Skip to content
1981
Haunted Terrains and Critical Topographies: Rethinking the Production of Space
  • ISSN: 2050-9790
  • E-ISSN: 2050-9804

Abstract

Whereas the contours of the kitchen are location–time–culture specific, the kitchen stands as a universal signifier. However, the kitchen manifests diversely across geographies, and its programmatic aesthetics, logics and representation can be read heterogeneously. Dividing the short-article into two parts, namely, the kitchen in the camera and the camera in the kitchen, the article will try to read the leitmotifs of food, filth and fornication in Chantal Akerman’s 1975 film and Jeo Baby’s 2021 film , that both thematically and formalistically converse with each other. The techniques of camera movement and stasis not only trace the architectural implications of the kitchens but also teach, by way of comparison, the ethical innovations of ‘capturing’ and archiving the gendered subject in the space of the kitchen.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jucs_00103_1
2025-11-29
2026-04-17

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Akerman, Chantal (1975), Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, France: Paradise Films.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Akerman, Chantal (2004), Chantal Akerman: Self-Portrait as a Filmmaker, Paris: CAH CINEMA.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Baby, Jeo (2021), The Great Indian Kitchen, India: Mankind Cinemas, Symmetry Cinemas and Cinema Cooks.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Baschiera, Stefano and De Rosa, Miriam (2020), Film and Domestic Space: Architectures, Representations, Dispositif, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. De Certeau, Michel, Giard, Luce and Mayol, Pierre (1994), The Practice of Everyday Life: Living & Cooking, vol. 2 (trans. T. J. Tomasik), Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Elsaesser, Thomas (1991), ‘Tales of sound and fury: Observations on the family melodrama’, in M. Landy (ed.), Imitations of Life, Detroit, MI: Wayne Street University Press, pp. 6891.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Ghaywan, Neeraj (2017), Juice, India: Royal Stag Select Short Films.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Mulvey, Laura (2016), ‘A neon sign, A soup tureen: The Jeanne Dielman universe’, Film Quarterly, 70:1, pp. 2531, https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2016.70.1.25.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Radinger Field, Louise (2024), Women and Home in Cinema: Form, Feeling, Practice, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jucs_00103_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): affect; cinematography; domestic; ethics; invisible; labour/movement; melodrama
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test