What can debates about phenomenology, affect and sensuousness contribute to our understanding of cinematic representation? And how can they be brought into dialogue with work on the body and embodiment from feminist, gender and queer studies perspectives? This book explores the various encounters, whether embodied, sensuous or otherwise, offered by depictions of the female body in a range of genres including action cinema, the sports film, the dance film and queer cinema. It challenges the universal (white, male and able) body around which much scholarship about affect in film and media studies is based, and unpacks the corporeal dimensions of cinema. Readers will understand popular films such as Resident Evil, Million Dollar Baby, Pina and Water Lilies in new ways, gaining a fresh perspective on difference in film."