Introduction notes for Elles screening

In May 2012 I introduced a screening of Elles (dir. Malgorzata Szumowska, 2011) at the Queen's Film Theatre in Belfast and led a discussion afterwards. An uncomfortable topic, particularly in a place awash with religious conservatism, the film follows a seasoned journalist played by Juliet Binoche as she works on a story about young women, mostly students, choosing to enter sex work. It was a strange time for me. After months of intensive job hunting post-PhD (graduated December 2011) I had just landed a minimum-wage part-time job in a shop. Oh the relief that something had worked out. I was desperate by this stage, and what I was prepared to do to survive had been very much on my mind. 

Marion Campbell who was then QFT's Education & Outreach Officer had me doing quiet few introductions that year. She was looking out for me and I didn't appreciate her enough. I became so wrapped up in the academic career path that I lost sight of the other types of opportunity she opened out to me. I found these notes while moving files. There are notes for other introductions I might share. I've skipped the ones on Les quatre cents coups/The 400 Blows (dir. François Truffaut, 1959) because they're woefully bad. Too much detail about the film itself. Not well-prepared at all. Presented as if to students and not a general paying public. I'd probably used teaching notes. These notes for Elles couldn't do that as I hadn't seen it yet! And the point was more to establish discussion topics drawn from the themes and issues the film presents. And boy did it present them. 

About a year and a half after this screening, research and public consultations around sex work in Northern Ireland began. One of the downsides to devolved power was the DUP's increased ability to enshrine in law their exertions of control over people's bodies. In 2015 the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Criminal Justice and Support for Victims) Act (Northern Ireland) was passed. Based on the Swedish model, the Act criminalises the purchase of sex. I can't help but think that the timing of the event was out of sync, but then, it's unlikely to have made a difference. Here are my notes and a clip from the film.

Elles intro 8 May 2012

Director, writer and co-producer Malgorzata Szumowska was born in Krakow, Poland in 1973. She is a graduate of the Lodz Film School and also studied History of Art for 2 years. She began making films in 1998, and Elles is her 11^th film as writer-director. She has won many international awards for her film-making and makes documentaries (including one about Pope John Paul II) as well as realist fictions, which seem to follow a trend in examining women’s different relationships to the men in their lives (including absences) and how they respond to their comfortable, ‘normal’ existences being disrupted, or even how they come to terms with their lot in life. For me her work shows a refreshing maturity in confronting such subjects.

Juliette Binoche – star in France, known beyond. Prepared to take on challenging roles in an acting career spanning 3 decades.

Deciding what you want in life and what you’re prepared to do to achieve personal goals.

Supply and demand

Film subject seriously interrogates the bourgeois ideology embedded in society

Questions heteronormativity, that women are subservient

Question role of women in contemporary/modern society

Questions the patriarchy permeating society - broader social/political implications

I suspect Elles will use a small contained narrative to make a much broader social comment. It might urge us to question what we value in life – financial means, our bodies, traditional family values, social pressures to be ‘normal’ or a ‘legitimate’ member of society? It is particularly interesting to view the film now. It was made last year, but viewing it after the far right has gained popularity in France is notablegiven that fascism is associated with conformity and order, and what these young women do with their lives refutes that. And yet supporters’ motivations are not necessarily sympathetic to fascism; people are just so desperate for change, revolution, and I think the conceptual notions of change, control and ownership will be applicable to the characters in the film.

Discussion: by necessity we’ll need to be open-minded

choice

Perhaps best to set aside the issue of trafficking – the characters in the film have chosen this, which raises issues about our sexuality and how we use our bodies.

Fundamental questions: who am I? Who do I want to be? What do I want from life? What will fulfil my existence? What am I prepared to do to achieve fulfilment?

 

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