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Guest Post: Dr. Albertine Fox on Sight, Sound and Feminst Perception in the Movies (Exclusive)

Jennifer Merin 0 Comments , , , ,
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albertine fox 3In her soon-to-be published book, Godard and Sound: Acoustic Innovation in the Late Films of Jean-Luc Godard, Dr. Albertine Fox focuses on the iconic French director’s filmography to introduce her striking analysis of how the integration of disparate elements of sight and sound bring audiences to a heightened, transformative level of perception. In her exclusive commentary about writing the book, Dr. Fox connects sight and sound interplay to currently trending concerns about women’s representations and issues about diversity in cinema. Continue reading…

Per Dr. Fox: “In a world drowning in marketing proficiency, the fear of plummeting viewer ratings and drops in profit due to the risk of championing non-established, unconventional, or underrepresented voices are clearly specious justifications. In a film industry where women are underrepresented at every level, listening could prove to be an invaluable mode of female agency and an enduring tool of resistance against limiting gender representations, especially in a culture where specific forms of vision are (still) used to sustain patriarchal control. Listening could be thought of as an instrument capable of revising and reshaping the dominant narratives of film history and theory, as well as reworking the ocular-centric and gendered ways in which ‘vision’ itself is often presented. Listening could be used to disrupt prejudicial discourses that depend on the idea that knowledge and truth are acquired through sight, while the sound of another’s voice and the more elusive process of listening are deemed to be of little significance. The level playing field continues to be sought and obstacles must continue to be overcome, not only from the bottom up or top down but from sensory angles and subjective positions that show up new patterns of thought and feeling, enabling the wrong side of the carpet to be heard as well as seen. Continue reading on THE FEMALE GAZE, where you will also find an exclusive excerpt of Godard and Sound: Acoustic Innovation in the Late Films of Jean-Luc Godard.

Godard and Sound: Acoustic Innovation in the Late Films of Jean-Luc Godard by Albertine Fox will be published on 30 November 2017 by I.B.Tauris: eBook edition available on publication but hardback copy pre-order is available from Amazon.

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Jennifer Merin

Jennifer Merin is the Film Critic for Womens eNews and contributes the CINEMA CITIZEN blog for and is managing editor for Women on Film, the online magazine of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, of which she is President. She has served as a regular critic and film-related interviewer for The New York Press and About.com. She has written about entertainment for USA Today, The L.A. Times, US Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Endless Vacation Magazine, Daily News, New York Post, SoHo News and other publications. After receiving her MFA from Tisch School of the Arts (Grad Acting), Jennifer performed at the O'Neill Theater Center's Playwrights Conference, Long Wharf Theater, American Place Theatre and LaMamma, where she worked with renown Japanese director, Shuji Terayama. She subsequently joined Terayama's theater company in Tokyo, where she also acted in films. Her journalism career began when she was asked to write about Terayama for The Drama Review. She became a regular contributor to the Christian Science Monitor after writing an article about Marketta Kimbrell's Theater For The Forgotten, with which she was performing at the time. She was an O'Neill Theater Center National Critics' Institute Fellow, and then became the institute's Coordinator. While teaching at the Universities of Wisconsin and Rhode Island, she wrote "A Directory of Festivals of Theater, Dance and Folklore Around the World," published by the International Theater Institute. Denmark's Odin Teatret's director, Eugenio Barba, wrote his manifesto in the form of a letter to "Dear Jennifer Merin," which has been published around the world, in languages as diverse as Farsi and Romanian. Jennifer's culturally-oriented travel column began in the LA Times in 1984, then moved to The Associated Press, LA Times Syndicate, Tribune Media, Creators Syndicate and (currently) Arcamax Publishing. She's been news writer/editor for ABC Radio Networks, on-air reporter for NBC, CBS Radio and, currently, for Westwood One's America In the Morning. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association in the Film, Documentary and TV branches and a voting member of the Black Reel Awards. For her AWFJ archive, type "Jennifer Merin" in the Search Box (upper right corner of screen).