Ru
EnA. Komarova
Audiovisual design of women’s cinema: towards the statement of a problem
The article focuses on problems of the audiovisual design of women’s cinema. Central to the discussion are the methods of representing female characters in the 20th- and 21st-century film art through sound and visual means. The phenomenon of women’s cinema is examined as a distinct area within both auteur and genre filmmaking. The study identifies various audiovisual strategies for creating female images and explores the transformation of the traditional male gaze (term by L. Mulvey). Particular attention is paid to the musical interpretation of the universal “heroine’s journey”, reflecting the stages of transformation of female identity.
The research considers films from European auteur cinema, Hollywood franchises, and post-horror, as well as classic animation. The analyzed works include Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) by A. Varda, The Substance (2024) by C. Fargeat, Poor Things (2023) by Y. Lanthimos, Mother! (2017) by D. Aronofsky, and Disney’s classic animated film Cinderella (1950). It is emphasized that sound and music in these films perform both structural and semantic functions. The study notes that film music in women’s cinema follows historically established principles of spatial-temporal arts and relies on the dichotomy of masculine/feminine thematic material, borrowed from operatic-symphonic dramaturgy and the general laws of drama. For instance, the principle of continuous, intense development of the main hero and heroine’s images (and their respective musical themes) resembles continuous musical development, the so-called “dynamic coupling” (term by Yu. Tyulin). In traditional cinematic genres, this is typically expressed through the classical juxtaposition of two figurative-thematic spheres – conditional heroics and lyricism – the relationship between which can range from slight differences to stark antagonistic contrast.
Key words
women’s cinema, audiovisual analysis, feministic interpretations, “heroine’s journey”, male gaze theory, film music.
For citation
Komarova A. Audiovisual design of women’s cinema: towards the statement of a problem. In: South-Russian Musical Anthology. 2025. No. 3. Pp. 120–126.
