Jennifer Where Are You (1981)

Jennifer Where Are You is structured by a speechact a constant proleptic call a mans voice which has been edited and recut into a repetitive and pervasive presence The insistence of this male voice which repeats the phrase Jennifer Where are you every 30 seconds parodies the authority conceded to voiceovers in the cinema The voice is patriarchal relentless and runs the entire length of the film Cutaways to a small girl glancing at the camera as she plays with lipstick and matches reapportion the relation between patriarchal phonocentrism and masculine gaze But is this small child subject to either No Not really There she is hiding in plain sightours not hisa purloined subject successfully evading subjugation through response or acquiescence Jennifer whoever she might be a cipher a pseudonymous textual marker of gendered cinematic presence is never apprehended and the film for all of its suspense simply ends