ABSTRACT
The way actresses are deployed in the cinema is the result of industrial and cultural constraints. Although there have been a few exceptions, actresses’ autonomy has usually been limited. They may choose their roles, but the way they nuance them by body language, gaze pattern and voice timbre is often subject to others’ control. Both male and female roles in film are determined by the prevailing agency within the industry. In the 1930s and 1940s, the producer operated as the ultimate determinant of the way actors and actresses functioned in film texts. In the 1950s, it was the distribution company; in the 1960s, the director. In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, it was an unpredictable mélange of different types of agency.
