ABSTRACT

The author examines the mise en scène of performance in Barbara (Mathieu Amalric, 2017) in the context of the problematic yet pervasive cultural re-inscription of the musical biopic in French cinema, and its remediation of the traditions of chanson française and variété through the body of the female performer. Featuring Jeanne Balibar as ‘Brigitte’, an actress playing the eponymous singer-composer, Barbara unfolds as a ‘film-about-filmmaking’ that presents the iconic Barbara as a hypothesis. The article looks at performance in terms of approximation rather than imitation and considers the ways in which the film extends its investigation on the chanteuse to the spectator-in-the-text played by Amalric himself. As a biopic, Barbara stands against the fetishisation of the absent (i.e. dead) performer. Instead, it engages with the rhetorical authenticity that makes for the basis of the genre by producing the female performer’s presence as cinematic event. Furthermore, the article discusses the connection between performer and spectator through affective intimacy and redefines the space of performance as a nomadic cinematic form, which hypothesises a postnational cinematic aesthetic that weakens the alignment of the female musical performer with the Frenchness of the biopic.

摘要

作者在法国电影中音乐传记片存在问题但普遍存在的文化重新铭记的背景下审视了芭芭拉（ Mathieu Amalric，2017 年）的表演场景，并通过女表演者的身体。芭芭拉以珍妮·巴利巴尔 (Jeanne Balibar) 饰演“布丽吉特(Brigitte)”，扮演同名歌手兼作曲家，作为一部“关于电影制作的电影”展开，将标志性的芭芭拉作为假设呈现。这篇文章从近似而不是模仿的角度来看待表演，并考虑了电影扩展其对表演的调查的方式。由阿马尔里克本人扮演的文本旁观者的女歌手。作为一部传记片，芭芭拉反对对缺席（即死亡）表演者的迷恋。取而代之的是，它通过将女性表演者的出现作为电影事件来处理构成该类型基础的修辞真实性。此外，文章通过情感亲密关系讨论了表演者和观众之间的联系，并将表演空间重新定义为一种游牧电影形式，它假设了一种后民族电影美学，它削弱了女性音乐表演者与传记片法国性的一致性。