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Women's Studies

for more films on Women's Studies / Body Image

Gracious Curves

A film by Kiti Luostarinen

This multi-festival film is a provocative cinematic journey about women, their bodies and aging. It brings into focus the current worship of youth and reflects on women’s willingness to refashion themselves to achieve the perfect body.

The filmmaker starts with a rumination on her own body and her love/hate relationship to its middle aged imperfections. In her mother’s generation, wrinkles, veins and sagging breasts were accepted as a symbol of a lifetime of childbirth and child rearing. Health and usefulness was what that generation expected of their bodies. Now, with the tools of the plastic surgeon, no deviation from the norm is tolerated.

Filmed in Scandinavia, it shows nude women of all ages and sizes enjoying a summer’s day by a lake. The naturalness of the setting and their apparent lack of self consciousness frees the viewer to appreciate and accept the variety of womanly shapes.

52 min. Video or DVD. Sale $295. Video rental $75.

Margaret Mead Film Festival, 1998
Berlin Film Festival, 1997
Film de Femmes, Creteil, 1997
Amsterdam Film Festival, 1997

"Should reassure any viewer that her own body shape is quite acceptable." Library Journal

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