Film Review: The Last Seduction The Last Seduction was initially released on HBO cable network on June 18, 1994, and in theaters, 26 October 1994 in NYC and Los Angeles. The screenwriter for The Last Seduction is Steve Barancik, directed by John Dahl, an ITC Entertainment Group production, and produced by Jonathan Shestack. The leading characters and actors are Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino), Mike Swale (Peter Berg), Clay Gregory (Bill Pullman), Frank Griffith (J.T. Walsh), and Harlan (Bill Nunn). The film is rated R by the MPAA with a running time of 110 minutes. The budget for The Last Seduction was $2,500,000 and grossed $6,138,485 at the Box Office in the United States(IMDb). The Last Seduction is the ultimate Film Noir of the 1990s …show more content…
Even though Linda Fiorentino did not receive an Oscar for Best Actress for her role as Bridget Gregory in The Last Seduction she did receive several other awards: 1. Independent Spirit Award - Best Female Lead, 2. ALFS Award – Actress of the Year awarded by the London Film Critics’ Circle, 3. NYFCC Award - Best Actress awarded by New York Film Critics Circle and 4. STFC Award- Best Actress awarded by Society of Texas Film Critics’ Awards. The Last Seduction was also awarded Best TV Film by the National Board of Review, USA. Regrettably, Linda Fiorentino did not receive the most prestigious award of all awards for actors and actress her performance in The Last Seduction was superb. Throughout the movie Bridget uses and out thinks her male counterparts. She thinks on her feet, uses their weakness and their carnal appetite against them. Bridget has mastered the art of manipulating men into accomplishing anything she wishes for them to do, most of the time it’s illegal. Bridget seems to do all this without harming herself or reputation along the way. Bridget Gregory is the ultimate femme fatale of the
Foucault capitalizes that power and knowledge contribute to the discourse of sex; he discusses how people in power controlled this discourse to repress sex entirely. Foucault talks about the repressive hypothesis in his book. The repressive hypothesis states that whoever holds the power, also controls the discourse on sexuality. Specifically, those in power, according to the repressive hypothesis, exercise to repress the discussion of sex. In addition, Foucault comments that knowledge represents power. Whoever has the power can dictate the language of the population, thus this causes powerful people to also regulate the knowledge of the population. Although Foucault does not agree with every aspect that the repressive hypothesis exclaims, he agrees about the timing of when people started to repress sex. With rise of the bourgeoisie in the 17th century, a rise in tighter control about sex also took place. Foucault stated that the discourse of sex remained
In 1996, the Wachowskis wrote and directed the noir crime thriller, Bound. In this film, the directors turned some of the archetypes of film noir on its head. Most notably, the role of women in film. Film theorist, Laura Mulvey, claims that the main role of women in film is to function as a source of pleasure, to be objectified, to be passive and at the command of male fantasy. This relationship of looking and being looked at causes each gender to have a particular presence within film; the male is active and the female is passive (Mulvey, 1975). However, in Bound, the character Violet, who is obviously objectified by the gaze of the male characters, does not hold a passive role within the film itself. Violet is a force that acts upon the narrative, manipulating events and scenes to her favor, along with actively controlling male gaze and using it to her advantage. Film theorist, Tania Modleski argues that there are passive and active roles within films that have connotations with “femininity” and “masculinity”, but these roles do not have to apply to the gender or outward appearance of characters that they align with. Modleski focuses more on the actions, not the outward appearances, of the film
The Great Depression of the 1930’s caused widespread poverty, but the popular culture of the time did not reflect this. People wanted to escape from this harsh time so movies, dancing and sports became very popular. Radios broadcasted boxing matches and boxers became stars. The heavyweight champion James J. Braddock aka “Cinderella Man,” gained popularity. James Braddock gained fame by winning many fights and proving everyone wrong when they said he was too old and couldn’t win.
Her image as a glamorous independent woman in Mildred Pierce during the depression era allowed women to feel relatable to her. She was hence able to make a comeback in 1945 after receiving much attention again from the public. Joan knew the importance of a star’s image in the Hollywood industry and cautiously took great care of her own, rejecting roles that she felt would bring down the name of “Joan Crawford”. Joan taking up the role as Blanche Hudson in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane also shows how certain stars function as a marketing idea and that this led the film to its great success. Having acted in many films and taking up different roles, audiences would generally remember the stars for the more prominent characters they played in a particular film. Their image would then easily be confused with the film character. Joan Crawford won the Oscar’s award for Mildred Pierce in 1945 and hence, it would not of much surprise that the public’s image of her was shaped by the role she played
Woman of the Year. Dir. George Stevens. Perf. Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn. MGM. 1997. DVD.
Donna Freitas in The End of Sex gives her thoughts on how hookup culture is affecting specifically college students. Her judgment comes out of a space where she wants, “to empower them (participants in hookups) to seek the kinds of relationships they want…” (16). Though her perspective comes from a good place, her argument has points that are shaming, archaic, dismissive, and one sided. Her argument seems to be that of a pro-woman stance at times, neglecting one of the key feminism ideals of choice. Freitas uses patriarchal arguments to back up her ideas, tarnishing her perspectives that come off as woman empowering. The book, The End of Sex, neglects to be conscious of female independence
Unlike sex, the history of sexuality is dependant upon society and limited by its language in order to be defined and understood.
The period of American cinema between 1965 and 1975 produced many films that almost completely restructured classical Hollywood’s accepted genre conventions. A fine example of this would be Robert Altman's iconoclastic take on Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye (1973), a detective film based on the final book in Chandler’s Philip Marlowe series. Altman, who is known for turning around traditional genre conventions, revises and reinvents the film-noir style made popular by Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet (1944), Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946), and Robert Montgomery in Lady in the Lake (1947). The actors and the films in the 1940’s film-noir period conformed to genre conventions, and it wasn’t until Robert Altman directed Elliot Gould’s Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye that the detective genre had changed.
According to Laura Mulvey, women function on two levels in Hollywood classical cinema: as an erotic object for the character in the diegesis, and as an erotic object for the spectators in the theater. Explain Mulvey’s argument and apply it to either Klute or Jeanne Dielman. (your answer should not be confined only to examples of men looking at women, but may also consider the possibility of women looking at women.) If Mulvey is correct, can women ever function as active participants in the narrative? How does the film support or negate tgis point?
"They turn casually to look at you, distracted, and get a mild distracted surprise, you're gone. Their blank look tells you that the girl they were fucking is not there anymore. You seem to have disappeared.(pg.263)" In Minot's story Lust you are play by play given the sequential events of a fifteen year old girls sex life. As portrayed by her thoughts after sex in this passage the girl is overly casual about the act of sex and years ahead of her time in her awareness of her actions. Minot's unique way of revealing to the reader the wild excursions done by this young promiscuous adolescent proves that she devalues the sacred act of sex. Furthermore, the manner in which the author illustrates to the reader these acts symbolizes the likeness of a list. Whether it's a list of things to do on the weekend or perhaps items of groceries which need to be picked up, her lust for each one of the boys in the story is about as well thought out and meaningful as each item which has carelessly and spontaneously been thrown on to a sheet of paper as is done in making a list. This symbolistic writing style is used to show how meaningless these relationships were but the deeper meaning of why she acted the way she did is revealed throughout the story. Minot cleverly displayed these catalysts in between the listings of her relationships.
Scent of a Woman. Dir. Martin Brest. Perf. Al Pacino, Chris O'Donnell, James Rebhorn, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Gabrielle Anwar. Universal Pictures, 1992.
Pretty Woman. Dir. Garry Marshall. Perf. Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, and Ralph Bellamy. Buena Vista Pictures., 1990.
...f women & individuality, the sense of fashion, and the passion in a sexual act distinct it from being sexually objectifying. Similarly, this type of film also needs a higher cognitive skill that could reason and reflect upon the tricky features in the entire picture.
The sexual aspect of Edna’s awakening is formed through her relationship with a supporting character, Robert LeBrun. In the beginning of the novel, Robert assigns himself to become the helper of Mrs. Pontellier and his advances help to crack the barrier in which Edna is placed in due to her role as a woman of the Victorian era. Her feelings begin to manifest themselves as she intends to liberate herself from her husband and run away with Robert. He on the other hand has no intention of having a sexual affair because of the role placed upon him as a man of the Victorian era which is not to destroy families. Her quest for complete independence ultimately brings her to committing suicide at the end of the story. Her suicide does not represent a disappointment in how she cannot conform to the society around her but a final awakening and symbol for her liberation.
Johnson R. Kimberly, and Holmes M. Bjarne. "Contradictory Messages: A Content Analysis of Hollywood-Produced Romantic Comedy Feature Films." Communication Quarterly 57 (2009): 1-22. Print.