Theatricality, cine-choreography, and kinaesthetic empathy in Abdellatif Kechiche’s La Graine et le Mulet

Abstract

This article explores the bodily and affective dimensions of Hafsia Herzi's belly dance performance in Abdellatif Kechiche's La Graine et le Mulet, as a way of trying to understand how the sequence facilitates a sensuous and mimetic experience for the spectator at the level of reception. Drawing upon key concepts such as cine-choreography and kinaesthetic empathy, the article argues that Kechiche's approach to filming the dancerly body in La Graine et le Mulet brings into relief an understanding of theatricality conducive to embodied and tactile spectatorship. Such an affective and multisensory awareness of theatricality in filmic dance performance demonstrates the actress' corporeal empowerment, technique, and expressive range in ways that directly contest objectification or exoticisation of the female body.