factors as reddish cheeks or noses, tic of women, so even in film and TV it is character from the face. But if the audience
bluish beard lines (even though just shaved), the make-up of women which dominates all are physiognomists, the make-up artist is a
the browns or reds of fred<les, blemishes, other considerations. Why should this be so physiogonist, that is, a producer of Nature.
shaving cuts and so on, will affect the overall specifically in film and TV? If make-up was But a Nature produced by Man is another
picture of the face. Make-up hides or covers mainly "straight," that is, naturalistic, I name for Culture. And in sexist society, that ,
and thereby disguises these faults. Used doubt that it would be so. But it is Culture is more properly termed Ideology.
skilfully it can also minimize a prominent mainly "corrective" rather than straight. 3
nose, chin, or jawbone, too wide or close Why is it that women get the lion's share of The make-up artist, the actress and the
spacing of the eyes, and many other natural "corrective" treatment? lighting, set and wardrobe technicians
faults in facial construction. This is known establish the "Nature" which is to be read as
as corrective make-up .... Some producers The make-up artist is subordinate to the expressive of this or that Character. Yet the
do not like the smoothness of the face director, and make-up is subordinate to the make-up artist believes himself to be merely
created by the use of make-up. They strive themes of the film or programme. Histori- mirroring when, in fact, he is transforming.
to achieve what is termed a documentary cally, women in film and TV play roles Unconsciously, the make-up artist paints a
effect in their productions by the lack of which, as in "real" life, exclude them from face which exists not in Nature, but in
make-up on men (even at times, on women). world transforming action. Men make history, Ideology.
Lack of make-up sometimes imparts a and express themselves in their actions;
'commonness' to the actors by showing up women stay at home and express themselves

98

97
 *~,
eau J hop
NOTES

1 An exception may be provided by Hans

Eisler's Composition for the Film. I have not
fA.l/ Ifie c!l3eaulll. /ricks Jodn, does that
beduti ful strength
obtained a copy of this book, but under-
stand from Martin Jay's The Dialectical
Imagination that its unnamed co-author was
o/. al/ Ifie slat·s c{!J,.oug/il
in mouth and chin
tell the story of
your trdnsfigura-
the German Marxist philosopher, Theodor tion, too? Com-
Adorno. lo you eacf, mo n t/, pMe the butterAy
with the grub.
2 Incidentally, this passage indicates that for Can you believe
Kehoe "commonness" exists as the "marked" they are the same?
phenomenon of a character, whereas "non-
commonness" (i.e., middle-classness) is
"unmarked"-in fact, the unspecified norm
from which character make-up is the marked
deviation.

3 I put "corrective" in inverted commas

because beautification of the woman clearly
goes beyond correction of "natural faults,"
even those identified by convention. Beauti-
fication involves the creation of a definite,
non-natural icon. Kehoe cannot acknowledge
this, except as a particular characteristic of
high-fashion make-up (p. 71 ), though it is
something perfectly general. The oval face,
and his own preferred alternative, "perfect
symmetry," are just as non-natural as the
high-fashion face.

Gloria Swanson did not

Wds it hedrtdche or dm- have gldmour in 1926.
bition thdtchdnged Gretd But today- her smile is 1<
Gdrbo from this unkempt unforgettable dnd even
child intod national figure her nose is foscindting.
of romdnce? Certdinly Her eyes too, reAect the
mdsterful eye mdke-up spirit of her gredt bdttle
hds done its pdrt for self-beduty

In five yedrs Normd Shedrer

hds developed from a sweet-
foced girl into d lovely lady.
She has ledrned to reveal her
perfect hairline, to emphasize
her mouth's appealing curves .
Yet the chdn3e is not entirely
physical. Self-analysis, de-
termination dnd wcrk dre
IMgely responsible
*
99

98
BOOKS
BILL NICHOLS
The end-of-year book deluge, combined with
some earlier books worthy of mention, has
created a great pile up of reading material.
Unfortunately, the volume of publication on
film still reflects an awakening to feminist
questions in no more than a marginal form
and the majority of the books :ontinue to
suffer from a lack of theoretical bite and
critical vigor. Film histories have been more
or less neglected the.. last few years as director
studies and interviews proved the dominant
force, but a number of histories have
appeared recently that at least update if not
improve the old standby texts. I'd like to
mention several of these books first before
turning to some of the other categories of
film publication.
Popcom Venus: Women, Movies and the
American Dream, by Marjorie Rosen;
Coward, McCann & Geoghegan; 416pp.,
$9.95 (hardcover).
Somewhat superficial but otherwise a long
overdue and very vafuable survey of the
image of women in film (mainly the American
film). Ms. Rosen includes some very sound
appraisals of past stars like the greatly
underrated Rosalind Russell and keeps a
healthy perspective on Hollywood's more
recent leanings toward apparent sexual
freedom: "It was as if females, once their
sexual freedom had become commonplace,
no longer concerned anybody as people."
(p.323). Ranging from Mary Pickford and
the vamp women to the numb asexuality of
Raquel Welsh, Papcorn Venus assembles an
impressive array of information and marshalls
it together with sensible judgments. (Includes
a complete bibliography of popular commen-
tary on .women in film.)
Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks:
An Interpretive History of Blacks in Ameri-
can Films, by Don Bogle, Viking Press,
$12.50 (hardcover).
An extremely well-written, compact history
that appraises the careers of Steppin Fetchit,
Paul Robeson, Sydney Poitier, Jim Brown
and many others with a careful, balanced
gaze and brings to light innumerable indep-
endent film productions made by and for
blacks from the late teens to after World
War 11. There is a tendency to overlook
stylistic strategies that can sometimes
subvert apparent thematic statements (as in
100
Sirk's films), but the book breaks important
new ground and creates a sound foundation
for further work.
The Impact of Film, by Roy Paul Madsen,
MacMillan Publishing Co., 571pp., $12.95
(hardcover).
A very ambitious book in attempting to
survey forms of filmic expression in some-
thing of an historical perspective and of
presenting them in a manner useful to film
students and film makers alike. The end
result, though, is a bit high schoolish,
elevating cinematic conventions into "rules"
of grammar and discussing the idea of film
language without any reference to the
semiological and linguistic work being done
in that field. As a result it perpetua'tes'a lot
of old confusions but at least applies them
to up-to-date examples.
The Art of the American Film: 1900-1971,
by Charles Higham, Doubleday, 322pp.,
$12.60 (hardcover).
Though not as replete with pictures as The
Parade's Gone By, Higham's book begins to
justify its price with a series of excellent,
well-chose~ stills which are further enhanced
by a well-written though cramped-for-space
chronicle that is primarily arranged as a
series of directorial biographies. A history
must sacrifice something if it is to be
concise and Higham sacrifices context most
of all: the studio, the "real" world; but it
does allow him to shape his material into an
informed, coherent package that in doing
less does it far better than those history-of-
film-in-five-easy-lessons texts.
The Development of the Film: An Inter·
pretive History, by Alan Casty, Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, 425pp.
Film histories are a strange phenomenon.
Despite the huge number of \films created,
the books are inevitably pared down to a
size that can be easily digested in, say, the
length of a college semester. As a result, in-
depth study of the films or their historical
context is almost impossible and the book's
merit often lies with the sensibilities and
aphoristic insights of the writer. But the
insidious assumption of academic "objecti-
vity" usually constrains the writer to a safe,
acceptable-to-all series of platitudes about
99
Eisenstein's montage and the Marxist dialecti1
or Hitchcock's suspenseful techniques. Most
histories, therefore, have their own auto-
destruct mechanism built into them.
Alan Casty's history of American and Western
European cinema (with a chapter thrown in
on world cinema) is a prime example of
"safety first" film writing. The comments on
particular films are intelligent, the organiza-
tion simple and the results simple-minded.
Everything in film history is served up on a
realist platter as though realism followed its
own dialectic independent of ideology and
economics (areas of analysis that might limit
the book's market or expose the author's
own limitations) and as though realism were
all there were to film (eliminating more
marginal areas like cartoon and experimental
cinema). The kind of subjectivism behind
such a book is only further substantiated by
the complete lack of footnotes and biblio-
graphy.
The Classic Cinema: Essays in Criticism, by
Stanley J. Solomon, Harcourt, Brace,
Jovanovich, 354pp.
A collection of articles by writers from
Lilian Gish and Sergei Eisenstein to Andrew
Sarris and Pauline Kael dealing with a series
of 14 films (from Intolerance and Potemkin
to Vertigo and Satyricon). Useful if a
number of the films covered here are
examined together but.the variety of critical
approaches and the scarcity of films dis-
cussed is something of a handicap.
The Celluloid Weapon: Social Comment in
the American Film, by David Manning
White and Richard Averson, Beacon Press,
271pp., $14.95 (hardcover).
White and Averson recite a familiar litany
of films with social comment and even claim
they have brought social relevance to
auteurism when they examine Kramer's
celluloid sermons. They never deal with the
question of where they derive their social
themes from, the films themselves, and their
entire book reads like something that could
have been composed from plot scenarios and
daily newspaper reviews. As such they
neglect all the truly vital questions about
how meaning is communicated by an iconic,
only partially verbal art as well as the deeper
 '. . - ':.. -,_,,, .. _.

levels of inters ection betwe en social comm ent Newsreels tnat were made and the events
and ideolo gy. Annou ncing that Cheyenne REFE RENC E BOOKS RECE IVED :
that they covere d.
Auwm n is pro-Indian seems to be enoug h;
locating that film or others of Ford within Dictio nary of Film Makers, Dictio nary of
an ideological conte xt is beyon d their aim. Films, by George Sadou l, University of Calif-
A Discovery of Cinema, by Thoro ld Dickin-
Curiously, their social comm ent films tend ornia Press, 288pp ., $14.5 0 and 432pp .,
son, 164pp . Oxfor d Press, $4.95 (softc over). $16.5
to deal with political issues and the questi on 0, respectively, (hardc over).
of wome n's libera tion is not even given a
single menti on. Also available in paper back, the two volum es
Dickin son speaks across that impossible gap consti tute an extrem ely useful refere nce
that divides filmm akers and critics , bringing guide to world cinem a with insightful
The Western: From Silents to t/Je Seventies, his produ ction
exper ience to bear on a precise evalua tions as well as basic informa-
by George N. Fenin and William K. Everson select numb er of
histor ically repres entati ve tion.
(A New and Expan ded Editio n). Gross man films. He traces out a numb er of tenden cies
Publisher.s, 396pp ., $15.0 0 {hardcover). in the evolut ion of film, stressing the Euro- John Willis ' Screen World, 1973 vol. 24,
pean film over the Ameri can movie but with 255pp ., $8.95 {hardcover).
An indispensable prime r on one of the most an open enoug
h mind to use Anton ioni and
compl ex and intrigu ing of Holly wood' s Budd Boetti cher back to back to illustr ate
genres, Fenin and Everson follow the Mostly cast and credit notice s from the
the poten cy of the long take and deep focus. major ity of releases in the US (both foreign
develo pment of the genre from its beginning Quite sensib
ly Dickinson sacrifices com- and domes tic) with a compr ehens ive index.
to the spagh etti weste rns, samur ai films and prehen
siveness for well-chosen examp les that
"new" weste rns of the early seventies. Male trace
the bi-fur cation of cinem atic express- The Ameri can Movies Reference Book: The
stars get as much attent ion as direct ors; iveness into the Eisens teinian (mont age) and
drama tic patter ns and thema tic struct ures Sound Era, editor , Paul Michael, Prenti ce-
von Strohe imian (long take) paths, makin g Hall, 629pp ., $29.9 5 {hardcover).
are reviewed, and consid erable histor ical his book a useful introd uction to film theory
scholarship is everyw here in view (altho ugh and an inform
al guide to (most ly) Europ ean With a brief chapte r on histor y and chapte rs
wester ns may be of most intere st from a film histor y.
woma n's point of view for what they don't listing credit s for actors ; cast and credit s for
say or deal with). leading box-o ffice films {abou t 1000 films)
Cinema in Revol ution, edited by Luda and witho ut plot summ aries, howev er; credit s
Jean Schni tzer and Marcel Martin , 208pp., for direct ors, for produ cers and a summ ary
The American Newsreel: 1911- 1967, by Hill and Wang, $3.95 (softc over).
Raym ond Fielding, University of Oklah oma of Acade my Award s since 1927. Many stills,
Press, 392pp ., $9.95 (hardc over). but its largest handi cap is the lack of plot
A collec tion of previo usly untran slated
summ ary or critical mater ial about the
articles by early pionee rs in the Sovie t
On page 309, Fielding has a brief footn ote direct ors or films.
cinem a that bring a new dimen sion to the
after he annou nces the demise of the last of standa rd texts of
Eisenstein, Pudov kin and
the studio newsreels in 1968 in which he others . Much of the mater ial deals with BOOKS ON INDIV IDUA L Fl LMMAKERS
menti ons the appea rance of Newsreel, the implic ations of the monta ge princi ple (with
radical filmm aking group . His histor y ends articles by Eisenstein and by Dziga-Vertov), Alexa nder Dovzhenko: The Poet as Film-
when the New Left and Newsreel begins, but with the influe nce of Meyer
hold on the maker, Selected Writings, select ed and
unfort unatel y his treatm ent of the earlier cinem a, and collectively, with the electr ic transl ated by Marco Caryn nyk, 323pp.,
Film and Photo League is limite d to the atmos phere in which artisti c theori es were
same footno te. Tom Brand on in his recent
$8.95 {hardcover).
debate d during those early years of Sovie t
tour of several colleges with Photo League film greatness.
footage from the 30s and 40s argues th at In his thorou gh, introd uctory essay to
Hollywood didn't cover the truly impor tant The Magic Facto ry: How Dovzh enko's writings, Caryn nyk observes:
MGM Made An "Dovz henko 's nation al spirit bespe aks a time
events: Hunge r Marches, strikes, labor Ameri can in Paris, by Donal d Knox, Praeger,
organizing, etc. and Fielding's book bears and a.iltur e when an artist was able to speak
217pp ., $9.95 {hardcover).
him out in a negative way: there is very for his people and to identi fy his consc ious-
little menti on of these events in his histor y ness with theirs ." Dovzh enko's "spee ch"
An excell ent examp le of how an oral-h istory , becam e increasingly hampe red during the
of the studio newsreels. Despi te its politic al interv iew appro ach can illumi nate a subjec t, Stalin ist era when, at one point, after the
limitations, the book does fill a histor icai providing a rich, well-p repare d field in which
vacuum and provid es an impor tant contri bu- others can then explo re partic release of Ivan in 1932, he was accuse d of
ular theme s or "fasci sm, panth eism, 'biolo gism,' 'Spino za·
tion to film schola rship. The fact that it attitud es with greate r precision and clarity . ism' " and other crime s against the state. He
seems like a slightly modif ied Ph.D. disserta- Knox has chose n a major Holly
wood saw the limita tions increasingly impos ed
tion certai nly under cuts it at one level, but musical by the major studio of opule nt upon man by techno logy and the state
at anothe~ it provides us with a handy fantas y, MGM, and the result is an inform al, appar atus and contin ued a lifelong exami na·
compe ndium of inform ation both on the inform ative accou nt of one film's makin g. tion of ways of releasing human poten tial

,01
.
100
 within a socialist framework rather than
merely celebrating a return to the past. The
two major works translated here, "Auto-
biography" and "Notebooks" trace the
development of his thoughts on basic human
problems as well as his reflections on his own
moviemaking. A basic, indispensable book.
Stargazer: Andy Warhol's World and His
Films, by Stephen Koch, Praeger, 155pp.,
$8.95 (hardcover).
An incisive, thoughtful study of the mystery
of a man who combines soup cans with an
impenetrable persona. Koch isolates Warhol's
artistic power as "the obsession of this
profoundly withdrawn man-this pro-
foundly withdrawn star-with human
presence, which he invariably renders as a
cool, velvety, immediate absence." And in
his films, this absence is largely the absence
of sexuality linked to love, it is the persistence
of a male narcissism that has within it the
ultimate lure of the final apotheosis, death,
a place Warhol has come close to visiting
tn his own life at the hands of a very ·radical
feminist who perceived in her own manifesto,
S.C.U.M, point seven: "The male likes death-
it excites him sexually, and already dead
inside, he wants to die." Koch brings a very
perceptive mind and a willingness to take on
the broader implications of Warhol's work,
particularly at a sexual and metaphysical
level (the two are not so far apart), offering
us an extremely valuable introduction to one
of our best known and least understood
underground filmmakers.
Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes
Zeppo: A Celebration of the Marx Brothers,
by Joe Adamson, Simon and Schuster,
464pp., $10.00.
This book virtually sings with the exhuberance statements of personal preference, preferences 1974.
of the Marx Brothers films themselves.
With scrupulous research and precise recoun-
tings of their dialogue Adamson not only
discusses the growth and development of the
anarchistic Marx Brothers, he actually
succeeds in recreating the flavor and punch
of some of their zaniest moments, no
mean feat for any writer condemned to ink
and paper. Working through their careers
film by film, joke by joke, Adamson has
little time or breath for considerations of
metaphysics, misogyny, or of social history
but what he does manage to cover he covers
in a deliriously enjoyable account (although
I wish we didn't always have to wait for the
next book which will not only be a delight
to read or a useful foundation but actually
in touch with the world of ideas, actions and
social history).
102
Adventures with D. W. Griffith, by Karl
BOOKS RECEIVED TOO LATE
Brown, 225pp., $10.00 (hardcover). FOR REVIEW
This book is the product of Kevin Brown- The Only Good Indian ... The Hollywood
low's successful search for Karl Brown in Gospel, Ralph and Natasha Friar, Drama
1969 when he discovered Mr. Brown living Book Specialists, 332 pp., $12.50, (hardc
in retirement but highly amenable to the 1972.
idea of recording his reininisences of his
work with Griffith. Like Brownlow's own Cinema Verite in America: Studies in Un-
The Parade's Gone By, .Brown's book is a controlled Documentary, Steven Mamber,
golden-hued memory of days full of happiness MIT Press, 288 pp., $10.00 (hardcover), 191
and creativity, where busy filmmakers never
gave a thought to deals or egos. Nonetheless, Elements of Film, Second Edition, Lee R.
it provides a helpful inside view of early Bobker, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 267
Hollywood by one of the very best of the pp., (softcover available), 1974.
early cameramen.
Film: Space, Time, light and Sound,
Sam Peckinpah: Master of Violence, by Max Lincoln F. Johnson, Holt Rinehart and
Evans, Dakota Press, 92pp., $4.95 (hardcover). Winston, 340 pp., (soft cover available) 1974.
Evans is a personal friend of Peckinpah and On Film: Unpopular Essays on a Popular A~
his book is a loving account of one of our Vernon Young, Quadrangle, 428 pp., $3.95,
best filmmakers who, unfortunately, has not (softcover) 1972.
yet found much room in his macho world for
women as equals. The Thriller, Brian Davis, Dutton, 159 pp.,
$2. 75 (softcover) 1973.
ALSO RECEIVED The American Film Heritage, "Impressions
from the American Film Institute," Acropol'
Favorite Movies: Critic's Choice, edited by Books, 184 pp. $17.50 (hardcover), 1972.
Philip Nobile, MacMillan, 301pp., $8.95
(hardcover). Stunt: The Story of the Great Movie
Stuntmen, (apparently women don't do
Nobile has assembled a wide array of stunts) John Baxter, Doubleday, 316 pp.,
popular criticism on a relatively predictable $10.00 (hardcover), 1974.
range of films. More broadly based than
Solomon's collection of critical pieces, it There Are My Sisters, Lara Jefferson,
still, like most of the film history books, Doubleday, 238 pp., $7.95 (hardcover),
seems to be overtly calculated for the movie 1974.
dabbler or possibly the beginning student.
The pieces aren't particularly great examples The Malnourished Mind Elie Shneour
of the various critics' work, but morJ Doubleday, 216 pp., $6~95 (hardcove;),
that can often be fun to share and criticize
but that do not add up to anything particu-
Woman Plus Woman: Attiudes Towards
larly worthy of packing between two covers
Lesbianism, Dolores Kaich, Simon & Schuster,
and selling for nine dollars. And in so far as 274 pp., $8.95 {hardcover, 1974.
it encourages a subjectivistic, non-politrcal,
non-theoretical approach to film, already
Psychoanalysis and Feminism, Juliet Mitchell,
well-enough entrenched to be a major
Random House, 456 pp., $8.95 (hardcover,
deterant to more sensible writing, the book 1974.
may actually do harm.
101
 "Germaine Dulac"
·continued from page 57.
and the Cie,-gyman was not only the first
Surrealist film, but that it was also the
greatest film of the deca~e. 4
After The Seashell and the Clergyman,
Germaine Dulac evolved beyond Surrealism
and returned in earnest to her ideas of
transposing musical structures to film. She
tried to replace theatrical drama and
narration in film with recurrent themes and
leitmotifs, using them as they are used in
music. She extended her psychological or.
symbolic use of the camera to include
treating movement within the frame and
editing as one wou Id treat rhythm or tempo
in music. The resu It of her research was
Theme and Variations (1930), which was
perhaps the closest the French have ever
gotten to making film a visual symphony.
After this film, she became head of produc-
tion at Gaumont studios and began to
supervise the films of others.
Approximately furty-five years later, we can
only stand in wonder and awe of Germaine
Dulac; we are just beginning to appreciate
her flexibility and her wide repertoire of
film styles; we are just beginning to under-
stand the full extent of her originality and
her courage in the face of so many
entrenched critics.
The Seashell and the Clergyman is also
available for rental ($15) from Budget Films,
4590 Senta Monica Blvd., Los Angeles,
California 90029.
I
1 All of these examples come from J. H.
Matthew' Surrealism and Film. Ann Arbor:
the University of Michigan Press, 1971.
2 Kyrou, Ado, Le Surrealisme au Cinema.
Paris: Editions Arcanes, 1953, p. 186.
3 Knapp, Bettina L. Antonin Artaud: Man of
Vision. New York: Avon Books, 1969,
pp. 91-96.
4 Virmaux, Alain, "Une promesse mal tenue:
le film surrealiste" in Etudes Cinemato-
graphiques, now. 38-41, 1965. pp. 103-135.
For groups desiring to rent The Smiling
Madame Beudet and The Seashell and the
Clergyman for showing, both films are avail-
able through the Museum of Modern Art,
Department of Film Circulating Programs,
11 West 53rd Street, New York, New York
10019.
The Smiling Madame Beudet - 35 minutes -
16mm, $18; 35mm, $36.
The Seashell and the Clergyman - 38 minutes
- 16mm, $24; 35mm, $48.
l
"Heart of the Avant-Garde"
continued from page 61.
Footnotes and Bibliography
There is very little published information on
Germaine Dulac. Only two of her films are
available in this country. This article relies
rather heavily on the bi~raphy of Germaine
Dulac by Charles Ford in Anthologie du
Cinema #31, January 1968, published as a
supplement to ''I' Avant-sc~ne du cinema" #77,
January 1968, Paris. All of the sources
quoted in this article (from obscure avant-
garde cinema journals, etc.) appear in Ford's
detailed and informative study. Also used
were Georges Sadoul's Dictionnaire des
cineastes/films, Editions du Seuil, 1965,
Paris, and Sadoul's Histoire du cinema
mondial, Flammarion, 1949, Paris.
1. Charles Ford, Germaine Dulac, Anthologie
du Cinema #31, January, 1968, p.6.
2. Irene Hillel-Erlanger's son Phillip wrote
the story from which Roberto Rossellini
made La prise de pouvouir de Louis XIV.
3. Unpublished notes, quoted by Rene Jeanne
and Charles Ford in their Histoi~ encyclo-
~dique du cinema, V. 1 (1948)
4. "Le Film," April 15, 1919.
5. "Cinea," May 20, 1921.
6. Ford, op. cit., p. 14.
7. Malleville, Dulac's close friend after her
divorce from Albert-Dulac in 1920,
assisted on several films. Since Dulac's
death she has maintained the filmmaker's
estate and dedicated herself to preserving
her memory.
8. "Cinea," September 23, 1921.
9. Remarks made to J. A. de Munto:
"Cinemagazine," May 9, 1924.
10. In "Schemas," the first and only issue,
published in 1927.
11. "Les Cahiers du Mais.".
12. In "La Revue de l'ecran," Marseilles,
August 13, 1942.
13. "Cinea-cine pour tous," August 15, 1929,
quoted by Pierre L'herminier in l 'art du
cinema, Seghers, 1960.
14. Ford, op. cit., p. 41.
a
15. In le cinema des origines nos jours,
Paris, 1932.
16. Foreword to the journal "Schemas,"
Paris, 1927.
17. Ford, op, cit., p. 44.
18. Ibid., pp. 44-45.
102
"M.other of the New Wave"
continued from page 66.
V ou have often spoken of the desire
to make your intentions understood
clearly by the audience. Is it impor-
tant for you to make a film for an
audience?
It's a question that I've often asked myself:
do I want to make the effort to make a film
for the fishermen of the village of la Pointe
Courte-1 take this example because the
villagers are people I really love. (It's not
from a political ideology.) And I have
answered "no." No, because they have too
far to go between their cliches and strangely
enough, bourgeois alienation, which numbs
the fishermen the most. It's the workers whc
have a bourgeois outlook very often. Often
then dream to get what the bourgeois have.,
It is they who often have a narrow outlook
in morality because they want to identify
with the bourgeois class, which itself tries
to become free morally. It's something very
well known. And it is on this level that I
argue against Jean-Luc Godard's politics.
I am not militantly political enough to say
from now on I am going to make films for
the fishermen of La Pointe Courte and for
the workers of the Renault factory so that
they will enjoy it, but also recognize them-
selves and identify and think that it really
concerns them. I am not modest enough.
And not militant enough. And too egotistical.
I still participate in a bourgeois culture in
which a film is made by an artist.
"Summer Wishes" continued fr~m page 85.
freeing alternative to sex role conditioning.
One final comment. Summer Wishes is
showing at the Movie House through April
3rd. I don't know whether the comfy
friendly atmosphere of that particular
theatre is the reason, rut the median age
and dress of the audience that Friday night
was poshy 35, not the usual scrungy 19. If
Summer Wishes is reaching the middle-class,
middle-age people it's featurin11, then it's
educating an audience that hasn't left the TV
since The Sound of Music. To carry its
audience out of Never-Never land to see real
life characters and events is a great and
promising achievement indeed. A much more
auspicious beginning than women's "much
greater and more intelligent participation in
film" that Summer Wishes is supposed to
signal.
By Samantha Willow (and Kathi, Steve,
and Dorothy)
103
FEEDBACK/ FEEDFORWARD
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Shows that have never used a woman writer
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Sisters: Our Catalogue is coming, a nation-

wide feminist directory which will enable
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Catalogues are now available for next year's
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Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017.
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most people in and out of the business agree
that her show is the one on TV with the
The Film Forum is a New York City screen- highest quality of acting, direction, scripts,
ing house for the exhibition of independently and production, it is ironic that that's the
made 16mm films. While not a feminist one where most women are doing their
theatre per se, in the process of screening writing. Obviously those women writers are
the best independent films available, the doing something right."
Forum naturally presents many fine films ,,._
by women, including those of Miriam Films by Women/Chicago '74. Date:
Weinstein, Susanne Szabo Rostock, Mary September 3-17, 1974. Sponsored by:
Feldhaus-Weber, and Barbara Linkevitch. Film Center of the Art Institute with The
Forum programs are screened Friday through Chicago Tribune . Location: Film Center of
Sunday, once an evening, for two consecutive the Art Institute of Chicago. Program: All
weekends, with filmmakers receiving $.50 festival films produced or directed by women.
which you would like to have previewed, (Arzner, et al.)
please send it to Karen Cooper, Director, Week Two: Contemporary Films (Sontag,
The Film Forum, 256 West 88th Street, New et al.)
York, N.Y. 10024.
*
The Women's Anti-Defamation Committee
Submission of Films: There will be one
evening of juried films from midwest women.
For further information contact: Laruel M.
was formed in Los Angeles to combat sexist Ross, Films ~Y ~omen, Chicago Tribune,
content and sexist hiring practices in television43~ North M1ch1gan Avenue, Room 770,
movies, theater, radio, and the print media. Chicago, Ill. 60611. Telephone: (312)

bridge, Mass. 02140.

.
information, write to 5 Upland Road, Cam-

The Century City Educational Arts Project/

National Filmmaker's Theater has initiated
a midnight film program which presents
current student, underground and documen-
tary films each weekend at the Century
City Playhouse, 10508 West Pico Blvd., Los
Angeles, Ca. 90064. Qualifying screenings
for the shows will be held regularly, with the
filmmakers whose works are chosen receiving
a share of the box office receipts. Write to
the address above for more information, or
contact Harley Lond or Louis Mitchell
directly at (213) 839-3322.
This organization is a coalition of already
existing women's groups, including profes-
sional media women and women from a
broad range of community organizations,
including: Cinewomen, Inter-Studio Feminist an~?'mces the pubhc~t1~n of the second
Alliance, Los Angeles Women's Liberation
Union, National Organization of Women,
National Women's Political Caucus, Women
& Film, and the Feminist Party. For more
information contact Claire Spark, 825
Brooktree Road, Pacific Palisades, Ca.
In the Hollywood Reporter (November 27
and 28, 1973) Sue Cameron exposes some
statistics liberated from the files of the
222-3987 ·
, .
*
Womens History Research Center, Inc.,
2325 Oak Street, B~rk~ley, Ca. 94708
ed1~1on of directory/b1bh~raphy_Fe?7~le
Artists Past and Present Price to md1v1dual
women $5. Others: $6.
--\'
In Joyce Haber's column, Los Angeles Times,
April '74, Bill Schiffrin, producer of the
Klansman was quoted saying, ''We have one
hell of a film here. What we got: one castra-
tion, three or four rapes, and lots of _killing."
We call on all feminists and those concerned

*
From the responses we've received to our last
Writer's Guild which dispel effectively the to boycott the Klw,sman-their "one hell of

•
notion that women are making any progress a film" is not our one hell of a fi lm I
· issue, it's evident that there are many women in the field of television writing. Less than
•
aroond the country involved in media one-third of the members of the Writer's
organizations w_h o are eager and able to show Guild are women, and, of 65 shows on
films and publish articles by and about television. only one lonely woman got half-

104

103
PRESS RELEASE
February 8, 1974
From: Sandy Lee
Publicity Coordinator
113 Holladay Avenue
San Francisco, Ca. 94110
(415) 285-9462
CBS AND IATSE #659 SUED FOR
DISCRIMINATION
Two years ago, Ms. Geraldine Kutaka, an
Asian American woman, was employed by
CBS Morning News as a camera assistant.
After working ten days, Ms. Kutaka was
informed she could no longer be employed
without a membership card in IATSE #659.
She was refused admittance in IATSE on
grounds she had not worked 30 days on a
union crew. During .the following six months,
CBS repeatedly employed camera technicians
who were not in the union at the time, and
gained entrance to IATSE through 30 days
employment from CBS.
As a result of these discriminatory practices,
Ms. Kutaka filed a Title VII suit in Federal
District Court against CBS and IATSE in
June, 1973. She is asking that CBS and
IATSE cease their discrimination against
women and minority groups, and provide
her with lost wages.
In a similar case in. 1973, IATSE was sued
by another woman, Ms. Sandra Kaplan for
discrimination. Ms. Kaplan won the case and
was awarded damages. The case is currently
being appealed by IATSE. Out of member-
ship of 1,485, IATSE #659 has 11 females,
20 Asian Americans, and 30 Black members.
IATSE has no affirmative action plan to
include women or minorities in it's constitu-
tion.
Ms. Kutaka has worked in the industry
freelance for three years on documentary,
news, low budget features, and promotionals.
Her experiences have made her a competent,
qualified camera technician.
Further inquiries may be addressed to Ms.
Kutaka's attorney, Mr. Barry Willdorf, 98
Chenery, San Francisco, Ca., (415) 647-
5008.
104
Although the FCC ruling provides space and time
(whether of representative proportion is debatable)
for minority groups, which includes women, few pro-
grams have emerged on minority concerns for a vari-
ety of reasons; negligible pay, bad time slots, and
little encouragement. However KTTV-Los Angeles is
one channel that has been airing a women's program
regularly in spite of these factors. However AD-LIB
is badly slotted-Saturdays at 11 :30 a.m. competing
with cartoons/westerns/spo_rts. Gu~ss who gets to
watch T.V.? It is also the time for shopping and
laundry.
The program is produced, written, directed, and mo-
derated by women professionals active in the Move-
ment. Past topics have focused on Gray Power-The
Emergence of the Forgotten Feminist, The New Jew-
ish Women-Can She Survive the Transition from Tra-
dition, Men in the Women's Movement, Kid Lib-ls It
Only Pint-Sized?, The Indian Women, etc.
According to Marcianne Miller/producer-
"The angle the show will take in its third season is
two-fold. First AD LIB will try to take an active role
in the affirmative action, such as pointing up definite
areas of feminist concern in the Southern California
area and offering positive and specific solutions to the
problem. It will serve as both a vehicle of expression
and a vehicle of action. Secondly, AD LIB will become
more personal and intimate. A concerted effort will be
made to find and express the intimate thoughts and
feelings often left unexpressed by people, feminist
and non-feminist. For example, there will be more
shows to examine the relationship between lesbian
and straight feminist; more emphasis on the ethnic
minority women; the feelings of the elderly woman;
and such normal "taboo" topics as the pre-orgasmic
woman and the current experimentation in estrogen
therapy for the menopausal woman."
We hope viewers will be more responsive by offering
feedback to a worthwhile program in terms of en·
couragement, criticism, and suggestions. For every
step won, it takes a great deal of concerted effort to
keep. The mailing address of the show:
AD LIB
KTTV
5746 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, Ca 90028
Tel. (213) 462-7111
105
 Dear Sisters:
We are a group of lesbian feminists creating
a national women's recording company called
Olivia Records. We will employ only women
and will provide those jobs for each other at
living wages. We recognize the importance
for working out class, race, and age differ-
ences among all employees, and it is impor-
tant that Olivia be a non-oppressive institution
in which people can grown and create. It will
be operated on a collective basis, in which
musicians will control their music, and other
workers will control their working conditions.
Olivia Records needs engineers, producers,
promotionists, financial managers, distributors, -A clearinghouse of information to pro-
musicians, lawyers, accountants, etc. We
need your help. If you are a musician, send
us a tape (cassette, reel-to-reel) of your work.
Or just send us a letter and tell what you do
or where your interest might lie.
We have just finished producing our first
record, a 45 fpm of Meg Christian and Cris
Williamson to be used for fund-raising. We
start producing our firs\ LP in the next few
months.
Filmwomen of Boston, formed on March 13,
1974, responds to the needs of all professional
women involved in filmmaking and video
production, distribution, education and
broadcasting, and provides a resource and
information center for the professional
woman filmmaker and the community. The
organization includes camerawomen, editors,
sru ndwomen, writers, directors, critics,
educators, television producers and others
who are making significant contributions
in their fields.
Filmwomen is initiating two immediate plans Portrait of a Lost Soul, and films like
of action:
vide access to employment and free-lance
opportunities in all fields for women in the
community.
-A program to increase recognition of the
contributions past and present made by
women to the advancement of the film and
video arts, beginning with a Festival of
Women's Films from all over the country.
Announcing the establishment of Cinema
Femina, 250 West 57th Street, New York,
N.Y. 10019, (212) 581-1318-a unique
referral service and distribution company by/
for women.-
- Films made by women available for rental
and
- Women Filmmakers, Directors, Actresses,
Authors, and Critics available for speaking
engagements and one-woman film shows.
lf.
For information on new videotapes like
Women In Waiting, Women and Madness,
Continuous Woman, Home Movie, and
Welcome to the Beltless, Pinless Generation.
Write: Twin Cities Women's Film Collective, r.
Darlene Marvy, 3555 Hamilton Avenue.,
Wayzata, Minn. •
For information on the Midwest Women's
Film Collectives (Bloomingdale, Columbus,
Madison and Twin Cities) in the newsletter
Mother Vision, write: Twin Cities Women's

Ginny Berson and Helaine Harris

for Olivia Records
Further plans of Filmwomen include a series Minneapolis, Minn. 55409.
of workshaps for women given by leading
artists and technicians on every aspect of
production, distribution and education;
.
Film Collective, 3815 Bryant Avenue, South

13th Moon, a women's literary magazine

Write to: Olivia Records,
P.O. Box 1784
Main City Station
Washington, O.C. 20013
*
Women in Film was founded in 1973 by
Tichi Wilkerson Miles, editor and publisher
of the Hollywood Reporter. It is an organi-
zation of women who have distinguished .
themselves in either motion pictures, theatre,
television or advertising. Among the members
of Women in Film are producers, directors,
studio executives, screen writers, actresses,
composers, television writers, editors, attor-
neys, cinematographers, agents, casting
directors, costume designers, scenic designers,
story editors, copy writers, animators-
covering almost the entire spectrum of work
in the industry. The purpose of the group is
two-fold. To function as a clearing-house for
jobs, and to bring women of similar capabil·
ities and interests together. For information
write: Women in Film, Zepha Bogert, 4446
Ledge Avenue, North Hollywood, Ca. 91602.
published semi-annually invites articles by
research and provision of information on all women to be submitted at: 13th Moon,
types of funding for women filmmakers, Ellen Marie Bissert, 30 Seaman Avenue,
including national and local grant institutions New York, N.Y. 10034. Copies are $1 each.
and sponsors; establishment of screening Subscriptions: $2 domestic, $3 foreign,
and editing facilities for women filmmakers; $4 institutions.
and regular screenings of films by both
women and men. The Inter-Studio
existence for over a
*
Feminist
year
Alliance in
was established to
Filmwomen has been organized under the organize women within Universal Studios to
auspices of the University Film Study Center, combat inequality and sexism in job
a non-profit consortium organized by colleges opportunities, promotions, and job labels.
and universities in the New England area. P.O. Box 2268, Hollywood, Ca. 90028.
Other Study Center activities include the Price: $2.50 a year, checks payable to
Film Archive Collection, Film Information Lynda Calhoun.
Office, Student Film Festival, the UFSC •
o~
Newsletter, Symposiums and Seminars, and Women in the World Work; 16mm, also
the Summer Institute on Film, Video and 8mm regular and super; optical or magnetic
Photography. For further information about sound, color; 14½ minutes; also available on
Filmwomen of Boston, contact Filmwomen U-Matic videotape cassett; 1974. Write:
of Boston, Box 275, Cambridge, Mass. 02138. Vocational Films, 111 Euclid Avenue, Park
)t Ridge, Ill. 60068.
Women in the World of Work looks at a wide
Videotape of 1973 Lesbian Conference variety of young women who have pioneered
available through Vulva Video, 606 Venezia successfully in non-traditional, normally
Avenue, Venice, Ca. 90291. Price of this½" male oriented occupations. In their own

• $50. *
EIAJ standard tape: $25 a copy. Institutions: words, they tell of the challenges they have
faced, their accomplishments and their
hopes for the future.
106
~

105
CHICAGO WOMEN'S VIDEO FESTIVAL
whether locally or across the count~Y-:: . · initially we tried to involve local women
wanted to share their work with its logical tapemakers in the planning of the festival,
Dear Women & Film: audience-other women.
On October 26 at the Chicago Circle but-with the exception of two or three
Campus of the University of Illinois and on women-there was not much interest in
In planning for the festival/workshop, we getting involved in anything but having their
November 3 at a lfowntown Chicago branch made a number of basic decisions based on
of the YWCA, we held the mid-west's first tapes shown. Because locally we had access
our gut feelings or intuition about video. to all kinds of tape-from beginning atterrpts
half-inch video-tape festival/workshop First, the event would present those who
devoted exclusively to work by women. to work by accomplished and experienced
attended not only with the opportunity of tapemakers-we decided to choose several
seeing tapes but also of learning how to use tapes on pretty much the same basis that
The following is an attempt to-briefly- the equipment itself. Second, the event
give Women & Film an idea of why we we'd chosen the out-of-town tapes for
would not be a competition nor would it be showing in the scheduled screening. Any other
thought it was important to do such an event, "art." And third-to use a slogan we
tapes, we said, would be shown on the
how it was structured, who participated in recently saw on the wall during a video request monitor if the maker of the tape was
it, what seemed to work and what did not- conference-we knew that "good tape is present. About five women came to show
and what might be worthwhile to plan for the better than bad tape."
' their work in this unscheduled way and all
future.
the makers of the tapes which had been
These decisions meant a number of things included in the regular program came to the
''We" refers to Anda Korsts, Lilly Ollinger in terms of how we organized the showing: showing and discussed their work with those
and Jack McFadden, the members of an We acquired tape by simply writing letters to watching. Chicago area tapemakers who
experimental video project funded by the those individuals or members of groups who screened their work were: Lynn Blumenthal,
Illinois Arts Council, the University of seemed to be the most highly respected by Fat City Video; Claudia Crask, HUM Video,
Illinois and a local private foundation. The uideo tapemakers in general. We told them University of Chicago; Kay Kandrac,
general purpose of the project is to build the purpose of the show and offered to send Armitage Software; Cindy Neal, School of
local experience with small-scale community a blank tape which they would return to us the Art Institute; Becky Keller, Governor
and arts uses of the relatively new medium · with a dub of whatever recent work they State University; Dobby Kerman, HUM
of half-inch video tape. Part of that purpose, felt the best about or would be the most Video, University of Chicago; Barbara Bejna
naturally, is to try to spread understanding of suitable. Whatever they decided to send and Shirley Blumenthal, Kartemquin Films;
the potential of the medium to both special- would be fine with us because each tape Anda Korsts, Community Video Access
ized and general audiences. And so, the overall would represent a stage in a long-term Project; Linda Ozag, Northeastern lllimois
aim of the event was that it serve as an intro- commitment to video and so would be University.
duction to experimental video programming instructive no matter what. We felt that this
to whoever might be interested in the long-term commitment was more important In addition to the tapes, we conducted a
medium as a means of personal expression, than an attempt to select tape which would running workshop in porta-pac operation and
as a tool in education or in social action or provide an overview of women's issues or in editing throughout the day. About a
as a movement for change in television. would try to define women's mode of quarter of those who attended took the time
tapemaking-besides, we thought, by leaving to learn the basics of the equipment, about
However, since two of us are women, the it up to the women themselves to select five people wound up shooting tape of the
specific aim of the show was to present a what they wanted others to see, the chances festival and about an equal number spent an
survey of women's video in particular because of getting such an overview or of getting an hour or two learning the half-inch to half-
the medium-with its low cost and ease of insight into a women's mode of tape would inch editing set-up.
use-presents women with the possibility of be great anyway. We showed the tapes in
striking out on their own in a field in which , alphabetical order and used the tapemaker!t -Tapemakers represented will be:
creative jobs (or rewarding jobs or however own descriptions of their work for the
you want to describe it) have traditionally programs. Tapes were played simultaneously Alternate Media Center: (Maker unknown
been the province of men. We felt that on three different monitors in order that at time of printing), Reading, Pa.; Waitress-
women working in half-inch in this area people have a choice in what they wanted "three waitresses-one older than the other
needed the reinforcement of seeing the to watch and so that the tapes would be two-discuss whM it's like to wait on tables."
work of women making tapes in such areas treated more casually-like television, 15 minutes.
of video activity as New York or San Fran- not like an "art" film, for example, which
cisco; we felt that women working in this demands the viewer's constant attention. Ann Arbor Women's Video Workshop: Ann
area in such fields as film would benefit from The third monitor was reserved for tapes Arbor, Mich.; Thirteen-Process/Product-
learning about the alternatives of video; we which people wanted to see over again or "an interaction between our group and a
felt that women involved locally in organi- out of the alphabetical sequence. girl's guidance group at a local junior high
zing around various women's issues should
school; we worked together on this study
be alerted to the potential of video as a tool Although we showed the ta,pes made by local .of what it means to be a girl of thirteen."
In reaching their objectives; and we felt that women in substantially the sc1mt. way, the 30 minutes.
women who have been producing tapes- selection process was slightly different.
107

106
 Barbara Bejna and Shirley Blumenthal: .Shigeko Kubota: Westbeth, New York City; Sukey Wilder and Nancy Dukes: Video Free
Kartemquin Films, Chicago, Ill.; Chicago Europe on One-Half Inch a Day-"video as America, San Francisco, Ca.; Cleaning Lady
Women's Graphics Collective-"a documen- a documentary.art; verite scenarios from the "the spirit of Nikki Schrager, a San F;ancisco
ta~on of the group process-of making a the streets and cabarets of Europe; edited artist; her struggle to support herself and her
poster for the Farm Workers' grape boycott." in the camera." 30 minutes. work through cleaning other people's homes."
30 minutes. 30 minutes.
Madison Women's Video: University of
Bradbury: Optic Nerve, San Francisco, Ca.; Wisc.; Portrait of a Lost Soul-"about the Megan Willians and Darcy Umsteader;
Fifty Wonderful Years-"focuses on how roles that women have been forced to play, TVTG, San Francisco, Ca.; The Wont is
entrants are prepared'for competition in the depicted visually through art and dance; a Over-"an abortion turned media event; a
Miss California pageant." 30 minutes. video collage." 10 minutes. 1972 reality of finding oneself pregnant,
choosing one of many legal options, and
Nancy Cain and Carol Vontobel: Videofreex, Susan Milano: Women's lnterart Center, New driving up to Scarsdale with some friends."
Lainesville, N.Y .; Lainesville TV-"one of a York City; Tattoo-"explores what goes on 30 minutes.
series of regular shows made for the in a tattoo parlor and what can result from a
community cable station; includes a segment lifetime of working in skin-the tattooed The first re-showing of the festival tapes was
about women in unusual professions, another circus lady." 30 minutes. for the Rural Feminists in McHenry County
segment about a baby growing up before- near Chicago. A group of about forty
your-very-eyes, a third about the wedding of Ellen O'Neil: Video Access Center, Minnea- women chose a slightly shortened version of
local couple taped 30 minutes before air polis, Minn.; Women's Erotic Art Show- the show, basing their choices on their wish
time." 30 minutes. "documentation of the First National Erotic to use the tapes as a way to start discussions
Women's Art Show held at the University of on feminists issues. The local cable operator
Tobey Carey: True Light Beavers, Willow, Minnesota this year." 30 minutes. was contacted about the show and conse-
N.Y.: Giving Birth-"the record of a child- quently ~eral of the women are now
birth in Yucatan in 1972." (Made by a man, Jackie Pearle; Videoball, Antioch, Baltimore, planning to use the station's access facilities
but included because it is a fitting tape.) Md.; Christine-"a personality portrait of a to begin to make tapes. The next re-showing
30 minutes. drag queen." 30 minutes. is planned for the Evanston Art Center in a
Chicago suburb. The show will be the
Cay Draper: MontrearOuebec: The Prostitu- Rochelle Shullman: Women's Video Project, Center's first attempt to show half-inch video
tion of Women- "how prostitution is only Alternate Media Center, New York City; tapes and they hope to begin regular show-
the most extreme and overt manifestation of Women Who've Lived Through Illegal ings if the coming event works out. Another
the general exploitation of women as sexual Abortions-"no speeches, but the testimony re-showing is planned for a local Chicago
Q~jects; includes views of the lives of college of women on the suffering caused them by non-profit art gallery and several women's
students, a waitress and a madam." 30 restrictive abortion laws; you see young and groups have borrowed some of the tapes as
minutes. old, black and white, Catholic and non- have faculty at the University of Illinois,
Catholic." 15 minuets. Chicago Circle Campus.
Barbara Fenhegen and Susan McAlhenny:
Videoball, Antioch, Baltimore, Md.; Bridal Rochester Women's Video Collective: Most of the women whose work was repre-
Fair-"a documentation of the commerciali- Portable Channel, Rochester, N.Y .; Home- sented at the show were willing to have their
zation of the marriage industry as seen at a made TV-Women on Women-"documents tapes re-shown, as long as.the showings were
products fair for young women." 30 minutes. the experience of a women's video collective non-profit and small in scale. However, we
trying to create a new media image of women; have since worked out a kind of contract in
Denise Kaprelian: School of the Art Institute, was shown as part of a regular series on which we promise not to profit from the
Chicago, Ill.; Beating Love-"the central video Rochester's educational channel." 30 minutes. tapes nor to undertake any large scale
tape used in the Profane Marriage/Perfor- showings which include the tapes without
mance: Beating Love; part of the on-going Jody Sibert and Megan Williams: Amazing consulting the maker and plan to send it out
narrative/synthesis of an by Denise Kaprel- Grace Media, Bearsville, N.Y .; / am a Woman- to the participants as an act of good faith.
ian's life; present/past/future within colorful "taped at a women's art show; the audio is
oscillations of good/bad: beautiful/ugly: yin/ poetry being re11d by women at the same We plan to do another women's show next
yang ... very yang in-part." 55 minutes. show." 10 minutes. year. The decision has to be made whether to
Color. organize that showing in cooperation with a
Vulva Video: Venice, Ca.; Lesbian Conference proposed women's film festival sponsored
Anda Korsts: Video Access Project, Video- 1973-"documents the National Lesbian by the Chicago Tribune or to have it continue
polis, Chicago, Ill.; Gallery Centerfold- Conference held in California this April." as an independent access project event.
"the shooting of a centerfold for Gallery 30 minutes.
Magazine; publisher, photograph, model." Judy Hoffman Lilly Olliruier Anda Korst
20 minutes.

108

107
Dear Women & Film:
The LWFG (London Women's Film Group)
now meet at 38 Earlham Street, London
W.1., which is a Woman's Center in which
we have our own room. We have just been
given this room and are building a bench and
getting a pie-sync, and it is here that we will
be cutting the film . (We meet every Tuesday
night at 8 P.M.)
We now have a distributor for our films-The
Other Cinema-but we also retain prints
ourselves so that we can take the films
around and show then when requested. (The
list now consists of Women of the Rhonda,
Betts/ranger, the Fakenham Film, Women
Against the Bill, Miss/Mrs. and my film Put
Yourself in My Place). Well, enough's enough, I just wanted to tell
you all how much I appreciate Women &
One other piece of good news is that due to Film ...
pressure from our film group and other
women in the media the A.C.T.T. (the film Yvonne Stinger
union) has appointed a woman- Sarah Bozeman, Montana
Benton- to a research job to study discrim-
ination against women in the film industry.
She got the job just before Christmas.
In November (17th, 18th, 19th & 20th)
several of the LWFG drove to Berlin with our
films to attend a Women's Film Workshop.
This was tremendous because women film-
makers came from all over Europe and
America- France, Italy, Denmark, Norway,
England and Germany, of course. It was a
great opportunity to meet the filmmakers
and hear what their various conditions and
problems were. It was organized by
Claudia Alemann, herself a filmmaker, ~nd
was very efficient. There were translators to
aid those who didn't speak various languages,
and there were also seminars every day to
discuss the topics taised by the films. It was
a very happy and stimulating four days.
Lots of lov,e,
Francine, Winham
Sisters,
Are you still out there? I hope so since I
need your publication for general strength
of mind ... I have read and re-read the one
volume of Women & Film that I have, and
would love to see more. I have been a
"student" of women and films since I was
old enough to turn on the teevee and watch
all th·e dumb girls on Disney World who
always (1) ruined everything, or (2) over-
whelmed the hero with their winsome ways.
At present I am a student at Montana State
University in Motion Pictures (Film and TV
Department) and am preparing to enter the
Reel World. When I was younger, upon
seeing an example of supercilious maleness
in a film I vowed ''If I ever made a movie,
I'd have the girls be like they are in real-life"
and your publication helps me to keep this
vow in the forefront of my mind. I am one
of two women graduating in Motion Pictures,
there being one in Television and none in
Still Photography this year, although our
ranks are swelling. I hope someday to find
my resources full enough to make a cohesive
statement about what it is for me anyway,
to be a woman. At present the women in the
department ~re organ~zing an All Woma~'s
Show for maJors and interested wo~en in
town and on campus. Although a Still Photo-
graphy show, i~'s a ~ood beginning and
already fantastic things have come from
our meetings.
Dear Editors,
I am all for the Women's Liberation Move-
ment and think it is great stuff, but I draw
the line when a woman is given credit for the
accomplishments of a man. I refer to a
statement in your magazine, Women & Film,
on page 78, in respect to an article entitled,
WOMEN WHO MAKE MOVIES.
Virginia Stone had nothing whatsoever to
do with the directing of any of my pictures.
Such a misstatement that she co-directed is
not only completely untrue, but would be in
direct violation of the Screen Directors rules.
Therefore, I would appreciate a correction.
To keep the record straight, Virginia Stone
had no part in the writing of the scripts and
technically was not a co-producer. I was the
sole producer as specified on all our contracts.
None of the pictures carried any producer
credits because I thought three credits for
myself was gilding the lily.
I did extend Virginia Stone the courtesy of
putting her name above the title with mine
as presenting the picture.
Virginia Stone was the editor and screen
supervisor on the pictures and is a member
of both the Editors and Screen Supervisors
Guilds.
Sincerely yours,
Andrew Stone
108
Dear Friends:
Power in the struggle. Sprituality transcends
bars and walls in love, and in the spirit of
revolution I greet you. I am incarcerated and
I'm also writing to you about your free offer
of Women & Film to prisoners. If so, I
would like much to receive your free
subscription.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely yours,
Bro. Jimmy L. Brown
Comrades,
The past revolutions in France, Russia, Spain,
and in other countries have told us how the
revolution should have been or should not
have been. Today state-capitalism and state-
socialism are both proving this most
evidently to us.
But,:comrades, from any aspect of human
history this is the only undeniable fact: that
they are still in power even before millions
of bloody truths.
What we need here and now is not an
anthology of millenarial doctrines or
revolutionary works from the past. It is an
interchange of today's information, inter-
criticism, interation of today's experiences
and ideologies-and an iron solidarity by
action between all the comrades in the
forefront against these state powers.
From this viewpoint, I, as a first step, would
like to introduce you, about yourself to our
comrades in Japan as fully as possible so
that they may find out their mutual interest
in your activities. Your expression of today's
problems on anarchism would be very much
desired also.
As far as I know, there are at least 130 or
more groups including you of anarchists and
libertarians in the world, whose introductory
list with their own description will be
carefully given except their addresses to
Japanese groups or individuals through our
CIRA-NIPPON (Center of International
Research on Anarchism).
All the power to each of l.lsl
Tommy Raruki
****We propose here your every possible
protest action against Franco, Spain for the
March 2nd.HANGING of the two revolu-
tionaries, Puig Antici (Anarchist & member
of Iberian Liberation Movement) and
Heintz Chees (Polish Anarchist).
109

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
The Berkeley Women's Media
Collective is a group of Univer-
sity Art Museum worken and
UC Berkeley graduate students.
E. Servi Burgea Is involved in
film in Italy. Sandy Flitterman
is a graduate student in Com-
parative Literature at UC Ber-
keley. She ha mede a 15-min-
ute film called Rt1flection1. with
·a women's film collective in
Berkeley. Sylvia Harvey. pre-
sently at UCLA Film School,
is an AIIOCiate Editor of
Scftltln, She is interested in
French film theory post May
'68, the relationship between
style and ideology, and the
possibilities of developing a
feminist film theory to be
rooted in an analysis of the
political function of the dom-
inant ideology. Julia Lesage
teaches film in the English
Department at the Circle Cam-
pus, University of Chicago. She
ha published extensively in
Cint1111te, Taktl One, and Jump-
Cut. Chuck Kleinhans is co-
editor of Jump-Cut. The Madi-
son Women's Media Collective
often writes for Vt1IVt1t Light
Trap. Barbara Halpern Martin-
nu teaches at Scarborough
College, University of Toronto.
Her article "Women's Film
Dally" is being translated into
French by Claire Clouzot for a
book to be published in Paris.
Kyoko Michishita lives in Tok-
yo and writes free-lance articles
on the women's movement.
She is a videomaker and also
is interested in film. Joyce
Newman is the editor of SuPtlr
8Film11k11r. Trevor Pateman
just finished at the Polytechnic
of Central London. Gerald
Peary writes regularly for Tht1
Ve/wt Light Trap. for which
he has done articles on Alice
Guy Blache and Dorothy Arz-
ner. Contance Penley is a grad-
uate student in the Rhetoric
Department at UC Berkeley
and a shipping magnate on the
loading dock at the Pacific
FIim Archive. Norman R. Cider
is Director of Cinema Studies
at the C.W. Post Center, Long
Island Univenity. Beth Sulli-
van graduated from the UCLA
Film Department and has been
active in the Women's Move-
ment for six yNrs. Presently
a teacher at an all-female NYC
inner:City high school, Pat Sul:
livan has a Master's in English
Education from Fordham and
apends all her time thinking
about, or working on, ½-inch
videotape. Judy Teylor studied
English at the University of
Chicago and the University of
California, Berkeley. She has
tault!t English and Women's
Studies at several universities,
is currently a member of the
media chapter of the L.A.
Women's Union and is working
110
"Maldoror" continued from page 75.
Cubans have already promised all the help
they can give as far as food and lodging and
transportation are concerned. What still
rna,ains though is the raising of the necessary
money for all the rest: actors and actresses,
cos1u mes, raw stock, etc.
"I love freedom," says Maldoror. "I won't
be told what to do by any producer who
doesn't like my subject matter. I'd rather
wait the three years it would take me to
scrape together the money I need. I want to
make my films the way/ want to make them
The Problem of Distribution
Maldoror feels that the greatest problem
the African film faces is distribution:
"No African country, with the exception of
Algeria, has its own distribution company.
In the French-speaking areas of Africa,
distribution is handled by a monopoly
which is in French hands. There is not one
cinematheque nor even a so-called 'art-
cinema' ... All too often, you hear that
there is no African film, or that if there is, of the oppressor mentality and took a strong
it's just Jean Rouch. That's to make it easy
for those who say such things. One day, we'll opposing the aggressive policy pursued by
come to France and shoot a film, then we'll
show the African people our view of France- her one scene from the film .... We were
that'll be an entertaining film ...
''The Swedish, the Italian films and the films
of dther countries did not sprout up like
mushrooms from the earth. In Africa there
are several young people who are really
talented filmmakers. We have to put an end
to the lack of knowledge and the utter ignor- of her position on the war. She seemed to pay
ance which people have about the special
problem of Africa.
"Personally, I feel that Sembene Ousmane is
the most talented of our directors. He's often eyes the atrocities that America has
reproached for financing his films with
French capital. So what! The most important like to use this opportunity to express my
thing is that we have to develop a cultural
policy which can help us. Show to the world
that such a thing as African film does exist.
We have to teach ourselves to sell our films
ourselves and then get them distributed.
Today we are like small sardines surrounded
by sharks. But, the sardines will grow up.
They'll leam how to resist the sharks ... "
on a slide show on the history
of women in the labor force.
William Van Wert is working
on his PhD at Indiana Univer-
sity. He is working with the
Women's Studies Committee
on a Women and Film Festival.
Carol Wikarska la a free-lance
writer and a projectionist at
the Pacific Film Archive in
Berkeley. She is publishing an
interview with Lotte Reiniger
in the next issue of Film
Quarterly.
109
''Tra Giang" continued from page 47.
CW: How much, if any, of the film is
documentary footage?
TG: The scriptwriter as well as the main
members of the cast insisted on showing
documentary footaqe in the film. This
includes shots of the American 7th Fleet in
the bay, tanks of our partisans, as well as
helicopters during raids. There was also
footage of a demonstration which was
intercut with footage shot by our own crew,
giving the impression that I was a participant
in this demonstration.
CW: Did you meet Jane Fonda during her
stay in Vietnam?
TG: I want to begin my answer by saying
that the people of Hanoi know who its
friends are as well as who its enemies are.
She came during a very difficult period for
my country (July 1972) since that was
another period of heavy bombings. Jane
Fonda's visit was a very profound experience
for me because it brought the realization
that quite a few people in America were not
position for the end of the war in Vietnam,
their government. During her stay we showed
touched by the warmth she showed us and
by her really active participation against the
war. We followed the press after her visit to
Vietnam and so we know that she had a hard
time and there was a threat of her being
thrown into prison. I was very impressed by
·her struggle in not succumbing to criticisms
no attention to these threats while perserver-
ing for the realization of her ideals. We
consider it a matter of vhal importance that
she came to Vietnam and saw with her own
committed in my country. And I would
gratitude to all of the Americans who
contributed towards the end of the war in
Vietnam. I want also to advise them that
even though the Paris agreement has been
signed, the war in Vietnam has not yet
ended. For us the struggle is not over.
This is the basket that my father sent to me
not long ago. It is made of the wire which
cordoned the mine areas made by the
Americans ... As a symbol, I want to
present this basket to you.
 first comprehensiv e survi-
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232 pages, with essays in
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R Photos by Jtb
Thirteen photos of women printed in bfown on
he•vy wt111e paper. uch photo an be uwly removed
--ID@iQ~
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A GRAPHIC OATEBOOK Of OUR FEMALE ANCESTORS

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