Agnes Varda

(1975) 8 mins

(enviado por Ângelo F Sousa, obrigada :-))

"Nas palavras da própria Agnès Varda, “a pergunta ‘O que é ser uma mulher?’ foi proposta por um canal de televisão francês a várias mulheres cineastas. Este cine-panfleto é uma das respostas possíveis, no que diz respeito ao corpo das mulheres – nosso corpo –, do qual se fala tão pouco quando se fala da condição feminina. Nosso corpo-objeto, nosso corpo-tabu, nosso corpo com ou sem seus filhos, nosso sexo, etc. Como viver nosso corpo? Nosso sexo, como vivê-lo?”.
http://www.28bienalsaopaulo.org.br/video-principal/reponse-de-femmes-resposta-de-mulheres

"What is it like to be a woman in 1975? This is the question Agnès Varda is trying to answer 'Réponse de Femmes', in a style quite characteristic of the politically committed cinema of the 1960's and 1970's. This short could accordingly be awfully outdated but for Varda's ability to turn a series of boring slogans into a stimulating experience, inventive and poetic as her findings are.

In what she calls a 'ciné-tract', in fact a short made for French TV, Varda has various female persons, ranging from a baby girl to a top model to an old woman appear before her camera and tell the spectator about themselves (except for the baby of course!): about the way they look, about sex and desire, about advertising and last but not least about the disputed motherly instinct. They can be beautiful, unprepossessing or outright ugly but little does it matter: they want to be treated as persons and not consumers and sex toys before ending up asold ghosts good to be forgotten and discarded. They protest against the conditioning imposed on them by society and the stifling sex roles that go with it.

The most striking thing about this pamphlet is the scene in which a pregnant woman dances naked in front of the camera and without the least ounce of shame for that. It is beautiful and moving. Of course you must not be a puritan to appreciate such a rare scene,like some of the Antenne 2 viewers who at the time of release complained to the channel about such a 'scandal'. But there is more to life than a series of taboos, isn't there?"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073619/