Queer cinema in contemporary France: Five directors

341 Pages·2022·3.497 MB·English

by  Todd Reeser

Queer cinema in contemporary France
DIANA HOLMES AND ROBERT INGRAM series editors
DUDLEY ANDREW series consultant
Chantal Akerman MARION SCHMID
Jacques Audiard GEMMA KING
Auterism from Assayas to Ozon:
five directors KATE INCE
Jean- Jacques Beineix PHIL POWRIE
Luc Besson SUSAN HAYWARD
Bertrand Blier SUE HARRIS
Catherine Breillat DOUGLAS KEESEY
Robert Bresson KEITH READER
Laurent Cantet MARTIN O’SHAUGHNESSY
Leos Carax GARIN DOWD AND FERGUS DALY
Marcel Carné JONATHAN DRISKELL
Claude Chabrol GUY AUSTIN
Henri- Georges Clouzot CHRISTOPHER LLOYD
Jean Cocteau JAMES S. WILLIAMS
Jacques Demy DARREN WALDRON
Claire Denis MARTINE BEUGNET
Marguerite Duras RENATE GÜNTHER
Julien Duvivier BEN MCCANN
Jean Epstein CHRISTOPHE WALL- ROMANA
Georges Franju KATE INCE
Philippe Garrel MICHAEL LEONARD
Jean- Luc Godard DOUGLAS MORREY
Robert Guédiguian JOSEPH MAI
Mathieu Kassovitz WILL HIGBEE
Diane Kurys CARRIE TARR
Patrice Leconte LISA DOWNING
Louis Malle HUGO FREY
Chris Marker SARAH COOPER
Georges Méliès ELIZABETH EZRA
Negotiating the auteur JULIA DOBSON
François Ozon ANDREW ASIBONG
Marcel Pagnol BRETT BOWLES
Maurice Pialat MARJA WAREHIME
Jean Renoir MARTIN O’SHAUGHNESSY
Alain Resnais EMMA WILSON
Jacques Rivette DOUGLAS MORREY AND ALISON SMITH
Alain Robbe- Grillet JOHN PHILLIPS
Eric Rohmer DEREK SCHILLING
Coline Serreau BRIGITTE ROLLET
Bertrand Tavernier LYNN ANTHONY HIGGINS
André Téchiné BILL MARSHALL
François Truffaut DIANA HOLMES AND ROBERT INGRAM
Agnès Varda ALISON SMITH
Jean Vigo MICHAEL TEMPLE
Queer cinema in
contemporary France
Five directors
Todd W. Reeser
Manchester University Press
Copyright © Todd W. Reeser 2022
The right of Todd W. Reeser to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-i n- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
ISBN 978 1 5261 4106 4 hardback
First published 2022
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for any external or third-p arty internet
websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee
that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate
or appropriate.
Front cover: Théo & Hugo dans le même bateau (2015)
© eccefilms
Typeset by Newgen Publishing UK
Contents
List of plates page vi
Series editors’ foreword vii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: queer productions 1
1 Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau: moving
normative structures 39
2 Alain Guiraudie: queering space, age, relationality 114
3 Sébastien Lifshitz: documenting movements in
time and space 174
4 Céline Sciamma: the look of queer representation 249
Filmographies 314
Index 323
Plates
1 Ducastel and Martineau, Drôle de Félix, Fox
Lorber Films, 2000 page 166
2 Ducastel and Martineau, Ma vraie vie à
Rouen, Wellspring Media, 2002 166
3 Ducastel and Martineau, Théo et Hugo dans
le même bateau, Epicentre Films Editions, 2016 167
4 Ducastel and Martineau, Haut perchés,
Epicentre Films Editions, 2019 167
5 Guiraudie, L’Inconnu du lac, Strand
Releasing Home Video, 2012 168
6 Guiraudie, Du soleil pour les gueux, Shellac, 2000 168
7 Guiraudie, Le Roi de l’évasion, Peccadillo
Pictures, 2009 169
8 Lifshitz, Les Corps ouverts, France
Télévisions Editions, Silver Way, 1997 169
9 Lifshitz, Presque rien, Picture This! Home
Video, 2000 170
10 Lifshitz, Wild Side, Wellspring Media, 2004 170
11 Lifshitz, La Traversée, Lancelot Films, France
Télévisions Editions, Silver Way, 2001 171
12 Sciamma, Naissance des pieuvres, Slingshot, 2007 171
13 Sciamma, Tomboy, Pyramide Video, Hold-U p
Films, and Productions, 2011 172
14 Sciamma, Bande de filles, Strand Releasing
Home Video, 2014 172
15 Sciamma, Portrait de la jeune fille en feu,
Pyramide Video, 2019 173
Series editors’ foreword
The aim of this series is to provide original, theoretically
informed, properly analytical studies of the work of French
film directors ranging from the already canonical to the lesser
known and critically marginalized, and to do so in a style that
is accessible for a wide readership ranging from students and
film enthusiasts to specialist scholars. The first volumes were
published in 1998. More than two decades later, only one of the
three words of the series title remains uncontroversial: ‘film’,
though even here the material form that this signifies has altered
during the life of the series. ‘French’ raises complex questions
about the meanings and boundaries of national identity, and
about the relationship between national, transnational and
‘world’ cinema (cinéma- monde). ‘Directors’ evokes debates
about auteurism, and the danger of reducing a thoroughly
collective, team- based medium to the product of solitary
inspiration. Throughout its many volumes, the series explores
and challenges each of these underpinning concepts, reflecting
on the nature of the medium itself, interrogating the meanings
of ‘French’, seeing in the director one highly significant element
in the multifaceted process of film production and reception.
The series’ essential aim, and its achievement so far, is to
host studies of many of the most exciting and significant bod-
ies of film produced in France since the origins of cinema. We
intend these volumes to contribute to the promotion of the
formal and informal study of French films, and to the pleasure
of those who watch them.
Diana Holmes
Robert Ingram
Acknowledgements

I now know that the originary moment of this book was
one Saturday evening in Pittsburgh as I sat mesmerized by
Sébastien Lifshitz’s masterful Wild Side, about fifteen years
ago. It was a film that I could not stop thinking about and
one that led me to many other queer cinematic places. Largely
written during the Covid lockdown, this book might be my
only silver lining of the global pandemic. During the decade
and a half from origin to finish, I talked to a number of friends,
colleagues, and students about these films. For help with this
queer production, then, I thank those who read parts of the
book or otherwise helped me with the writing process, includ-
ing especially Thérèse De Raedt, David Pettersen, Florian
Fricard, and Jonathan Devine. Some of these ideas were tested
with PhD students at the University of Pittsburgh, including
Cole Cridlin, Yacine Chemssi, and Brooke Wyatt. The first
part of the Sciamma chapter on Water Lilies was presented
at a colloquium on Sciamma at the Sussex Contemporary
Directors Symposium. Thank you to the organizers of that
event. Two anonymous readers helped me consider new ideas
productively. I also appreciate the support from series editors
Diana Holmes and Robert Ingram and from Manchester’s
commissioning editor Matthew Frost. Comme toujours, my
partner Tom McWhorter helped develop many of the ideas
presented between these two covers, frequently during the
apéritif hour. Thanks to him for taking yet another academic
ride with me on this LGBTQ+ road trip through time.
Acknowledgements ix
Previously published work is contained here in revised
form. A portion of chapter 1 was published as ‘The Anti-
Orpheus: Queering Myth in Ducastel et Martineau’s Théo et
Hugo dans le même bateau (2016)’, Studies in 20th and 21st
Century Literature, 42, 2, 2018, 1– 19. A portion of chapter 3
was published as ‘Transsexuality and the Disruption of Time
in Sébastien Lifshitz’ Wild Side’, Studies in French Cinema, 7,
2, 2007, 157–6 8. A small section of chapter 3 was originally
published as part of ‘Representing Gay Male Domesticity in
French Film of the Late 1990s’, in Queer Cinema in Europe,
ed. Robin Griffiths, Bristol, Intellect, 2008, 35– 47.
I acknowledge the following funding sources at the
University of Pittsburgh that supported this project: the
European Studies Center, Pitt Momentum Funds, the Hewlett
Fund, and the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. This pro-
ject was launched at the Collegium de Lyon during a fellow-
ship year, with funding from a senior EURIAS Fellowship.
Unless otherwise indicated, English translations are mine.
This book is dedicated to beloved academic, family mem-
ber, and feminist Sonja Boos, whose loss haunts my family.