Elizaveta, Leni y Agnès: tres mujeres que cambiaron el cine

Abstract

The canonical records have made the work of the women of the seventh art invisible, eclipsing them with masculine figures. However, the revisiting the films has made them into part of history and film theory. We shall escape the established notion of man directed films, focusing on how the genre and “the thing of women” were established by the Soviet, German and French films, and its difference with the classic Hollywood model and its representations of princesses in need of being rescued or unchained by unconsented kisses.

We believe that feminine influence, powerful, vibrating, creative -sometimes controversial-, is not a recent phenomenon. We intend to bring to this paper the contribution to the film genre by Elizaveta Svilova editor and creator of the kino-eye; the figure of Leni Riefenstahl, even though her association with German expressionism does not seem completely direct, it originates in the same context; and the works of Agnès Varda, the lady of the Nouvelle Vague. Three indispensable women who have left their mark and made the world know that the women can see, tell, experiment, and are able to create works of art and monsters.

The choise of these three women is not trivial. Elizaveta Svilova is probably the best known editor to have worked in the USSR, even though her name is barely mentioned in most of the usual sources on Soviet film history. As editor of “The man with a movie camera” (1929), she is responsible for the technique and poetry of the film. It is through her that we access the raw material and the possibilities of manipulation, where filmed shoots are assembled and “organized”, the special and visual effects, fades, overlaid and frozen images, fast forward, split screens, several rhythms and inserts; with effects which are not random, for they are weighted with meaning and they are, ultimately, the method of the film.

External to the German expressionism movement, yet equally necessary of being referred to for its temporal proximity, there is the controversial Leni Riefenstahl. Before being director, she starred in several “mountain” films, almost a subgenre of German film in the 20’s. Gubern describes these films as “a promethean emblem of the heroes that dared to conquer he summit, with resonance between pagan and fascist” (Gubern, 1973 quoted by Kairuz, 2009). “Triumph of the will” (1935) directed by Riefenstahl, is an outstanding piece of epic proportions (“wagnerian”).

Current studies developed in France about the films by Agnès Varda make no emphasis in matters of genre, “the author is studied as a cinéaste instead of a feminist director” (Lee, 2008 quoted by Vallejo, 2010). Her vanguard language and aesthetic experimentation offer a different way to see and represent women.