If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. Thomas Wartenberg draws on this kind of notion in offering a critical reading of White Palace, a Hollywood film which seems to attend to factors of class and ethnicity [Wartenberg 1995]. Structuralism believes that we see/ understand/ enjoy films through recognition of these structures. Mulvey allowed little possibility of resistance or critical spectatorship, and recognized no variations in structure or effect of realist cinema. Analyses often draw upon other, similar films to illustrate the ways in which they contribute to the development or advancement of a particular theoretical perspective. This revolution has since been translated onto the silver screens as films depict women playing prominent and dominant roles in films (Gilpatric, 2010; Neundorf et. First of all, prepare sketches of the female characters. The young woman on a bicycle, one among hundreds of women clad from head to toe in black, speeding along the coastal road in an empty countryside, with her husband’s family galloping after her on horseback, is unforgettable, as is the image of the old woman with her purchases – the entire contents of a new home, floating on a raft out to sea. Daughters of the Dust, Julie Dash. Similarly, Flo Leibowitz [Leibowitz,1995] utilizes a rhetorical and cognitive approach, rather than a psychoanalytic one, to discuss processes of audience identification with certain forms of melodrama, which she thinks may be a form of rational reflection. The spirit of the women, who endure exhaustion, extreme heat and hunger, is truly inspirational. This book brings together carefully selected essays on feminism and film with a view to tracing major developments in theory, criticism, and practices of women and cinema from 1973 to the present day. News, features and opinion on the world of film. Made on a shoestring budget, Lizzie Borden’s film weaves a loose and freewheeling narrative that incorporates home movies of local demos and pickets, video reconstruction and TV newsreels, to provide a heady flavour of activism in a futurist New York City. Moreover, the societal movement of feminism is lacking, as women in films today still report to a more dominant male character (Neuendorf et. Liberal, socialist, and postmodern feminism all suggest new questions and frameworks. The latter film, an interpretation of Anton Artaud’s book of the same name, is a visually imaginative critique of patriarchy – state and church – and of male sexuality. In the film’s denouement, which takes place in court, the psychiatrist, the female witnesses and the defendants themselves, spontaneously join together in hysterical laughter, which results in them being ordered out of the courtroom. al., 2010), acting as a “sidekick” to a male character and getting involved in a romantic relationship with them (Gilpatric, 2010). Thus Barbara Creed's book The Monstrous-Feminine argues that the fact that women in horror films are often not victims but monsters "necessitates a rereading of key aspects of Freudian theory, particularly his theory of the Oedipus complex and castration crisis." A FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF THE FILM THE HUNGER GAMES By Kristi Loobeek ... book the movie gets right” (Pollitt, 2012). An emotional response to a film (or other artwork) can be rational, permitting positive claims about the viewer: that she is active not passive, cognizing not simply reacting, and potentially critical not simply absorbing ideological effects. She writes, "Dressing to go to a party, Louise and Maggie claim the ' gaze '. Although it often gets reduced to key theoretical—primarily psychoanalytic—analyses of spectatorship from the 1970s and 1980s, it has always been and continues to be a dynamic area with many objects of focus and diverse methodological practices. Sally Potter’s film mixes a range of genres including the avant-garde, arthouse and agitprop in a rigorous look at the power of patriarchy and the relationship between capitalist economics and women as icons and exchange objects. This opening enigma introduces an investigative narrative that presents a series of vignettes – flashbacks of people during their encounters with the young woman, Mona (Sandrine Bonnaire), in the last few weeks of her life. The postmodern approach to contemporary fractured identities takes filmic signifiers to be recirculated and utilized in a larger system of mass media and popular culture. The film is structured in three episodes and each segment tells the story of a female at a different stage of her life. Feminist Movies or movies and documentaries that relate to gender issues. The film is notable for its all-female crew. Carolyn Korsmeyer argues that feminist aesthetics offers a picture of emotional response to artworks different from the traditional one and from that employed in mainstream feminist film theory [Korsmeyer 1993]. Till today, art films are still created based on the artistic perspective of the individual producing them and on certain theories which they experiment via their movies. March is Women’s History Month, the perfect time to dust off your copy of The Feminine Mystique—or hit play any one of these amazing films made for, by, … Its aim is to adequately represent female subjectivity and female desire on the silver screen. ... Picture Winners Golden Globes Emmys Women's History Month STARmeter Awards San Diego Comic-Con New York Comic-Con Sundance Film Festival Toronto Int'l Film Festival … The film systematically withholds evidence – the audience, like the central character, never finally knows for sure what has happened. These models may romanticize women, but they offer more complex accounts of the social nature of the self than the Althusserian-Lacanian ones, since the self is essentially configured in relation to others (mothers, children, sisters, friends, lovers). This comedy climaxes in a scene she describes as shockingly voyeuristic, a close and lingering examination of the (female) infant's genitalia. This film on NASA’s mission shows the equality movement for ‘colored’ people in early ‘60s Americas and the racism that they had to overcome. Poor people are too weak and ignorant to potently fight the rising fascist power and only when war comes to Italy they can start to form partisan rebel armies. The narrative typically revolves around Cheryl, the filmmaker, who is on a quest to find the mythical black female character she has seen in films made in the 1930s, (the so-called Watermelon Woman). Despite positive feminist images, the film is not free from traditional gender stereotypes. Similarly, Mulvey posits a theory of desire and pleasure rooted in Lacan's theory of the self and desire, a view stemming from a particular and highly contested philosophical tradition. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival runs 16-26 March 2017. Far less often, Mulvey's critics have adopted more sharply different theoretical bases such as cultural studies, identity politics, deconstruction, or the philosophy of Foucault. Modleski criticizes the allegedly comical inability of the three male adoptive parents in Three Men and a Baby to deal with infantile bodily functions. There are many notable films that provide stark and uncompromising images of women living under patriarchal law and male order, among them Barbara Loden’s Wanda (USA 1971) and Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975). The criteria for the films in this list are that they are fictional, made by women and feature female protagonists. A feminist criticism essay is usually a careful analysis of the feminist issues, represented in the book, which are basically concerned with the images of the female characters and their role in the narration. Lady Bird is in many ways a feminist recalibration of the sort of genre tropes associated with the teen film. The film is loosely based on real-life sisters Christiane and Gudrun Ensslin – the latter a key member of the Red Army Faction. It takes as its premise the notion that specific psychological, political, and cultural codes have elevated heterosexuality to the status of a sexual "given." From the feminist perspective, this theory can be viewed in three ways: How men look at women, how women look at themselves and finally, how women look at other women. Representation of Women in Disney Movies Viewing Brave from a feminist critical perspective reveals that it is not filled with instances of patriarchy, as past princess movies have been. Her analysis of Rebecca (1940), The Paradine Case (1947), and Strangers on a Train (1951) explores how “Hitchcock brunettes” are used to intensify the … Feminst aesthetics by contrast holds that "perception and appreciation not only entail some particular social standpoint, but are also formed out of the responsive dynamic operating within an embodied viewer" [Korsmeyer 1993]. The film charts the psychiatrist’s gradual journey from complete incomprehension to knowing identification with the three defendants. What types of roles do women have in the text? Incapable of helping themselves. This movie is 5 hour long and considers other problems related to everyday life, love, and relationships, but the political aspect remains an undercurrent which keeps the film going. This movie is 5 hour long and considers other problems related to everyday life, love, and relationships, but the political aspect remains an undercurrent which keeps the film going. Feminist Film Theory. Feminist film theoryFeminist view film to be a cultural practiserepresenting myths about women and femininity aswell as men and masculinity. Feminist film theory however is often universalizing, and it makes use of complex language and alienating categories which deny women's experiences as active spectators enjoying films or reading them critically. Filmmakers like Gurinder Chadha, Andrea Arnold and Carol Morley are in their own ways keeping the tradition alive. The women are all over 70, apart from the younger black coach driver, and come from an assortment of cultures and backgrounds, including a Native American woman, a middle-class widow, an out lesbian and a nun. Feminist film theory has emerged in the past 20 years to become a large and flourishing field. bell hooks argues for example that Mainstream feminist film criticism in no way acknowledges black female spectatorship. Postmodern feminists also present alternatives to a Lacanian-Althusserian theory of the self or subject, since they question standard notions of human identity based on categories of bodily integrity, race, ethnicity, class standpoint, or even gender. Is feminine imagery used? movies, and is an example of how to better represent women. A brief exploration of the development of Feminist theory via a sociological framework. The idea of feminist film theory is to study film from multiple feminist theoretical perspectives and not in an unilateral singular manner. Margarethe von Trotta started making films as part of the New German Cinema wave in the 1970s, that typically dealt with the repression of the state. The result is a highly effective format that allows rapid processing of complex narratives. FILM THEORY (define them all – analyse at two) STRUCTURALISM Structuralism looks at a film as a set of patterns, relationships, or structures. On this view, human subjects are formed through complex significatory processes,including cinema; traditional Hollywood cinema's "classic realist texts" are purveyors of bourgeois ideology. To begin from a certain theory of the self or pleasure in interpreting film commits one in advance to categorizations that create the evidence that allegedly confirms them. Not only does Moana not need a man, she does what men, including her father and Maui, feared to do. Ethnographic Films; Feminist Film Theory; Film Genre; Final Girl; French New Wave; German Expressionism; Humanist Approach; Influence of German Expressionism around the world; Influence of New Wave Around The World; Italian Neo-Realism; Marxist Theory on Films; Mise En Scene; Motion Picture: An Introduction; New Sincerity ; Oneiric Film Studies; Post Colonial Theory; Post-Structuralism Theory … bell hooks argues for example that Mainstream feminist film criticism in no way acknowledges black female spectatorship. For example, Naomi Scheman [Scheman 1988/1995] notes that Cavell offers broad and varied notions of the gaze and visual pleasure, enabling one to criticize Mulvey and reject her position that women are subjecs or viewers only "in drag." A result of these resilient stereotypes is often social oppression and disempowerment of those being stereotyped (Ott and Mack 180). Thus sexist films like Fatal Attraction present a purportedly valid but problematic paradigm scenario about the omnivorously sexual career woman, and about the "appropriate" level of male emotional response to such women. While Cavell's writings on film are idiosyncratic and not necessarily feminist, they offer a springboard for philosophical critiques of assumptions about subjectivity and pleasure still dominant in psychoanalytic feminist film theory [Cavell 1981, 1987]. This differs sharply from feminism's more usual emphasis on the experiential. Feminist theory is broad. Her early films explored the psychology of relationships between women, often sisters or very close friends. [hooks, 1992/1995]. A synopsis of the chosen film provides readers with a common narrative before the example is used to demonstrate and expand upon aspects of the theory. In the face of theoretical structures that are abstract, hostile, unintelligible, and disempowering, she says, women understandably panic. Fox. 1 2003, 111 min. Feminist film theory, such as Marjorie Rosen's Popcorn Venus: Women, Movies, and the American Dream (1973) and Molly Haskell’s From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in Movies (1974) analyz… According to Feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey, understanding scopophilia and fetishism is crucial in understanding the feminist lens, (Etherington). Feminist Theory and Disney Movies Female Heroines. In one memorable sequence she holds aloft a burning bra – prefiguring a much later activism! This approach is odd. This is a feel-good movie that focuses on a female group sorely neglected in cinema – namely, older women. And Noel Carroll [Carroll 1990/95] supposes that emotions are complex learned forms of behavior acquired from certain "paradigm scenarios", and that film among other sources can offer such scenarios. Additionally the film incorporates aspects of feminist film theory, including notions of the male gaze. White women, get ready. Finally, all are made in the spirit of liberation. Subscribe now for exclusive offers and the best of cinema. A companion to film theory by Toby Miller and Robert Stam. Her husband, realising that she may be responsible for the death of an indigenous boy, covers up the evidence, leaving her in the dark. Theory stands somehow over and above the more primitive "data": it is ideal, abstract, permanent, austere, universal, and true. Feminist philosophers question patriarchal theories and urge the need to link theory with practice. The Bechdel Test, or Bechdel-Wallace Test, sometimes called the Mo Movie Measure or Bechdel Rule is a simple test which names the following three criteria: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man. Nor is there operational agreement within the discipline for what counts as evidence, testing, or confirmation of a theory. If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. It is the only Disney princess movie not to have a love interest which is a HUGE step forward for Disney. The feminist movement has constantly fought for women’s right and equality so as to place women on equal standing to men in the society. The film is structured so that the audience shares the confusion and frustration of the central character, Vero (María Onetto). Feminist theory has been foundational to the establishment and development of film studies as a discipline. Feminist film theory can be dense and knotty: after all, writers such as Laura Mulvey had to invent a language to make their arguments audible. Firstly, these movies have a huge difference in the male/female character ratio, instantly making it an unrepresentative movie as it … The Top 250 Feminist Films of All Time; The Best Horror Movies Of the 1980s; The Best Science Fiction Movies of 1977; The Best Comedy Movies Of the 2000s; The Most Recently Released Movies; The Most Recently Added Movies; Movies by Decade from this Chart. The merging of the real and the imagined, the mixing of persona and performance, the combination of genuine archival material and recreated archival footage all function to throw into relief the philosophical problem of representing the real, and the political importance of reconstructing a history that has been neglected. Like the Suffragettes, whose marches are recorded on early 20th century newsreel, women were activists behind the camera as well. Mulvey assumed a general picture of cinema as a symbolic medium which, like other aspects of mass culture, forms spectators as bourgeois subjects. The film is also concerned with the power of the image, mediated through an examination of cinema itself – its history and its ideological power. Quentin Tarantino • Starring: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. It does not even consider the possibility that women can construct an oppositional gaze via an understanding and awareness of the politics of race and racism. We remember some of the pioneering films made by women about women. How is theory related to feminist action and social change? Dictionnaire théorique et critique du cinéma by Jacques Aumont and Michel Marie. Questions for Analysis Is the text narrated by a male or female? Traditional aesthetics is problematic since it sought only a supposedly "disinterested" pleasure. This patchwork of low budget footage, matched with the pumping soundtrack coming from women’s pirate radio stations, and the fact that the cast are mostly non-actors, gives the film a raw edge, as we follow a diverse range of female characters all struggling to survive. In sum, many feminists would criticize feminist film theory as overly abstract, totalizing, jargon-prone, and non-experiential. 40 Essential Feminist Movies You Need to See . This film on NASA’s mission shows the equality movement for ‘colored’ people in early ‘60s Americas and the racism that they had to overcome. I wanted, however, to focus on films that provide images of celebration rather than endurance. On its premiere, the surrealists greeted it with noisy derision, calling Dulac “une vache”. Significant alternative feminist theories might also inform feminist film theory. An introduction to IB Film feminst film theory of the 1970s. If there is a meaning, it is doubtless objectionable.”. The film, released in the United States on March 23, ... One of the strongest examples of Everdeen’s femininity is also one of the strongest of her masculinity. Silverman posits a theory of the subject without saying why and without considering alternatives. The meaning of a film comes not so It is a female conspiracy film built around a central incident in which three women, a mute housewife, a garrulous cafe worker and a business secretary, unite to batter a male shop assistant to death. In the entire Hunger Games movie Rue gets only a few shots, and majority of these shots are from Katniss’s point of view. Her appealing camp factor and her… The beauty of a film that is based on realism is that the purity of the shots and subjects give you the opportunity to think about what the filmmakers are showing you, not how. Feminism film theory 1. hooks gives an example of this rare recognition through two characters in the film "Passion of Remembrance". Wander women: vital films about women on the move, Lucrecia Martel on time and Zama – ‘Many shots are not what you expect’, From girlhood to adulthood: six French films about sexual awakening, Jemma Desai , Selina Robertson , Alex Davidson , Josephine Botting , Jez Stewart , Michael Brooke , Ros Cranston , Lisa Kerrigan , Katy McGahan , Dylan Cave. Next, the film emphasizes stereotypical feminine qualities. The film was shot in stunning high contrast black and white and filmed on location in Iceland. Registered charity 287780. The Male Gaze theory, in a nutshell, is where women in the media are viewed from the eyes of a heterosexual man, and that these women are represented as passive objects of male desire. Disney released the film Mulan in 1998 during the third wave of feminism, so perhaps this can explain why at first glance, Mulan seems to be a feminist film encouraging the individual empowerment of women. In this radical reversal, the traditional image of the female is liberated from the patriarchal order. Other filmmakers that should be mentioned in the context of feminist filmmaking are the Hollywood directors, who in the late 1970s and early 1980s were part of a new wave of feminist film, among them Joan Micklin Silver (Between the Lines, 1977), Claudia Weill (Girlfriends, 1978) and Susan Seidelman (Smithereens, 1982 and Desperately Seeking Susan, 1985). Its stark images reference moments from early cinema, such as the silent shorts of D.W. Griffiths and the Hollywood musical Gold Diggers of 1933, from which it derives its name. The imagery in the second and third episodes becomes surreal. While Katniss is free from any gaze, Rue is still subjected to the white female gaze. This can be applied to anything. Why is theory needed at all; what is it a theory of or about? The film documents in a series of flashbacks the childhood and the changing bond between the two women, one a journalist, the other a street fighter. Photograph: Allstar/A24. Feminist theory has been foundational to the establishment and development of film studies as a discipline. Germaine Dulac was involved in the avant garde in Paris in the 1920s. Feminist examples include Trinh T. Minh-ha, who pointed out in her groundbreaking documentary Reassemblage (1982) that she intends “not to speak about/Just speak nearby,” unlike more conventional ethnographic documentary films, signaling the need not to make the Other the object of interpretation but let cinema as a medium and postcolonialism as an epistemology connect to … Originating in the early 1990s, queer theory comprises a diverse body of intellectual inquiry. Added to this theory by Laura Mulvey's now-classic essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" [Mulvey, 1975], was the feminist claim that men and women are differentially positioned by cinema: men as subjects identifying with agents who drive the film's narrative forward, women as objects for masculine desire and fetishistic gazing. What is the relevant theory of feminism itself? Feminism is the doctrine advocating social, political, and economic rights for women equal to those of men. Still, writers in feminist film theory commonly assume Mulvey's basic parameters and take some version of psychoanalytic theory as a desideratum. Hidden Figures – when feminism was also about caring for family. What are some examples of this? However, Wartenberg shows that the film relies on a stereotyped representation of the older, divorced woman, romanticizes the working class, and oversimplifies the nature of class divisions. Where, for example, are the films of Stephanie Rothman? For many years Judy Garland had been considered as the quintessential gay icon. The directors working in Britain today must also be acknowledged. CFreeland@UH.edu. Much of the action is filmed through glass, or in the rain, or slightly out of frame, keeping the audience, like Vero, in the dark. Shot in a sparse rural landscape, the film explores people’s attitudes towards a vagrant who is female. Mona’s role actually represents gender trespass, because the kind of freedom she claims is only ever the province of the male. Scheman seeks a more promising form of female subjectivity in film, and cities Foucault's point that dominant modes of specularity are quite complex and do "not define women as exclusively as either the seers or the seen" [Scheman 1988/1995]. But Annette Kuhn’s Women’s Pictures is remarkable for the wit and clarity with which she interprets and adds to this brand-new language. Typi… Feminist criticism aims to bring to light examples of patriarchy present in media artifacts. For further reading check out Laura Mulvey's essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Critical dictionary of film and television theory by Roberta E. Pearson and Philip Simpson.