A WOMAN'S TOUCH (US, 1983, Warren Sonbert)

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A WOMAN’S TOUCH demonstrates the evolution of Sonbert's work from an in-camera editing style to the perfection of a montage strategy. The film is also inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s MARNIE (1964), which features a number of motifs; most notably, the color red. In A WOMAN’S TOUCH, the color red is seen throughout much of the film.

STILL: WARREN SONBERT’S A WOMAN’S TOUCH (1983). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.

In addition to his work as a filmmaker, Sonbert was also a noted film critic, and his writings about feature films are among his most profound and insightful creations. As noted by GME President Jon Gartenberg: “[Sonbert] expressed admiration for a pantheon of American directors working within the studio system, including Alfred Hitchcock, Nicholas Ray, and Douglas Sirk. An indication of his enthusiasm for Hitchcock was his reputation for conducting tours for visiting friends, associates, and filmmakers of the locations around San Francisco used by Hitchcock while filming VERTIGO, and for signing his reviews under the pen-name Scotty Ferguson, the so-named protagonist of this renowned film. In 1986, Sonbert gave a lecture at the Pacific Film Archive, in which he spoke of the ‘schizophrenic split’ in MARNIE between ‘images of /en/closure and escape,’ representing the interplay between male domination and female independence. Sonbert paralleled these conceits in his own film, A WOMAN'S TOUCH.”

STILL: WARREN SONBERT’S A WOMAN’S TOUCH (1983). SOURCE: GARTENBERG MEDIA ENTERPRISES.

A WOMAN’S TOUCH is modeled after Alfred Hitchcock’s MARNIE (1964) in which Tippi Hedren is subsumed by the dominating presence in her life of Sean Connery. Sonbert recreates this tension between male domination and female (in)dependence. Men are shown primarily in commanding positions of business, whereas women are shown in more domestic roles. He cuts between these modes of existence, interspersing them with abstract images of flowers, landscapes, lights at night, fireworks, and flows of water (think Stan Brakhage, Marie Menken, and other experimental filmmakers) that provide visual and mental respites. —MoMA

A WOMAN'S TOUCH
(US, 1983)

Director: Warren Sonbert

  • 22 minutes
  • 16mm
  • Color and B&W
  • Silent
Distribution Format/s: DSL/Downloadable 1080p .mp4 file on server

Published By: GME

Institutional Price: $250

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