Laura Mulvey’s 1975 essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ asserted that mainstream cinema defined gender in film as male being ‘the bearer of the look’ taking the active, controlling role and female as ‘simultaneously looked at and displayed’ represented as passive; the object of the look. She considered that women were placed in this position in three ways:

1. through character portrayal within the narrative
2. through spectator perception of the female
3. through the controlling gaze of the camera which objectified women

In this piece she referred to mainstream Hollywood cinema and suggested that the only avenue available for an active female portrayal lay in avant-garde cinema. European film has long been viewed as avant-garde and this piece will examine the films studied, with reference to comparable Hollywood films, and consider whether European film does indeed portray a different kind of feminine.

According to Bordwell’s definition of the Hollywood paradigm, character motivation is the engine that drives the plot. The character controlling that central motivation is most typically male, even in cases where women are central to the narrative. Take, for example, ‘Basic Instinct’ in which Michael Douglas’s character is investigating a serial killer. The major suspect is Catherine Trammel [played by Sharon Stone]. Despite the fact that events in the narrative are linked closely to Catherine’s suspected murders, the main motivation is Michael Douglas’s as he struggles with his sense of right and his attraction to her. As director, Budd Boetticher, puts it:

With the exception of ‘Mona Lisa’ in which Simone acts as the catalyst that drives George’s actions, each narrative studied for this essay places a woman [or women] in the central, active role. The audience is invited to identify with the women at the centre of the narrative and, as the title of each film suggests, they seek to represent the female point of view. The question must be asked whether their dominance of the camera and narrative defines these women as the engine that drives the plot. In ‘Pretty Woman’, for example, it can be said that Julia Roberts dominates the camera, whereas the narrative is driven by Richard Gere’s character as he falls in love with her. She dominates camera time and space in order for the spectator [and therefore Richard Gere] to decide if she is worthy of love.

In ‘Mamma Roma’ [dir. Paulo Pasolini. Italy. 1962], the eponymous heroine, is a prostitute attempting to leave her old life behind to find respectability and a better class future in the new suburbs of Rome for herself and more importantly for Ettore, her son. This motivation is what drives the narrative.

‘Mona Lisa’ [dir. Neil Jordan. U.K. 1986] tells the story of George, who has been recently released from prison, and Simone, a high-class prostitute he has been given the job of escorting. At Simone’s behest he starts looking for a girl called Cathy, a search which leads him into the underbelly of 80’s London. There he is confronted by the seedy and sinister world of drugs, crime and prostitution, a London very much changed from the one he left behind seven years before.

In ‘Une Affaire de Femme’ [dir. Claude Chabrol. France.1988], as the title suggests, women take the central place in the narrative. The film deals specifically with Marie Latour’s attempt, and the attempts of women like her, to survive and escape the hardships of the Second World War in rural France. We see her prospering from illegal abortions, actions which subsequently lead to her death by execution.

‘Sweet Emma, Dear Bobe’ [dir.Istvan Szabo. Hungary.1992] tells the story of the two friends, who are both Russian teachers, struggling to survive in post-communist Hungary. There is no longer a demand for Russian and the women are faced with difficult decisions to secure a future. Despite their similar situations, the women choose very different paths.

In all the films studied women are seen using their skills to take control in difficult situations and entering a ‘man’s’ world – the world of crime and drugs; the world of commerce and money-making; moving up the social strata through business rather than marriage. In contrast, in Hollywood films women are given power within traditional female environments – the home, child-rearing and providers of sexual pleasure. In ‘Pretty Woman’, for example, Vivian is treated like a doll as she is dressed and ‘trained’, finally becoming ‘suitable’ for the male lead.

In each film, however, despite the female power displayed, they are ultimately punished for their actions. In each case the punisher is patriarchal society. As can be seen below, the masculine presence of society has the implicit power to destroy women.

‘Mamma Roma’ - her son is arrested for a petty theft and taken away by white-coated men to a prison hospital where he dies alone and in despair.

‘Une Affaire de Femme’ – Marie is separated from her children and put to death by the judiciary, represented by men.

‘Sweet Emma, Dear Bobe’ – Bobe finds the only way she can cope with the changes to her life, is to put a value on her only commodity - her sexuality - and turns to prostitution. She is arrested and kills herself unable to cope with the shame of what she has done.

‘Mona Lisa’ – Simone achieves her desire [Cathy], but in order to do this she is forced to commit murder, left with a brutalised, drug-addicted lover who is clearly unable to return her feelings.

From this we can see that there is an essential irony since, on adopting their positions of power, they are ultimately condemned and punished by the controlling male force of society. The power the women gain is a poisoned chalice.

This representation of character can be closely allied to another move away from the Hollywood paradigm. In a typical Hollywood film, Bordwell defined the narrative progression as:

harmony – disruption – resolution

In a typical Hollywood film with a central female character, it can be seen that the resolution ending is respected. In ‘Pretty Woman’ the ‘bad’ girl is made good through the love of a successful man. Likewise, in ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’, the working class girl is carried to middle-class heaven by the white-suited officer. He is seen to transcend the limitations of his class through grit and determination. She achieves the same by attracting him.

In contrast, in the films studied, each woman rejects the ‘female’ route to salvation and is seen being punished. There is resolution for society as a ‘wrong’ has been ‘righted’, but for the female characters their lives are in greater disruption than before. A number of the films studied display a narrative development more akin to:

disruption – false harmony – disruption

The effect on the female spectator of both these aspects is ambiguous. There is an inherent irony in the fact that these women are portrayed as strong and in control, only to be punished by and for the very thing that gave them power – entering the world of men and taking them on as equals.

Female characters in Hollywood films are typically young, slim and attractive. They represent aspirational figures for the audience – the men want them and the women want to be like them. They function as role models for the female viewer and contribute to the construction of ideals of female attractiveness. In contrast, the women in the films studied are portrayed as a] undesirable and/or b] unavailable.

Simone: a lesbian prostitute

Mamma Roma: a prostitute who abandoned her son. She is seen losing her looks and attractiveness [her ‘commodity’] during the progress of the film

Marie Latour: a resentful mother and an illegal abortionist, she is portrayed as loving material objects and her own aspirations more than her children

Emma: conducting an affair with a married man, she is seen pursuing him relentlessly

Here it can be seen that in contrast to Hollywood films, the female characters do not fulfill the aspirational role – they do not ‘become’ attractive or sympathetic. None of the women can be realistically seen as aspirational figures for the female audience - they live lives of pain and discord; their struggles do not lead to harmony, but to deeper suffering; they are portrayed as unable to escape their destiny.

In contrast, in ‘Thelma and Louise’, the female characters are hounded to suicide by various representatives of the male world [police, husbands, spurned lovers]. This representation of suicide bears little comparison to that of Bobe who undramatically jumps from the window and is seen lying bleeding in a squalid courtyard. Thelma and Louise are seen driving off a cliff in a fast sports car, hands clasped, a symbol of solidarity and female independence. Their death is not shown and, as two women frozen in time and space, they become, much as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid did for men, female icons; representations of freedom and choice, rather than death and despair.

Not only are these European female characters non-aspirational, but their representation in the narrative serves to distance the spectator from them. We are not encouraged to empathise with these women since they are placed in roles which are difficult for the viewer - male or female - to relate to. They are often portrayed as acting against the most natural of female roles – the mother.

Marie Latour: first introduction shows her castigating her children; treats her son Pierrot unfairly; shows little sympathy when accused of causing a death.

Mamma Roma: abandoned son for most of his life; uproots him from his happy life in order to fulfil her own aspirations; uses prostitutes and bribery to control her son’s life; suggestion that she is responsible for Carmine becoming a pimp.

Simone: attracts sympathy as has had a difficult life; draws George to her and ‘uses’ him to get what she wants; audience feels betrayed when the truth of Simone’s sexuality is revealed.

The audience is challenged to respond to these women. Hollywood films often leave little doubt as to where our sympathies should lie – the heroine drives off into the sunset having found love and happiness [Pretty Woman]; the difficult mother/daughter relationship is resolved through crisis [Terms of Endearment].

In Hollywood films, the camera is often used to frame the female in ways Laura Mulvey described that:

‘freeze the flow of action in erotic contemplation’.

This describes how the camera selects the female form and focuses on it, a moment that does not move the narrative forward. It is clear from this that the controlling gaze of the camera is placed with the male. The close-up of the stockinged leg; the framing of the nightclub singer as she delivers her ‘number’; the female character as she washes – all these are moments of pleasure for the viewer, but as the female does not drive the narrative forward, they serve to objectify her. In a number of the films studied, however, the gaze is given to the female.

Sweet Emma, Dear Bobe: the camera gaze is given to Emma as she watches the object of her affection [Stephanics] as he works in the school.

Mamma Roma: we are first introduced to Ettore through the gaze of his mother as he languishes on the carousel; the camera focuses on Ettore and his young friends as they run apparently aimlessly from place to place.

Mona Lisa: Simone gazes on Cathy through the window of the cafe and it becomes clear that the desire to find her is motivated by more than friendship.

From this study it can be seen that the representation of women in European film differs to that of women in Hollywood films. The women portrayed are not solely defined by their sexuality or by traditionally ascribed roles. They represent a darker, more ambiguous side of the female, one in which women are driven by non-traditional desires. Laura Mulvey’s assertion does not hold true here – these women are not objectified. They are active, but the wrath of society does not leave them unpunished for stepping outside their roles.

A fluent and organised discussion of the details of the film texts with a thoughtful, confident and constructive engagement with theory about the gendered 'look' in Hollywood mainstream cinema. Detailed and apt references to the mainstream text also press home the points made and clarify the argument. Well done, Gabrielle.