'Water Lilies' To 'Tomboy': Celine Sciamma Films Blur Binary Gender Differences

It is no news that the films we view are largely governed by the male gaze. It is rare in the film industry dominated by men to see women telling stories about what it's like being a woman in a patriarchal society. Celine Sciamma is one of the women in the film industry who does so aptly. Her films generally have a more organic tone and feel, as opposed to Hollywood. Sciamma, through her filmography, expresses living as a woman within a patriarchal system.

British cultural theorist and commentator of popular culture, Angela McRobbie opines, “The new female subject is, despite her freedom, called upon to be silent, to withhold critique in order to count as a modern sophisticated girl. Indeed this withholding of critique is a condition of her freedom.”

Likewise, Celine Sciamma’s films, from Tomboy (2011) to Portrait Of A Lady On Fire (2019), through protagonists, subvert objectification. Sciamma in her films blurs gender differences and the binary between what we deem as masculine and feminine. The women and men in her films do not identify with passive and stereotypical gender roles. 

Celine Sciamma Filmography

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire (2019)

 After it premiered at Cannes, where it won Best Screenplay and the Queer Palm, the film was released wide in the United States. Deadline holds that the movie is as renowned as Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite. As a romantic drama between painter Marianne and subject Héloïse, who has fled from her convent, the film is set on a remote shore in Brittany. It is true that the film through its colour blocking, gradations of mood and sexual tensions between the two women, constructs a romance composed of glances that critics call the “feminine ways of looking.”

Suggested Reading: Film Review: Portrait Of A Lady On Fire Is About Female Gaze And Female Body

Girlhood (2014)

In this film, Sciamma brings forth empathy through a teenage girl residing on the outskirts of Paris. The coming-of-age drama discusses race, gender and class struggles and physical assault through stories of Black teenagers whom mainstream French movies do not develop with precision.

Receiving four nominations at the 40th Cesar Awards, popularly known as the French Oscars, the Director’s Fortnight section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival screened the film. The protagonist, Marieme combats the stereotypes of what a young woman is expected to become. She is intelligent and fierce enough to survive what befalls her in a patriarchal society.

Tomboy (2011)

A gender non-conforming child, Laure, moves to a new suburban neighbourhood to meet alienation and despair. She introduces herself to the other kids as Mikael, in order to fit in. But when classroom assignments are out and “Mikael” is nowhere to be spotted, she falls into trouble. How will the other children react to the truth behind “Mikael”?

Sciamma in her refusal to incorporate the same old trope of predictable conflict does not spoon-feed her audience. Though Laure is at her strongest at times, when Jeanne discovers she presented herself as “Mikael”, the subsequent conversation between the siblings suggests that Jeanne understands her predicament and does what she can in order to support Laure and be present with her emotionally.  

Water Lilies (2007)

In the midst of a sultry summer in the French suburbs, the sexual awakenings of three 15-year-olds welcome solitude, and the change of seasons, as the three friends learn about arousal and the feeling of sexual attraction. The team captain of The Stade Francais Swimmers, Floraine, becomes a muse for Marie while Anne lets her love grow for François. Sciamma, again, is unparalleled when it comes to writing compelling stories, characters and an equally frustrating coming-of-age tale. The sense of vulnerability in this film is breathtaking.