Billy Wilder's “Some Like it Hot” film delivers his usual writing and directing skills, melodrama and comedy, but something about this film was different especially during that specific time period. Some people, who weren’t used to seeing men in crossdressing, were comfortable because Wilder’s comedic writing allow them to look beyond and into the character’s world and their issues. Melodrama came into play with Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis’s character “Sugar and Joe” because of its realism. Joe filled in love with Sugar through his escaping from trouble through crossdressing. Wilder’s writing and using comedic theme with melodrama to tell a message of “finding love in many different ways”. For example, the dialogue between Joe and Sugar
was very subtext but informing the audience about their connection. “Joe: I never knew it could be like this! Sugar: Thank you. Joe: They told me I was kaput, finished, all washed up. And here you are making a chump out of all those experts. Sugar: Mineral baths, now really! Joe: Where did you learn to kiss like that? Sugar: I used to sell kisses for the milk fund”. Since this film came out coming to the end of golden Hollywood, it still resonate with today’s cinema because comedians use crossdressing to tell a story of originality theme.
In Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Mulvey states that, “Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either side of the screen.” (Mulvey 40). A woman’s role in the narrative is bound to her sexuality or the way she
Although set in the 1930s, Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust ironically resembles contemporary Hollywood. Within the glamorous setting of Hollywood, West’s characters take on multiple roles instead of assuming individual personalities. They put on and remove these imaginary personality masks, similar to those in the Commedia dell’Arte, to exhibit a range of emotions that only their character type would exhibit. Consequently, West’s characters are trapped in this restrictive atmosphere, especially at the end of the novel when they become part of a collective mob. In these manners, the characters in The Day of the Locust exhibit qualities akin to modern actors, proving that they are nothing more than a cast of personages rather than individuals.
Despite initial criticism at the time of release, Paul Verhoeven’s erotic drama, Showgirls (1995), has become a camp classic that challenges notions of identity and sexuality. The film traces Nomi Malone’s challenging journey from a stripper to a showgirl where she experiences the brutal and sexist economy of Las Vegas. Verhoeven (1995) uses the relationship between Nomi, Cristal and Zack to explore Sedgwick’s (1985, pp.23) concept of the erotic triangle. This is where the bond between two men seeking the attention of a women are usually more potent than “the bond that links either of the rivals to the beloved” (Sedgwick, 1985 pp.21). However, this traditional representation of erotic triangle can be altered by the friendship between women.
Keathley, Christian. "Trapped in the Affection Image" The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s. Ed. Thomas Elsaesser, Alexander Horwath, Noel King. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2004. 293-308. Print.
Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, is a tragic love story about two young lovers who are forced to be estranged as a result of their feuding families. The play is about their struggle to contravene fate and create a future together. As such, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood would try and emulate Shakespeare’s masterpiece. This had been done before in many films. Prominent among them were, Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 “Romeo and Juliet” and Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 “William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.” Both films stay true to the themes of Shakespeare’s original play. However, the modernised Luhrmann film not only maintains the essence of Shakespeare’s writings, Luhrmann makes it relevant to a teenage audience. This is done through the renewal of props and costumes, the reconstruction of the prologue and the upgrading of the setting, whilst preserving the original Shakespearean language. Out of the two, it is Luhrmann who targets Romeo & Juliet to a younger audience to a much larger extent than Zeffirelli.
In Joseph McElhaney's essay, “Vincente Minnelli: Images of Magic and Transformation,” he argues that character transformation is central to Minnelli’s films and that this transformation takes place in two ways: through the process of education in a world dominated by teachers of various types; and through a process of enchantment and seduction at the hands of artists. In Emmanuel Burdeau’s essay, “Minnelli’s Message,” he argues that throughout Minnelli a “dance of hesitation” occurs in which characters change their minds about something. Vincente Minnelli’s 1958 film, Some Came Running, addresses both of these arguments in the sequence when the main character, Dave Hirsh, deals with the hesitation of a woman he wishes to marry.
The story boils down to two men, forced to dress like women in order to run away from the mafia. The fact that they dress like women makes it inevitable for the film to be brought up in the discussion of gender roles in film (Benshoff et. al, 2011). The film itself highlights the issue of gender roles in several ways. For instance, the iconic Marilyn Monroe plays the role of Sugar. Sugar’s character (unlike archetypical female characters in the then and now) rejects the protector portrayal of masculinity. She wants a man who can depend on her, instead of her depending on him. In a seduction scene, she is the aggressor (so to speak), completely blurring the gender stereotype of femininity. The cross-dressing romantic comedy destabilizes gender distinctions by virtue of man pretending to be a woman. The comic element provides a stable medium to alter the gender roles. The effectiveness of which is highlighted by Jerry’s apparent transformation into bliss, from the moment, he turned into a woman. Some Like it Hot does not just try to bend the concept of gender; it makes a great effort at obliterating the entire concept. It dismisses the stringent stereotypes, societies formulate to try to control or inculcate a desired social
In the 1990s the male protagonist of Hollywood received a major face lift in many ways. The 1980s focused on hyper masculinized and violent male figures using their brawn and fighting skills to achieve their desires. Characters like Rocky Balboa and the Terminator were quite popular during that era, which made the shift to softer family-man protagonist in the 90s a rather bizarre change. In this paper, I will look through a Dramaturgical perspective at the violent male of the 80s giving way to the more family focused man of the 90s, using a rather comic but highly successful film, Mrs. Doubtfire. It was a popular movie of the time and through its cross dressing main character, it gives a much more interesting insight on the 90s male thought process and how he fit in with the changing family structure of the era. The film showed a new type of man who could achieve his goals through reflection, literal and emotional self-transformation without the use of violence. Through that as well, I will discuss the ever evolving matter of cross dressing as it applies to the film and how it is still used as a tool of storytelling and character development through both theatre and cinematic history.
Abram Room’s 1927 film, Bed and Sofa, focuses on the story of a Russian woman named Liuda who struggles to win the attention and respect of her two husbands, but while watching the film one cannot help but to notice the many homoerotic scenes between the two husbands, Kolia and Volodia. These men are not homosexuals, but as discussed in Doty’s essay on the Wizard of Oz there are definitely a few moments that make you raise an eyebrow or chuckle a little bit because these “straight” men often seem more like the couple in the movie than with Liuda, the woman. Bed and Sofa is a film about a woman searching for her identity and fighting for some much-needed attention, but underneath this main story there are many other elements, and one of the
stowaway. As the alien kills off the men at the refinery, she begins. to see the true enemy. Some Like It Hot stars Marilyn Monroe as Sugar Cane. Sugar Cane is a very typical blonde and is the stereotypical image of a blonde woman.
In the early months of 2013, Baz Luhrmann’s recreation of the classic film The Great Gatsby was released into theaters. Everything that could have been envisioned from the city lights to the lavish lifestyles and wardrobes of the most exquisite characters was greatly portrayed in the film. As an audience member it seems as if Luhrmann was following these people around as if today was the 1920’s. The fashion, poise, and elegance of the female characters of this film were left up to the reader’s imagination, but Baz Luhrmann and his creative team did an exceptional job portraying the classy 1920s women with the limitless resources they had at their finger tips in 2013. Not only did Luhrmann bring Fitzgerald’s words to life, but he was also consistent with portraying the woman Fitzgerald wrote about in the novel closely relating the two and leaving Hollywood entertain out of the equation.
Funny Face (1957) is the story of a young bookseller, Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn), whose life is forever changed when the prominent fashion photographer, Dick Avery (Fred Avery) offers her a modeling contract in Paris. Funny Face was produced during the late fifties, when the mold for the Hollywood film included the proliferation dominant American ideologies, such as consumerism and a patriarchal control. This is exemplified by Jo’s transformation from an independent bookseller, obsessed with empathicalism, the philosophical study of empathy, and resistant to fashion, to the face of a new modeling campaign and the recipient of Dick’s love. As a result, the running theme throughout Funny Face can be that women can truly achieve happiness by entering into the idealized heterosexual romance and by finding success in a consumerist outlet. Therefore, Funny Face is a prime example of how dominant American ideologies of the fifties, such as consumerism and patriarchal norms, were encoded into the
For the purpose of this study, I will critically examine the representation of homosexuality in Hollywood cinema. I will specifically analyse films from the early 90’s to mid 2000’s from ‘Philadelphia’ to ‘Brokeback Mountain’. This dissertation will argue that over the space of 12 years homosexuality has become an acceptable part of cinema. I will look at early Hollywood’s representation of homosexuality depicting how aesthetically so much has changed. The current paper will predominantly focus on the two films ‘Philadelphia’ and ‘Brokeback Mountain’, by critically analysing the aesthetic differences between each film as well as their overall importance to gay culture.
A search for feminist criticism on William Shakespeare's comedy, As You Like It, uncovers a range of different aspects of the play and its players, but none is as well represented as the nature and dynamics of the relationship between Rosalind and Celia. Among other topics are cross dressing or female transvestism and male self-fashioning, which extrapolates on the mode of dress being an identity. A feminist view on Shakespeare examines the poet's defense of virtue in the play. Quite a few articles focus on Rosalind alone. These varyingly discuss Rosalind in relation to gender issues, romantic power, eroticism, specific performances of actresses portraying Rosalind as well as one piece which questions Rosalind's very existence. But the most cohesive and edifying critical writings delve the depths of the relationship between Rosalind and Celia.
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.