Viewing CAMS 202 Through a Lens of Gender and Sexuality

In order to examine gender and sexuality in film, a very broad category, we decided to view each of the categories we touched on this semester through a gender and sexuality based lens.

NEOREALISM

In his book Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism, Millicent Joy Marcus writes: “the rebirth of the Italian national identity will thus owe as much to the cinema as it does to the various political and cultural movements we normally associate with the rise of a new social order.” If cinema was able to so successfully convey the mindset of Italy following World War II, was its depiction of gender and sexuality just as accurate? Were female characters in Italian Neorealist films as realistic the label “neorealist” claimed they were, or were the characters simply being used to achieve the goals of male directors?

In Robert Rossellini’s film Rome, Open City, the image of Pina gunned down in the street after running after her lover became one of the most important images of wartime Italy. Pina herself was one of the most celebrated characters in Rossellini’s film, and her suffering was used as to convey the victimization of wartime Italy. Pina’s untimely death “calls to mind a loss of innocence, just as patriarchal constructs regarded the loss of ‘innocence’ of women as wives, mothers, daughters, and lovers as one of the worst aspects of wartime.” Although Pina is used in Rome, Open City as a symbol or object, her character was inspired real story of Teresa Gullace, a woman killed by the Germans in front of the barracks on viale Giulio Cesare.

In the second half of the film, however, audiences are presented with another portrayal of women. Marina, Manfredi’s ex-mistress, is shown to be promiscuous and deviant. She is a traitor to Italy and the opposite of everything Pina represents. Marcia Landy writes of Marina in her article “Diverting Cliches: Femininity, Masculinity, Melodrama, and Neorealism in Open City”: “Magnani’s ample body, disheveled look, husky voice, and passionate acting are indicative of a departure from prevailing conceptions of femininity.” Marina has been stripped of her innocent feminine identity because of the war, a tragedy in the eyes of the male directors, and her sexual expression is seen as deviance and the equivalent to betraying her country.

AUTEURS

AGNÉS VARDA

Agnès Varda, born 30 May 1928, is a French film director. Her movies, photographs, and art installations focus on documentary realism, feminist issues, and social commentary — with a distinct experimental style. The filmmaking of Agnès Varda is an important and often overlooked voice in the modern French cinema. Her career pre-dates the start of the French New Wave, and La Pointe Courte, released in 1955 and Varda’s film debut, contains many elements specific to the movement.

Opening Sequence of La Pointe Courte

She has been called both the mother and grandmother of the French New Wave; the fact that many feel the need to feminize her role in the movement speaks to her unique place in a field dominated by male figures such as Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Her other celebrated films include Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Le bonheur (1965), and Vagabond (1985).

PEDRO ALMODÓVAR

Pedro Almodóvar, born 25 September 1949, is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer. His films are celebrated worldwide and are known for their complex storylines involving familial and identity issues, and colorful characters (as well as colorful cinematography).

Almodóvar’s films are often praised for their focus on well-rounded and diverse female characters. But women are not Almodóvar’s only subjects; he often confronts the problematic binary structure of gender and sexuality, also giving a voice to gays, lesbians, transvestites, transsexuals, among others. Almodovar’s films attempt to challenge the idea of a fixed identity by portraying sexuality and gender as changeable and composed of many facets. His characters are often seen in a state of undecidedness or growth. Almodóvar’s own sexuality has often been a subject of interest of the public because of the themes present in his films. When asked about his sexuality by the Spanish press, Almodóvar responded: “I’m gay. I’ve never made a secret of my sexuality. Jesus Christ, look at my films.”

NEW WAVES/SIXTIES

In the image above we see Brigitte Bardot, regarded as the most famous woman in the world during the New Wave, in a fatal and bloody car crash in Jean Luc Godard’s Contempt. How do we perceive this image of a lifeless Bardot? Film feminist Laura Mulvey argues that Godard’s films, are misogynistic and she is “anything but subtle in her distaste for Godard” (Movable Type). So does this mean that this image represents women as disposable objects? Others disagree with Mulvey and believe that there is more than what is on the surface. The Movable Type quotes that “running alongside the script of misogyny…indications of a more self-critical approach, invitations to the spectator to see the gender relations on screen not as natural but as problematic and open to question” (Holmes 125). Thus, perhaps Bardot plays a different role in this image. Given the circumstance of Bardot’s high marketability, in contrast to the New Wave’s craving for true unadulterated artform, this image takes on a whole different meaning. As stated by Vanessa Schwartz, the New Wave had a deep discomfort with Bardot’s celebrity at the time. So this stance is not against women per se but against corporate hollywood.

EMERGING ASIA & IDENTITY, & POSTMODERN: ANG LEE

“…the reality of gender is also put into crisis: it becomes unclear how to distinguish the real from the unreal. And this is the occasion in which we come to understand that what we take to be “real,” what we invoke as the naturalized knowledge of gender is, in fact, a changeable and revisable reality. Call it subversive or call it something else.”

-Judith Butler (Yang 41)

This semester, we were fortunate enough to have renowned film director, screenwriter, and producer Ang Lee visit Wellesley as a guest speaker. His diverse array of films has touched upon many complex themes including those of gender and sexuality. In the article, The Paradox of Transgressing Sexual Identities: Mapping the Micropolitics of Sexuality/Subjectivity in Ang Lee’s Films, Yang focuses on the films Wedding Banquet and Brokeback Mountain and examines the issues of sex, gender, and identity in “hope of exploring the process and problematics of cultural formations in the era of globalization characterized by multiculturalism.”

In both The Wedding Banquet and Brokeback Mountain, Yang points out Ang Lee’s use of heterosexual behaviors on homosexual couples. This “(mis)representation” of homosexual couples can have both positive and negative effects on society. The positive being that this representation can be used as a strategy acceptable enough  to attract a “universal” audience by raising empathy toward same-sex love. Where lines are blurred between hetero and homosexuals by portraying both groups as having the same everlasting love. This is illustrated in an interview with Ang Lee where he argues that “Brokeback Mountain is not about homosexuality but about a love story” (42).

Yang states that the negative side is that by projecting heterosexuality onto homosexual relationships, we are merely stereotyping human desire, gender, and identity. For example, the gay couple in The Wedding Banquet are represented by Wai-Tung, the masculine partner who is the “breadwinner” of the two, and Simon, who fills the role of “the loving wife.” Eventually Wai-Tung’s father is able to accept Simon as Wai-Tung’s actual partner, instead of his female stand in, because he approves of Simon’s “feminine/wifely role.” Yang points out that this act is “stereotyping an ideal homosexual relationship by replicating heterosexual mode of relationship onto this gay couple” (42).

POST COLONIAL/RACE:

So, what about gender and sexuality in a postcolonial context? Let’s focus on an example, the film My Beautiful Laudrette, which takes on subjects such as racism and homosexuality in a postcolonial setting.

“My Beautiful Laundrette examines the lives of individuals  whose origins lie in what was once a colonised state, but are now living as immigrants, as are their offspring, within the society of their homeland’s former coloniser” (O’Sullivan). Throughout the film, we also see that cultures are affected by the same prejudices, as demonstrated by Omar and Johnny’s homosexual relationship. O’Sullivan points out that both are breaking great boundaries, by not only being in a homosexual but also interracial relationship, which both backing parties disapprove of. Tania, a female character within the film comes from a culture where women are underrepresented, but is living in a nation where opportunities are opening up for women, which is especially illustrated by Margaret Thatcher’s political rule. However, the characters are met with a decision to choose between their two identities of Pakistani culture and British citizenship. Can we blend the two cultures? The situation is different for each character. In the case of Omar and Johnny, “what does cultural difference matter to the homosexual, when he or she is persecuted by all in equal measure?”

POLITICAL

In November 2013, numerous Swedish movie theatres announced that they would begin rating films based on the Bechdel Test. The test, created by Alison Bechdel in 1985, asks whether a film has at least two female characters and at least one scene in which they talk to one another about something other than a man. If the film satisfies these criteria, the Swedish cinemas give it an ‘A’ rating. When the news broke, many critics began questioning whether the Bechdel Test was an accurate indicator of whether or not a film is feminist. To determine this requires more than a tally of female characters and conversations – it requires an answer to: “what really makes a film feminist?”

This question is extremely personal. Its answer is likely different for every person, depending on their own views of feminism and film as a medium. It is a truly political question; after all, the political is personal and the personal is political. Liberal feminists, those who believe that men and women are created equal and should be treated as such, would likely consider film franchises such as X-Men and The Fast and the Furious feminist as women fight alongside men, although they inhabit male dominated universes. Cultural feminists, those who believe that women’s biological differences from men should be apparent and celebrated may consider Steel Magnolias a feminist work, even though the characters only talk about men and family. Intersectional feminists, who view the oppression of women and other minorities as the result of societal privilege (or lack thereof), may view the film Bridesmaids as feminist because it deals with class, body image, sexuality, and the pressures of being female. There are an infinite amount of definitions of feminism among feminists, let alone non-feminists. Various journalists have also noted that the Bechdel Test’s guidelines have the ability to fail a film traditionally considered feminist and pass a misogynistic film.

While the Bechdel Test may not be the be-all end-all of feminist film criticism, it is certainly a step in the right direction in terms of watching films politically.

 

REFERENCES

Derr, Holly. “What Really Makes a Film Feminist?” The Atlantic. The Atlantic, Nov.-Dec. 2013. Web. Dec. 2013.

Gottlieb, Sidney. Roberto Rossellini’s Rome Open City. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. Print.

Marcus, Millicent Joy. Italian Film in the Light of Neorealism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1986. Print.

“MOVABLE TYPE.” “A Woman Is a Woman” and A Film Is a Film: Godard, Gender, and Self-Reflexivity « Movable Type. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2013.

O’Sullivan, James. “Gender, Sexuality and Postcolonial Identity in My Beautiful Laundrette.” Josullivanorg. N.p., 04 Apr. 2013. Web. 07 Dec. 2013.

Schwartz, Vanessa R. “Who Killed Brigitte Bardot?: Perspectives on the New Wave at Fifty.” Cinema Journal 49.4 (2010): 145-52. Project Muse. Web. 7 Dec. 2013.

Sternburger, Chad. “PEDRO ALMODOVAR: ‘I AM GAY'” Studio Exec. N.p., n.d. Web. Dec. 2013.

Yang, Che-ming. “The Paradox of Transgressing Sexual Identities: Mapping the Micropolitics of Sexuality/Subjectivity in Ang Lee’s Films.” Asian Culture and History 2.1 (2010): 41-47. CCSE. Web. 07 Dec. 2013.