![\"amiens\"](\"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/smilingmadamebeudet\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2015\/11\/amiens-1024x660.jpg\")
<\/a>An early exposure to the arts would continue to influence Dulac\u2019s own artistic career. She held a deep respect for medieval religious works and\u00a0their use of light to reinforce divinity. On the other end of chronology, paintings like the ones produced by Picasso during his blue period would also influence her use of monochromatic tones in films like The Smiling Madame Beudet<\/em>. Furthermore, her interest in photography would jumpstart her film career, especially since\u00a0she was at the right age to catch these advancements in technology, as she was 12 when the Lumiere Brothers held their first exhibition. Perhaps most importantly to Dulac, she\u00a0had a passion for music, which would later turn into the concept of cinema as \u201cmusic for the eyes.\u201d The emphasis on this musical theme is clearly reflected in Madame Beudet\u2019s use of the piano as respite from her husband. [6]<\/a><\/p>\n \n Between 1901 and 1906, Dulac worked in feminist journalism, which would\u00a0impact her future politics and filmmaking. It was particularly important to Dulac to help the poor, working class, and women in her work, which was further intensified by her marriage to Albert Dulac, who held tolerance and social equality as personal priorities. However, her marriage to Albert, while beneficial for\u00a0her political senses, was characterized by coolness and mutual respect.\u00a0Moreover, Dulac’s conservative religious education sharply contrasted with her gender politics and strong belief of gender as a social construction. From 1906 to 1913, Dulac became involved in the association and journal\u00a0La Fran\u00e7aise,\u00a0<\/em>where she worked as an activist, journalist, and theater critic. The political views of Germaine Dulac, especially with regards to feminism, are illustrated in\u00a0The Smiling Madame Beudet\u00a0<\/em>through Madame Beudet’s independence. [6]<\/a><\/p>\n \n \n As is the case with all individuals worthy of regard and reflection, Germaine Dulac\u2019s early professional life had a profound effect on her later pursuit of experimental motion and form in cinema. Witnessing dancer Lo\u00efe Fuller perform at a very young age assisted in provoking the revolutionary view of cinema that Dulac would continue to elucidate and define as she grew older. As an experimental female filmmaker, Dulac\u2019s work is necessarily in conversation with the patriarchal milieu of her era. Her oeuvre frequently takes issue with the chauvinist avant-garde aesthetic doctrines specific to that time period \u2013 by apposing narrativity and non-narrativity, as well as offering her audience apperception alongside critical separation. [2]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n First a student of music \u2013 then a journalist and a film theorist \u2013 this rather eccentric woman was an exemplary feminist figure even before she directed her first film in 1916. The historical disregard, and subsequent rediscovery, of Dulac\u2019s contribution to the cinematic canon is concomitant with her gender. Therefore \u2013 in any discussion of the director \u2013 her role as a young radical feminist in the filmmaking culture of 1920\u2019s France should be duly noted. [4]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \n An American\u00a0newspaper article<\/a>\u00a0from 1920 describes Dulac as \u201ca woman who boldly throws over the routine of a fashionable Parisienne\u2019s life\u2026to give herself over to serious commercial work with all the responsibilities it entails<\/em>.\u201d In her own time, Dulac was indeed recognized as an important filmmaker, and her unique place as a woman in film was not overlooked. However, the article goes on to state, \u201cAt first the fact of a woman entering the ranks made the other members smile; but now competition is keen, and the lady director is quietly and surely pushing the men into the background<\/em>.\u201d The sexism of the 1920s is clear in this quotation, though the attitude towards the \u201clady director\u201d changed as her work came to the forefront of French filmmaking. [3]<\/a><\/p>\n Catie DeWitt and Anne Rainey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Early Life & Artistic Influences Dulac was born in 1882 in Amiens, France, where her\u00a0difficult childhood ultimately helped to\u00a0shape\u00a0the views that she would later carry out as an adult. With her younger sister’s death and her mother’s depression, Dulac\u2019s home life in Amiens was unstable, resulting in her spending a large amount of time with … <\/p>\n
\nPolitics<\/h2>\n
\nProfessional Life<\/h2>\n
![\"American](\"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/smilingmadamebeudet\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2015\/11\/loie-fuller-1024x707.jpg\")
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\nA First Hand Account: What Did Dulac’s Contemporaries Think?<\/h2>\n