Focus Delphine Seyrig

International Film Programme

Delphine Seyrig is one of the greatest icons of French and European post-war cinema. The theatre, television, and film actress soon became the muse of many great film auteurs. As her presence in the French public space became more and more prominent through various film and theatre roles, things took a dramatic turn for Delphine Seyrig when she joined the feminist movement, becoming one of the most vocal fighters for women’s rights. Activism was key in shaping her persona and set a strong direction for her career. She was one of the rare actresses who publicly spoke about the problem of the objectification of female bodies and emphasised the subservient representation of actresses in film which is focused on the male gaze and continues to define the work and life of women in this profession. Once silent, aetheric, and sublimely beautiful muse of film d’auteur, Seyrig became an uncompromisingly and “disobediently” loud and free spirit of feminist cinema.

The Focus Delphine Seyrig, Actress film programme highlights her more memorable film roles, while the Disobedient Muses programme is dedicated to the video production of the Les Insoumuses collective, within which Delphine Seyrig, camera in hand, liberated film and the female body from male taste and gaze.

Programme:

Text: Anja Banko. Co-organized by: City of Women, Kinoteka, in cooperation with Centre audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir. Supported by: City of Ljubljana, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Public Administration, French Institute in Slovenia. In the framework of the European project Women on Women co-funded by EU programme Creative Europe.