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Classical hollywood cinemarepresentation of women
Representations of sexuality in films
Stereotypes of women in cinema
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Some Like It Hot is an American screwball comedy film directed by Billy Wilder and featuring Marilyn Monroe as Sugar, Tony Curtis as Joe, and Jack Lemon as Jerry. Joe and Jerry are struggling musicians who accidentally witness a mob hit and become targets. To hide from the mob, they flee the state as members of a traveling women’s band, where further complications set in. They quickly become besotted with the lead singer, Sugar, who in unable to recognize that her band mates are really men masquerading as women.
Like most popular gender-bending films, Some Like It Hot calls us to critique constructions of sexuality and gender both within the context of historicized moment of the films production and from the perspective of later generations. Every time the two men presented themselves as women several assumptions were made as to how women look, of their intelligence, and of how they act. This was the female image at the time; the high heels, the dress, and even the stereotypical “party girl” were all characteristics of the female. The film defines gender differences by portraying wo...
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
Some Like It Hot, Gentleman Prefer Blondes, and The Seven Year Itch are just a few of the movies that the actress Marilyn Monroe is known for. However the life of the movie star was cut short when she died at age 36 from an acute barbiturate poisoning. It was suspected that Marilyn took her own life, however she could have just as easily been taken out by the Kennedy family to prevent her from spilling all the dirty secrets she knew because of her alleged affairs with John and Robert Kennedy. Monroe was murdered by the Kennedy family in order to keep her from revealing government secrets that she gained knowledge of during the affairs she has with John and Robert Kennedy, which she threatened to make public after both
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.
I must admit, I was surprised with Some Like It Hot, mainly of how much I actually laughed. This is a great film to watch with girlfriends that is one particular note. Directed by Billy Wilder and written by Wilder with collaborative writers. Monroe never fails to amuse me; you cannot take your eyes off the screen when she is present. The movies of men dressing as women are not that funny and always feels too forced or over the top. This one flows naturally.
‘Lad flicks’ or ‘lad movies’ is a type of film genre that emerged in the late 1990s. They are defined as a “‘hybrid of “buddy movies”, romantic comedies and “chick flicks”, which centre on the trials and tribulations of a young man as he grows up to become a ‘real man’. ‘Lad flicks’ respond in part to the much-debated ‘crisis in masculinity’” (Benjamin A. Brabon 116). This genre of film explored what it meant to be a ‘real man’ in the twentieth century and in order to do so, they would have to grow up and leave their juvenile ways behind to enter the heterosexual world. Gender relations in ‘lad flicks’ portray masculinity as a troubled, anxious cultural category hiding behind a humorous façade and also rely greatly on a knowing gaze and irony. The two ‘lad flicks’ that will be analyzed are The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Judd Apatow 2005) and Role Models (David Wain 2008).
Thus he began a schizophrenic adolescence: an honor roll student at Amundsen High School by day, a tap dancer in seedy nightclubs by night. From thirteen through sixteen, he was half of the Riff Bros. dance act, sharing billings with vaudeville and burlesque acts, including strippers. “The strippers were really something,” Fosse told Penthouse in 1973 (Gottfried). “Tough. Really tough. [W]hen these strippers discovered I was sixteen, they didn’t believe it. They’d walk out into the hallway with nothing on, or grab me and start playing with me.” In his 1979 film All That Jazz, Fosse recreates this scene, which reveals as much about the inherent sexuality of his choreography as it does about his often-complex physical relationships with women (Grubb).
In Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, she presents a number of very interesting facts regarding the ways that the sexual imagery of men and women respectively are used in the world of film. One such fact is that of the man as the looker and the female as the looked upon, she argues that the woman is always the object of reifying gaze, not the bearer if it. And “[t]he determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to be connote to-be-looked-at-ness” (487). Mulvey makes the claim that women are presented and primped into this role of “to-be-looked-at-ness”. They are put into films for this purpose and for very little other purposes. However, this argument cannot be incorporated with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; the existence of women in the film is extremely insignificant to an extent that could be considered absent. “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance,” male serves as the dominant figures with which the viewer can identify, women only appear in the film for a very short moment of time. For instance, the appearance of women is only shown when Howard rescues the ill child in the village and his return to the village for hospitality reception...
These movies allowed female characters to embody all the contradictions that could make them a woman. They were portrayed as the “femme fatale” and also “mother,” the “seductress” and at the same time the “saint,” (Newsom, 2011). Female characters were multi-faceted during this time and had much more complexity and interesting qualities than in the movies we watch today. Today, only 16% of protagonists in movies are female, and the portrayal of these women is one of sexualization and dependence rather than complexity (Newsom, 2011).
Off, and Pretty in Pink. This movie has a mix of genres any individual could possibly enjoy: drama, comedy, and even romance. The actors in the movie performed tremendously in their roles. The actors in the movie are known as “the brat pack”. The movie stars Emilio Estevez, known for popular movies like The Outsiders; Molly Ringwald, who starred in movies like Pretty in Pink and 16 Candles; Anthony Michael Hall, who was in the movie 16 Candles with Molly Ringwald; and Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson, who both starred in St. Elmo’s Fire.
The Representation of Women in Some Like It Hot and Alien 3 This essay will be about how women are and have been represented in films in the past and how they are represented nowadays. I will be looking at the roles and representations of women in 'Some Like It Hot and Alien 3. Some Like It Hot was made in 1958. Marilyn Monroe starts in the comedy as Sugar Cane, a very feminine musician.
Williams, Linda. "Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess." Braudy and Cohen (1991 / 2004): 727-41. Print.
The attitude towards women has changed dramatically since 1990, the year that this film came out; you will however, find a few men who still have the attitude that women were put on this earth for their enjoyment. In the early nineties, women were hyper-sexualized and viewed as pawns in a game. MTV showed music videos with scantily clad women, which were seen as extremely scandalous at the time. The nineties was also an era of growth, liberalization and sexual discoveries that carried over from the eighties.... ...
Pretty Woman, 1990s Hollywood movie, embodies many new as well as old values and ideologies. I was surprised when I saw that, the old themes and sexual stereotypes are not completely abandoned, but the old portrayals of gender stereotypes are transmuted.
Some Like It Hot is a timeless comedy directed by Billy Wilder. The classic film features Marilyn Monroe as Sugar, Tony Curtis as Joe, and Jack Lemmon as Jerry. Wilder reminds his viewers of how valuable a true friendship is through his use of certain film techniques and characterization. The film techniques and characterization develop the theme by controlling what people see and how they see it. Wilder created a genius and hilarious film that will be endlessly loved by generations throughout time.
...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.