Tras las lentes de Isabel Coixet: cine, compromiso y feminismo by Barbara Zecchi

Abstract

 Reviews Tras las lentes de Isabel Coixet: cine, compromiso y feminismo. Ed. by B Z. Zaragoza: Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza. .  pp. €. ISBN ––––. ‘I don’t know if I have themes, what I do have are certain obsessions that, although I try to repress them, always come out’ (p. ). ese words, uttered by Isabel Coixet in the interview with María Donapetry that constitutes the last chapter of this edited volume, encapsulate the key insights of the most exhaustive work on the film-maker to date. Tras las lentes de Isabel Coixet purports to delve into both the themes and the obsessions that Coixet herself acknowledges, employing auteur and feminist theory alike as epistemological framework. A publication of this kind inevitably faces the difficulty of saying something new about a director who has been written about extensively. Barbara Zecchi’s track record of publishing on cinema and feminism ensures that she is ideally placed to take on this challenge, co-ordinating a volume that offers an overview of Coixet’s output over a quarter of a century. A holistic perspective is the book’s first unique selling point, bringing her more canonical fiction films—from Demasiado viejo para morir joven () to Learning to Drive ()—into dialogue with documentary works—with a special emphasis on Cartas a Nora (Invisibles, ), La mujer, cosa de hombres (), and Escuchando al juez Garzón ()—alongside a general profile of the director as well as the aforementioned interview. e contributors , both individually and collectively, also develop innovative methodological approaches, informed by feminist theory and focusing on the haptic elements of Coixet’s cinema. is publication is the product of twenty-two authors from different geographical and disciplinary backgrounds. Although it is almost inevitably difficult to maintain quality control in an endeavour of this kind, the combination of rigorous scholarship and more informal pieces will broaden the appeal. In spite of their heterogeneous nature, the writers concur on Coixet’s principal authorial traits being cosmopolitanism and social commitment. ese concerns are addressed thematically—the benefits of non-places or postnational locations for raising social awareness about specific issues (ranging from femicide to war crimes)—and in relation to visual style. e ‘practices of embodied vision’ (p. ) are highlighted through devices that include but are not limited to the use of handheld cameras, grainy images, close-up shots, the manipulation of real time, and a desynchronized audio track. ese ‘practices of embodied vision’ provide the justification for Zecchi’s overarching rationale of analysing Coixet from the perspective of feminist film theory, drawing primarily on the work of Laura Mulvey (scopophilia), Laura U. Marks (tactile visuality), and Kaja Silverman (acoustic mirror theory) to challenge and counteract cinema’s hegemonic patriarchal gaze. More specifically, the film-maker and contributors to this volume are similarly committed to refuting the idea of women as the passive object of the gaze as well as bringing differing haptic strategies into play. Coixet’s feminist appeal to all the senses encourages an active position for the spectator: ‘we are not passive voyeurs, but active synaesthetes’ (p. ). As a MLR, .,   result, this volume functions as a good first port of call not just for those interested in discovering more about Coixet’s cinema, but also for students keen to become more literate in film analysis and feminist theory. U C III  M T M J e Cinema of Lucrecia Martel. By D M. Manchester: Manchester University Press. .  pp. £. ISBN ––––. Since , when her debut film was released, Lucrecia Martel has been the subject of multiple scholarly articles, film reviews, and interviews in several languages. She is the most innovative and successful contemporary Argentinean film-maker, and her work has national and international recognition. is book by Deborah Martin explains and analyses the nature of Martel’s success. Written in English and intended for an academic audience, e Cinema of Lucrecia Martel consists of four chapters devoted to close filmic analysis alongside an Introduction and a Conclusion. Opening with a detailed contextualization of Martel ’s place within ‘New Argentine Cinema’, Martin sets her subject apart from her contemporaries as the one able to lead the charge, taking experimental...