Ciclo: Cómo aprender a ser mujer (y no morir en el intento). Retrospectiva 30 años de Zinemakumeak gara!

How to learn to be a woman (and not die trying)

Masculin, Féminin short and clear. That is the title Godard gave to his 1966 feature film. Of course, it is a notable work of his ‘revolutionary cinema’… in the seventh art, reality can be transformed, whether in filming, in the footage or in the projection. And of course… he couldn’t question the bourgeoisie without dedicating a film to the nonsense of gender roles: We are all Masculin, Féminin.

However, the 20th century progresses and society is transformed… not only in its cinematic version; from the Parisian bourgeoisie to the yuppies of Wall Street.

Social criticism did not disappear. In 1991, Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho was published. How could the international public not eagerly await the film version of this long interior monologue?

It was filmable. At least for Mary Harron.

Cinema: the artistic medium that allows for some revenge, perhaps. Like filming a story of existential emptiness caused by capitalism, universal and common to all the characters. But a story in which (almost) all the women are murdered.

Whether by chance or not, between the publication of American Psycho and its film adaptation in 2000, Susan Streitfeld released Female Pervertions in 1996, based on the novel of the same name by psychiatrist Louise J. Kaplan. From NYC to LA. In this case, the protagonist has to be a woman, as does the director. A vindication? Every frame of Streitfeld’s film shows how a man could not have made this film, especially from an artistic point of view. Yes, it’s a question of talent. But also of awareness: ‘In a perversion there is no freedom. Only a rigid conformity to a gender stereotype.’ Only a rigid conformity to a gender stereotype.” Subliminal message of the film.

The social criticism is just as realistic, if the protagonist is a woman, more yuppie and amoral than Bateman, the protagonist of American Psycho. In contrast, it raises doubts.

Since the beginning of cinema, the presence of female directors has been numerous and essential to the development of the discipline.

Zinemakumeak Gara!, coinciding with its 30th anniversary, is dedicating its next retrospective to films premiered at the festival itself.

The aforementioned Female Pervertions, La bataille de Solférino (Justine Triet), Rachida (Yamina Bachir), Real Women Have Curves (Patricia Cardoso).

These are interesting examples of works released after 1996, which can be used to raise and question the existence of a perspective specific to women.