"Oui, d'autant des chimères!"
The core issue in Olivia, save for Olivia’s love sickness, is that neither Julie nor Cara are particularly careful about how and where they seek love and validation. Both rely on being exalted—we see this play out in their relationships with the girls at the Les Avons.
I wasn’t thrilled when I first heard about Selena: The Series. After all, the 1997 movie starring Jennifer Lopez was adequate and Selena is now on more people’s radar than ever before. More than that, though, Selena’s family never seems to let her rest. Selena is everywhere and that’s thanks, in large part, to her... Continue Reading →
Upon arriving at Les Avons, Olivia is promptly informed that pupils typically fall into two camps: Julistes (those who prefer Julie) and Caristes (those who prefer Cara). Several students make bets about which camp Olivia will fall into, perhaps unaware that she, most of all, shouldn’t have a preference.
Since its restoration and re-release in 2019, Olivia has attracted new eyes, new opinions. Film enthusiasts, eager to whip up a review upon first viewing, have all written of the film’s predatory, unspeakable—and today, incomprehensible—queer love between a boarding school’s headmistress and her sixteen-year-old student.
Olivia. It’s a name that lovers of queer cinema have long heard echoing in the depths of their ears. And for good reason: the velvety voice of Edwige Feuillère is hard to forget. For nearly a century, that voice has elicited in audiences a shiver of the spine, a flutter of the heart, a quiver of the legs. It’s a voice that permeates the 1951 film in which she speaks this name and does to its target much the same as it has done to the countless women (and men, of course) who’ve come to know it.
Shakira’s music has eluded me for the past decade. In fact, the last album of hers that I physically purchased was 2009’s She Wolf, and I did that only as a matter of loyalty. See, I’ve been a Shakira fan since 2001. Well, I’ve called myself a Shakira fan since then. Between 2001 and 2009,... Continue Reading →
A few months ago, a colleague asked me why film is so important to me. Caught off guard by the question, I gave a jumbled response, alluding to the insight one can glean about historical events by the way a film depicts them. I’m not entirely sure why I offered this explanation for my investment... Continue Reading →
It’s likely that few of you have heard of or even seen Bruno Barreto’s Reaching for the Moon. Even less likely is your knowledge of the love affair between American poet Elizabeth Bishop and Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares which is unfortunate because these women were two of the greatest minds of their time.... Continue Reading →
Des Chimères 