ENG 230: Women and Film
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VertiGO Back to “Rear Window”
Vertigo is hailed as one of the greatest, if not the greatest movie of all time. It features impressive technical work, including camerawork and editing and a highly unique story. The performances are strong and it certainly earns its title as a great film. However, it is far from perfect. Its representation of women and how men view women is representative of the time in which it was made and how film usually represents women. The film was part of Laura Mulvey’s initial theory on the male gaze in film, along with another of Hitchcock’s films, Rear Window, which also features Jimmy Stewart. In both films, Stewart’s character have something…
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Mermaids Singing? I Haven’t Heard It.
I think the argument for the existence of a female gaze or a “specific, identifiable” female aesthetic of film is a strong one. I say this because for a number of reasons- if the male gaze exists in film, surely the female one must too. This class started by watching Rear Window, one of the very films that formed Laura Mulvey’s theory on the male gaze. The film itself is a reflection of the male gaze and voyeurism while also showing different representations of women throughout, albeit all made by a man. I don’t think it is necessary to have a female director in order to escape the male gaze,…
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Tick Tock Goes the Clock
What happens when time and a city are almost as much characters in a film as actual people are? When you feel and understand them continuously throughout the film, you feel as if you had lived through the film just as the character did? No movie does this better than Agnes Varda’s Cleo from 5 to 7, but her film is not the only one that does so. Tom Tykwer’s 1990s film, Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run), does the same and is almost an updated version of Varda’s vision. Before I explore any further, I should probably express my extreme hatred for Run Lola Run. I have had to watch…
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What Happens When You Can’t Find Yourself in Film?
Before I begin, let me say that I am not a black lesbian. I have never had to search for representation in media the way Dunye and so many others have. Writing on The Watermelon Woman is important, because it is in danger of being forgotten. I want to be able to use my privilege to talk about the lack of representation in media and how it has evolved through time. YouTuber Kyle Kallgren and his fianceé, Jourdain Searles (a wonderful fellow Georgian and film critic in her own right), worked to make a video explaining the history behind the false history in The Watermelon Woman. Black lesbians are one…
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Abortion in Film: 1916 to Now
Both abortion and birth control are highly controversial, but both have existed for centuries before their legality. Now more than ever, especially in the Southern United States, people are talking about it- especially abortion. Whatever one’s opinion on abortion is, one can’t deny this national conversation. Films and television have covered and discussed the issue since near the beginning of the medias, really starting in Lois Weber’s 1916 film, Where Are My Children?. Abortion in film and television now is covered in movies such as Juno and First Reformed and television shows such as the Netflix original Sex Education. Even though they are a century apart, both Weber and the…
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“Stella Dallas” and the Woman’s Film
As I first wrote in my initial response, Stella Dallas exhausted me. Even just watching Stella walk about in her various outfits made me tired. However, I still can’t get the movie out of my head, days after first watching it and not particularly liking it very much. It made me think much more of the woman’s film/melodrama genre that was so popular during the time of Hollywood in which Stella Dallas was made. Over the weekend (technically, on May 31st), I went to go watch Booksmart, which combined with this class, readings, and films, made me think about films by women for women and how it differs than any…
