The Woman Who Powders Herself | |
---|---|
French | La Femme qui se poudre |
Directed by | Patrick Bokanowski |
Written by | Patrick Bokanowski |
Produced by | Patrick Bokanowski |
Starring |
|
Cinematography | Daniel Bard |
Edited by |
|
Music by | Michèle Bokanowski |
Production company | Kira B.M. Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 18 minutes |
Country | France |
Language | French |
The Woman Who Powders Herself (French: La Femme qui se poudre) is a 1972 French black-and-white experimental horror short film written, produced, and directed by Patrick Bokanowski. The short film, which contains no dialogue, follows a cast of masked figures (similar to those of Bokanowski's later 1982 feature film L'Ange) engaging in a series of outlandish acts. [1]
A group of uncanny figures wearing crude, disfigured masks are portrayed occupying themselves with a variety of unconnected tasks, set to an unsettling film score. One of the figures is seen removing pieces of cloth from a well whilst a scarecrow mocks them. Another—the titular character—applies makeup to her "face" as she prepares to go out with an accompanying figure. A figure exits their house and wanders a vast wasteland as an arabesque song plays, encountering an ancient Egyptian style sphinx statue. Two figures accompany each other, one lying on their deathbed. A physical altercation occurs between a gathering of figures at a dinner table.
The short film's original 35 mm print was purchased by the Centre Pompidou in 1993, and is currently stored in Level 4 of its Musée National d'Art Moderne. [2]
The cinema of France comprises the film industry and its film productions, whether made within the nation of France or by French film production companies abroad. It is the oldest and largest precursor of national cinemas in Europe, with primary influence also on the creation of national cinemas in Asia.
The Centre Pompidou, more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou, also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil, and the Marais. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of Richard Rogers, Su Rogers, Renzo Piano, along with Gianfranco Franchini.
A femme fatale, sometimes called a maneater, Mata Hari, or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of literature and art. Her ability to enchant, entice and hypnotize her victim with a spell was in the earliest stories seen as verging on supernatural; hence, the femme fatale today is still often described as having a power akin to an enchantress, seductress, witch, having power over men. Femmes fatales are typically villainous, or at least morally ambiguous, and always associated with a sense of mystification, and unease.
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon was a French actor, film producer, screenwriter, singer, and businessman. Acknowledged as a cultural and cinematic leading man of the 20th century, Delon emerged as one of the foremost European actors of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and became an international sex symbol. He is regarded as one of the most well-known figures of the French cultural landscape. His style, looks, and roles, which made him an international icon, earned him enduring popularity.
Benjamin Vautier, also known mononymously as Ben, was a French visual artist.
Michael James Aleck Snow was a Canadian artist who worked in a range of media including film, installation, sculpture, photography, and music. His best-known films are Wavelength (1967) and La Région Centrale (1971), with the former regarded as a milestone in avant-garde cinema.
Claude Barruck Joseph Lelouch is a French film director, writer, cinematographer, actor and producer. Lelouch grew up in an Algerian Jewish family. He emerged as a prominent director in the 1960s. Lelouch gained critical acclaim for his 1966 romantic melodrama film A Man and A Woman. At the 39th Academy Awards in 1967, A Man and a Woman won Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film. Lelouch was also nominated for Best Director. While his films have gained him international recognition since the 1960s, Lelouch's methods and style of film are known for attracting criticism.
Jean-Marc Dalpé is a Canadian playwright and poet. He is one of the most important figures in Franco-Ontarian literature.
Guillaume Canet is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, and show jumper.
Gérard Fromanger was a French visual artist. A painter who also employed collage, sculpture, photography, cinema, and lithography, he was associated with the French artistic movement of the 1960s and 1970s, called Figuration Narrative, somewhat like pop art. Fromanger was also associated with photorealism.
Xavier Veilhan, is a French artist who works and lives in Paris, France.
Yasmine Leïla Bekhti is a French film and television actress. She is best known for her roles in Tout ce qui brille (2007) and, in 2006, Paris, je t'aime and Sheitan.
Francis Huster is a French stage, film and television actor, director and scriptwriter.
François-Marie Banier is a French novelist, playwright, artist, actor and photographer. His published works include Le Passé Composé (1971) and Balthazar, Fils de Famille (1985).
François Civil is a French actor. He has appeared in both French and English-language productions and is known for his roles in films such as Frank (2014), As Above, So Below (2014), Five (2016), Burn Out (2017), Love at Second Sight (2019), The Wolf's Call (2019), Who You Think I Am (2019), Someone, Somewhere (2019), BAC Nord (2021), for voicing Buzz Lightyear in the French version of the animated film Lightyear (2022), and for playing D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan (2023) and The Three Musketeers: Milady (2023). On television, he has starred in the Disney Channel teen sitcom series Trop la Classe! (2006), in the France 2 comedy-drama series Call My Agent! (2015–17), and in the Netflix comedy miniseries Fiasco (2024).
The Angel is a 1982 French experimental art film directed by Patrick Bokanowski. It was released on DVD for the first time in 2009, edited by the British Animation Awards. The film was shown at Fantasporto during February 1983 and shown to the general public in France on April 4, 1984.
Patrick Bokanowski is a French filmmaker who makes experimental and animated films.
Woman with Black Glove is a painting by the French artist, theorist and writer Albert Gleizes. Painted in 1920, after returning to Paris in the wake of World War I, the paintings highly abstract structure is consistent with style of experimentation that transpired during the second synthetic phase of Cubism, called Crystal Cubism. As other post-wartime works by Gleizes, Woman with Black Glove represents a break from the first phase of Cubism, with emphasis placed on flat surface activity and large overlapping geometric planes.
Kaouther Ben Hania also written Kaouther Ben Henia or Kaouther Benhenia is a Tunisian film director. Her 2017 film Beauty and the Dogs was selected as the Tunisian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards. Her 2020 film The Man Who Sold His Skin was nominated for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards. Her 2024 film Four Daughters was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at 96th Academy Awards.
Barbara Piévic, known professionally as Barbara Pravi, is a French singer and songwriter. After signing with Capitol Music France in 2015, she released five extended plays with the label. She represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song "Voilà", securing second place, the best result for France since 1991. Her debut album On n'enferme pas les oiseaux was released on 27 August 2021.