Final Project
I did my final paper on the history of the Best Actress award at the Academy Awards. I discussed how the roles for women have changed over time. One point I mention is that the average age of the women who have won the Best Actress Oscar is significantly younger than the average age of the men who have won the Best Actor Oscar. I also noticed that there has been a tendency for woman who played either some form of prostitute, actress, or woman with a disability seemed to win often. Particularly in the earlier years the roles for women were very limited. The films I use in my paper are: A Streetcar Named Desire, A Touch of Class, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Boys Don't Cry, Butterfield 8, Caberet, Coming Home, Driving Miss Daisy, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Mary Poppins, Million Dollar Baby, Monster's Ball, Norma Rae, On Golden Pond, Places in the Heart, Seventh Heaven, Silence of the Lambs, Street Angel, Sunrise, The Accused, The Farmer's Daughter, The Lion in Winter, The Piano, The Sin of Madelon Claudet, The Three Faces of Eve, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Women in Love.
The citations for my paper:
A Streetcar Named Desire. Dir. Elia Kazan. Perf. Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, and
Kim Hunter. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1951.
A Touch of Class. Dir. Melvin Frank. Perf. George Segal, Glenda Jackson, and Paul
Sorvino. Burt Productions, 1973.
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Perf. Mia Bendixsen, Ellen
Burstyn, and Alfred Lutter III. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1974.
Boys Don’t Cry. Dir. Kimberly Pierce. Perf. Hilary Swank, Chloe Sevigny, and Peter
Sarsgaard. Hart-Sharp Entertainment, 1999.
Butterfield 8. Dir. Daniel Mann. Perf. Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, and Eddie
Fisher. Afton-Linebrook, 1960.
Caberet. Dir. Bob Fosse. Perf. Liza Minnelli, Michael York, and Helmut Griem. ABC
Pictures, 1972.
Coming Home. Dir. Hal Ashby. Perf. Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, and Bruce Dern.
Jerome Hellman Productions, 1978.
Dittmar, Linda. “Performing Gender in Boys Don’t Cry.” Sugar, Spice, and
Everything Nice: Cinemas of Girlhood.
Driving Miss Daisy. Dir. Bruce Beresford. Perf. Morgan Freeman, Jessica Tandy, and
Dan Aykroyd. Majestic Films International, 1989.
Filmsite.org. Oct. 2007. 9 Dec. 2007.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Dir. Stanley Kramer. Perf. Spencer Tracy, Sidney
Poitier, and Katharine Hepburn. Columbia Pictures Corporation, 1967.
IMDB. 1990. 30 Nov. 2007. Amazon.com.
Kaplan, E. Ann. “Is the Gaze Male?” Feminism and Film. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2000. 119-138.
Mary Poppins. Dir. Robert Stevenson. Perf. Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, and
David Tomlinson. Walt Disney Productions, 1964.
Million Dollar Baby. Dir. Clint Eastwood. Perf. Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, and
Morgan Freeman. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2004.
Monster’s Ball. Dir. Marc Forster. Perf. Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, and Taylor
Simpson. Lee Daniels Entertainment, 2001.
Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Media and Cultural Studies.
Ed. Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner. Malden: Blackwell
Publishing, 2006. 342-352.
Norma Rae. Dir. Martin Ritt. Perf. Sally Field, Beau Bridges, and Ron Leibman.
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, 1979.
On Golden Pond. Dir. Mark Rydell. Perf. Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, and Jane
Fonda. Universal Pictures, 1981.
Places in the Heart. Dir. Robert Benton. Perf. Sally Field, Lindsay Crouse, and Ed
Harris. TriStar Pictures, 1984.
Seventh Heaven. Dir. Frank Borzage. Perf. Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, and Ben
Bard. Fox Film Corporation, 1927.
Silence of the Lambs. Dir. Jonathan Demme. Perf. Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins,
and Scott Glenn. Orion Pictures Corporation, 1991.
Street Angel. Dir. Frank Borzage. Perf. Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, and Alberto
Rabagliati. Fox Film Corporation, 1928.
Sunrise. Dir. F.W. Murnau. Perf. George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, and Margaret
Livingston. Fox Film Corporation, 1927.
The Accused. Dir. Jonathan Kaplan. Perf. Kelly McGillis, Jodie Foster, and Bernie
Coulson. Paramount Pictures, 1988.
The Farmer’s Daughter. Dir. H.C. Potter. Perf. Loretta Young, Joseph Cotton, and
Ethel Barrymore. RKO Radio Pictures, 1947.
The Lion in Winter. Dir. Anthony Harvey. Perf. Peter O’Toole, Katharine Hepburn,
and Anthony Hopkins. Haworth Productions, 1968.
The Piano. Dir. Kimberly Pierce. Perf. Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, and Sam Neill.
New South Wales Film & Television Office, 1993.
The Sin of Madelon Claudet. Dir. Edgar Selwyn. Perf. Helen Hayes, Lewis Stone,
and Neil Hamilton. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayor (MGM), 1931.
The Three Faces of Eve. Dir. Nunnally Johnson. Perf. Joanne Woodward, David
Wayne, and Lee J. Cobb. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, 1957.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Dir. Mike Nichols. Perf. Elizabeth Taylor, Richard
Burton, and George Segal. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1966.
Women in Love. Dir. Ken Russell. Perf. Alan Bates, Oliver Reed, and Glenda
Jackson. Brandywine Productions Ltd., 1969.