I enjoyed all of my fellow classmates' final presentations, but the topic I enjoyed thinking about the most was the one that Michael Adams presented. He argued that for in order for a woman to be taken seriously, she must be seen as a man. The film he discussed in class was G.I. Jane, but I thought of a few other films that show prime examples of woman trading their feminosity for masuclinity. Though I have not personally seen it, I know the Hilary Swank movie Boys Don't Cry features around a girl cross dressing to get close to the girl she likes. Also, films such as Disney's Mulan and Victor Victoria with Julie Andrews feature women struggling with their desire to be more masculine.
Also, Michael showed the class a link to a website devoted to the male gaze, so I thought I would put it up on my blog to share with others.
I have been thinking about doing my final paper topic in my women's film class on indie romance films. I have chosen to link three movies together that have similar themes. I am going to start out with Garden State and discuss Natalie Portman's "manic pixie dream girl" character, and from there tie in Paris, Je T'Aime,which features Portman in one of the shorts (the movie is a series of short films about finding love in Paris). From there, I was going to talk about Amelie with Audrey Tautou. I thought Paris, Je T'Aime would bridge Garden State and Amelie together, since Paris features Natalie Portman along with Garden State and Amelie is a French film like Paris and all three of them sort of deal with the standards of the "dream girl" and finding love in unexpected places, not to mention they all have an indie vibe to them.
After reading Destin Hick's blog entry entitled "Stay Alive and the Elizabeth Bathory Myth", I felt compelled to write this week's response on the 1965 Roman Polanski psychological thriller, Repulsion. In the film, a young and beautiful girl named Carole, played by Catherine Deneuve, is distraught when left alone by her sister, who leaves for vacation with her boyfriend Michael. Carole is repulsed by the fact that Michael has been basically living with her sister, Helen, and tried to throw his razor and toothbrush away more than once.
Carole obviously has some issues. She has fantasies (which I interpreted as sexual, and the tagline for the movie seems to confirm that) in which unknown male intruders rape her in the night and hands with no bodies grab through the walls at her arms, legs, and breasts. She often awakes from these fantasies on the floor naked outside her room. She seems tortured by the fact she can hear her sister getting screwed every night through the walls of her bedroom. I feel that she is both jealous and repulsed by these sounds, as it is her sister that is making the sounds (Wouldn't you feel weird hearing your sister have sex?) and she is jealous because she wants someone to screw her, too. However, she does seem very genuinely repulsed by men and never seems to act on her sexual desires in reality. For example, a kind boy named Colin falls in love with her and kisses her, only to have her run away to wash her mouth out. Later, he visits her to profess his feelings, only to have his head bashed in by a candlestick.
However, the audience has to wonder if something sinister occured to cause Carole to have such psychosis. We do see a scene in which the landlord attempts to rape Carole while trying to collect rent (he is slashed to death by Michael's razor) and at the film's close, a close-up of an old family photo shows Carole glaring at a man standing beside her. Who is this man? Is it her father? Why is she staring at him with such an awful gaze? Did he molest her? Rape her? There are many unanswered questions to that regard, but she is very afraid to be without her sister and seems very over protective of her, so the audience is given some clues that perhaps something very traumatic happened to Carole as a child.
Carole's descent into deep insanity is portrayed very nicely by Polanski. Her life is an utter state of repulsion. She is repulsed by her sister's sex sounds, the old ladies at the beauty parlor where she works (one of which she stabs in the finger whilst giving a manicure), men in general (an old lady makes a remark about how men only want one thing and will do anything to get it, and it seems to have some affect on Carole, as the camera does a close-up of the woman's mouth as she is speaking those words). She leaves out a killed rabbit her sister was going to cook for dinner but never did, letting the body rot openly while she keeps its severed head in her purse. After she kills the two men, she puts Colin's body in a bathtub full of water and leaves the landlord under the couch; both corpses rotting openly. Strangly, she seems at home around the rotting corpses, and begins acting normally after killing (after she kills and hides Colin, she is shown sewing and humming in a care-free manner). She also begins missing work for days at a time and sees hallucinations such as cracks in the walls and the sexual ones as mentioned before. By the tme her sister reurns and the film ends, Carole is found in a catatonic state under her sister's bed. Her sister is frightened and repulsed at her sister and her acts.
I think Polanski did a great job with this film, and I like how he added sound effects such as dripping water in moments of psychosis. I also like how he added a ringing phone or some other distraction to show the seemingly strained relationship between Carole and her sister, amongst other things. I recommend this film to anyone who likes a good psychological thriller/1960s film.
(Above is a video I came across over the summer of screen tests from several actresss and actors auditioning for various roles. It's very interesting to see all the choices for Scarlett. Even though none of the other women hold a candle to Vivien Leigh, I think that Paulette Goddard was a good second place. I've always loved Gone with the Wind and Vivien Leigh, so I thought this was a great find!)
For every gerneration that has existed since the birth of cinema, there has been a woman in film that shows great independence and courage. Possibly one of the greatest examples of one of these brave women is that of Scarlett O'Hara from the 1939 film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's bomebshell of a novel, Gone With the Wind. Seemly only a petite and gorgeous Southern Belle, she is really a shrewd business woman who is out for her own success and security. Even though most audiences today view Scarlett's story with an air of nonchalance, for the time the film was made, and not to mention and the time period it was set, a woman of her character would have been viewed as very risque and shocking. Even though she is shackled by the constraints of 19th century Antebellum society, Scarlett O'Hara still does all she can to gain and maintain wealth, social standing, and love, all while staying fiercely independent, intelligent, and beautiful. From the get-go, film viewers see that Scarlett O'Hara is not like all the other Southern Belles, who are quiet, demure and ladylike. Scarlett is flirty, stubborn and independent. In the opening scene, the audience sees a young and flirtatous Scarlett, played by the ravashing Vivien Leigh, toying with the hearts of the Tartan brothers and joking about talks of war "spoiling every party this spring". However, her face drops and a close-up ensues at the mention of Ashley Wilkes getting married to his "mealy-mouthed" cousin, Melanie. Scarlett is secretly in love with Ashley, and makes attempts throughout the whole film to win his heart with no success. Since her love and desire lie with Ashley, she seems capable of marrying anyone who will aid in her gain or advancement. For instance, she marries Charles Hamilton, who had been the beau of India Wilkes, only to get back at Ashley for marrying Melanie and after the war. She later marries Frank Kennedy to save Tara after Yankee carpetbaggers raise the taxes on Tara and Rhett Butler, who had been a successful blockade runner and gambler during the war, is unable to help her financially.
After their marriage, Scarlett seems to take control of Frank's business, which would have been unheard of in the 1860s. She encourages Frank to expand his lumber business and wants to include Ashley under the illusion that she needs help running the business, but most film viewers can see that she really just wants to keep him nearby. While it may appear that the men own the business, it is clear that Scarlett runs it. There are scenes of her going over books and inspecting convicts for her the business's labor force. When Frank pleads with her to relenquish her controlling air for sake of social norms, she refuses. She swore she would never go hungry again and she meant it.
During and after the war, Scarlett shows great strength, independence, and stubornness. She moves to Atlanta at the urging of her mother to live with Aunt Pitty Pat after Charles's death of measles and pneumonia whilst serving in the Confederate army. In a daring and risque move, Scarlett accepts Rhett Butler's bid to dance at a charity ball for the Confederate even though she is a widow, which was another act that would have made her seem very bold and uncivilized given her upbringing. Rhett, whom Scarlett first met at Twleve Oaks, is a notorious cad. However, he fancies Scarlett and knows one day she will fancy him. He knows they are "alike. Bad lots, both of us. Selfish and shrewd, but able to look things in the eyes as we call them by their right names". Eventually, Scarlett does marry Rhett, but initially it was only for money and security. However, the two have a daughter, Bonnie. As with many other cases of independent women, Scarlett seems to be punished by the death of Bonnie, who dies while jumping her horse, much like Scarlett's father some years earlier. She is also punished when she finally realizes she loves Rhett, who winds up leaving her shortly after her epiphany. Scarlett's story, as well as many others from films at the time, seem to subliminally suggest to women viewers that they would have to pick between an independent live and career or love and family and that it is impossible to have both. Even though Scarlett struggled through war and hardship, it is evident that fate never destined her to be fully happy.
After the war comes to Atlanta, Scarlett knows she must leave with a feeble Melanie and her newborn baby or face the wrath of the Yankees. Scarlett is exhaused by this point. She has just quit her job as a nurse due to the horrific sights, sounds, and smells of decaying men, and she has basically single-handedly devivered Melanie's baby, which is no easy task for anyone, let alone a wealthy and spoiled girl of plantation-wealth and status. Rhett, who has decided to join the army, leaves her with a buggy and a sorry horse to take them back to Tara. She then travels by horse and buggy with a house slave (Prissy), Melanie and her newborn baby over war-ravished countryside to return back to Tara and Scarlett's family when the Yankees march though Atlanta. Fianlly arriving to Tara, she finds her mother dead, her father crazy from the strain, most of the slaves gone (save Mammy and Pork) and her family impoverished and starving.
Shortly after the war's end, her father dies trying to junp a fence with his horse after their old overseer, Jonas Wilkerson, threatens to take Tara for the Yankees. Scarlett takes on full responibility for rebuilding her family and homestead for survival after war. She sends what few slaves she has left along with her sisters and herself out to the fields to pick cotton. After the Yankees raise property taxes on Tara, she is at a loss. She cannot lose her home. Where will her family and she go? At her whits end, he shrewdly visits Rhett Butler, a notorious blockade runner and gambler during the war, to try to get him to help her financial support to save Tara. Unable to find the help she needs from Rhett, she is temporarily stumped. However, as luck would have it, she runs into Frank Kennedy. Frank, who is her sister Sue Ellen's beau, owns a general store and small lumber mill in Atlanta. The wheels in Scarlett's brain begin turning. She lies about her sister "getting tired of waiting" on Frank and says Sue Ellen married a new beau. Scarlett fliratiously asks Frank if she can out her hand in his pocket during a buggy ride, and the next thing you know, they are married. After Frank's death in avenging an attack on Scarlett, Scarlett goes on to marry Rhett, who leaves her after Bonnie dies much like her grandfather in a horse jumping accident and Melanie dies from complications resulting from a pregnancy. Rhett seems to realize that he can never win Scarlett from Ashley. Even though Scarlett is heartbroken (she has just realized that she loves Rhett), she remains strong and returns to Tara.
Even though some of Scarlett's actions are of little shock and awe to movie goers today, for a woman in the late 1800s, she would have been considered very provocative. She is out-spoken and not afraid to go after what she needs to survive. She seems able to put her feelings aside for advancement, such as when she marries for reasons other than love. Much like the brave men who have gone away for the war, Scarlett protects and watches over her family and friends even though she may not want to. She is a great-risk taker and businesswoman. Selfish, brave and shrewd, Scarlett O'Hara may be one of the finest examples of an independent woman in cinema.
In Mildred Pierce, Joan Crawford plays a newly single housewife trying to support her two children after her cheating husband walks out on her.Her younger daughter, Kay, is sweet, loving, and supportive of her mother.The older daughter, Veda, on the other hand, is spoiled, petty, and disrespectful towards her mother.Mildred Pierce, it seems, bases most of her actions on the premise of gaining Veda’s affection.Mildred gets a job as a waitress and begins to make pies in order to support her children and give Veda all the things she wants.Slowly saves up enough money to open her own restaurant.Even though she is now a successful businesswoman, Mildred is both rewarded and punished several times throughout the film for being an independent.She is mostly punished by her bratty daughter, Veda.Veda only wants the finer things in life and is only kind to her mother when she gets what she wants.So blinded by a mother’s love and the desire for her daughter’s affection and well-being, Mildred does whatever Veda wants, including buying her nice clothes, a car for her birthday along with a lavish party, trips to the races, singing lessons, and more. However, Veda continually chastises her mother for being a working woman.When Veda finds her mother’s waitress uniform, Veda gives it to the maid (played by Butterfly McQueen) and complains that the pies her mother makes and the restaurant Mildred works in cause her to smell like “grease”, a remark her second husband, Monte Beragon, a now broke man bred in high society, also makes to Mildred.Beragon is a sort of punishment to Mildred.Even though he says he is in love with her, it seems fairly obvious that he is just after her for her money and his greed causes Mildred to eventually lose the restaurant and all she has worked for.Veda, of course, falls in love with him and it is hinted that the two carry out an affair under Mildred’s nose until they are discovered on the eve of Veda’s birthday party, in which Veda kills Monte after he says he does not want to marry her.In the most selfless of motherless acts, Mildred tries to get her daughter off by framing Wally Fay, her ex-husband Bert’s old partner.However, the police figure out Veda’s guilt through her mother’s testimony and Veda’s own accidental confession.This film sends the message that mothers can never be wholly independent women, since their children will always be dependent on their mothers.Even though Mildred is given small, brief rewards, such as Veda’s brief and wavering affection, a new house and husband, and a great new business, the rewards are constantly overshadowed by the punishments.From Kay’s death, Veda’s harsh words, and the loss of her business due to Monte and Veda’s greed, and the death of Monte and the loss of her daughter to the judicial system, the prospects of being a woman full of life and success are down casted.In the end, Mildred appears to return the realm of the married housewife when she walks away with Bert, signaling that even though women may be able to make it alone for a short time, they are always going to be dependent on a man.
(This is the trailer for the HBO adaption of Mildred Pierce, starring Kate Winslet and Evan Rachel Wood, with Far From Heaven's Todd Haynes as the director. The premiere is set for March 27 at 9 PM.)
The 1949 classic Adam’s Rib was a film that was ahead of its time.Directed by George Cukor and starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn as Adam and Amanda Bonner.The Bonners are a married pair of lawyers that tackled issues of women’s equality and raised the question of who really “wears the pants” in a relationship.
The characters in Adam’s Rib play pivital roles in addressing public opinions on the sexes in society, and with mainstream players such as Tracy and Hepburn, the film is obviously set up to bring more liberal views into mainstream society and set up the path of American ideals for the 1950s.Amanda Bonner is meant to be received as successful, especially for a woman.As a lawyer alongside her husband, Adam, she is a fighter for women’s rights and equality.Amanda can be seen as a role model for the women of the time, most of whom were longing to escape the “quiet concentration camp” lifestlye of the postwar suburban housewife.After the boys came home from fighting and reclaimed the jobs their women had filled, many women lost the sense of independence and strength they had aquired during the war.Seeing a woman like Amanda Bonner on the screen reassured them that they could perhaps have it all- a college education, a successful career, and a perfect marriage.Even Adam Bonner can be seen as an open-minded man.Even though he was on the side of the male defendant, Warren Attinger, during the trial, he is very supportive to his wife’s career and listens to and supports most of her ideas and opinions.
Adam Bonner is not afraid to call his wife out on some of her hypocrisies on wanting equality when some of her opinions favor women and he holds an unbiased view of the law in regards to sex.Today, the Bonner’s marriage would be considered ideal, though very common.However, even though in most marriages today both spouses are employed, it is often portrayed as rare that the union can last without a divorce due to the strain employment can often put on marriages.Their marriage can be viewed as more of a partnership than a traditional marriage where the man calls the shots, such as in the case of the Attingers.In today’s society, a marriage such as the Attingers seems very ustable and abusive, though many turned a blind eye to such issues such as spousal abuse in the time this film was made.The ideals and behaviors of the Attigenrs contratsts sharply with the Bonner’s, presnting the idea that socioeconomic status influences the view of the “new woman”.Adam, though he disagrees with his wife and still occassionally demeans her (“You get cute when you get causey.”), hestill seems to accept his wife as more of an equal than Mr. Attinger treats his wife.He is a crude blue-collar man, a cheat and a poor husband and father.He trates Doris as property moreso than a companion.However, with Amanda and Doris winning the trial, this film clearly shows the beginning of the wave of more liberal opinions towards the role of women in society.
I enjoyed all of my fellow classmates' final presentations, but the topic I enjoyed thinking about the most was the one that Michael Adams presented. He argued that for in order for a woman to be taken seriously, she must be seen as a man. The film he discussed in class was G.I. Jane, but I thought of a few other films that show prime examples of woman trading their feminosity for masuclinity. Though I have not personally seen it, I know the Hilary Swank movie Boys Don't Cry features around a girl cross dressing to get close to the girl she likes. Also, films such as Disney's Mulan and Victor Victoria with Julie Andrews feature women struggling with their desire to be more masculine.
