Girlhood Luminosities and Topographical Politics

Abstract

France has recently produced a series of films by female auteurs that offer a close and sympathetic engagement with girls. This chapter concentrates on two films whose titles draw attention to their interest in the feelings and experiences of girlhood: 17 Filles (Delphine and Muriel Coulin, 2011) and Bande de filles (Céline Sciamma, 2014). The directors, through location shooting, their local geographical knowledge, and non-professional actors drawn from the area where the films are set, place their explorations of girlhood into highly specific locations. Such geographical specificity produces and evaluates a distinctive approach towards girls and girl culture, which is usually understood in a more homogenous way. Furthermore, this close attention to geography produces a topographical account of girlhood in which verticality and horizontality, and light and shade, shape varied and distinctive experiences of power and agency for girls.