An Exploration of the Sensuous Registers within the Films of Celine Sciamma

Abstract

This thesis examines the haptic and sensuous registers of French director Céline Sciamma’s feature works and their embodiment of the sensuous and affective registers of cinema, exemplifying an alternative to the male gaze. Considered one of French cinema’s most prominent contemporary feminist filmmaker, Sciamma’s works are relatively new and thus underexplored within Anglo-Western feminist, media and film studies. This thesis relies on the theoretical frameworks outlined by seminal film phenomenologists Vivian Sobchack, Jennifer Barker, Laura Marks while also making reference to foundational scholars of Western ocularcentric thought and psychoanalysis: Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Lacan and Sigmund Freud. Films researched comprises of Sciamma’s directorial oeuvre up to the year 2020, Water Lilies (2007), Tomboy (2011), Girlhood (2013), and Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019). This thesis argues that the male gaze relies on vision’s privileged place atop the sensual hierarchy in Western thought, thus the corporeal, affective registers palpable Sciamma’s works allow for an alternative to the male gaze. This thesis also briefly explores the implications of such a filmmaker within the current landscapes of cinema and feminism in France and sparks new scholarship within this intersection.