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Hello Readers!

This week we studied Constantine Giannaris’ From the Edge of the City (1998).

From the Edge of the City (1998)

So far this term we’ve been able to examine a wide arrange of Queer European Cinema focusing on topics such as identity, gender, desire, and motherhood. More specifically we’ve looked at these topics in association with the concept of boundaries. This is the second film we have watched, following Unveiled, that has dealt with migration and border crossing themes. Taking place in Athens, From the Edge of the City follows protagonist Sasha who is part of a Greek community known as Pontic Greeks. The use of non-professional actors is something I found to be captivating throughout the film and it greatly added to the feeling of authenticity. This excerpt highlights the similarities between the actors and some of their circumstances – taken from an interview with the lead actor from one of our readings this week:

No Greek Tragedy: An Interview with Stathis Papadopoulos                                                       (Excerpt)

While exploring the “underworld” the film refuses the dogma of positive representation which helps secure the film’s spot in the New Queer Cinema movement. The film also doesn’t criticize its characters and instead presents the moral ground as a grey area. Few characters in this film identify as gay and hardly any of them may be understood regarding recognizable LGBTQ categories. This is just one of many examples at how the film serves as a commentary on borders and boundaries.

One thing I kept picking up on throughout my screening was the interwoven interviews with Sasha as he responds to questions that are asked from behind the lens of the camera. It removed me from the diegetic world and made me start to analyze these characters and what they represent. It wasn’t until our lecture that the absence of street noise during his interview sessions was brought to my attention. Even just this minute detail would promote a deeper thinking on the viewer’s part as to how the words being recorded in a studio adds to the notion of boundaries being crossed. (Here I envision a boundary between the theme of authenticity laced throughout the film crossing over into a more stylized and polished editing room revision.) These moments of accentuated style regarding tones of playfulness and expressionism showcased through urban segments, sped-up images, and sepia coated dream like flashbacks inserts a subconscious noting of an ironic and playful style. This being said, the film also shows an investment with realism which is what I found so captivating from the very first scene. (I actually went down a YouTube rabbit hole trying to find the initial techno song that plays alongside the opening credit sequence, but to no avail!)

From the Edge of the City Screenshot

I think I want to end this blog post on a point highlighted through our weekly lectures – the idea that themes dealing with migration and border crossing are becoming increasingly essential and urgent for queer filmmakers. I know through the screenings and readings I’ve done throughout this course I’ve been introduced to an onslaught of information regarding the historical and current day relevance of migration and borders – especially in Europe. It’s sobering to read at times but I’m so grateful to expand my knowledge on such important issues. It’s been amazing to look at and learn about the shift of Queer Cinema from themes exclusively concerned with intimate stories regarding identity and desire and how its been shaped into a ore outward looking approach. The idea that Queer Cinema could comment on the geopolitical questions of our time and do so with a critical eye is inspirational and so so so important. As this course nears its end, I just want to comment on how much I appreciate being able to dive into such poignant topics and then take what I learn and share my knowledge with others.

Hello Readers!

This week in my Queer European Cinema class we studied Celine Sciamma’s Tomboy (2011). Much like Almodovar’s Law of Desire, Tomboy won the Teddy Award as well. Out of all the films we’ve studied so far in this class, I would say this has been my favorite. The film is about the story of Mikael who moves to a new town with a secret – Mikael is actually Laure. I think one of my favorite moments I’ve had watching a film happened during my screening of this one in particular. I had watched the trailer and read a bit about the film before my viewing so I was privy to the secret, but my roommate blindly sat down with me to watch it without any preconceived notions. About twenty minutes in when Mikael stands up in the bathtub my roommate yelled, “WHAT?! Mikael is a girl?!” It made me realize that in the first part of the film Celine Sciamma was able to portray Mikael exactly how Mikael wanted to be seen. Free from preconceived notions regarding norms and heterosexuality/homosexuality.  It was really amazing to witness how the film aligned the audience with Mikael’s subjective experience in person.

Tomboy

For part of our module on this film we watched an interview with Celine Sciamma where she touched on why the French film’s title was in English. The French translation for tomboy is garcon manque and literally means “failed boy” and is considered an insult. She used the English term because being a tomboy is something you can be successful at which I found fascinating and meaningful.

Learning about how contemporary queer cinema contests film history that had made fun of differences has been inspiring to me. If we look at Tomboy, there is a scene where the viewer is with Mikael externally watching boys play soccer. Here we see a sequence of shots comprised of actions stereo-typically associated with boys. These include roughly playing, taking off their shirts, and spitting. I will never forget when I was in first grade I saw a boy spit on the playground during recess and thinking it looked cool I repeated the action. Somehow a teacher on recess duty saw me spit (honestly she had seen both of us spit) and grabbed me by the arm and led me to the principal’s office. I was given a referral and had to have my mom sign a paper. The reason for my punishment written out on the referral? “Unladylike behavior on the playground.” My mom signed the paper. It wasn’t until years later when I started learning about the history of gender norms and a dialogue formed within my family concerning the ridiculousness of assigning terms like “ladylike” or “unladylike” to a situation, that we realized how unfair that situation was. I understand they don’t want kids spitting on or around each other, but isolating my behavior out of two children that performed the same action is where my understanding stops.

Gender Performativity

This memory tied in well with the concept of gender functions that we covered in week four. We learned that gender functions are within a system of prohibitions, taboos, and threats of punishment. The objective of this system is to preserve stable notions of masculinity and femininity. Looking back on my life, there are countless examples I’ve experienced concerning gender functions, and I love watching cinema (and media in general) redefine society’s understanding of what it means to be masculine and feminine.

Hello Readers!

In our third week of class we looked at an anti-identitarian understanding of queer. It was interesting to learn about the history of gay liberation in the 1970’s and the use of queer as a slur targeting homosexuals and effeminate men in a way to stigmatize/humanize them. I also loved reading about the re-appropriation of the term and Michael Warner’s thoughts on this in “Fear of a Queer Planet”:

“So many people…have shifted their self-identification from ‘gay’ to ‘queer’. The preference of ‘queer ‘ represents, among other things, an aggressive impulse of generalization; it rejects a minoritizing logic of toleration or simple political interest – representation in favor of a more thorough resistance to regimes of the normal.” 

This quote helped me realize that queer repression, violence, and marginalization don’t stem from intolerance itself (although it definitely doesn’t help), but rather the normalization we’ve placed on heterosexuality and practiced in everyday society. In the “Tendencies” article by Eve Kosofky Sedgwick,  I learned about normativity and the naturalized causal chain (example below).

BOY –> MASCULINE –> MAN –> DESIRING A WOMAN –> MARRIAGE –> HAVING CHILDREN

When all institutions speak with one voice, it’s hard to break down that structure and implement a new way of approaching what is considered normal. I find myself becoming more aware of these preconceived notions and how my train of thought has been impacted by normativity. I think recognizing that the way you’re thinking of something, or approaching a situation, is due to societal norms and then taking that next step to reorder your approach is an imperative step in making progress. It’s been really inspiring to watch examples of this through cinema and the medium of film throughout this course.

Heteronormativity

I had become a little familiar with the term heteronormativity in a Film, Media, and Culture class I took at the University of Oregon, but I was happy to expand my knowledge and learn more about it. I was aware that heterosexuality was represented as the default sexual orientation, but I was unfamiliar with the term “homonormativity.” With encouragement from our professor I researched and found out that homonormativity is the placement of hetero-normative ideas on queer culture. The Wikipedia article I read stated, “homonormativity selectively privileges cisgendered homosexuality (that is coupled and monogamous) as worthy of social acceptance.” This is something I had never considered but makes a lot of sense when I think about it. I love taking a step back and recognizing while we’ve made progress there is still a long way to go – I feel like it ignites this passion within me to do my part in eradicating the importance of societal norms in relation to sexuality.

One of my favorite things we’ve learned about so far this term is the Teddy Awards! I love that the Wikipedia page for the Teddy Award has a list of all winners and nominees from each of the three categories to peruse through and add to my watch list. This week in class we watched Pedro Almodovar’s Law of Desire (1987) which was the first recipient of the award in 1987.

Teddy Award

Law of Desire

One of my favorite things about this film was how it wasn’t concerned with the politics of gay identity. As we learned in our lecture, “In Almodovar’s world – everyone is queer.” The relationships and characters in this film were an example of a messy world and taught me about assuming. It defied expectations of “brothers”, Ada’s mother (Bibiana Fernandez) was played by a trans-woman, and the character of Tina was played by a natural woman. This was the first time a film truly put me in my place regarding my expectations and despite the “messiness” of the relationships between characters I never once questioned it being beyond the realm of possibility. It made me want to watch more of Pedro Almodovar’s films; I think Talk to Her (2002) is next on my list.

Hello Readers!

For the 2020 Spring term at University of Oregon, I signed up for a course titled “Queer European Cinema”. My only exposure to queer cinema prior to this course had been a handful of popular films including Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name (2017), Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959), and Beeban Kidron’s To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995). I had hoped with my limited knowledge that I’d be able to expand my understanding of the importance of European queer cinema in particular, and how it has been shaped throughout history – so far this course has fully exceeded those expectations.

Call Me by Your Name – Some Like It Hot – To Wong Foo Thanks for                                                                 Everything, Julie Newmar

Right off the bat I learned that there are two ways of understanding queer cinema – one is identity based which includes gay/lesbian/bisexual/or transgender themes and experiences, and the other is non-identity based which explore non-normative experiences in the realms of gender and sexuality and defy identity categorization. The latter is something I had never thought of in my own relation to understanding queer cinema, and immediately broadened my horizon before we began studying the films in our syllabus.

The first film we watched was Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s The Celluloid Closet (1995):

The Celluloid Closet

This documentary detailed the history of homosexual depictions in Hollywood cinema throughout the history of North American film. I think this was a perfect launching point for the course and covered a vast amount of material I wasn’t familiar with. As a society we often learn from media and the movies in particular. As a white, heterosexual female I notice the misogyny and sexism woven throughout the “Classical Hollywood Narrative” but I have never felt invisible, or a sense of isolation, from lack of representation in regards to my sexuality. Putting myself in the shoes of those who have felt like that is helping me learn and grow as an individual, and is making me aware of representation in media. Films like Ben Hur (1959) had to include indirect references to homosexuality in order to emulate life and stigmas. This is so brave and fascinating to me, and just one of many films that employed  the use of subtext to get their message across.

The second film we watched for the course was Ferzan Ozpetek’s Loose Cannons (2010).

Loose Cannons

Prior to watching the film our professor had us watch the trailer and pointed out that trailers can be useful in understanding how a film is being marketed. I think of this every time I watch a trailer now. This film in particular marketed itself as a romantic comedy but was also about gay identity and coming out of the closet (which is a speech act, a defining marker of gay identity in the West, and one of the imperatives of gay liberation). Throughout the film there were countless close-up shots of faces and reactions which made me think about how societal norms shape our way of thinking and can be traumatic and stressful for someone as they navigate their own coming out.

For weeks one and two we also read two articles, one of which was titled “Traditional Gay Male Culture” by Richard Dyer. This article explored how Richard Dyer associated the role of culture with his own formation of gay identity. I thought it was interesting to hear a first hand account of how being cultured let him be “doubly different” in terms of identity (both queer and cultured). In the article he notes an artistic sensitivity he found within himself by being queer and regarded it as a positive that helped balance out the negative of being queer itself.

All of the films and articles read in weeks one and two helped build the foundation of information we’ll be building on throughout the course. Being able to relate personally, and at times not being able to relate at all, has left me open minded and hungry for more information. I’m loving the material and I’m excited for the direction we’ll be taking.