Abstract
This chapter examines the use of two specific musical functions –the leitmotif and narrative cueing-- in a range of contemporary French ‘heritage’ films: Camille Claudel (music by Gabriel Yared), Le Hussard sur le toit (Jean-Claude Petit), Lucie Aubrac (Philippe Sarde), Artemisia (Krishna Levy), and Saint-Cyr (John Cale). These films are chosen because they ostensibly celebrate female agency. But the analysis of the soundtrack shows that the musical functions undermine the agency that the narrative appears to give the female protagonists, even, surprisingly, in those films directed by women.