The kitchen and the camera: The 3Fs in Jeanne Dielman and The Great Indian Kitchen

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 film Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles and film The Great Indian Kitchen , 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.