ABSTRACT
In the early to mid-1980s, a hybrid subgenre of the woman’s film and the lesbian drama flourished briefly in the United States and Western Europe: the mainstream femme film. 1 Merging female friendship and lesbian sexuality in a skillful cinematic adaptation of what Adrienne Rich has called the “lesbian continuum,” these films managed to be popular with heterosexual and lesbian and gay audiences alike. 2 Personal Best (Robert Towne, 1982), Lianna (John Sayles, 1983), Entre Nous (Diane Kurys, 1983), and Desert Hearts (Donna Deitch, 1986) all feature lesbians and straight female characters who, on the whole, are femmes rather than butches. Heterosexuals threatened and/or titillated by lesbianism could reassure themselves that the female characters on the screen were “just friends” and/or find voyeuristic satisfaction in watching two beautiful women together. Lesbians too could take pleasure in looking at, and fantasizing about, female characters they saw as lovers, not just as friends.
