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University of New Mexico

Temporality, Spatiality and Looking in Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) and Agnès Varda's Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Temporality, Spatiality and Looking in Chantal Akermans Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) and Agnès Varda's Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) examines the ways in which atypical representations of time and space in cinema can alter the spectator's habitual perceptions, particularly regarding the structuring of looks identified by Laura Mulvey in her article 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'. In the present work, I argue that the use of real time in the films Jeanne Dielman and Cléo from 5 to 7 allows these works to create an alternative viewing experience, eliminating the 'male gaze' that dominates Classical Hollywood Cinema in order to create a female oriented look. Both films are able to create Deleuzian time-images: images that are not related to or induced by action, and which subsequently present a pure and direct image of time. The lack of a 'goal-oriented' depiction of time allows the films to avoid the active, controlling male gaze and subsequent identification with the masculine position, ultimately emphasizing the value of representing the female quotidian: a subject frequently ignored in mainstream films.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
French
Level thesis:degree_level
Thesis
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Year
2015

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Pocius, Genevieve
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Putnam, Walter
  • Cheek, Pamela
  • Schröter, Katrin

Subjects

dc:subject × 13

Rights

Language dc:language
English

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:digitalrepository.unm.edu:fll_etds-1009

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of New Mexico
Base URL
digitalrepository.unm.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Pocius, Genevieve. Temporality, Spatiality and Looking in Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) and Agnès Varda's Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962). Thesis thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1928/27950