52 Films by Women Vol 5. 3. I WAS AT HOME, BUT (Director: Angela Schanelec)
One of the arguments proposed for not venerating women’s cinema more is that (apparently) there are not enough recognised auteurs. These are directors with signature styles that work through a theme over a body of work. Whether it is Alfred Hitchcock’s meditation on male desire, or Steven Spielberg’s yearning for a lost father or Martin Scorsese asking (again and again) whether forgiveness for violent acts and other misdemeanours is possible. The auteur poses the same question in different ways, as if unsatisfied with the answer they got last time around. Art is enquiry and true artists are always curious. If you meet a director who doesn’t ask questions, then how can they possibly answer them on a movie set? With this in mind, I should like to nominate the German writer-producer-editor-director Angela Schanelec as an auteur. Not because I have seen the many other feature films she has made since the 1990s ( Places in Cities , Passing Summer , Marseille , Afternoon and, most r...