Popular Culture Review 32.1
in ( and return to ) is a place of belonging , despite the idea that most such locations are crushingly homogenous . Far from non-places of anonymous and anonymizing power , Marieme and company experience these settings as singular destinations of temporary escape from the “ anthropological non-places ” they inhabit .
Anthropological places are , more colloquially , “ home .” But where Marieme and her peers live , with its shadowed courtyard and aggressive masculine surveillance , is more prison than place of profound identity and belonging . After the energy of the opening sequence , Bande de filles declares itself with bombast ; the “ Néon ” theme by ParaOne blares , and then fades with the image into to a night-time street . With lively , almost raucous chatter , a large group of young women emerges into the light , moving towards the camera in a long-distance shot . They are recognizable as the same people in the previous American football montage . The camera begins to track backwards , keeping pace with them .
Cut to — the group from behind ; the camera tracks to follow them as they mount a short flight of steps . The lively chatter continues for a moment but begins to fade — then it stops abruptly as the group arrives a concrete entrance . Beyond that shadowed but clearly masculine figures at this portal , a lit building is just barely discernible . The architecture and spatial décor here clearly place us with a Parisian cité . The young women ’ s chatter is replaced with masculine murmurs from off-screen . The group carefully files past the first male shadow who is sitting on a second set of steps that lead into a large courtyard , typical of the grands ensembles .
Cut to — the group from ahead . The women now all walk in silence . The camera tracks backward again , keeping pace with their advance . There is a soft set of “ Byes ” ( Salut ) and a
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