Spaces of Critique & Transformation in Bande de filles
ematic practices to transform them , mirroring the evolution of the movie ’ s protagonist . Of particular interest is what Sciamma places before the camera as well as the way she employs cinematography to examine it closely , frame it , and associate ideas . To begin this analysis , it is necessary to more closely examine anthropologist Marc Augé ’ s definition of a “ nonplace ” and its implications . For Augé , among the most significant attributes of contemporary urban life are anonymous , undifferentiated and homogenizing locations like hotels chains , metro stops and supermarkets , all of which are characterized by a dominance of wordless communication and commerce unmediated by personal interaction ( Non-places 78 ). Non-places in Bande de filles can be empirical , ironic , or anthropological , and it is this latter , paradoxical category that illustrates the “ visible rules ” of masculinist surveillance in the film ’ s dysphoric milieu . Three characters embody this surveillance and domination : Marieme ’ s brother , Djibril ; her love-interest , Ismaël ; and her drug-dealing boss , Abou .
Yet even the rigid , violent “ proper ” of a non-place is malleable . Close-ups , shallow-focus long shots , hors-champs , and tracking shots can transform a super-determined place into any-space-whatever , which philosopher Gilles Deleuze defines as a “ perfectly singular space , which has simply lost its homogeneity , that is , the principle of its metric relations or the connection of its proper parts , so that the linkages may be made in an infinite number of ways . It is a space of virtual conjunction , grasped as pure site of the possible ” ( 109 ). The fade-to-black transitions that punctuate and organize Bande de filles ’ narrative are the film ’ s quintessential embodiment of this notion , codifying a grammar of transformation that destabilizes the masculinist “ proper ” of non-places and illustrates Marieme ’ s burgeoning agency and evolving sense of self .
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