CIN105Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Tilda Swinton, Fourth Wall
July 26, 2016
CIN LECTURE 21: FILM & FEMINISM
• Typically, in film, men were creators and women were muses
• Women are put on display, are muted, full form can be seen
• “Men watch women; women watch themselves being watched”
• a woman isn’t as much an active participant in something; she is more often making an
anomaly appearance
• women are used in advertising or placed in films to draw people in
Ex. “Rear Window” promotion of man looking through camera at woman’s legs
Ex. Marilyn Monroe’s movies
• PROBLEM women are portrayed in a stereotypical fashion and negative light
SOLUTION “positive images”
• women are in subordination to men, and are defined by their male counterparts
(characteristics are designed to manipulate the male’s image)
• feminist cinema often has positive heroines
• PROBLEM “within a sexist ideology and a male-dominated cinema, a woman is
presented as what she represents for man”
SOLUTION “Any revolutionary strategy must challenge the depiction of reality; it is not
enough to discuss…”
• Avant-Garde short films tried to reject the dominant and feature more women (it is known as
a somewhat feminist genre)
• QUESTIONS
How do films fortify and challenge the dominant ideology of patriarchy in not only
their content, but also their form?
What role does gender difference play in the structure of narrative, in the process of
narration, in the creating of knowledge, in the look and sound of a film?
Is the spectator encouraged (through the film’s stylistic and narrative systems) to
relate to male and female characters differently? If so, how?
“Orlando”
Tilda Swinton is presented as androgynous
Breaking fourth wall
More dominant as a female
Challenged gender roles
Conclusion is ambiguous
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