International Cinema and the Girl

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Fiona Handyside, Kate Taylor-Jones

      Pages 1-18

3. Girlhood and Postfeminism: Global Perspectives

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 29-29

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   2. The Showgirl Effect: Adolescent Girls and (Precarious) “Technologies of Sexiness” in Contemporary Italian Cinema

      • Danielle Hipkins

      Pages 21-33

   3. Girlfriends, Postfeminism, and the European Chick-Flick in France

      • Mary Harrod

      Pages 35-47

   4. Warrior of Love: Japanese Girlhood’s Postfeminist Asian Body in Cutie Honey (Hideaki Anno, 2004)

      • Joel Gwynne

      Pages 49-60

4. Philosophies of Girlhood in Film

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 61-61

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   2. Feminine Adolescence and Transgressive Materiality in the Films of Lucrecia Martel

      • Deborah Martin

      Pages 63-73

   3. A Phenomenology of Girlhood: Being Mia in Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009)

      • Lucy Bolton

      Pages 75-84

   4. Desire, Outcast: Locating Queer Adolescence

      • Clara Bradbury-Rance

      Pages 85-95

   5. Bye-Bye to Betty’s Blues and “La Bonne Meuf”: Temporal Drag and Queer Subversions of the Rom-Com in Bye Bye Blondie (Virginie Despentes, 2011)

      • Lara Cox

      Pages 97-106

5. Sonic Youth: Girlhood, Music, and Identity

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 107-107

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   2. Chica Dificil”: Music, Identity, and Agency in Real Women Have Curves (Patricia Cardoso, 2002)

      • Tim McNelis

      Pages 109-120

   3. Emotion, Girlhood, and Music in Naissance des pieuvres (Céline Sciamma, 2007) and Un amour de jeunesse (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2011)

      • Fiona Handyside

      Pages 121-133

   4. The Pleasures of Music Video Aesthetics in Girl Teen Film

      • Samantha Colling

      Pages 135-150

6. Extraordinary Girlhoods

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 151-151

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   2. Where’s Girlhood? The Female Child Killer in Where’s Mary? (Tony Hickson, 2005)

      • Lisa Downing

      Pages 153-163

   3. Performing History: Girlhood and Sib/The Apple (Samira Makhmalbaf, 1998)

      • Margherita Sprio

      Pages 165-177

   4. Girlhood in a Warzone: African Child Soldiers in Film

      • Kate Taylor-Jones

      Pages 179-194

   5. Daddy’s Little Sidekick: The Girl Superhero in Contemporary Cinema

      • Martin Zeller-Jacques

      Pages 195-206

From the precocious charms of Shirley Temple to the box-office behemoth Frozen and its two young female leads, Anna and Elsa, the girl has long been a figure of fascination for cinema. The symbol of (imagined) childhood innocence, the site of intrigue and nostalgia for adults, a metaphor for the precarious nature of subjectivity itself, the girl is caught between infancy and adulthood, between objectification and power. She speaks to many strands of interest for film studies: feminist questions of cinematic representation of female subjects; historical accounts of shifting images of girls and childhood in the cinema; and philosophical engagements with the possibilities for the subject in film. This collection considers the specificity of girls' experiences and their cinematic articulation through a multicultural feminist lens which cuts across the divides of popular/art-house, Western/non Western, and north/south. Drawing on examples from North and South America, Asia, Africa, and Europe, the contributors bring a new understanding of the global/local nature of girlhood and its relation to contemporary phenomena such as post-feminism, neoliberalism and queer subcultures. Containing work by established and emerging scholars, this volume explodes the narrow post-feminist canon and expands existing geographical, ethnic, and historical accounts of cinematic cultures and girlhood.

• Girlhood
• teen film
• tween film
• Post feminism
• Feminism
• Auteur
• Female Directors
• French Cinema
• Italian Cinema
• Japanese Cinema
• British Cinema
• Iranian Cinema
• US popular cinema
• Music on film
• Chick-flicks
• Argentinian Cinema
• Action Cinema
• Germany Cinema
• adolescence
• child soldiers
• cinema
• film
• girlhood
• girls
• identity
• women

“International Cinema and the Girl (2016), edited by Fiona Handyside and Kate Taylor-Jones, is a welcome and important contribution at the intersection of girls studies and feminist film theory. … This is a balanced and exciting collection of essays. … The editors have achieved their aim of assembling an impressive collection of essays that reassert the specificity of the girl on screen in her local and individual context, while also attending to the global issues that the films address.” (Elspeth Mitchell, Girlhood Studies, Vol. 10 (1), 2017)

"International Cinema and the Girl makes a great contribution to the field by addressing, through smart and conceptually varied perspectives, a wide range of films produced globally. These films demonstrate what the editors call, rightfully, 'the complex variety of girlhood representations.' The scope of the book is impressive in illuminating the many ways in which girls' identity has figured centrally in films made in the US, Europe, Africa, Argentina, Japan, and Iran during the last twenty years." - Gaylyn Studlar, author of Precocious Charms: Stars Performing Girlhood in Classical Hollywood Cinema

Fiona Handyside is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Exeter, UK.
 
Kate Taylor-Jones is Senior Lecturer in East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield, UK. 

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