Cecil B. DeMille is regarded by many to be the founder of Hollywood, given that his 1914 film, The Squaw Man, was the first important full-length motion picture made in Hollywood. As Joel W. Finler considers, the film "accelerated the trend toward establishing California as the new home of movie-making" . However, it is in his depiction of the `new woman' that the director is both celebrated and derided. In many of his films, DeMille illustrates the rise of consumer culture that had begun in the latter half of the nineteenth century. During its escalation, goods took on a symbolic life while middle-class women attained the characteristics of commodities as they moved into the public sphere. Their movement can be put down to their "refusal to stay at home or even remain in [the] local high street" which "threatened her own reputation and her family's social position" and "excited those who could profit from, control, or at the very least direct her movements" .
This is brought out most notably in The Cheat, where the female protagonist disrupts the established order, the traditional notion of womanhood being inverted. Robert Birchard considers that "Cecil B. DeMille's early critical reputation is based almost entirely on The Cheat [being] the only one of DeMille's early films generally available for reappraisal" . This may be down to his fearless treatment of the "lurid" subject matter which offers up "blatant racism" but perhaps more so due to his subtle analysis of the new female role in society. This analysis is brought out in the main through his use of revolutionary lighting techniques and the interrelationship of elements of mise-en-scène, significantly setting and use of space.
Sumiko Higashi contends th...
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...h clashes with the darkness of the background and indeed Tori's bronzed, Asian skin.
DeMille's classic has become a much loved treasure of early American cinema because of its treatment of the daring subject matter. Rather than being condemnatory towards the `new woman', the film exposes the possible dangers that could befall such a character. Janet Staiger sums up the film accurately when she considers that,
Edith may have nearly been a bad woman...she exemplifies the changing images of a good woman's behaviour She is to follow her own intuitions, becoming an intelligent, independent, mildly aggressive, and appropriately moderate desiring woman.
Considered in this light, The Cheat's provision of a transformational arc for Edith supplies viewers with a reified view of the `new woman', on a voyage of mere discovery rather than reckless social transition.
Film making has gone through quite the substantial change since it’s initial coining just before the turn of the 19th century, and one would tend argue that the largest amount of this change has come quite recently or more so in the latter part of film’s history as a whole. One of the more prominent changes having taken place being the role of women in film. Once upon a time having a very set role in the industry, such as editing for example. To mention briefly the likes of Dede Allen, Verna Fields, Thelma Schoonmaker and so forth. Our female counterparts now occupy virtually every aspect of the film making industry that males do; and in many instances excel past us. Quite clearly this change has taken place behind the lens, but has it taken
Lastly Edna abandons all ideals of being a perfect domestic housewife and mother in order to follow her passions and become an artist. Through these scandalous actions Edna Pontellier carves a path for women to follow in her footsteps to liberation and individuality.
...vie, the actresses that played them actually fit the role. Women usually do not have impacts on things, but in this novel, major things happened as a result of these women. These things include dishonest marriages, love affairs, wealth, power, and jealousy. This goes to show that women are not always the innocent ones in novels, or any other type of literature.
Strangers on a Train is one of Hitchcock’s most well-known films. It is typically analyzed in terms of the ways that the two main male characters interact. According to many film critics, homosexual attraction between Bruno and Guy is one of the premises of the film. This may be the case, however, many of these film critics fail to consider the minor characters of the film: the women. Specifically, they fail to analyze the influence of these women on the development of the male characters and to interpret the message Hitchcock is trying to portray about women, especially those with qualities typically not associated with women.
A female in film noir is typically portrayed in one of two ways; she’s either a dependable, trustworthy, devoted, and loving woman, or she’s a manipulative, predatory, double crossing, and unloving temptress. Noir labels the cold hearted and ruthless woman archetype as a Femme Fatale. A femme fatale is walking trouble, and she’s aware of it. This woman is gorgeous, refined, eloquent, and commands the attention of any room she’s in. When the femme fatale desires something, she pursues it. If there’s an obstacle in her way, she overcomes it. If she can’t handle it herself, all she needs to do it bat her eyelashes and the nearest man is all too willing to take care of it for her. In essence, the most dangerous thing about the femme fatale is her
...racter that has been blind to the realities of life. Through phenomenal epiphanies, these characters grow stronger and are able to finally see a much clearer picture and perception of their own lives. By changing our ways, and becoming more open to new experiences and risks, we can all learn something new about ourselves, which is the greatest discovery of them all.
The Classical Hollywood style, according to David Bordwell remains “bound by rules that set stringent limits on individual innovation; that telling a story is the basic formal concern.” Every element of the film works in the service of the narrative, which should be ideally comprehensible and unambiguous to the audience. The typical Hollywood film revolves around a protagonist, whose struggle to achieve a specific goal or resolve a conflict becomes the foundation for the story. André Bazin, in his “On the politique des auteurs,” argues that this particular system of filmmaking, despite all its limitations and constrictions, represented a productive force creating commercial art. From the Hollywood film derived transnational and transcultural works of art that evoked spectatorial identification with its characters and emotional investment into its narrative. The Philadelphia Story, directed by George Cukor in 1940, is one of the many works of mass-produced art evolving out of the studio system. The film revolves around Tracy Lord who, on the eve of her second wedding, must confront the return of her ex-husband, two newspaper reporters entering into her home, and her own hubris. The opening sequence of The Philadelphia Story represents a microcosm of the dynamic between the two protagonists Tracy Lord and C.K. Dexter Haven, played by Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Through the use of costume and music, the opening sequence operates as a means to aesthetically reveal narrative themes and character traits, while simultaneously setting up the disturbance that must be resolved.
...ew ideal woman, the public has changed its expectations of a woman to coincide with the ideal. It is relatively uncommon to see a woman on a television show that does not work, and oftentimes they work at high positions such as doctors or lawyers. If she is married, she often has more say in the relationship than the man, a complete switch of earlier roles. These new ideals have mostly improved the public's view of women and improved women's view of themselves.
It can be said that Hitchcock had in some regard, the upmost contempt and disregard for the female character and its expression throughout the majority of his films, showing both a lack of “incontrovertible evidence” (101) and a lack of restrainment in his depiction of a highly problematic and violent incident, the rape and the “attempted” (almost subsequent) murder of a woman. Regardless of how violently depicted the aforementioned incident was, it is the female’s inevitable exclusion through sound and language that leads to her inevitable downfall, displaying both films’ attempts “to appropriate femininity and to destroy it”, alluding to Modelski’s curious comparison of “sympathy and misogyny” (110).
In 1915 the American film industry was forever changed as it took its first step toward modern filmmaking. It was the year D.W. Griffith’s A The Birth of a Nation was released, a racially insensitive film depicting life during the Civil War and Reconstruction in America. It is arguably first major success in American cinema as it was the highest grossing film of its time. It is no accident that the film destine to redefine the film industry in the United States would inevitable be a national historical epic, for the film was a response to the growing presents of foreign films dominating American cinema. Though ultimately The Birth of a Nation and D.W. Griffith were a product of circumstances created by corporate attempts to industrialize filmmaking.
...e relationship with men, as nothing but tools she can sharpen and destroy, lives through lust and an uncanny ability to blend into any social class makes her unique. Her character is proven as an unreliable narrator as she exaggerates parts of the story and tries to explain that she is in fact not guilty of being a mistress, but a person caught in a crossfire between two others.
Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries, while released in 1957, embodies a refreshingly progressive perspective in its portrayal of women. Undoubtedly, Wild Strawberries is Isak Borg’s journey, both literal and spiritual, of realization, recollection, and redemption. However, its female characters, namely Marianne and the Sarahs of both generations, play an integral part in Isak’s transformation. Other movies we viewed from this era, specifically Au Hasard Balthazar and La Strada, tended towards victimization of female characters, from sexual assault to unhealthy dependencies. However, Wild Strawberries shies away simultaneously from those trope and the feminist stereotype of bra-burning, man-hating liberationism. Marianne, in particular, functions
Women’s roles in movies have changed dramatically throughout the years. As a result of the changing societal norms, women have experienced more transition in their roles than any other class. During the period of classical Hollywood cinema, both society and the film industry preached that women should be dependent on men and remain in home in order to guarantee stability in the community and the family. Women did not have predominated roles in movies such as being the heroin. The 1940’s film Gilda wasn’t an exception. In Gilda, the female character mainly had two different stereotypes. The female character was first stereotyped as a sex object and the second stereotyped as a scorned woman who has to be punished.
Thompson, K 2003, ‘The struggle for the expanding american film industry’, in Film history : an introduction, 2nd ed, McGraw-Hill, Boston, pp. 37-54
Finally, the movie says that women, first of all, should rely on themselves and not submit to any kind of domination. They should simply support themselves by their own efforts instead of letting someone else arrange and control their lives. The movie also demonstrates how a girl possessing the virtues of honesty, patience, prudence, industry, and obedience can be rewarded with a husband and the attendant better life and higher social position.