News and Events => Opinions & Editorials => Topic started by: Shana A on November 26, 2011, 07:54:29 PM Return to Full Version
Title: Tomboy... an experiment in indentity.
Post by: Shana A on November 26, 2011, 07:54:29 PM
Post by: Shana A on November 26, 2011, 07:54:29 PM
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Tomboy... an experiment in indentity.
Posted by Gina at 2:49 PM
http://skipthemakeup.blogspot.com/2011/11/tomboy-experiment-in-indentity.html (http://skipthemakeup.blogspot.com/2011/11/tomboy-experiment-in-indentity.html)
French director Céline Sciamma's second feature, "Tomboy" is, on the surface (as I've seen it described), a film about a 10-year old girl pretending to be a boy. Laure has just moved into a new neighborhood with her family (mom, dad and uber-femme 6-year old sis, Jeanne). Dad is mostly off at his new job, mom is expecting a new baby boy any week now and the kids have a few more weeks to summer before they start at their new school. The completely boy-ish looking Laure ventures out to meet a neighbor girl, the very mature-for-her-age, Lisa, who instantly takes Laure for a boy. On the spur of the moment, Laure tells Lisa her name is Mickaël, Mickaël quickly becomes the object of Lisa's affection and part of the local gang of kids and Tomboy is off and running. Needless to say, Mickaël is going to experience love, pain, self-realization, acceptance and intense rejection in the next 80 minutes.
[...]
As director Sciamma has explained in interviews, French for a "tomboy" is "garçon manqué" (basically, a 'failed boy'**) and she thought the term was too insulting to the character so, instead, went with the English term. Upon seeing the film, I kept asking myself, is Mickaël a tomboy? That's one of the key questions the film poses (at least, for queer, genderqueer or trans viewers) and, not too surprisingly, Sciamma leaves the gender identity of her central character rather ambiguous (or, at least, in development). In a French interview, she describes the film as "a child's first real life experiment with gender." As an experiment, she seems to be saying Mickaël might go many different directions from this experience. But to be accurate, the character first presents themselves as very masculine identified by the first scene, both in terms of presentation and behavior. Even when as Laure, they never identify themselves as a girl.
Tomboy... an experiment in indentity.
Posted by Gina at 2:49 PM
http://skipthemakeup.blogspot.com/2011/11/tomboy-experiment-in-indentity.html (http://skipthemakeup.blogspot.com/2011/11/tomboy-experiment-in-indentity.html)
French director Céline Sciamma's second feature, "Tomboy" is, on the surface (as I've seen it described), a film about a 10-year old girl pretending to be a boy. Laure has just moved into a new neighborhood with her family (mom, dad and uber-femme 6-year old sis, Jeanne). Dad is mostly off at his new job, mom is expecting a new baby boy any week now and the kids have a few more weeks to summer before they start at their new school. The completely boy-ish looking Laure ventures out to meet a neighbor girl, the very mature-for-her-age, Lisa, who instantly takes Laure for a boy. On the spur of the moment, Laure tells Lisa her name is Mickaël, Mickaël quickly becomes the object of Lisa's affection and part of the local gang of kids and Tomboy is off and running. Needless to say, Mickaël is going to experience love, pain, self-realization, acceptance and intense rejection in the next 80 minutes.
[...]
As director Sciamma has explained in interviews, French for a "tomboy" is "garçon manqué" (basically, a 'failed boy'**) and she thought the term was too insulting to the character so, instead, went with the English term. Upon seeing the film, I kept asking myself, is Mickaël a tomboy? That's one of the key questions the film poses (at least, for queer, genderqueer or trans viewers) and, not too surprisingly, Sciamma leaves the gender identity of her central character rather ambiguous (or, at least, in development). In a French interview, she describes the film as "a child's first real life experiment with gender." As an experiment, she seems to be saying Mickaël might go many different directions from this experience. But to be accurate, the character first presents themselves as very masculine identified by the first scene, both in terms of presentation and behavior. Even when as Laure, they never identify themselves as a girl.