Women's Cinema: The Contested Screen

Abstract

WOMEN'S CINEMA: THE CONTESTED SCREEN Alison M. Butler. London: Wallflower Press, 2002,144 pp. In her new book, Alison Butler attempts to tackle the complex subject of filmmaking around the globe in a single, 124-page volume. Her study is divided into three sections, each devoted to filmmaking in the context of a specific cinematic practice: genderand genre in Hollywood authorship in experimental and cultural identity in cinema. Usinga number of filmmakers as case studies, The Contested Screen offers a broad overview of women's cinema, and while Butler is successful on some levels, her discussion falls short in certain key areas. From the start, Butler frames as a minor cinema and, as with most books on the subject, assumes feminism on the part of the directors she includes, whether or not it is evident in their work. Consequently, the success orfailure of theirfilms is determined solely according to feminist criteria. Butler makes her case by minimizing discussion of female-led opposition to some of feminism's assumptions, and by omitting important and challenging female filmmakers such as Lina WertmuUer. Butler's introduction begins with a review of the central critical debates in feminist film theory. Although her discussion is not terribly detailed, this section is a useful review for students already familiar with these issues. She continues with a brief discussion of early women filmmakers such as Ida Lupino and Dorothy Arzner (saving one of their contemporaries, Maya Deren, forthe section on experimental cinema), which provides a foundation for the first chapter on women filmmakers in Hollywood. In Girls' Own Stories: Genre and Gender in Hollywood Cinema, Butler focuses on narrative filmmakers (Claudia Weill, Katherine Bigelow, and Gillian Armstrong) and the relationship of their work to Hollywood. She also includes a more extensive discussion of Arzner and the French-born Alice Guy-Blache, who is credited by some historians as the director of the first narrative film. Unfortunately, Butler's discussion of Hollywood filmmakers is written in broad strokes, as if she were not terribly interested in narrative. The author's commitment to experimental however, is evident in chapter two (Performing Authorship: Self-Inscription in Women's Experimental Cinema), which offers excellent and decidedly more detailed readings of works by Deren, Carolee Schneeman, Yvonne Rainer, and others. This is the most insightful and informative section of the book. …