A SUMMER IN LA GOULETTE

Ferid Boughedir1996

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. This film, like Silences of the Palace is structured around the gaze. How does the gaze function in this film? In what ways is it similar to or different from the gaze in Silences of the Palace?

2. The film’s narration involves multiple points of view, both male and female. Does this mean that the film does or does not have a gendered gaze (the male gaze)? Why? What in the film supports your view?

3. The film is in many ways a meditation on identity in general and Tunisian identity in particular. What does the film have to say about each of these? When “things fall apart” at the end of the film, what does that say about both identity in general and Tunisian identity in particular? What role do “outside” influences play in this “falling apart?”

CONTEXT A retrospective look at Tunisia just after (10 years after) independence Use of “Africanized” film aesthetics In part based on Boughedir’s own childhood (he is from La Goulette) Looks at relations among Christians, Jews, and Muslims before the “split” of 1967; contemplates cause of that split Sees Tunisia as a multicultural space connected to both the Arab and the Western World

SETTING

HISTORICAL SETTING Post-independence Tunisia Multiethnic Area that is still intact post-independence Working Class Homes (main characters are neighbors) Beach (space of mixing, socializing) Café Train

THE ARAB (MUSLIM) WORLD VS. THE WESTERN (AMERICANIZED) WORLD

MODERN SEARCH FOR IDENTITY AMONG COMPETING POSSIBILITIES Girls in the film find themselves between conflicting models of identity; they wish to choose, but the society is unwilling to allow this We see conflicts among familial and cultural identities (which are all traditional and patriarchal) as well as those identities proposed from abroad (by cinema for example) Tunisian identity is composed of fusion of multiple identities, and in the past this was successful However, in the modern / post-modern era new external influences have disrupted this balance

LOSS OF INNOCENCE

SEXUAL LIBERATION INTERTWINED WITH NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE We see Tunisia in a moment of post-independent optimism that is fleeting

Girls’ attempts to take control of their destiny is thwarted / similarly Tunisia’s attempt to control its destiny is thwarted

Both failures are tied to male, patriarchal authority, according to the film

The film is inherently nostalgic, looking back at a time and place that does not exist any longer and reflecting on what “might have been”

AESTHETIC REVOLUTION IN PLACE OF POLITICAL OR SEXUAL ONE

CINEMA AS REVOLUTIONARY SPACE Intertwining of Claudia Cardinale is pointer to power of cinema but also disrupts the fictive world of the film (anachronistic—disrupts film’s chronotope) Highlights other “revolutionary” elements of film—longer shots, non-standard editing and sequencing, lacking of North African exotic iconography

SOUNDS VS. IMAGES

THEMES Failures of Independence Legitimacy or Illegitimacy of Patriarchal Authority Problem of Identity for Newly Independent, Formerly Colonized Nations

Place of Women in Modern, Arab World Corruption of Ruling Elites (Double Hadj) Nostalgia Unfulfilled Desire (for Independence, Revolution) Rise of Tensions Between Arabs and Jews in Arab World