Brodeuses [Sequins] (2005): The Sparkle in A Mother's Eyes1

This first film of scriptwriter and director Eléonore Faucher was nominated for the best original screenplay César (the French equivalent of an Oscar) in 2005. Told from a feminine viewpoint, it explores both the physical and psychic changes of a woman during her first pregnancy.

From the 1970s, feminist and cinema scholars have stressed that the camera has often been used in a way to magnify how males look at women and their bodies, creating a sort of Hollywood screen version of the image of a woman. Recently, Cooper and Harris spoke of ‘the reification of camera gaze and patriarchy’ (2005, p. 1481) that has consigned women to the role of objects of desire, which has the effect of dominating and making behaviour conform to prevailing cinematic standards.

Films like Sequins do the opposite. We never feel forced to watch; rather, we are gently induced to listen to the sparse, yet essential dialogue, which narrates this totally human story. There is no redundancy. Shots are not used for effect. Special care is given to everything: to the lighting, to the landscape (the Poitou Charentes region of France), and to the small details which capture our attention. The extraordinary understanding between the actors (Ariane Ascaride and Lola Naymark) along with the director's attention to the characters’ physical expression create perceptive, affective and memorable conditions that guide us towards a truth which is waiting to be discovered, a truth whose meaning exists beyond the events of this story, which is focused on the emotions and deeper values of everyday life.

Some Thoughts on Female Psychosexual Development

When Freud (1923) writes that the ego is first and foremost a body ego, he refers to the psychic representation of an image or body scheme, which is already separated from the maternal body and from the outside world. From the very beginning, the theme of the relationship between mind and body is interwoven with anxiety; but Freud (1925