Summer 07: Feminist Film Studies

Domino

For my midterm assignment I chose the film Domino. The movie is base on a true story of Domino Harvey. The movie is directed by Tony Scott, the younger brother of Ridley Scott. Early in Tony Scott’s career he worked with TV commercials. His first big break was Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise. He also directed Enemy of the State, Man on Fire, and Déjà Vu.

The film Domino is based on story a real character named Domino Harvey. She was born and raised in a high class family in Hollywood. Her father was an actor and her mother was a model. She breaks away from the luxuries of Hollywood to pursue a career in bounty hunting. I focused on how women were portrayed in the film and how the male gaze was used. The film had a female character as the lead actor but the film is still viewed from the male’s perspective because of the male gaze. There were also cultural and racial stereotypes in the film. The film depicts the collision of high class and low class people; the kind of struggles that happens when both the classes intertwines.

Posted by De Vang at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For my paper I had a bunch of different movies in mind that I wanted to take a look at with a new lens of analysis.
I couldn't stop thinking about the film from class however, Boys Don't Cry.

Continue reading "Boys Don't Cry" »

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For my paper i wrote about David Lynch's Lost Highway.

David Lynch is a filmmaker known for his films that play with time and space. His 1997 film Lost Highway is a story about a murderer with several personalities. This film can be viewed as a modern day dreamlike film noir. With all this abstraction and fantasy it is surprising that Lynch’s portrayal of gender in form and content is rather traditional. As gender is a social construct and Lynch is known for working in the realms of post structuralism it is surprising that’s gender is something he doesn’t choose to play with.

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The film 'If These Walls Could Talk" is a rather controversial docudrama based on abortion throughout the decades. The stories of three women who experienced unplanned pregnancies were 'seen' through the same walls of one house. Despite the fact that it was directed by Cher, I still wouldn't consider it a "Hollywood" film.

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Posted by Jaimee Towers at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

~G.I. Jane~
I decided to do my midterm paper on G.I. Jane. I started to watch movies such as XXX and Riddick only to realize they are totally Hollywood movies. G.I. Jane is still a Hollywood movie, but it is one of the few movies that I know of where things do not go back to “Happily Ever After�.

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Posted by Molly Miller at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I decided to go the more mainstream route and write about the Kill Bill films, both directed by Quentin Tarantino, and released in 2003 (Volume 1) and 2004 (Volume 2). As films about a female assassin's road to revenge, with many female foes, I felt that this film had a lot to say about femininity, no matter how deep it was buried.

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I chose to write my paper on film Water by Deepa Mehta. It is an Indian movie but highly appreciated across the globe. On the making of this movie had caused many damage and riots due its topic. At one point director, Mehta was threatened to discontinue further with this topic because Indian society thought that this movie is just a way to earn good money. Moreover, they thought Mehta as being a westerner is looking for some spicy story to sell across the country; however, they forgot that Mehta grew up in India and she is as expose to the Indian tradition and culture as they are.

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I chose to write my paper on the 2000/2001 film, Ghost World. It is based off of a comic book by Daniel Clowes and directed by Terry Zwigoff. The reason I chose to write about this one in particular is because of the interesting play of identity, in particular, that of a teenage woman who does not fit the ideal social mold of femininity and the alienation that accompanies her “otherness�. Also, I find it interesting that the two leaders of the film are men (Clowes and Zwigoff) who depict female characters and their struggling friendship in contemporary times.

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Posted by ultimate leader of the usa at 2:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For my midterm paper, I chose to analyze "The Little Mermaid."
"The Little Mermaid" originated from a classic fairytale written by Danish author Hans Christian Anderson in 1836, long before it was turned into Walt Disney's animated film in 1989. Before the Disney film, however, the fairytale was translated into English in 1872 by and Englishman named H.P. Paull; and many adaptations were made in various countries. Although the Disney film shows a happy ending, the original story Hans Christian Anderson wrote actually ended with the Prince being unattainable to the Little Mermaid, who turns to an air spirit in grief. Many believe this story to be an inkling to Anderson's homosexuality, in that the man he loves is unattainable to him.

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Posted by Amy at 2:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski’s 1993 movie White (Blanc-in the original French) is an artistic and entertaining and dark comedy about twisted and obsessive love-relationships between the beautiful Frenchwoman Dominique (Julie Delpy) and the Polish man Karol (Zbigniew Zamchowski). The films’ events take place in Paris and Warsaw, but it is also an archetypical tale of the relationships between men and women.
White is the second of the artistic three colors trilogy (directed by Kieslowski): Blue, White and Red. Kieslowski’s choice of colors was not random: blue, white and red are the colors of the French flag, and he consciously worked with the meanings assigned to the colors in this flag: Liberty (Blue), Equality (White) and Fraternity (Red).

Continue reading "Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Blanc: What can A Feminist Analysis of this Segment of the Trios Couleurs Reveal?" »

Posted by Athesit-feminist at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Waking Life was written and directed by Richard Linklater, and animated under art director Bob Sabiston. It had a limited release in the US in late 2001. Linklater also wrote and directed Slacker, Dazed and Confused, and A Scanner Darkly (wrote the screenplay). It was the first feature-length film to be rotoscoped, or animated over film. It was filmed entirely on MiniDVs, edited in Final Cut Pro, then animated on Sabiston's custom software, Rotoshop.

Continue reading "Detail, Color, Gender, and Race in Waking Life" »

Posted by Brook at 3:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey all,
I chose to watch and analyze the movie Mar Adentro. This movie was directed, co-written, edited, and co-produced by Alejandro Amenabar. Amenabar is one of Spain's best directors. Some of his films include, abre los ojos (re-made by someone else as Vanilla Sky), and the Others, among other titles. This movie is a true story of a quadriplegic who wants to take his own life and is being stopped by the government and his family. In the end he is able to convince a small group of friends to carry out his plan. It contains such filmic elements as playing with time (time lapses), dream-like images, and is constructed around the water (the sea). In my opinion it is a feminist film because it is a movie about agency, and people who are oppressors (keep this man from killing himself) and enablers (who allow him to access his agency and commit suicide by euthanasia). If you haven't seen this movie, it's great!!

Posted by Anna feuerhelm at 8:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)