GLOBAL CINEMA Edited by Katarzyna Marciniak, Anikó Imre, and Áine O’Healy The Global Cinema series publishes innovative scholarship on the transnational themes, industries, economies, and aesthetic elements that increasingly connect cinemas around the world. It promotes theoretically transformative and politi- cally challenging projects that rethink film studies from cross-cultural, comparative perspectives, bringing into focus forms of cinematic production that resist nation- alist or hegemonic frameworks. Rather than aiming at comprehensive geographical coverage, it foregrounds transnational interconnections in the production, dis- tribution, exhibition, study, and teaching of film. Dedicated to global aspects of cinema, this pioneering series combines original perspectives and new method- ological paths with accessibility and coverage. Both “global” and “cinema” remain open to a range of approaches and interpretations, new and traditional. Books pub- lished in the series sustain a specific concern with the medium of cinema but do not defensively protect the boundaries of film studies, recognizing that film exists in a converging media environment. The series emphasizes a historically expanded rather than an exclusively presentist notion of globalization; it is mindful of reposi- tioning “the global” away from a US-centric/Eurocentric grid, and remains critical of celebratory notions of “globalizing film studies.” Katarzyna Marciniak is a professor of Transnational Studies in the English Depart- ment at Ohio University. Anikó Imre is an associate professor of Critical Studies in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. Áine O’Healy is a professor of Modern Languages and Literatures at Loyola Marymount University. Published by Palgrave Macmillan: Prismatic Media, Transnational Circuits: Feminism in a Globalized Present By Krista Geneviève Lynes Transnational Stardom: International Celebrity in Film and Popular Culture Edited by Russell Meeuf and Raphael Raphael Silencing Cinema: Film Censorship around the World Edited by Daniel Biltereyst and Roel Vande Winkel The Education of the Filmmaker in Europe, Australia, and Asia Edited by Mette Hjort The Education of the Filmmaker in Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas Edited by Mette Hjort Behind the Screen: Inside European Production Cultures Edited By Petr Szczepanik and Patrick Vonderau September 5, 2015 12:22 MAC-US/HANDY Page-i 9781137388919_01_prex New Documentaries in Latin America Edited By Vinicius Navarro and Juan Carlos Rodríguez Global Melodrama: Nation, Body, and History in Contemporary Cinema Carla Marcantonio Dislocated Screen Memory: Narrating Trauma in Post-Yugoslav Cinema Dijana Jelacaˇ International Cinema and the Girl: Local Issues, Transnational Contexts Edited by Fiona Handyside and Kate Taylor-Jones September 5, 2015 12:22 MAC-US/HANDY Page-ii 9781137388919_01_prex International Cinema and the Girl Local Issues, Transnational Contexts Edited by Fiona Handyside and Kate Taylor-Jones September 5, 2015 12:22 MAC-US/HANDY Page-iii 9781137388919_01_prex INTERNATIONAL CINEMA AND THE GIRL Copyright © Fiona Handyside and Kate Taylor-Jones 2016 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission. In accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 2016 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of Nature America, Inc., One New York Plaza, Suite 4500, New York, NY 10004-1562. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Hardback ISBN: 978–1–137–38891–9 E-PUB ISBN: 978–1–137–38893–3 E-PDF ISBN: 978–1–137–38892–6 DOI: XXX–X–XXX–XXXXX–X Distribution in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world is by Palgrave Macmillan®, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data International cinema and the girl : local issues, transnational contexts / edited by Fiona Handyside and Kate Taylor-Jones. pages cm. — (Global cinema) Includes bibliographical references and index. Includes filmography. ISBN 978–1–137–38891–9 (alk. paper) 1. Teenage girls in motion pictures. I. Handyside, Fiona, 1974– editor. II. Taylor-Jones, Kate E., editor. PN1995.9.G57I68 2015 791.43’652352—dc23 2015020908 A catalogue record for the book is available from the British Library. September 5, 2015 12:22 MAC-US/HANDY Page-iv 9781137388919_01_prex Contents List of Figures and Tables vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Fiona Handyside and Kate Taylor-Jones Part I Girlhood and Postfeminism: Global Perspectives 1TheShowgirl Effect: Adolescent Girls and (Precarious) “Technologies of Sexiness” in Contemporary Italian Cinema 21 Danielle Hipkins 2 Girlfriends, Postfeminism, and the European Chick-Flick in France 35 Mary Harrod 3 Warrior of Love: Japanese Girlhood and the Postfeminist Corporeality in Cutie Honey (Hideaki Anno, 2004) 49 Joel Gwynne Part II Philosophies of Girlhood in Film 4 Feminine Adolescence and Transgressive Materiality in the Films of Lucrecia Martel 63 Deborah Martin 5 A Phenomenology of Girlhood: Being Mia in Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009) 75 Lucy Bolton 6 Desire, Outcast: Locating Queer Adolescence 85 Clara Bradbury-Rance 7 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) 97 Lara Cox September 5, 2015 12:22 MAC-US/HANDY Page-v 9781137388919_01_prex vi CONTENTS Part III Sonic Youth: Girlhood, Music, and Identity 8 “Chica Dificil”: Music, Identity, and Agency in Real Women Have Curves (Patricia Cardoso, 2002) 109 Tim McNelis 9 Emotion, Girlhood, and Music in Naissance des pieuvres (Céline Sciamma, 2007) and Un amour de jeunesse (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2011) 121 Fiona Handyside 10 The Pleasures of Music Video Aesthetics in Girl Teen Film 135 Samantha Colling Part IV Extraordinary Girlhoods 11 Where’s Girlhood? The Female Child Killer in Where’s Mary? (Tony Hickson, 2005) 153 Lisa Downing 12 Performing History: Girlhood and Sib/The Apple (Samira Makhmalbaf, 1998) 165 Margherita Sprio 13 Girlhood in a Warzone: African Child Soldiers in Film 179 Kate Taylor-Jones 14 Daddy’s Little Sidekick: The Girl Superhero in Contemporary Cinema 195 Martin Zeller-Jacques Filmography 207 Notes on Contributors 213 Index 217 September 5, 2015 12:22 MAC-US/HANDY Page-vi 9781137388919_01_prex Figures and Tables Figures 1.1 Un giorno special/A Special Day (Comencini, 2012). Disciplinary femininity: Surveillance and the “girlfriend gaze” in Un giorno speciale 27 2.1 Comme t’y es belle!/Gorgeous! (Azuelos, 2006). Plastic Surgery is equated with abuse in Gorgeous! 42 3.1 Kyut¯ ¯ıHan¯ı/Cutie Honey (Anno, 2004). Cutie’s neoliberal femininity contingent upon rigorous self-management 56 4.1 La mujer sin cabeza/The Headless Woman (Martel, 2008). A tactile, queer moment: The Headless Woman’s Candita massages her aunt Vero’s hair 69 5.1 Fish Tank (Arnold, 2009). Mia makes a meaningful connection 79 6.1 Pariah (REES, 2011). Alike (Adepero Oduye) rides the bus through Brooklyn in Pariah 90 9.1 La naissance des pieuvres/Waterlillies (Sciamma, 2007). Marie floats past the girls 130 10.1 13 Going on 30 (Winick, 2004). Onomatopoeic visuals 146 11.1 Where’s Mary? (Hickson, 2005). Mary in the forest (with the bears and the wolves) 158 11.2 Where’s Mary? (Hickson, 2005). “Child” and “non-child” 160 13.1 Feuerherz/Heart of Fire (Falorni, 2009). Awet (pink dress at the front) is clearly smaller than even the other child recruits 182 13.2 Johnny Mad Do (Sauvaire, 2008). Lovelita is left with little choice but to accept Johnny’s advances 184 September 5, 2015 12:22 MAC-US/HANDY Page-vii 9781137388919_01_prex viii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES 13.3 Rebelle/War Witch (Nguyun, 2012). Komona faces the souls of the dead in Rebelle 191 14.1 Kick-Ass (Vaughn, 2007). Hit-Girl: incongruously deadly 199 14.2 Kick-Ass (Vaughn, 2007). First person shooter game perspective in Kick-Ass 200 Tables 10.1 Mode of spectacle in girl teen films, Samantha Colling, 2014 142 September 5, 2015 12:22 MAC-US/HANDY Page-viii 9781137388919_01_prex Acknowledgments Fiona Handyside I developed my research interest in the complex and flourishing area of the representation of girls in global cinema while developing a Final Year mod- ule with my friend and exemplary colleague Professor Danielle Hipkins. Conversations and film viewings with Danielle are always inspiring and I thank her very much for her invaluable input, and especially the par- ticularly enjoyable trip to the Venice Film Festival. Dr Kate Taylor-Jones suggested we should collaborate on this book, and I am very grateful for her hard work and perseverance on this project and allied work on girl- hood and cinema, especially the symposium held in Bangor in March 2014. Professor Aine O’Healy first suggested we approach Palgrave with the project and we are most grateful for her input and that of her co-editors in the Global Cinemas series, Professor Anikó Imre and Professor Katarzyna Marciniak, as well as the anonymous reviewers, all of whom strengthened and improved our ideas. Robyn Curtis and her assistant Erica Buchman provided quick and efficient editorial support, as has in latter stages Shaun Vigil.