Contemporary Women’s Cinema in France:
The Case of Anne Fontaine

Contemporary French filmmaker Anne Fontaine rejects the label “women’s film” that critics frequently apply to her work. However, if the concept of “women’s cinema” is defined according to specific textual and enunciative processes rather than the gender of the filmmaker, it becomes apparent that Fontaine’s dramas are indeed “women’s films.” In particular, Nettoyage à sec (1997) and Nathalie…(2003) exhibit a uniquely feminine aesthetic that breaks with dominant ideology both in terms of content – through the presentation of a self-confident, sexually uninhibited heroine – and in terms of form – through the foregrounding of the act of spectatorship.

Dr. Rachel Ritterbusch joined the Modern Languages faculty at Shepherd University in 2004 after teaching French and German for several years in the St. Louis area. Dr. Ritterbusch received her M.A. from University of Munich in 1993, where she studied not only French but German and Spanish as well. After returning to the U.S., Dr. Ritterbusch pursued doctoral studies in French at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she wrote her dissertation on Marguerite Duras, a prominent 20th-century French author.

Dr. Ritterbusch’s areas of specialization include 19th- and 20th-century French literature, French and Francophone culture, and film studies. She is also interested in the application of second-language acquisition theory to the classroom and has published a study on difficulties experienced by native English speakers learning the German case system. Her recent scholarship focuses on the work of contemporary French women filmmakers such as Anne Fontaine and Lucile Hadzihalilovic.