Popular Culture Review 32.1
between the character and the audience , bringing us into the bonding experience of the hotel room . In their framing and composition , all of these moments abstract their subject from her surroundings . The emotional affect often overpowers a clear sense of space and time . Where is Marieme ? Who is she talking to ? Why is Lady suddenly bathed in blue ? What does her intense stare mean ? Where is this place ? Where are the other girls ? No longer grounded in a clear place and time , anything could happen .
However , the close-up is not the only way to construct any-space-whatever ; indeed , it can be seen in the shadows of German expressionism , the lyrical abstraction of Dreyer , Bresson , and Hitchock , and the riotous color of Varda or Antonini — wherever film form decontextualizes space itself , disrupting conventional human vision and logic ( Rizzo 76 ). Sciamma achieves this effect with shallow-focus long shots and careful framing . The very first image of the film is a disorienting one — a blurred riot of gold , black and red as amorphous forms bound slowly towards the camera . It takes a few moments for these forms to become clear : players of American football in full uniforms and gear . ( Here , a sense of spatial disorientation gives way to a cultural one . Isn ’ t this a French film ?) A little more than halfway through the movie , after a cut-to-black transition , the screen is filled by a blurred field of white with soft specks of color ; slowly , the camera tracks left to reveal Marieme , and then the bande , and then even more young women , all of whom seem to be having a wonderful time . It is only when the film cuts to a very long shot of the courtyard around La Défense that the location and situation of this scene becomes clear . Until that moment , again , anything is possible .
The very last scene of the film makes particularly powerful use of this technique . Marieme has walked away from the en-
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