June 07, 2007
Backsliding Backlash
St. Adrian, patron overseer of poisonous crap.
A little digression on film and misogyny: it's indisputable that the golden age of the director, the 70s, provided a much richer depiction of womanhood on screen then that which came before and that which has come since: 3 Women, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, An Unmarried Woman, and so on. Of course, it is notable that none of the named films had women directors, although Martin Scorsese famously surrounded himself with female contributors, editors, etc. However, the only prominent women filmmakers from that era were foreign and far between; the only two I can name off the top of my head are Lina Wertmuller (the original Swept Away) and Margarethe von Trotta (The Lost Honor of Katarina Blum).
The age of the blockbuster didn't necessarily help or hurt matters, but the Backlash of the 1980s reached a really absurd level in terms of the male revenge fantasies, most notably in the crap films of Adrian Lyne (9 1/2 Weeks and especially Fatal Attraction). As you may or may not know, the film originally ended with the character of Alex (Glenn Close) committing suicide, but it tested so badly that they had to re-shoot the finale to include the bathtub scene and Anne Archer's vindication of married life. In a quote from Susan Faludi's book, he explained his theories on emancipated women:
"They are sort of pretending or trying to be men, sort of overcompensating for not being men. One hears feminists talk, and the past twenty years one hears women talk about fucking men rather than being fucked, to be crass about it. It is kind of unattractive, however liberated and emancipated it is. It kind of fights the woman as wife, as childbearer. You might have a career and success, but you are not fulfilled as women..."
That certain viewpoint has definitely informed much of the last 20 years of at least American films (and Michael Douglas seems to be a common thread of the most egregious offenders), unless one considers Basic Instinct II to be doubly empowering! So where do we stand today? Is independent cinema a savior in this respect, or are the same mistakes repeated regardless of budget? I've been through several long threads at Aunt Twisty's place concerning the depressing portrayal of women in the cinema throughout the ages, but very few recommendations seem to pop up.
As for notable female directors, I would say that Mira Nair probably does the best and most consistent work in making movies that portray a wide range of women in different situations, from a contemporary family drama (Monsoon Wedding) to a revisionist historical epic (Vanity Fair). Mary Harron is an excellent filmmaker, but her films veer towards the biopic (I Shot Andy Warhol, The Notorious Bettie Page). Adrienne Shelly, an excellent actress from early Hal Hartley movies, completed Waitress before her tragic murder last year, and Sarah Polley, another actress, garnered critical raves for Away From Her. Finally, I would be remiss in not mentioning John Sayles and his contributors over the last 20 years; most of his films work around archetypes to provide interesting, multi-dimensional characters (well, maybe not Silver City).
Any thoughts from my regular commenters and/or lurkers? I certainly never review movies through this prism, because the norm is so one-sided that one is only compelled to mention the presence of well-rounded female characters when they unexpectedly pop up. If movies aren't your thing, how about episodic television?
P.S. The first person to mention any Joss Whedon creation gets the gasface. Also, as you can see, the comments are now turned on. Please remember what you were going to say before you were thwarted by my technical incompetence!
...Please remember what you were going to say before...
That's the trick, isn't it?
Something about not having to deprogram my daughter after watching the women & girls in Miyazaki's work.
And maybe something about admiring how much the women of Dark Angel and (the new) Battlestar Galactica kick ass, though I am sure there is otherwise plenty to criticize about the portrayal of women on those shows.
And a slight amount of pride in the fact I had to look up who Joss Whedon is.
Posted by: Montag at June 7, 2007 08:18 AMKathryn Bigelow has been my fave, but Widowmaker seems to have almost ended her career. Nicole Conn has won some awards, but also works very infrequently.
To reinforce the foreign angle, Chantal Ackerman was everybody's new new wave director back in the day, and I'm blanking on a German director and the title of a romantic farce in which a woman tries to keep her husband and boyfriend apart only to have them, wait, no spoilers. It always played on a double bill with Diva.
Posted by: paperpusher at June 7, 2007 08:53 AMThis is very interesting. The best I can come up with are Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween and Heather Langenkamp in Nightmare on Elm Street. While the films do have a misogynistic slant, and Halloween (like most horror movies) has an extra punishment for boinking*, the characters themselves are fairly strong women.
For TV shows, I'm going with Murphy Brown.
* Oh yes, and the damsel-in-distress thing.
Posted by: Nancy in Detroit at June 7, 2007 11:44 AMit gets more depressing the more you IMDB it. Liv Ullman has directed, but not since 2000. Alisson Anders, all TV now. Penelope Spheeris, don't recognize any of her recent releases (did anyone know there was a Decline III?). Diane Keaton, also no directing since 2000, but perhaps that's a good thing.
Posted by: paperpusher at June 7, 2007 12:48 PMYou're dead on about the 70s and 80s divide. Kind of the same dynamic between the 40s and 50s when films starred women with gravitas in film noir, and then in the postwar era, it's back to the apron and blah nonthreatening women like Sandra Dee.
LOVE the pet pictures. The dog above the archives list is a heartbreaker.
Posted by: Medbh at June 7, 2007 01:00 PMasked my wife about this last night, and right away she rattled off Sofia Coppolla, Jane Campion and (erk) Penny Marshall. Not that we've actually watched any of their movies, per se.
Posted by: paperpusher at June 8, 2007 10:45 AMThe first two aren't so bad (the first isn't that good), and Penny Marshall at least did everyone a service with A League of Their Own. I also forgot Nora Ephron, but that's because she's probably as big a poisoner as Adrian Lyne, although she's more subtle. I never thought I'd attach the adjective "subtle" to the person who directed Bewitched. Stewie Griffin had the right idea (insert video of him traveling to California to punch Will Ferrell in the face for the "Clippers joke" later).
Posted by: norbizness at June 8, 2007 10:56 AMMy girlfriend is currently taking a course in film studies focusing on gender roles in horror films. I was flipping through one of her textbooks (link here) and a lot of the essays dealt with this very issue. As Nancy mentioned, Jamie Lee Curtis is supposed to be good in Halloween. Obviously there's Sigourney Weaver in Alien (although that is technically a 70s movie). The 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead supposedly makes the female lead much tougher than in the original. Carrie may be construed as a film that celebrates female sexuality and empowerment, although has been interpreted differently. Finally, the book mentioned The Stepfather, which I had never heard of before, but apparently is the sort of anti-1980s horror film in that it explores the horror of a patriarchal figure. Hope you like horror films!
P.s.
This is going to make me sound like a huge nerd, which I am, but if you haven't played the video game Beyond Good & Evil, do so as soon as possible. It has an absolutely badass female main character. It's also one of the best games ever made, in my humble opinion.
How about the films of Marlene Gorris: A Question of Silence, Antonia's Line, Mrs. Dalloway, and The Luzhin Defense.
Posted by: Alan Bostick at June 10, 2007 12:34 PMSo I'm forbidden from mentioning JW. How about Chihiro from Miyazaki's "Spirited Away"? Or Sophie from Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle"? Or Ella from "Ella Enchanted"? Or Hermione from the "Harry Potter" movies?
Sorry, as a Dad with three young children, the only movies I see are for children.
Posted by: Daryl McCullough at June 10, 2007 01:26 PMI think strong women's roles have as much to do with strong actress' as anything else.
I think a film such as 1980's Resurrection with Ellen Burstyn is a case in point. Lewis John Carlino directed other films with multidimentional female characters, but not incomparison to the number of great characters created by Burstyn.
I'd hazard a guess that we could point to any of the movies with positive females characters and we'd find that the actress' involved had more great charaters to their credit than do the behind the camera people.
Excepting of course the dieing of Hollywood cancer while teaching in inner-city schools and fighting to adjust to being over 40 or 30 that seems to be the inevitable lot of all top line actress'.
Doctor Who, the current version, comes to mind. And, OK, he's supposed to be the hero, but there's plenty of women willing to risk everything.
OK, so Ripley used explosive decompression in Alien, but Rose didn't have a space suit.
And it's British, not Hollywood.
Anyway, I can never make my mind up about Kill Bill. Best industrial grade packaging cardboard, rather than a character, I think.
Posted by: Dave Bell at June 10, 2007 06:41 PMAlmodovar depicts the most fascinating and complex women on the screen today. No, he's not a woman, but he understands and respects them.
Posted by: lbd at June 11, 2007 08:19 AM