photographist

“Films are not made to be studied though I believe that knowledge of editing, shooting and framing images is a pre-requisite to view films in a more critical perspective. I try to teach my students how to view and decode a film, to analyse what the script imposes on the characters and how they are filmed. When the vamp was created, cinema constructed a highly stereotypical conceptions of women and femininity which considers women as sexual objects of male desire. This is underlined by the choice of production lighting and framing. Cinema transposed characters belonging to drama and literature and adapted/adopted the Freudian conception of passive female versus active male.

What sort of films women do when they enter the world of film-making which is still a male preserve? What do they internalise? What sort of innovation do they offer? What is a “good” heroin, a “good” character? Giving female characters a voice and a gaze was the first transgression as it meant they do not serve just as a foil for the male protagonists. The viewpoint changes when the story is told and seen from a woman's point of view.
In the 1990s, more women directors started to be more explicit about sexuality and transgression soon became the norm. When a woman portrays female submission, the reception is biased and the impact can be highly negative, which in turn badly affects the wider issue of gender representations.”

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