Press Release - 29 October 2004
Screen debut for a forgotten heroine
A film about Claude Cahun, one of photography's unsung heroines, is to be
screened this month in the United States and in Jersey, where the artist lived
during the Nazi Occupation.
"Playing A Part" will show on 12 November at the Intersexions Conference at the
City University NY, New York, and at the Jersey Arts Centre on 30 November.
Film-maker Lizzie Thynne, who also lectures at the University of Sussex,
examines the life and work of Claude Cahun (real name Lucy Schwob, born 1894,
died 1954) - rebel, lesbian, Jew and one of the greatest, yet barely
recognised, photographers of the 20th century.
The film, part documentary, part artistic exploration, features archive film
footage, Cahun's own words and images, including her love letters, and
interviews with key critics and contemporaries from her days on occupied
Jersey. Lea Anderson, founder of leading contemporary dance group The
Cholmondeleys, also collaborated on the work, choreographing the movement
sequences.
Cahun's colourful life was as breathtaking as her photography. Born into a
literary French family, she fell in love with her stepsister, Suzanne Malherbe,
occupied Jersey and narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Nazis. It is
only recently that her life and startlingly modern work have been widely
celebrated. Only 300 of her images survived the war and, but for the interest
of a few dealers, her work and life would have been lost to posterity.
Depicted in one self-portrait as a cross-dressing female dandy with a shaved
head and androgynous clothes, decades before it was fashionable, Cahun defied
and challenged accepted views of men and women, even those of the avant-garde
Surrealists. She also offered a striking alternative to the blonde glamour of
the more famous photographer Lee Miller, another Surrealist contemporary. Her
son, Antony Penrose, appears in the film, playing his own father, Sir Roland
Penrose, in scenes shot at the family home, Farley Farm in Chiddingly, East
Sussex.
Lizzie Thynne has worked as a documentary maker for, among others, Channel 4.
Lea Anderson, a fan of Cahun's work, counts the 1998 film Velvet Goldmine,
starring Ewan McGregor, among her many distinguished credits. Some of the
film's scenes are based on Cahun's photographs, many of which are incredibly
modern-looking self-portraits.
The film, funded by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board, will
also be showing at festivals during the coming year. Thynne says: "This is an
ambitious and experimental piece, but there is a narrative element to it too,
because Cahun's life was so extraordinary. The aim of this film is to record an
almost forgotten woman artist's achievements, her life-long partnership and her
remarkable bravery and independence."
Notes for Editors
http://www.thisisjersey.com/art/heritage/claudecahun.html
http://www.thecholmondeleys.org
Press Office: Maggie Clune or Jacqui Bealing.
Tel: 01273 678 888
M.T.Clune@sussex.ac.uk or J.A.Bealing@sussex.ac.uk
Website: http://www.sussex.ac.uk
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