Friday, May 31, 2019

Essay --

It may seem that the male characters in classical cinema are apt(p) power and control over female characters, but the relationships between characters in Billy Wilders 1944 noir Double Indemnity and Michael Curtizs 1945 drama Mildred hurl are complex and do not conform to specific gender roles. Rather, two of these films feature female characters that are both controllers and the controlled. The characters Mildred Pierce and Phyllis Dietrichson hold both of these roles in their respective films but are inverses of each other Mildred acts strongly and fissiparously but is actually controlled emotionally and financially by others, while Phyllis is presented as submissive but is the grand manipulator. As such, these two films present different images of the independent woman, both of which are destined for failure. On the surface, it seems like Mildred Pierce undergoes a positive transformation and develops into an independent woman. At the beginning of Mildreds first narrated flash back, she describes her life as little more than cooking and washing and having children. She works as a housewife. Her attire and environment reflect this her first interaction in the flashback is with her husband in the kitchen with an apron on. Berts departure pressures Mildred to enter to workforce to aliment her family and their wants. Her wardrobe changes to represent this change, also, since she is usually seen in working clothes. She builds the motivation to start her own restaurant and eventually starts her own successful restaurant chain, and once again, her sensible appearance changes in that she is dressed in fancy clothes. Once she understands that her marriage with Bert would hurt her financially, she actively seeks a divorce fr... ...nity and Mildred Pierce have two models of the independent woman, but both of them fail in the end. Mildreds love interest dies and her daughter is sent to prison. Phyllis is murdered by Walter. It would seem that the messages of these films are represented by the failures of these women. Mildred could not escape her maternal instinct as it ruined her life. Phyllis treated people like tools and met a fatal end. Independence from men, then, is not the final culture for these women on the road to happiness. These films represent this trait as shallow, since not only do these failures arise, but Mildred and Phyllis never truly escape the male gaze. The notions of independence presented in these two films lead to disaster because they are incomplete independence from men is a necessary step, but there is still more that the women in the films lead to accomplish.

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