Journal 1 What’s cooking? Explain the representation of women and their roles in their families. Explain the role of the generational conflict. How does the setting design tell about the characters? The film What’s cooking? is about four different families all coming from different cultures, but focuses primarily on the women of each.
We have a Jewish mother who is trying to accept the fact that her daughter is a homosexual and trying to eases the acceptance. Then we have the Nguyens, the mother follows the Vietnamese traditions really tightly and depends on her eldest son to help guide her young children.In the Avila family we see Elizabeth, whose macho husband has left her for her cousin and has found consolation with a colleague. In the Williamses the wife is dealing with an infidelity from the husband as well as putting up with an annoying mother in law. These family problems show us that every women has the same problems no matter what ethnicity they are or culture. Throughout the film we see generational conflict.
In the Williamses's family we see a conflict between the wife and the mother in law when they were arguing if the turkey was ready.The mother in law has different ways, “old styles” of cooking and preparing food, which causes them to bump heads. Also in the same family the father and son don’t see eye to eye in the son’s education. The son wants to go to Howard, an all black college.
His father doesn’t want that for his son he tells him that he would rather like him to go to a University like UCSB and be part of the white patriarchal capitalistic society, but the son feels that it is more important for him to cope with his minority group. The visual designs used to portray the houses tell us a lot about the families.The Williamses house is the biggest out of all the homes. This shows that they are of a high socioeconomic class. When compared to the Nguyens we see that the Nguyens are of a lower socioeconomic class. We also see this when they are preparing the mash potatoes for the thanksgiving dinner.
The Nguyens use their hands to mash the potatoes while the Williamses use a blender to mash it for them. The Nguyens are clinging to their Vietnamese traditions so tightly they haven't a clue how to listen to their children. The Seeligs house decor seems to be old school insinuating that they have lived in the neighborhood for a while.They seem to be conservative keeping their old traditions.
We see this when the father doesn’t want his daughter to tell his relatives that she is a lesbian and has a girlfriend. Journal 2 Hairspray Explain how Tracy challenges the ideology of her time. Explain how she challenges the way women are perceived. Explain how color acts as a way of explaining the world of the film.
Tracy challenges the ideology of her time in many different aspects. Tracy lives in the 60’s when society was dominated by a white patriarchal system. Segregation was still going on but it was on its last terms.Tracy challenges the system by questioning why the African Americans only danced one a month on Negro day and why they couldn’t dance along side with the white kids.
Questioning the Jim Crow laws that were a big part of society at the time, which kept people segregated. She also challenges the patriarchal society when she confronts the police which are the repressive state apparatus and how they don’t allow integration. Tracy challenges the way women are perceived in films. In most films women are these skinny tall beautiful women who get what they want. In hairspray Tracy is the opposite of this norm that has been adapted for women.She is a short big girl who is in love with the most attractive guy at school.
Who in reality has no chance with him what so ever. Despite all of this she makes him fall in love with her challenging the norms. Showing us that anything is possible to achieve and that the true character of a person is defined by inner qualities rather than outer ones like skin, color, dress size or hair style. The colors in the movie play an important role on how the movie is seen.
We see that the Corny Collins show is in black and white showing us that it is an example of how close minded people where at that time in history.At the end when the Corny Collins show gets rid of the segregated dancing we see Queen Latifah wearing a bright golden clothing to symbolize that they have reached their ultimate goal, which is to finally be assimilated and accepted into society. Journal 3 The Birds Discuss The Birds through an analysis of the male gazes. How is Melanie Daniels power taken from her? why? When we analyze the film The Birds through the male gaze we see through the eyes of Mitch, or Mitch’s point of view as he seems to view her for her sexuality and aggressiveness.She seems to want Mitch to watch her and goes out of her way to be sure that he does.
In another scene as she is holding the lovebirds in the elevator she seems in some ways to be posing for the gentleman in the elevator with her. As she leaves the elevator her eyes seem to go to the side in a very cautious manner to see if the man is watching as she leaves the elevator. She seems to know the power and desire of her sexuality as we view her through the camera lens in the same way as one might view someone who is on display and want to be seen.This especially can be seen when Melanie’s has come on to Mitch in some highly suggestive manners and he tells her, “back in your gilded cage Melanie Daniels. ” He seems to suggest that she in fact is too much for him to handle sexually and mentally, and the bird cages symbolizes that maybe Melanie sees herself as one of those love birds and seeks love, and freedom from her own cage in life.
Melanie is seen as a woman of strength and grace who is not afraid to go after what she wants and does not care who knows it.She is also aggressive and daring, as well as independent which makes all of these things admirable to some men, but could also frighten some men. The film seems to follow the ideology of investigate and punish we see this when Melanie is stripped from her power for defying the patriarchal rules. Melanie’s power is taken away when she gets attacked by the birds. When she is getting attacked she is moaning in a sexual way as if she were getting raped by the birds. Symbolizing how she is being stripped from her aggressiveness and confidence.
Showing us how vulnerable she really is.The final step that tells us that her power has been completely removed is when we see her red nails ruined. Mitch’s mom no longer sees her as a threat of taking Mitch away from her so she holds her trying to console her, approving of her. Journal 4 Sunset Boulevard Is Norma Desmond a sympathetic character in the film? Who has the most power in the film? In the film Sunset Boulevard Norma Desmond is seen as a sympathetic character towards the middle of the film when the audience notices that she is stuck in her past, living in a dream, “waiting for the cameras”.It is her egoistic attitude and her actions that make the audience feel bad and sympathize her.
We can also sympathize when she cuts her wrist because Joe has gone out to work on the movie script with Betty and thinks he is cheating on her. She makes the audience feel bad for her. When she finds out that there will be no film she goes crazy in disbelief In the last scene we see a fade in of Norma’s face this causes her to look and seem crazy with the help of the lighting. This makes the audience feel somewhat compassionate and sympathy for her. It seems that Norma Desmond has the most power in the film.
Sunset Boulevard being a film noir takes part of the castration complex. She is seen as a “predator” aggressive and waiting for its prey so she can attack it making her a femme fatales. We see this when she sees Joe. She jumps all over him tries to buy him, making him want to stay.
Joe being in the financial crisis that he was in made him vulnerable and susceptible to Norma’s control. Also in the film we see when she goes and buys Joe a suit, not knowing what to get the store owner tells him to get the expensive one that she is paying making him not be the provider. It is seen again when Joe goes to the pharmacy to buy Norma cigarettes.She hands him the money and Joe seems to be hesitant to take it.
It seems that his male “provider” ego seems to not approve of the money given to him by Norma. It gets to a point that Joe actually starts to get use to the life he has. We can see Norma is in control over Joe because she takes away his life because he is living her. Making her have the power in the film.
Journal 5 Out of the past Why is Jeff Bailey considered a classic film noir anti hero? Discuss the use of the male gaze in reference to the two central females, Kathie and Ann. Jeff Bailey is seen as a classic film noir anti hero in Out of the past.An anti-hero is a protagonist that does not always make choices that audiences would make, or has different, more unsound motivations than a typical hero. He can be shown to make poor or unethical choices yet is still intended to get the sympathy of the audience. This adds a complexity to the films and challenges many of traditions of literature and cinema. This makes us question the character of this protagonist, and yet we are forced to follow and empathize with him, because he carries the story.
Jeff perfectly fits into this category. When he has the flashback of when he goes to Mexico to go look for Kathie who has taken 40000 dollars.Kathie being a perfect example of a femme fatale seduces him and makes him fall in love with her. She does this so he doesn’t turn her in, messing with his job orders. At the end Jeff is killed by Kathie because he has ran away with her not following the norms that the audience would expect, sending a subliminal message on the consequences if one were to act in that manner.
The male gaze is used in the film and we can see it in the two central female actresses Kathie and Ann. The way they are portrayed through the male gaze is very different. We see Ann as a non seductive woman, that has an angelic face.The clothes she wears are not revealing and leave room for imagination. While Kathie on the other hand is seen as a very seductive women that does whatever it takes to get what she wants.
Also the lighting used for each actress is different. For Kathie at times we see she is in a dark background and we can’t see her face. Making her a mysterious, cynical character. While Ann on the other hand is always in the light and we see her face symbolizing innocence. The angles at which they are filmed are also a factor. When Kathie is being filmed we see that she is looking down at Jeff, making her look superior.
With Ann she is always at eye level with Jeff. Journal 6 Is Run Lola, Run truly a feminist film or does the male gaze still apply to this film? The film Run Lola, Run follows the feminist film theory but still has some male gaze point of views. The lead female character in Run Lola Run, is the heroine. Lola comes to the rescue of her boyfriend Manni, which disrupts the popular model, norm of men portrayed as the heroes of society.
This film is set in Berlin where Manni loses a small fortune of his mob-boss’s money and relies on Lola to save his life.She has twenty minutes to gather 100,000 and meet him at a designated location or Manni will be killed. Not only is Run Lola Run unique because the woman is the heroine, but also because it combines animation and hand held camera to create a variety of experiences through different types of shot. The literacy design is coupled with a limited dialogue and more action, the film goes against the norm of popular cinema. Lola shows the audience that she has the power to shape what is going on around her, throughout each round.
During the course of the film we see the game theory in action, there are three realities that play out.Each segment concludes with a different outcome. The choices of the main characters, Lola, alter the ending. Lola proves to be a strong and compelling person through examples such as her glass shattering scream. At one point it seems to own mystic powers, when it affected a game of roulette that Lola needed to win in order to acquire money to save Manni. There are other aspects of Lola’s power, as in her intense running throughout the entire film, robbing her father as well as helping in robbing of the supermarket, and saving another man’s life by simply holding his hand.
Although she is white and slender, has bright dyed red hair, is very athletic, has tattoos, and is not the average beauty. The film not only challenges societal idea of what a woman should be, it also undermines the way films are commonly used to construct a reality for the viewer by going against the norm of shots, narrative, time, and the power of the individual. Lola is the writer of her own life, she takes an active role in her story as well as others.
