Analyzing the Woman Auteur : The Female/Feminist Gazes of

Isabel Coixet and Lucrecia Martel

Jennifer Slobodian

The Comparatist, Volume 36, May 2012, pp. 160-177 (Article)

Published by The University of North Carolina Press

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/com.2012.0006

For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/477150

Access provided by CAPES-Fundao Coordenao de Aperfeioamento de Pessoal de N-vel Superior (6 Oct 2017 19:47 GM
 Jennifer Slobodian

Analyzing the Woman Auteur

The Female/Feminist Gazes of Isabel Coixet
and Lucrecia Martel



In a noteworthy recent discussion of gender and cinema, Katarzyna Maciniak,

Anik Imre, and ine OHealy highlight the need to demystify the First World/
Third World divide through the area they have designated transcultural feminist
media studies (11). The critics term calls to attention the need for specialized in-
vestigation into questions of gender and representation through the image as it
travels around the globe, becoming part of the system of global capitalism. The
current transcultural nature of film production is especially relevant for inquiries
into gender identity and how normative and counter-hegemonic images of women
circulate. As director Isabel Coixet has stated, Nadie se deja el gnero o la nacio-
nalidad en el vestuario, cuando se pone a trabajar (Nobody leaves their gender
or nationality in the dressing room when they set to work) (Isabel Coixet Motor
Homepage).1 The astuteness of such a declaration is evident when considering the
films of the two writer/directors I treat here: Isabel Coixet of Spain and Lucrecia
Martel of Argentina. A close study of their films, The Secret Life of Words (2005) and
La nia santa (2004), respectively, uncovers trends across the Atlantic even as the
subject matter of the films differs substantially: Coixet tells the story of a woman
working through psychic and physical trauma, while Martel relates an adolescent
girls nascent sexuality. An analysis of both directors diegetic constructions and
their filming techniques in particular brings to light the distinctly feminine gaze
constructed by both Coixet and Martel in their work. The manners in which these
directors employ space, lighting, and sound result in opposing possibilities for gen-
dered beings. Coixets attempt to transpose gender roles in her film only serves to
reassert them while Martels ability to blur boundaries results in a more fluid con-
ception of gender that resists the binds of heteronormativity.
The obstacles involved in studying the auteur are more heightened in the film
genre due to the nature of production. When multiple people are involved in the
construction of a single frame, scene, and the film as a whole, separating out the
auteur, or the veritable producer of the cultural product, becomes a futile task for
the critic and one that would poorly represent the outcome of the artistic visions
at work were it to be achieved.2 Though Coixet and Martel may seem to alleviate

160
some of the analytical dilemma of the auteur by also writing their own screen-
plays, it is still essential to consider the auteur, in Rosanna Maules terms, as the
sociology-of-production (24). Both of the films studied here were executively
produced, in part, by El Deseo S.A., the production company of brothers Augustn
and Pedro Almodvar. Direct connection to the internationally famous Spanish
director was undoubtedly helpful in ensuring the films successes and reveals itself
in the directors use of filming techniques akin to Pedro Almodvars. Coixet and
Martels choice to work with Almodvar, though, as Nria Triana Toribios discus-
sion of transnational/transcultural cinema demonstrates, may be less of an aes-
thetic decision than an economic one. Triana Toribio borrows the concept of the
autor meditico (pertaining to the media) from Vicente J. Benet, one he defined as
the presence of certain auteurs (namely Pedro Almodvar, Alejandro Amenbar
and Julio Medem) whose style and themes can be conveyed to journalists in sound-
bites and catchy phrases (Auteurism 260).3 What Benet refuses to acknowledge,
according to Triana Toribio, is the shifting nature of film productionBenets term,
originally intended as derogatory, in fact describes the necessary characteristics
upon which a lasting and lucrative career is currently predicated.4 Triana Toribio
explains that an auteur is meditico in two ways: both in his/her use of technology
and in the creation (and in some sense promotion of) a recognizable public per-
sona (Auteurism 262). Though Martel makes use of the media less than Coixet,
whose personal homepage contains a cultural blog and her recommendations on
everything from food to music, both have manufactured identifiable personas
personas that are, in fact, quite similar, consisting of a quirky fashion sense, long
hair, and thick-rimmed, colorful glasses (Isabel Coixet Motor Homepage). The
similarities of self-presentation through media among Coixet, Martel, and Almo-
dvar are essential to any study of transcultural/global cinema, which carries with
it a new sense of personalized commercialization.5
Though both Coixet and Martel are engaged in the transnational market,
it is crucial to note the similarities and divergences of these two directors posi-
tioning with reference to the developments of their national cinemas. As Robert
Sklar notes in his foreward to Contemporary Spanish Cinema and Genre, Trans-
national cinema is not only a phenomenon of late capitalism and twenty-first cen-
tury globalisation, it came into existence simultaneously with the invention of the
medium (Beck and Rodrguez Ortega xv). Artistic movements, filmic techniques,
and directors, producers, and actors themselves have moved across the imaginary
boundaries of nation-states from cinemas beginnings; however, both Spain and
Argentinas histories of dictatorial and military oppression signal disruptions in the
transnational flow of ideas. With Francisco Francos rise to power and the culmina-
tion of the Spanish Civil War (la Guerra Civil Espaola, 19361939), Spain entered
into a period of repressive authoritarian governance that would last for nearly four

Analyzing the Woman Auteur 161

decades until his death in 1975. Francos regime made considerable use of censor-
ship, cutting, dubbing, or suppressing any film that did not comply with its own na-
tional ideology. Similarly, Argentina was one of many Latin American countries to
suffer under a series of military coups and state-sponsored oppression in the 1970s
and 80s, known in Argentina as the Dirty War (la Guerra Sucia). The effects of cen-
sorship on the film industry came with the implementation of the Proceso de Re-
organizacin Nacional (National Reorganization Process) in 1976 under the guid-
ance of General Jorge Rafael Videla. As in Spain, the military dictatorship limited
exposure to foreign films and allowed only a select few domestic films to reach the
Argentinean public at large. It was not until 1983, with the election of Ral Alfonsn,
that Argentina began its process of redemocratization.6 In both Spain and Argen-
tina, the auteur developed around and throughout these repressive regimes, linking
the auteur concept to national identity even as the individual directors attempted
to forge counter-hegemonic versions of Spanishness/Argentineness and reconcep-
tualize the utility of such frameworks in a transnational context.
As Maule points out, the very notion of the auteur is an import to Spanish and
Argentinean filmmakers, for it emerges from France, gaining popularity with both
critics and audiences as a useful model for analyzing film as text and for structuring
film reception in relation to a directorial vision or inclination (31). (In this sense, it
seems that the auteur figure was always in some way meditico in its ability to orga-
nize and promote films.) The auteur has been and, with the continued scarcity of
women directors, persists in being conflated with a male-centered vision, though
it also connotes distinctly counter-narrative tendencies.7 With the rise of directors
like Almodvar during the Movida in the decade following Francos death, Spains
auteur tradition brought about a renewed focus on regional groups suppressed by
Franco in the name of cultural and linguistic homogeneity as well as a freer con-
sideration of sexuality and counterculture movements, like the Madrid punk scene
(Maule 51). The auteur figure provided a much needed boost to both the Spanish
and Argentinean film industries after redemocratization. Though Buenos Airess
thriving cultural/consumerist infrastructure could handle the new freedom of the
film industry, as in Spain, the influx of foreign films (especially from Hollywood)
combined with economic issues that diminished government funding and closed
down art houses and popular cinemas resulted in a crisis in national film produc-
tion (David William Foster 2, Maule 38). As a result, contemporary auteurs have
had to reestablish connections with private production companies and freelancers
as well as look to the international market for funding (Maule 41).
The state of the auteur in Europe and Latin America, then, is consistently en-
gaged with self-promotion and the tenuous border between national and trans-
national cinema. In Spain, the most recent wave of identifiable auteurs in the mid-
1990s has diverged into three main camps, delineated by Maule: those that openly

162 The Comparatist 36 : 2012

embraced mainstream cinematic forms such as generic film-making and sequels,
those that continued with the metaphorical style of Spains authorial tradition,
and those (like Coixet) that made films within the framework of an audience-
oriented cinema that was more in keeping with contemporary Spanish society and
the new audio-visual system (134). The new wave of Argentinean auteurs that in-
cludes Martel is equally divergent and generally reactionary. David William Foster
identifies an auteur style immediately following redemocratization that made
ample use of allegory and documentalism (12). Conversely, the new wave that in-
cludes Martel and is positioned in response to Argentinas economic recession and
the crisis of 2001 is described by Gabriela Copertari as producing indie films, not
necessarily in the sense of their production but in their oposicin sostenida y con-
sciente [. . .] a la esttica marcadamente alegrico-pedaggia del cine argentino pol-
tico de los aos ochenta (sustained and conscious opposition . . . to the markedly
allegorical pedagogy of the political Argentinean cinema of the 80s) (89). What
is clear from the long tradition of the auteur in European and Latin American
cinema is that years of oppressive governments, the changing structures of national
and international film production, as well as the unstable economic climate have
done away with the illusion of the reclusive, highbrow auteur in favor of the self-
promoting, multimedia styles exemplified by Coixet and Martel.
This most recent version of the auteur or the autor meditico in its allowance for
a multiplicity of combinations and tactics and its adherence to counter-hegemonic
strategies seems tailored to the kind of feminist intervention I am arguing Coixets
and Martels films make. My argument is, of course, problematized by both direc-
tors rejection of their own participation in feminist work. Beln Vidal has under-
scored Coixets dismissal of womans cinema or a female gaze (Beck and Rodr-
guez Ortega 234, n.4). Martel engages in a similar distancing technique, though she
admits her sympathy to the causes in an interview with Viviana Rangil: es inevi-
table que me sienta agradecida porque las mujeres han logrado muchas cosas (It is
inevitable that I am thankful because women have achieved many things) (Otro
punto 111). I consider Coixets and Martels responses to the feminist label in the
same vein as Maules interpretation of European women film authors operating
in post-feminism. For Maule, post-feminism is characterized by reconsidera-
tion of gender as one of the elements constituting womens subject position, to be
constantly renegotiated and adapted to specific contexts and situations and the
extrication of gender from a binarized narrative of subjectivity (193). One trou-
bling aspect of Maules analysis is that she provides no examples of Spanish women
authors who exhibit such post-feminism. More disconcerting for my study is that
what Maule finds to be the inherent postness of the female directors she studies, I
consider to be the selfsame attributes of current feminist work. What the directors
and critic here seem to be resisting is a connection to an essentialized version of

Analyzing the Woman Auteur 163

femaleness/womanhood that has long been discarded for social constructivist and
intersectional modes of analysis that focus on the sociohistorical situadedness of
subjects.8 My purpose then, of discussing the female/feminist gazes of these two
directors is not to conflate their works (with each others, with other female direc-
tors, not even with other films within their own uvre) but to uncover the ways in
which these two autoras, as minorities in their fields, have managed to construct
counter-hegemonic discourses in the two films analyzed here that, to a greater or
lesser extent, work to de-binarize gender and sexuality and national/international
divisions.
Both directors demonstrate that they are aware of their positioning in the ever-
transforming globalization of cultures through their films and their own statuses
as autoras mediticas, though Coixet has done more to extricate herself from the
label of national filmmaker through her choices of filming locations, actors, and
language. In many ways, one can consider Coixet and Martel as directors on the
periphery, though they are currently the central female representatives of their re-
spective (trans)national cinemas. Coming from Europe, Coixet would seem to fit
the model of a First-World director; however, her decision to eliminate any refer-
ence to nation (patria) in her films and, above all, her use of the English language
triggered a backlash from the Spanish government and, to some extent, the public.
Being a woman from the state of Catalonia, whose populace speaks its own lan-
guage (cataln instead of the more prevalent castellano), already situates Coixet
on the margins of Spanish cinema and, due to these attempts to appeal to a more
global audience, she has been pushed to the periphery of the nation itself. Coixet
has responded personally to claims about her lack of nationalistic pride, stating,
yo le digo que ni soy madrilea ni me creo ciudadano de nada, en todo caso me
gustara ser ciudadana de un pas donde nadie te parara por la calle para recrimi-
narte tonteras (I tell him that I am neither from Madrid nor do I believe myself
to be a citizen from anywhere, at all events I would like to be a citizen of a country
where nobody stopped you in the street to reproach you about nonsense.) (Isabel
Coixet Motor Homepage).9 Due to Coixets expressed disregard for nationalism
and its apparent nonexistence in her films, Triana Toribio observes the difficulty
in classifying Coixets work, deeming it something in between Spanish/Interna-
tional, European art-cinema/American Independent Film (Auterism 273). As she
straddles these borders, Coixets devotion to international themes, characters, and
settings is obvious in The Secret Life of Words. Not only does she employ interna-
tional actors (American Tim Robbins, Canadian Sarah Polley, and Spanish Javier
Cmara, among others), but she also invokes numerous nationalities throughout
the film. Hanna is from the former Yugoslavia while Josef is American; however,
Hanna is living in Ireland, and Josef must eventually travel to Denmark to find
her. While Triana Toribios classification of Coixets settings as anyplace in North

164 The Comparatist 36 : 2012

America may stand for her other commercial success, notably My Life without Me
(2003) and Elegy (2008), The Secret Life of Words foregrounds transnational inter-
sections.
Unlike Coixet, Martel is generally considered by critics to be a regional/local di-
rector, but her attempts to self-situate on the periphery are also conscious. Viviana
Rangil underlines that Martel is a special case, coming from the upper-middle
class. Rangil notes that Martel (a Third-World woman) is mindful of her status
as one of the few successful Argentinean female directors and feels she must dis-
tance herself from feminist (read European/US feminist) concerns so as not to
seem too privileged to her audience (Changing 9). Martel invokes her margin-
ality through a clear affiliation with her own regional milieu. In La nia santa she
employed many local actors, like Mara Alche, the previously unknown actress por-
traying the title character. The film takes place and was shot in the Northern Ar-
gentinean province of Martels birth, Salta. While the film does not engage spe-
cifically with cross-cultural events as The Secret Life of Words does, characters do
make references to neighboring Chile and allude to class/ethnic concerns with the
native staff at the hotel. Moreover, Joanna Page observes that the Hotel Termas is a
telling site for Martels film: The hotel was built at the end of the nineteenth cen-
tury as a retreat for Argentinas elite and foreign dignitaries (184). Shown in dis-
repair throughout the film, the hotel provides a socio-historical marker for Argen-
tinean spectators while still highlighting the transitory nature of the public/private
spaces in Hotel Termas for domestic and international audiences alike. Though
all of Martels feature-length films, including La cinaga (2001) and La mujer sin
cabeza (2008), are set in Salta and share the theme of disintegration and social de-
cline, La nia santa highlights interpersonal experiences with a sense of optimism
not present in the other films.
Though the directors are conscious of their negotiations of the borders between
culture, class, and even social acceptance, the physical space and community for-
mation of both directors films tend to be rigidly defined (whether in the confines
of an oil rig or a hotel) while also representing the liminal through the settings re-
spective isolation and transitory nature. The outside world opens and closes the
plot of The Secret Life of Words, but the majority of the action and character de-
velopment occurs on an oil rig, which appears in the establishing shot of the film.
The bleakness of the oil rig, with its complete isolation from the outside world,
provides the perfect environment for the community of misfits that exists there.
The captain Dimitri cannot stay on dry land, Simon the cook wastes his talent on
unappreciative mouths, and Liam and Scott are able to express their homosexual
desires only amongst the rig community. It is on this isolated structure, ironically,
that Hanna will develop a personal relationship with Josef. This possibility for irony
in the small community setting is not one that Martel misses either, as she sets her

Analyzing the Woman Auteur 165

film at the family-run Hotel Termas. The protagonist, Amalia, lives in the hotel with
her divorced mother, Helena, and her uncle, Freddy. Amalias best friends (Jose-
finas) mother fulfills a standard motherly role by insisting that Amalia needs a
real home, that living in a hotel is not normal. During an interview about the film,
though, Martel stated her personal feelings of intrigue about such an existence. She
explained, A hotel room doesnt belong to anybody but at the same time its a very
intimate place. And I think there are close links between the space you are in and
your perception of your own body (qtd. in James 19).10 Within the film, Martel
demonstrates this paradox by contrasting the bustling scenes of the hotel lobby,
restaurant, and pool with the tighter, still shots in the hotel rooms. Though the oil
rig and Hotel Termas are distinct settings, both transmit a similar irony of place:
on a remote rig, one can find community; in an impersonal hotel, one can discover
intimacy.
One manner in which both directors convey the veiled meaning of settings
and transmit characters states of mind is through their use of lighting. Coixet and
Martel utilize a style of lighting that mimics the natural lighting of their various
settings, but the emphasis remains on the contrast of light and dark in both direc-
tors works. In Coixets film, Hannas time in Ireland is shot using lighting that sug-
gests an average sunny day. Like her life routine, the light remains almost com-
pletely fixed, signifying the monotony and compulsions that keep Hanna secure in
her surroundings. The first drastic lighting change occurs when Hanna approaches
a man in a restaurant about a nursing job. From the outset of this scene, the film
takes a turn into darkness. The restaurant scene, bathed in red hues, captures the
moment at which Hannas solitary, repetitious life will change forever, and, more-
over, it is the first point during the film at which Hanna takes initiativea power
position reflected through the power of red, a color that calls to mind passion and
force. During her time on the rig, though, the skies turn dreary and dark as Hanna
struggles to regain a sense of calm and control when faced with her new compan-
ions. Not until Hanna begins communicating with her patient, Josef, does sunlight
reappear. The relative brightness of these scenes suggests Hannas renewed compo-
sure and signals the initiation of the first real interpersonal relationship in which
she engages in the film. Lighting plays a pivotal role as well during the confession
scene in which she divulges the truth about her past torture to Josef. During the
scene, Josef, who has been temporarily blinded by a fire, is bathed in light while
Hanna remains in the shadows. Once she has opened up to Josef about her past,
she is able to move into the light with himdemonstrating not only their personal
connection and her mental clarity, but also the viewers retrospective clarity about
the films events and Hannas eccentricities up to this point.
Light functions to reveal/conceal in La nia santa as well; however, Martel trans-
poses their standard functions. Though both Coixet and Martel employ the simu-

166 The Comparatist 36 : 2012

lation of natural lighting in their films, Coixets use serves to reflect the characters
emotional state while Martel subverts the standard expectations by transposing
the messages of light and dark. Like Coixet, the majority of the scenes are lit so as
to appear natural in Martels film, though she has commented that she was sure to
keep all close-ups well lit no matter the darkness of the characters surroundings.
As she explains, It was important for me that the faces didnt have shadows and
werent obscured, whatever the level of light in the scene as a whole (qtd. in James
20). Aside from these shots, Martel employs lighting with the same irony she has
used in her choice of settingdarkness becomes intimacy, a space for bonding;
light stands for confusion or false clarity. The brightest scenes in the film occur
when the girls are receiving their Catholic lessons, yet their expressions and com-
ments demonstrate that they do not grasp (and not for want of trying) the concept
of a vocation. When Amalia is first assaulted by Dr. Jano outside the music store,
the clouds part above her, leading her to believe that she has found her vocation
she must save the doctor. Her conversations with Josefina reveal, though, that she is
not confident in this decision. It is not surprising then that, when returning home
from the shop, she seeks the dark comfort of her mothers room, going so far as to
roll out of the solitary square of light on the bed. Upon her second confrontation
with male sexuality, this pattern of light and dark recurs. When a naked man falls
from the second story window, he is surrounded by light and bright white curtains.
In the next scene, Amalia retreats again into the comfort of her mothers shadowy
room. Martel repeats the pattern of female togetherness in darkness following a
perplexing encounter with the male sexual body bathed in bright light. The use
of light and dark in La nia santa suggests that sight is not a privileged sense that
brings with it meaning and clarity. Personal connections are forged in the dark-
ness for Amalia, a darkness that allows for emotional and physical closeness to her
mother.
Coixet and Martels use of color, unlike their more organic use of lighting, is
highly stylized and at once familiar to any viewer of Almodvars films. Both Coixet
and Martel reflect their shared producers penchant for blocks of colors (usually
red, yellow, and blue) and adapt this particular use of primary color to fit with
their own stylistic and thematic objectives. Beln Vidal notes that the aesthetic of
hot colours which construe a mood of both heightened emotion and distanced
revision is characteristic of the melodramatic genre consistent with Almodvars
work and most often ascribed to Coixets work by audiences (Beck and Rodr-
guez Ortega 228). Coixet does make use of this melodramatic trope, for instance,
in the deep red of the scene marking Hannas uncharacteristic volunteerism that
brings her to the oil rig; however, Coixet also transforms this generic convention
by mixing the hot colors with what Vidal denotes as her own brand of cool melo-
drama (228). Though the overall color scheme of The Secret Life of Words is consti-

Analyzing the Woman Auteur 167

tuted by dark and grim colors (browns and grays), matching the closed-off nature
of the films protagonist, the colors red and (usually light) blue recur throughout the
film. Coixets use of color here relates back to the voice-over narration in the film.
When Hanna returns home for the first time, the ethereal voice of the young girl
states that, when Hanna thinks of her, she is always wearing the same thing: a blue
jumper and red corduroys. Though the specific source of the voice is never conclu-
sively conveyed to the viewer, its connection to Hannas past trauma is evident. The
recurring blocks of blue and red, then, are representative of Hannas memory. The
use of bright colors to map this traumatic memory onto the outside world hints
that the emotional effects of Hannas past color not only her memories, but also her
current perception of realityemotional effects that will not completely resolve
themselves with the conclusion of the film.
Martel takes up the same colors as Coixet, yet she presents them in large blocks
of bold, saturated hues more akin to the Almodvaran usage. The color royal blue
is dominant at the onset of the film, before Amalia has developed her plan to re-
deem Dr. Jano. The school girls are always dressed in blue, as is Helena, Amalias
mother, in her first two scenes with Dr. Jano (first in a blue dress, again in a blue
bathing suit). The introduction of red occurs as Amalia and Helenas relationships
with Dr. Jano begin to develop independently of each other. Helena is shot from
above lying face down on the red bed in a red sweater. Significantly, when Amalia
joins her, she is wearing a blue sweater and lies atop a blue blanket. Amalia remains
associated with blue throughout the film as the world reddens (becoming more
passionate, more confusing, as the melodramatic trope would have it) around her.
Jano dons a dark red robe at the hot baths when he convinces Helena to partici-
pate in the conference. Helena chooses the red, backless dress to wear to the con-
ference, and Jano, waiting in the wings for his closing performance, is surrounded
by red. Martels use of color demonstrates a common association of blue with calm,
order, and natural imagery versus reds customary connection to passion, desire,
and dominating power. The films conclusion, though open-ended, includes Amalia
still surrounded by blue in the swimming pool, suggesting that her inconclusive re-
sponses to interpersonal and erotic relationships will continue on, not yet fixed by
her encounters with adolescent and adult sexuality. Both directors use of color in
their films echoes the generic motifs of melodrama, much in the same way as Al-
modvar. This stylistic tendency is iconic and reminiscent of the genre, excepting
that neither Coixets nor Martels characters and plots are prone to extravagance or
an excess of emotion. Both films make use of stylized colors while also subverting
the melodramatic elements in favor of more subtle attention to affective relation-
ships.
In the same manner that Coixet and Martel disrupt the viewers expectations
through their ironic choice of setting and (at times) unconventional use of lighting

168 The Comparatist 36 : 2012

and color, the directors employ diegetic and extra-diegetic sound to disturb the
viewers comprehension of represented events. In terms of feminist theory re-
garding the senses, the emphasis that both directors place on sound is a highly sub-
versive act due to its effect of undermining the dominance of sight. Laura Mulveys
landmark essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, first published in 1975,
scrutinizes and critiques the scopophilic/voyeuristic nature of film and its repre-
sentation of women (60). Mulvey called for an alternative cinema that would high-
light the ways in which [Hollywoods] formal preoccupations reflect the physical
obsessions of the society which produced it (59). According to Mulvey and her in-
terpretation of psychoanalytic thought concerning the gaze, to look at something
is to transform it into an object, to desire it (possibility to fetishize it), and to deny it
a subject position. The subject position was then the active, male looker, whereas
the object of desire was rendered passive and, therefore, female. As she explains,
there are three basic looks of film: that of the camera as it records the pro-filmic
event, that of the audience as it watches the final product, and that of the characters
at each other within the screen illusion (68). Moreover, with regard to film, the first
two types of looks are usually subordinated to the third, which instructs the audi-
ence on how to look at the objects presented onscreen. Mulveys essay highlights
the ways in which Hollywood makes Woman into object while it conceals this pro-
cess from the audience. For Mulvey, it was necessary to create an alternative cinema
that would reject the assumptions of the male-dominated gaze.11
Though Mulveys article has been contested as well as expanded, its place at the
heart of feminist inquiries into film studies remains intact. In the edited volume
on film theory published by the journal Screen, psychoanalysis (specifically Lacans
split subject) is identified as the most influential turn in film theory, spurred on of
course by Mulvey (15). Mulveys reconceptualization of film as a construction of
gendered identities versus the previous theory, which held that film was a mere re-
flection of gendered identities as they exist in an external reality, transformed the
screen-spectator relationship. It is this aspect of Mulveys work that has proven
to be a fruitful intervention for critics that expand and even those that critique
her work.12 One such expansion of her work that is relevant to Coixet and Mar-
tels unconventional stylistic techniques is that of Kaja Silverman. In The Acoustic
Mirror, Silverman extends Mulveys theory of objectification of womans image to
the movie soundtrack. She notes that, where Mulvey had shown how women are
visually composed as extra-diegetic, a reversal occurs in their auditory representa-
tions in filmwomens voices are almost always matched to their image on film,
fixing them to the present and to the body. Silverman posits this correspondence of
body and voice as a response to the male subjects fear of his own lack. In order to
overcome this lack, the male subject anxiously weds all masculine images as close
to the site of filmic production as possible (hence, the overwhelming majority of

Analyzing the Woman Auteur 169

male voice-overs). Silverman claims that classic cinema subordinates the auditory
to the visual track, nonhuman sounds to the human voice, and noise to speech
(45). In a later work, Male Subjectivity at the Margins, Silverman splits with Lacan
by discussing the patriarchal order not as law, but as a dominant fictiona fiction
that is based upon a tenuous connection between the penis and the phallus (47).
The key to contesting the dominant fiction for Silverman is to recognize lack as the
center of all subjectivity and to embrace deviant representations of sexuality that
are not teleological or phallocentric, where the penis is merely one of many eroge-
nous zones (373). In suggesting ways in which to break through the dominant fic-
tion, Silverman does not praise the reversal of binaries, rather she calls for the dis-
mantling of them, accompanied by the creation of new possibilities for gender and
sexual beings.
While film is an expressive form that is inherently iconic (and, therefore, prone
to the scopophilic drive), Coixet and Martel heed Mulveys and Silvermans ap-
peals to approach cinema from an alternative path/set of assumptions. In The Secret
Life of Words, Coixet begins with a parallel montage sequence between an oil rig
fire and factory workers. While this sequence prefigures the relationship between
Hanna and Josef, it also draws attention to sound in various ways. The voice-over
narration calls forth images that flash across the screen, eventually cutting to black,
during which the narrator, the voice of a young girl, concludes, There are very few
things, silence and words. The foregrounding of the auditory sense continues into
the factory scene, during which the extra-diegetic music fades into the rhythm of
the machinery. During the first shots of Hanna in the films second sequence, the
noise of her passing colleagues is transmitted as if under water until Hanna reaches
up to click on her hearing aid. Throughout the rest of the opening action, all sound
but that of the narrator is diegetic, emanating from Hannas surroundings. Hanna
is also obsessed with listening: she calls her therapist but says nothing and listens
to the voice message on Josef s phone repeatedly. Most importantly, Coixet denies
the onscreen male look from Josef,13 who has been temporarily blinded. Hanna,
who has been withdrawn and repressed presumably since her rape and torture
at the hands of soldiers during the Balkan Wars, holds power over Josef. She be-
comes the subject who can decide to speak or not speakdecide to provide Josef
with what he desires or remain silent. While the emphasis on sound in Coixets film
marks an alternative to the male-dominated gaze of Hollywood cinema, the use
of sound merely replaces sight as the source of power without effecting change to
the structure. Hanna maintains control through her role as caretaker, comforting
Josef when she chooses and refusing him any personal knowledge about herself
for much of the film. Hanna leaves the oil rig before Josef has regained his vision,
before he can direct his male look at her. It is no coincidence, then, that Hanna
concedes to monogamy with Josef after he has crossed continents looking for her.

170 The Comparatist 36 : 2012

Coixets film dramatizes the ways in which an inversion of the sight/sound binary
does not function to resolve power inequalities and is not sustainable, as the film
culminates in a conventional heteronormative, familial pairing.
In Martels film, the director draws on Almodvaran motifs in her use of sound;
however, unlike Almodvar and Coixet, she is able to disrupt the power system by
shifting the focus away from the dominator/dominated binary to a more fluid con-
ception of communication. The use of sound (usually music) is entirely diegetic
in Martels film, which is to say that every sound and song seems to emanate from
within the filmic world. Like Almodvar, Martel often positions the source of the
sound offscreen for the first few beats of the scene, confusing the viewer by then
revealing the sound as part of the scenes diegesis. As Kent Jones notes, Separating
the reaction from the action gives a rich sense of the utter weirdness of adoles-
cent girlhood, equal parts tenderness and ferocity, innocence just starting to mingle
with experience (24). Not only does the use of sound recreate Amalias confusion
for the viewer, it also forces the viewer to double take, to note the disjunction be-
tween sight and soundto doubt his/her own eyes and ears. Again calling sight
into question, the motif of the theremin music also functions to destabilize the as-
sumed dominance of sight. The instrument, which is played by moving the hands
through frequencies being transmitted above the device, produces the synesthetic
effect of playing an invisible object.14 Whereas Coixets use of sound only reverses
the standard hierarchy by privileging sound over sight, Martels use of multiple
senses to produce a reaction from the viewer operates as an alternative cinema that
subverts the clear binaries of perceiver/perceived, masculine/feminine, and allows
for new spaces of contact.
A destabilization of the body and its contact with others occurs in both films,
but gender is essentially negated in Coixets film rather than transformed as in
Martels. As Mulvey has noted, the female form presented onscreen for the male
desiring gaze to fetishize (a process in which women are often complicit) is at the
heart of inequality in gender roles. In The Secret Life of Words, the female form is
defetishized to the point of asexuality. Hanna wears only bulky sweaters and loose-
fitting pants of dark, dull colors. Her hair hangs unkempt around her face. Not only
does she reject the sexualized feminine body, but she also becomes the sole care-
giver of Josef s broken and maimed body. Hanna takes on the active role while Josef
remains passive, without even a desiring gaze to transmit his power. Hanna further
separates herself (and everyone) from the body when she comments to Josef while
bathing him that she used to hate seeing people in such a vulnerable state, but she
realizes now that they were thinking, Its only a body, youll never really know what
Im thinking or who I am. Such a separation, it becomes obvious during her con-
fession, resulted from her need to escape pain during torture, during which she
experienced a psychological break. Hanna explains how she measured the pain

Analyzing the Woman Auteur 171

by counting the screams and hoping for her friend to diedemonstrating her
need to rationalize through a mind/body separation and transference of her own
body onto an imagined friend. When Hanna does bare her breasts onscreen, she is
not displaying the desirable object but rather a damaged shell that matches Josef s.
Though Coixet does manage to remove the female body from the fetishized object
position, in doing so, she must detach all bodies from any sense of the erotic.
The body in La nia santa is a much more complex site of interactions than it
is in Coixets film. Helena inhabits the standard position of desired female, often
dressing in form-fitting, backless dresses, and Dr. Janos desiring look corresponds
to this fetishized depiction of the female form. This interaction is the only relation-
ship in the film that represents the masculine/feminine binary. Even in his inter-
actions with the maturing female subjectivity of Amalia, Jano is unable to turn his
look upon herhe can only touch her from behind while both of them are looking
elsewhere, at the theremin musician. Moreover, it is Amalia who embodies the tra-
ditional voyeuristic look as she follows Jano and observes him from afar.15 Martel is
also sure to include the naked male form on two separate occasions, and at neither
time is it erotic: firstly, the viewer sees an old man changing in a hotel room, and,
secondly, Josefina rejects the naked man who falls off the building, convincing her-
self that he was dead even as she watches him walk away. The body is also a site
of various kinds of intimate love and sexual acts in the film, which effectively de-
construct heteronormative depictions in favor of a fluid conception of gender and
eroticism. Josefina, reciting the Biblical restrictions of no premarital relations, has
anal sex with her boyfriend. Helena lovingly and erotically strokes her brothers
head. Amalia masturbates for the first time and, subsequently, breaks out in fever.
Perhaps most notably, the film displays female friendship in a manner unlike most
other public portrayals. Lucy Fischer describes previous interpretations of female
friendship as couched in trivial terms, a competing desire for men, and a fear of
lesbianism (219). B. Ruby Rich has cited Martel as providing queer empathy in both
La nia santa and her previous film, La cinaga (2001). The relationship between
Amalia and Josefina is a lasting friendship with real conflict as well as a homo-
erotic encounter: the two girls kiss, laugh freely, and comfortably return to their
conversations about religion and Dr. Jano. Among the various forms of erotic en-
counter that occur in Martels film, none of the acts correspond to a reproductive,
penis-centered act, providing multiple instances of Silvermans recommendation
for alternative erogenous possibilities. Whereas Coixets film succeeds only in un-
sexing male and female bodies, Martel, through a series of atypical corporeal, erotic
situations that are not stigmatized within the context of the film, is able to convey a
more fluid concept of gender and sexual orientation.
The major divergence between the films of Coixet and Martel, the aspect which
solidifies La nia santa as transformative and The Secret Life of Words as only mod-

172 The Comparatist 36 : 2012

erately so, resides in the framing techniques of both auteurs. Coixets film, though
it portrays the inversion of the gender binary, relies on conventional (or masculine,
according to Mulvey) framing and editing techniques to present the relationships
between characters. Her use of shots in which the camera remains stationary while
the action unfolds around it is prevalent, especially during the scenes Hanna shares
with Josef. Coixet also employs medium close-ups and standard close-ups during
conversational scenes between the two protagonists. The standard shot sequences,
in effect, foreshadow the films conclusion in which Hanna and Josef, after sharing
a deeply emotional, unsexed experience, reunite, with Josef s vision restored, and
assume the traditional roles of heterosexual Man/Woman, Husband/Wife. Though
the film closes with the brightly-colored, breezy interior of Hannas new house with
Josef and their children, the narrator (the personification of the secret life of words)
suggests that Hanna will never fully escape from the trauma of her pastCoixet re-
verts to the standard romance ending, even as she recognizes that this relationship
cannot save Hanna.
Where The Secret Life of Words cannot sustain its reversed hierarchy, La nia
santa provides a feminized view of Amalias story through unconventional film-
making. Constance Penley, in her description of other feminist works of cinema,
has explained how these films attempt to accomplish what women theoretically
and from the perspective of classical cinema cannot do: create a representation of
lack, the precondition of all symbolic activity; the engagement with language and
culture (53). Martel attempts such a feat by piecing together unusual shots and
framings throughout the film. The odd angles, extreme close-ups, and the arrange-
ment of the unstable mises-en-scnes allow her to transmit images that are wholly
de-centered. Again recalling Silvermans emphasis on the lack inherent in all sub-
jectivity, Martels shots are often assembled with open space at the center of the
frame. Martel also disrupts the simple identification of the spectator with the actors
on screen by consistently reminding her viewer that he/she is viewing an image
through the eye of the camera. She shoots Jano often from behind so that the viewer
can see barely a quarter of his face and no more. She takes extreme close-ups of off-
centered body parts, most often the ear. Above all, she arranges the frame so that the
empty space (the lack) is positioned in the center of the shot with body parts, fur-
niture, and other props spilling out of the frame. Jones notes as well that her char-
acters are very often filmed when they are horizontal (an obvious alternative to the
phallic structure). Ambiguity in terms of the characters, the plot, and the world out-
side of the image is ever present in La nia santa, which concludes with Amalia and
Josefina suspended in animation, floating in the pool with their ears underwater
a clear indication that their friendship is still intact, that its existence is both fluid
and unmarred by hegemony and the fiction of compulsory heteronormativity.
Isabel Coixet and Lucrecia Martel are currently two of the most successful

Analyzing the Woman Auteur 173

female auteurs, whose backgrounds include similar positionings in the transna-
tional world of filmmaking and who espouse similar filmic techniques and motifs.
Despite all of their convergences, as both are straddling/dismantling the borders
of the cinematic world, the two directors are rarely mentioned together in criti-
cism. As this study has shown, though the content of The Secret Life of Words and
La nia santa diverge from one another, the stylistic tendencies of both writer-
directors position these films firmly in a new era of female transcultural cinema
one that is motivated by a new kind of auteur who consistently engages in the
pursuit of counter-narratives and relinquishes the fantasy of a detached authorial
vision. For all of their similarities, Coixet is unable to sustain a nonconformist slant
through to her films conclusion, eventually reverting back to standard shots and
preordained gender roles. Perhaps in her quest to appeal to all audiences, to be a
citizen of nowhere, Coixet cannot conceive of an ending that does not reflect a
standard love story. In contrast, instead of manipulating the male/female binary as
Coixet does, Martel chooses innovative filming techniques that allow her to subvert
heterosexual normativity, successfully blurring the lines of gender in La nia santa.
Exemplifying Kaja Silvermans centrality of lack and alternative erotic encounters,
Martels film, though localized to a small hotel in Northern Argentina, provides
more flexibility for gender and sexuality than does Coixetseven though the char-
acters of The Secret Life of Words traverse the globe, they are unable to construct
alternative heteronormative gender roles and relations.

u University of South Carolina

Notes

The concept for this paper was originally developed from a course on Hispanic film taught
by Maria Cristina C. Mabrey, whose guidance during the course and throughout subse-
quent versions of this paper was invaluable. For their astute scrutiny of my work and edi-
torial expertise, I must thank Greg Forter, Isis Sadek, and Casey C. Moore. For the oppor-
tunity to present my work, I am grateful to the 2009 SCLA Conference Organizers. Finally,
for their informed critiques and polishing of this piece, I express my gratitude to The Com-
paratist Editor, Zahi Zalloua, and the anonymous reader.
1 Translations of Coixets writings are provided on her website for certain selections.
This and subsequent translations of Coixets words have been cited from her home-
page. Unless otherwise noted, all other translations are my own.
2 Hoi F. Cheu gives a detailed explanation of the reasons for which feminists have
worked against theoretically particular (i.e. male-centered) versions of auteurism
(5152). For a detailed account of how other philosophical movements have interacted
with feminist thought, see Anneke Smelik.
3 Among Amenbars filmography are Abre los ojos (1997) and El mar adentro (2004).
Medems films include Los amantes del Crculo Polar (1998) and Luca y el sexo (2001).

174 The Comparatist 36 : 2012

 4 While Benet and others may continue to ridicule this type of director, Triana-Toribio
points out that the Spanish television program Enfoque ran a debate about the state
of Spanish cinema in 2006 that recognized the problems with the previous policy of
protectionism against Hollywood films. Directors and critics, says Triana-Toribio, are
coming to understand the need to focus on product placement in the film industry
(Auteurism 260).
5 In observing this new phenomenon of the autor meditico, one can draw similari-
ties to Stanley Cavells differentiation between stage and screen actors. According to
Cavell, screen actors often become types so that the audience sees the celebrity per-
sona (which may or may not correspond directly to the kind of person the actor is in
daily life) and maps a screen character onto the celebrity persona (e.g., Angelina Jolie
as action star) instead of viewing the character being portrayed (27677).
6 For an in-depth study of cinema during Francoist Spain, see Higginbotham. For an
overview of Argentinean film history, see Falicov.
7 In Spain, Pilar Mir, whose films mark the end of Francoist Spain, and Coixets con-
temporary, Icar Bollan, are the most recognizable female directors on the interna-
tional market. Arguably the most internationally renowned Argentinean female di-
rectors include Mara Luisa Bemberg, whose work extended through the military
dictatorship, and the contemporary Paula de Luque.
8 Such work is, of course, exemplified by scholars like Judith Butler, Patricia Hill
Collins, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and countless other feminist theorists and critics
throughout the development of the field.
9 Jaume Mart-Olivella discusses the lack of Catalonian cinema while also troubling its
very existence as a category. Catalonia was at the heart of Spanish cinematic produc-
tion from the start through Salvador Dals participation and the development of the
gauche divine (divine left) into the Barcelona School during Francoist Spain. Even
though the school produced films that reacted against Franco, only seven of the films
produced were in Catalan. Moreover, Mart-Olivella (summarizing Ivn Tubau) points
out that fifty percent of Catalonians currently use Castilian Spanish as their first lan-
guage, making the Catalonian governments (the Generalitats) insistence on linguistic
compliance for production funding seem futile (14751).
10 It is notable that Martel neglects to include a conventional establishing shot in her
filma pattern in her work of which she is keenly aware. According to the director, she
needs to be in the middle of the scene from the beginning (Taubin, Education 173).
11 For a similar reading of film through the language of psychoanalysis, see Metz.
12 Four major forms of approach stemming from Mulvey are delineated in the Screen
collection: Lacan and male/phallic subjectivity, Lacan and imaginary/split subjectivity,
Freud and primal fantasies, and difference theory. The text nonetheless underlines that
feminist interventions have been present in all areas (3).
13 Here I invoke the distinction Silverman makes in Male Subjectivity at the Margins be-
tween gaze and look. The look is an action laden with power and driven by desire,
while the gaze (like the phallus) remains outside the matrix of desire and calls forth
the Otherness of its object (130).
14 Taubin has cited the use of the term tactility to describe Martels invocation of the
senses in her works (Women 30).

Analyzing the Woman Auteur 175

 15 In an interview with Taubin, Martel mentions that the main reason she chose the
actress Mara Alche to play the role of Amalia was because of her unique eyes, which,
like paintings of saints, always seem to be cast skyward even when looking straight
ahead (Education 173).

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