http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C04E2DD1430F936A35750C0A961958260

Intrigued after realizing that this was in a mock documentary I was taken for a loop by the presence of Camile Paglia, an outspoken character we’ve seen interviewed before. Her presence then lead me to question how scripted was her part in the film. The article above confirms that it was indeed just a “self-parodying cameo” but still– she was pretty unbelievable.

Overall, the Cheryl Dunye’s decision to “create” a historically powerful figure worked to her advantage. Yes, there are absolute cons to this approach: people won’t believe it, some could take offense to the fiction, people would dismiss it once they knew it wasn’t a documented history and there are probably more. But what she was able to accomplish with this approach is a fair trade off. With this generated figure, she was able to compassionately control the situation to identify social issues with race, sexuality and women (three incredibly complex topics). Choosing to make the character being sought an African American woman in an undiscovered relationship with a privileged white woman in the 30’s, nonetheless, provides a huge ground to explore. The intersections that surfaced throughout her journey to find the Watermelon Woman I believe was the intent of the movie.  To follow a similarly placed film maker, (Cheryl in comparison to the white director Martha Page), we see the journey of Dunye basically searching for the actress, Fae Richards, as if trying to reimagine how Page would’ve went about in casting her.

Dunye faces a lack of interest from the world she is trying to dig answers from. The Library scene being something you’d expect (disturbing thing to expect) there was no information on these groundbreaking individuals, just unimpressed stares and shrugs of not knowing. If the story of Fae and Martha were true I feel the couple would’ve faced the same reactions of “what are you doing?/Why do you care?”.

That was a bit of a hypothesis behind the inner thinkings of the story Dunye fabricated but again the complex dynamic she framed, the interracial 30’s relationship next to her own interracial relationship, was something incredibly clever and to me went unnoticed until I thought further about the film. This provides an immediate comparison for the audience and gives Dunye further control in how her story will reflect her message. The message ultimately being see history for what it was during the social constructs of the 30’s through the 90’s and now let’s record the history we want generations after us to study and see.

Ugh, this movie has literally inspired me to want to rewrite the worlds history in woman’s name. Dramatic, just a little, but I can’t remember the last time I consumed a film and felt so connected. Or even felt heard in a weird turn of events.

Tying it to the discussion in class today, I think the women represented in the film were the ones who allowed women to feel comfortable enough to come out and perform/speak to the world audience through music. Looking at Chris Z.s’ post I’d agree in saying that there are no longer any strong female role models within the music industry. Of course there are always exceptions but the majority have fallen into a passive even ignorant stance. Most notably Miley (brought up in class prior) stands behind the “IDGAF” mentality while other artists like Beyonce claim “Feminism” to explain their outlandish and sexualized images. The problem with looking to these women as “empowered” or “admirable” is that most don’t have a cause, or voice , or purpose. There is an apathy that most artists feel is a voice for their right to be “free”.

The lack of message almost becomes the slogan, “I can do whatever I feel like doing.” I mean Beyonce has literally made a career from just saying I can do whatever because I’m Beyonce. Her song “Grown Woman” (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/beyonceknowles/grownwoman.html) is just her singing about how successful she is, just about the success not how she got there or anything, in my opinion, worth telling us about. But the one thing she does alludes to is a “cute-faced” counter part that can get it because she is indeed cute and shes got the posterior to get her through and to the top. (Because shes got the boys doing whatever she want)

I’m so over this being the message from female artists, there is literally no separation from women and sex. If there is a women in the surrounding area you best believe that there is a male interest or some allusion to how her body will help her get what she wants.  I just keep remembering Ani DeFranco’s statement about her music. She essentially says, I write my music through my perspective, so if it has feminist undertones it’s just from [her] everyday observations and it becomes a reflection of society. 

So if that was her thought process, what is the thought process behind the female musicians of today? Besides, “I’m gonna do what I want I want to do.”

Michelle Citron’s Daughter Rite (1980) was an incredibly cryptic view into the internal and sometimes unspoken relationship between mother and daughter. It’s hard to begin talking about the narrative of the film just because in my opinion it accomplished entering  an internal, thoughtful space. The staged discussions between the “sisters” was probably the most convincing to create this space. They would interject into the sequence and essentially provided an indirect example of the daughters reaction and absorption of their mothers lessons and actions. The scene where they are discussing how to make the fruit salad is probably my favorite depiction of the lessons unconsciously passed down, mother to daughter. Prior to the interjection the blonde sister (if I remember correctly) was talking about the harsh relationship with her mother and how her mother basically did not support her and arguably judged her because of this. So when the two sisters begin discussing whip  cream or yogurt, the facial expressions as well as how they went about discussing only leaves one to assume the similarities to their mother as well as their  own developed reactions counter to their mothers actions.

“Well yogurt is healthy is better for you.” “Well whip cream just tastes better, id rather use that.” “* a grimace, or rather unimpressed facial expression serves as a response*” ” We are gonna use yogurt.”

^ this was a rough paraphrasing of a highlight of the scene, this links directly back to the statement one of the women makes. It was something to the effect of I love my mother but I will never be like her ?? ( I honestly have to re-watch it to get my quotes direct)

These interjecting scenes act as models for the discussions started in the narration essentially.

As another blogger already posted, I too investigated the recommended The Brandon Teena Story (1998) of Netflix. Director Susan Muska chronicles the real footage and story of Teena Brandon. Watching the documentary absolutely reaffirmed the actors accurate portrayals of the real people involved. Little things all the way down to how the actors/actresses dressed and reacted.

But what really left me conflicted was the actions of Brandon. In the Brenda Cooper article, she is arguing that Boys Don’t Cry (1999) the film rewrites/challenges the heteronormative narrative through 4 channels (dismantling the myth of “America’s heartland”, problematizing heteromasculinity, centering female masculinity [instead of heteromasculinity], and blurring the boundaries of female masculinity). I can see how one could take that stance and argue it but, how do the masses respond to a movie like this. My real interest sparked when I thought about the specific decision and responsiblity the director had to make Boys Don’t Cry. The image of Brandon Teena was not a golden one: he forged checks, drank, flirted with any girl, smoked, etc. Being that this was a breakout film, what image did that lend to the national uncovering of transexuals? or even the midwestern part of the states? The conflict is…was this the story that should have brought attention to this social crisis.

( I will be adding to this post, stay tuned lol)

When it was announced in class that we were watching The Help I let out a tiresome sigh. After being exposed to outside reviews did I understand why I sighed. I didn’t take Oprah’s advice to read the book but I’ve seen the feel-good movie before and I shrugged at the simple warm and fuzzy feeling it gave to see the bad guy get what was coming to them. But looking at this movie as a serious piece of text warrants a completely different opinion of the movie. The video we saw in class of the fervent disapproval of the film made me stop and really think about what I had just consumed. This feel-good film arguably strips all female characters as makers of meaning. The narrative is central around our white savior who helps the help get her voice heard through their struggle. Regardless of Skeeter’s intent or emotions this was her ticket, exploit the exploited to get to the next tier.

The poem that was posted, A Black Woman Speaks of White Womanhood, I believe is what The Help wanted to be representative of. But with certain “artistic liberties” or even fear of truly representing the strife of the time the film has become more of a mockery than anything.

The term Mother has always has a dual meaning (for me at least). I offer that the word Mother is usually assigned to the biological carrier of an individual and after that it [mother] takes variations depending on the relationship between child and “mother”. So everyone has a mother [biologically], some have a “mom”, sometimes the mother and mom are one person and some have no mom at all. To link to the article by Kaplan the “mom” takes the role of who the child aspires to be/who they trust and learn from. A mom can come from anywhere there is no need for a biological connection (although in most cases I’d hope that would illicit a stronger connection). I know my definition can get muddled with the different images of mothers that Kaplan discusses or with the idea of image through mother and daughter discussed by Williams but, I believe there is still validity.

To look at the scene in King Vidor’s Stella Dallas (1937), when Stella is watching her daughter Laurel through the window as she is about to be wed. I think we see a shallow representation of the split between mother and mom. Laurel’s mother is outside looking in because she gave up her daughter for her child’s benefit (heroic mother) but Laurel still looks for her mother. Not completely alone, Laurel has a step mother whom she begins to mimic. This is discussed in the Williams article I believe. When she talks about the relationship between mother and daughter and the dynamic of it. (the mother and daughter bond over their lack of penis, the mother passes the image of herself onto her daughter etc)

So to look at Tate Taylor’s The Help (2011) the relationship between Elizabeth Leefolt’s daughter and Aibileen Clark is extremely complex. For the split now has added a dimension to image. Aibileen loves the little girl as if her own and the little girl reciprocates this love stating, “you’re my real mommy Aibi”. That line, to me, was one of the most important lines of the film. For how do we dissect the word Mother/mom/mommy. IS a mother the term for the nurturing, caring, and forgiving parent or is it the biological term for the sex that carries the offspring? Even further into the film Aibileen begins to tell stories about the children she has raised, exclaiming that she had told one little boy that she drank to much coffee to explain her skin color. I know that this dynamic is intriguing to me but I don’t quite know how to tie it in to the readings directly. So how does the idea of race and even biological ties play into what the word “mother” is?

Main Points-

Lea Jacobs article uses The Blonde Venus (1932) to support her claim that looking at the full production of the film provides insight into social conflicts of the time.

MPPDA case files begin to build the evidence to delimit the spectrum of analysis. (She supports this claim by analyzing the editing censoring process compared to the final product)

MPPDA case files contain letters and memos that show justification for certain material used in the film. Jacobs uses this material to compare the edits to the final product (the edit points out the area of concern)

Endings

The majority of her argument lies within the major edits to the ending of the film. The three major contributors to the ending of the film provided the following endings:

Josef Von Sternberg- Helen gives up everything, the billionaire lover, the glamorous life and returns home to Ned and Johnny.

The Studio- Helen stays with Nick (the billionaire). Turns out Ned has been having an affair with the house keeper. In court for custody of Johnny, Nick threatens to divulge Ned’s affair ultimately forcing Ned to relinquish his custody. Then Nick and Helen end with wedding arrangements.

The Industry censors- vehemently opposes the studios ending. Then considering the released ending Jacobs infers that the industry approved the final product because it follows the rule of compensating moral values.

After discussing the endings she suggests through the industries imposed rules (i.e. compensating moral values) the studio produced the idea of the romantic couple.

Jacobs then discusses the transformation of the image of Helen due to the reworking of the story. The industry says the  image of Helen is justified through the disjuncture between motive and action (Jason Joy).  But Jacobs argues that the disjuncture is too extreme and her actions then border on the unbelievable.

The discrepancies stemming from “trying to make everyone happy” (everyone being: the director, studio and industry) leads to a division of Helen’s character and the actress playing her.

This division exploits material relating to female sexuality and confuses the intentions of Helen. (i.e the lyrics in “Hot Voodoo” suggest sexual desire, puts her intent into question when she starts her affair)

Overall, Jacobs argues that to fully analyze The Blonde Venus you must look at the entire revision process through the final product to be able to delimit the conflicts that are produced.