Routledge Advances in Film Studies

1. Nation and Identity in the New German Cinema Homeless at Home Inga Scharf 2. Lesbianism, Cinema, Space The Sexual Life of Apartments Lee Wallace

Forthcoming:

Post-War Italian Cinema Daniela Treveri Gennari

Lesbianism, Cinema, Space
The Sexual Life of Apartments

Lee Wallace

New York

London

First published 2009 by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. "To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge's collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk." Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2009 Taylor & Francis All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Wallace, Lee, 1962- Lesbianism, cinema, space : the sexual life of apartments / by Lee Wallace. - 1st ed. p. cm. - (Routledge advances in film studies ; 2) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-415-99243-5 1. Lesbianism in motion pictures. 2. Lesbians in motion pictures. 3. Apartments in motion pictures. I. Title. PN1995.9.L48W35 2008 791.43'653-dc22 2008020789 ISBN 0-203-88782-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0-415-99243-5 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-203-88782-4 (ebk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-99243-5 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-88782-0 (ebk)

For Annamarie

Contents

Acknowledgments 1 2 Introduction: The Lesbian Chronotope Lesbian Representation and Cinematic Space: The Children's Hour The Lesbian Set: The Killing of Sister George The Lesbian Mise-en-Scène: The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant The Lesbian Location: Single White Female The Lesbian Edit: Bound The Lesbian Diegesis: Mulholland Drive Conclusion: The Sexual Life of Apartments

ix 1

13 32

3 4

48 66 81 99 117 139 185 197

5 6 7 8

Notes Bibliography Index

Acknowledgments

An unanticipated corollary of writing about sexual publicity and sexual privacy is that I feel strangely enabled to thank people for things that usually go unrecognized in academic circles. Perhaps part of this shamelessness is due to the minor scandal that surrounded the public funding of the wider project of which this book forms a part. I would like to say that along with my collaborators, Annamarie Jagose and Barry Reay, I was briefly thrown into the twisted circuits of public debate that surrounded the Royal Society of New Zealand's Marsden Fund giving half a million dollars of taxpayers' money to investigate sexual acts and sexual identities but it would not be true. The truth is much crueller. Barry and I were completely overlooked as media attack centered on Annamarie's research into orgasm, a topic about which even Prime Minister Helen Clark was asked her opinion. First thanks are therefore due Deputy Vice-Chancellor Raewyn Dalziel who, on the day the Marsden news broke, thought to ring and offer her support to Barry and me as if our respective research on heterosexuality and space were as patently worthless as Annamarie's. I really appreciated the gesture. Second thanks go to Athina Tsoulis, who stood by Barry and me as the difficult week wore on and still the shafts of public scorn showed no sign of landing anywhere near. Third thanks go to Barry's Dad, who at the time was lying in Auckland Hospital on what everyone thought was his deathbed but whose multiple lifelines included talkback radio so that whenever his son joined him he could say, "They mentioned that woman again. They didn't mention you," thereby bringing new meaning to the phrase gay shame. Lest the Marsden Fund and its appointed agents Don Smith and Lydia Wevers get all the blame for the abuse of public monies this project represents, I feel duty bound to mention those other institutional boards and committees who have supported it since its inception. A full public inquiry should commence looking into the dealings of former Vice-Chancellor John Hood, whose newly established University Development Fund awarded a generous seed grant in 2000, and the University of Auckland Research Committee, which awarded further grants in 2001, 2002, and 2003. Further errors of judgement were concentrated in the Faculty of Arts,