#wilhelmian period drama

[vikkicomics]

Introduction/ Blurb for Moth.

[la-cocotte-de-paris]

@thatcreepyplacewithallthecrows

[I’m responding in a reblog because I will probably not have enough space to explain in just the reply feature because I WILL ramble (so I totally understand if you just don’t wish to read all this ahahaha -_-””)]

it's a 1951 film adaptation of a novel of the same name. Dorothy Strachey wrote the original novel and Jacqueline Audry directed the film! It's a period drama which tells of how a girl is sent to France to finish her education and she falls in love with one of the headmistresses. But there’s way more going on in the plot (including the fact that the two headmistresses running the school were in a relationship). A bit like the German Mädchen in Uniform but without the authoritarian Wilhelmian school setting, I suppose. But it was one of the first major representations of wlw in French cinema and on top of that, the audience is allowed to decide for themselves whether they approve or disapprove of certain relationships (given some are fine and others evidently problematic for various reasons), but none of the characters are demonised or mocked, which is pretty rare to see in a film from the ‘50s which had LGBTQIA+ representation. 

And then in addition to all that, Jacqueline Audry was one of the few female directors around at the time (and a queer woman, at that!), and the entire leading cast was female. Like there is practically zero male presence in entire film, which, again, super rare for back then. And there’s no objectification of any of the cast either -- all quite female gaze rather than the usual male gaze one would expect to see in films of that era (and now). 

I’m sure I’m forgetting things but that’s it somewhat summarised, anyway, haha! :P 

So I chose to speak about that for a presentation for French class last semester.

I miss the rush of serotonin I got when learning about the French Revolution for the 14th time but for actual French class

[vikkicomics]

Wilhelmian and Meiji period sketches. Concept art for Moth.