Spike Jonze's 2013 film, Her, refuses to be boxed into a single genre, but rather, straddles the divide between many, and culminating in a movie that is part science fiction, part drama, and part romantic comedy. The film centres around Theodore, an anti-social writer who - in an attempt to feel less isolated after divorcing his childhood sweetheart- purchases an intelligent operating system, that he quickly begins a relationship with. All of the recurring female characters in the film, namely his operating system, Samantha, and ex-wife Catherine, are defined largely by their, ultimately, unfulfilling relationships with Theodore, lending the conclusion that the construction of feminine fictive selves in Her helps to deconstruct the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, as it highlights the absurdity of treating women as surfaces on to which the main character can project his needs, …show more content…
At first, Samantha seems to be the very embodiment of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, as she exists – at least in Theodore's mind – only to serve and entertain, and works tirelessly towards achieving lasting happiness for Theodore. Despite Theodore's protestations to the contrary, it is clear that he wants Samantha to behave a certain way, and towards the beginning of the film, she does her best to please him, taking on the role of his dream girl; asking “What do you want from me? What do you want me to do?”. Samantha's eager to please nature endures throughout the film, but she begins to depend less and less on Theodore's instructions, submitting his work to a publisher without his knowledge, setting up a surrogate body, and generally gaining more autonomy, as it becomes harder and harder for her to act as if she does not have a life outside of her interactions with him. In saying, “I’m not going to try to be anything other than who I am anymore and I hope you can accept that.”, Samantha acknowledges that,
and starts to loose her words a bit. She says this quote in a way that
Josephine’s perspective on life and her attitude towards the influences in her life changes throughout the novel. Initially she is confused about her nationality, her social standing and, probably like any other teenage girl, she is unsure of her attractiveness. However, by the end of the novel she has realised who she is and is proud of it.
The novel complicates its own understanding of women
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
It is no secret that there is an obvious difference of how women are portrayed in the media versus men. This movie discussed female characters never having lead roles and stated that when they did it ended in the women depending on, loving, or having to have a man. One young high school girl said, “Women never play the protagonist. The girls are
A memorable, modern age comedy sees amy Schumer as the provocative female lead. Schumer wrote the script and it is obvious that her character's backstory mirrors her own personal life. Schumer herself has said how this film reflects her own life that she is “unapologetically herself”. Schumer teams up with Judd Apatow who is famous for such films as “The 40 year old virgin” and “Knocked Up” to direct this film.
The most important events of this film all revolve around the female characters. While there are some male charac...
She shows rationality by acknowledging that she’s not a human being, despite her wanting to be one for so long; this does not disregard her as a person, in fact, it reinforces the fact that she is because she can ‘reason’, and see reality as is. Additionally, she shows to have conscious mental states and intentionality whenever she talks about her feeling and expects some kind of response. An example of this is when Theodore ‘wakes her up’ she becomes aware of her “ability to want”, which later on proceeds to her becoming more and more of a person. She shows intentionality when she becomes curious of Theodore and asks him where we would touch her; she did this fully aware of how Theodore would respond. When Samantha goes on a double date with Theodore’s friend Paul and his
This essay argues that the film Bridesmaids transcends traditional representations of feminine desire that exhibits women as spectacles of erotic pleasure, through the symbolic reversal of gender identity in cinematic spaces. By discussing feminist perspectives on cinema, along with psychoanalytic theory and ideological narratives of female image, this essay will prove Bridesmaids embodies a new form of feminine desire coded in the space of the comedic film industry.
herself and her attempt to break through the strict bonds of society that all the other
...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.
movies are about men’s lives, and the few movies about women’s lives, at their core, still
Led by Laura Mulvey, feminist film critics have discussed the difficulty presented to female spectators by the controlling male gaze and narrative generally found in mainstream film, creating for female spectators a position that forces them into limited choices: "bisexual" identification with active male characters; identification with the passive, often victimized, female characters; or on occasion, identification with a "masculinized" active female character, who is generally punished for her unhealthy behavior. Before discussing recent improvements, it is important to note that a group of Classic Hollywood films regularly offered female spectators positive, female characters who were active in controlling narrative, gazing and desiring: the screwball comedy.
The film focuses mainly on two characters Adele and Emma. Adele is a high school teacher who is starting to explore her inner self as a adult. She dates men but finds no satisfaction with them sexually, and is ignored by a close friend who she does find attractive. She dreams of something more, she meets Emma a free spirited girl whom Adele’s friends reject due to her newly found sexual orientation, and by association, begin to reject Adèle herself. The relationship
Also, the film revealed women empowerment and how superior they can be compared to men. While demonstrating sexual objectification, empowerment, there was also sexual exploitation of the women, shown through the film. Throughout this essay, gender based issues that were associated with the film character will be demonstrated while connecting to the real world and popular culture.