Profile of a Filmmaker

Abstract

Catherine Breillat long ago sailed safely around the treacherous cape of the second film, upon whose shoals numerous female directors in France have foundered in recent years. With an impressive bibliography of films to her credit (besides being a novelist, she has authored eight films and is the coscriptwriter of nine others), Catherine Breillat is a highly gifted filmmaker whose work is a milestone in the expression of the feminine in film. In this respect, she personifies the Francophone exception: it is well known that female cinematographic creation has flourished in the last ten years in France, Quebec, and Belgium. Let us recall some statistics. Of the some 20,000 filmmakers worldwide, only 600 are women, a figure that translates to 3 percent of the international film industry In spite of these statistics, there are currently in France as many first films made by women as by men. Several box-office hits like Colline Serreau’s Trois hommes et un couffin, Sandrine Veysset’s Y aura t’il de la neige à Noël?, Tonie Marshall’s Vénus Beauté (institut), and Agnès Jaoui’s Le goût des autres have encouraged producers to support films made by female directors. In fact, it can now be considered a well-established tradition. In the past year, however, feminine expression in film has taken a new direction, and Catherine Breillat has played a significant role in this evolution.

Women are supposed to be the view

and when the view talks

hack, it is uncomfortable.

Jane Campion

We are led to believe that

talking about sex and sexuality

is a sign of lust. By no means.

Sex is a territory of identity.

Catherine Breillat