Millennium I: The girl with the Dragon tattoo (2009) — Dir. Niels Arden Oplev. Match point (2005) — Dir. Woody Allen. Pretty woman (1990) — Dir. Garry Marshall. Billy Elliot (2000) — Dir. Stephen Daldry. The Scarlet Letter (1995) — Dir. Roland Joffé.
a) Visual presentation: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gender-Sex-and-Language/499516986832315?ref=hl
b) INDIVIDUAL REPORT: OF GENDER RELATED ISSUES. -A DISCUSSION OF THE BASIC PLOT ELEMENTS OF EACH FILM -THE RELEVANT CONTEXT (SOCIO- HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, IDEOLOGICAL, ETC) NECESSARY FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FILM. -ANYTHING FROM LEGISLATION TO FILM EXCERPTS, FROM NEWSPAPER ARTICLES TO TRIVIA. (In the next pages)
Millennium I: The girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) — Dir. Niels Arden Oplev.
Director: Niels Arden Oplev Written: Nikolaj Arcel (screenplay), Rasmus Heisterberg(screenplay)
WITH: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Ewa Fröling The first movie subject to study is a compendium of almost all themes we have studied in this matter, this year in the subject Gender, Sex and Language. We have in this movie: woman discrimination, gender violence against women, sexist attitude. There is also forced submission. Equality. Misogyny. Homosexuality. Racism. Jewish names. Nazism. Immigrants. Prostitutes.
Lisbeth Salander is a problematic adolescent, she uses her intelligence - she is a researcher and a computer hacker- for revenging from his sexual abuser and `mentor´. This mentor shows a abominable personality and abuses her. He, in his superior position, takes advantages of it, and rapes and mistreats her, injuring her. He is a perverted man. We see in this man misogyny, in the way he treats Lisbeth: as an object, sexual object.This abject subject, the tutor, has a sexist attitude towards Lisbeth, precisely by his sexual supremacy´s displayed by him. He has the `phallus´, she has to venerate, to worship it, he has the power. He is command, she has to obey. This is history no herstory. In contrast, her friend Blomkvist, treats her in equal condition, in that way, that she finally fall in love with him. He is a relief for her. What every woman (in this case, but it
could be also a man, so `what every person´) deserves. She is, at least as we infer from the movie (as far as we have not read the famous book in which is based this movie), bisexual, she has sexual intercourse with a woman and with a man. This means she is a liberated woman, a free woman. She earns her own money, although, at the beginning, controlled by his tutor. These are the principal characters but all the movie is imbued by the bitter taste of murders and abuses to women. The same as the tutor, which name in the movie is Nils Bjurman, are presented the rest of male list. Gottfried and Martin, revealed as sexual abusers, murderers and wealthy, corrupted and members of the upper class. -A DISCUSSION OF THE BASIC PLOT ELEMENTS Millennium I: The girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
In 2002, Mikael Blomkvist, journalist of Millennium magazine, loses a case about a publication against the financier Hans-Erik WennerstrĂśm. He is sentenced to three months in prison. Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant hacker, is hired by Henrik Vanger, the patriarch of the wealthy Vanger family, to investigate Blomkvist. Vanger then hires Blomkvist to investigate the disappearance of his niece, Harriet. Vanger believes that Harriet was murdered by a family member.
Salander, has a new tutor called Nils Bjurman. This man is a sexual sadist, forces Salander to have sex, raping and hitting her. Having used a hidden camera to record Bjurman raping her, Salander returns to take her revenge, torturing him and threatening to ruin him unless he takes her full control of her life and finances. She then uses a tattoo
gun to brand Bjurman's abdomen with the message "I am a sadist pig and a rapist". This part of the movie is the most striking besides the history that is behind under investigation. If we could summarize the movie in a sentence I would point at this statement “I am a sadist pig and a rapist". Many women in her inner, self- conscience would be happy if they could have done this to their rapists. It´s the pure revenge. Many critics point out that Lisbeth is a feminist, but I think she has no labels, she is as she is, unique and special, she is a woman plenty of hues.
Blomkvist meets the Vanger family, including Harriet's brother Martin and cousin Cecilia. Inside Harriet's diary, he finds a list of five names what seem to be phone numbers. He visits police inspector Morell, who says him that investigators cannot decipher them. After viewing photographs taken during a parade, Blomkvist sees Harriet's facial expression thinks that Harriet could have seen her murderer that day.
Blomkvist learns that Salander had hacked into his computer, and hires her as a research assistant. Using her access to Blomkvist's computer, Salander learns that the numbers in Harriet's diary are references to verses in the Book of Leviticus. Together, Blomkvist and Salander connect all but one of the names on Harriet's list to murdered women. They are all Jewish names, which intrigues Blomkvist, as the Vanger family has a long history of anti-Semitism. During the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander become lovers. Not only are murderers and rapists also they have nazi ideology. It's the perfect reflex of the Devil. Salander has a privileged mind, she displays an astounding knowledge, deciphering the secret codes.
Martin presumes about raping and murdering women for decades, but denies have killed Harriet. As Martin is strangling Blomkvist, Salander appears and beats Martin with a golf club. While she loose Blomkvist, Martin escapes in his car. Salander gives chase on her motorcycle. Salander finds him trapped in the wreckage but still alive. The car goes up in flames, and she does nothing to save him. Salander again revenges against men, it is her second revenge. We could say that Salander is a heroine, the saviour of the oppressed souls.
Blomkvist realises that Cecilia's late sister Anita was the double of Harriet, and that some of the photographs taken on the day of Harriet's disappearance show Anita, not Harriet as previously thought. Blomkvist and Salander discover not only that Harriet has been using Anita's name, but she is still alive in Australia. Blomkvist flies there to look for her. He learns the truth about Harriet's disappearance: that her father and her brother had repeatedly raped her; that she killed her father by drowning him.
Salander visits Blomkvist in prison and gives him new information on the Wennerström case. After his release Blomkvist publishes a new story on Wennerström in Millennium, which ruins Wennerström. Wennerström is found dead. His offshore bank account in the Cayman Islands is raided; the police suspect a young woman caught, whom Blomkvist recognises as Salander disguised. The film ends with Salander, dressed very smart and walking in the beach.
The principal characters do a journalistic work, denouncing corruption and the extreme right, the same as in the real life did Stieg Larsson , the author of the novel, in which the movie are based. Salander performs the hard work, in contrast with Blomkvist. She saves his life, indeed. She does what in other movies do a `masculine character´. She breaks the stereotypes, the rules,is an outsider, but she has clear the right sense of justice. She has an accused personality. I think she is more fascinating than the story. This female character could have starred more books from Larsson if were still alive, because she is a complex and fruitful character. We hope somebody keeps writing on and about her. We need, in this insane word, people like her. Someone must impart justice. The setting itself, the isolated island, the winter and the town people gives the thriller atmosphere to the movie.
-THE RELEVANT CONTEXT (SOCIO- HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, IDEOLOGICAL, ETC) NECESSARY FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FILM. Millennium I: The girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original title in Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor – literally, Men who hate women) is a crime novel by the late Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. It is the first book of the Millennium trilogy, which, when published in 2005, after Larsson´s death became the best - seller in Europe and the United States. The crimes related in this book, and in the film, took place 40 years before. The film is based in 2002. They are connected with members of the nazi Sweden. The Reuter´s review refers to it as “Dragon Tattoo film paints Sweden in darkest shades”. It brought the issue of Nazi presence in Sweden until well into the twentieth century. Stieg Larsson was anti-nazi, he worked against nazi´s forces in Sweden from his journalistic point of view. This book/ movie seems to be a denounce that those criminals existed. Even today has been a rise of extreme-right thoughts and groups that support these criminal ideas in nordic and other northern countries. The idea of an superior race was not original from Nazis but Swede. In 1922 was passed in the Swedish parliament, the first country in the world, the creation of the National Institute of Biology of the Races anthropology to examine the Swedish people and establish a classification of different races. Since the adoption of the law until its derogation in 1975 over 60,000 people were sterilized by "poor, stupid, devious and a burden to society," and 4,500 were lobotomized by consider "undesirable". This was and has been the idyllic Sweden. Reading all this material and studying Larsson´s life I have arrived to the conclusion that his death was suspicious, and that his own demise feeds the legend of his person. He reminds me Edward Snowden... -ANYTHING FROM LEGISLATION TO FILM EXCERPTS, FROM NEWSPAPER ARTICLES TO TRIVIA. Here you have the American version, full movie:
http://viooz.co/movies/843-the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-2011.html David Fincher´s trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVLvMg62RPA http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estado_de_Bienestar_Sueco http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/psychologist-the-movies/201111/sexism-inthe-girl-the-dragon-tattoo “Hostile Sexism in "Dragon Tattoo" “Is Lisbeth Salander the Most Sexist of All? http://pov.imv.au.dk/Issue_28/section_2/artc7A.html “Stieg Larsson as feminist author? I add now another interesting links. There are many on the web but I think these are representatives enough: http://isreview.org/issue/77/man-behind-millennium-trilogy http://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-211714716/corporations-crime-andgender-construction-in-stieg http://opinionessoftheworld.com/2011/12/27/hollywoods-the-girl-with-the-dragontattoo/ http://unapizcadecmha.blogspot.com.es/2012/10/nazis-en-suecia-larsson-ymillenium.html https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/rec.arts.movies.currentfilms/w55YShvHRtA/8_ddIhYIilEJ Film soundtrack: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/girl-dragon-tattoo-soundtrack/id487031698 ARTICLE REVIEWS:
A fourth book in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series of novels will be written… despite
author
behind
the
phenomenon
dyed
nine
years
ago…
Read:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2525364/New-book-The-Girl-With-The-DragonTattoo-Milennium-trilogy-published.html#ixzz2r3WmY9vT The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, review from the Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/8954202/The-Girl-With-TheDragon-Tattoo-review.html Movie review: 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' is too frigid, Los Angeles Times review, read: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/20/entertainment/la-et-girl-with-the-dragontattoo-20111220 The guardian review: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jan/01/girl-dragon-tattoo-fincher-review The independent review: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-girl-with-thedragon-tattoo-david-fincher-156-mins-18-br-mission-impossible--ghost-protocol-133-minsbrad-bird-12a-6280578.html Match point (2005) — Dir. Woody Allen.
Written and directed by Woody Allen WITH: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Chris Wilton), Scarlett Johansson (Nola Rice),Emily Mortimer (Chloe Wilton), Matthew Goode (Tom Hewett), Brian Cox (Alec Hewett) and Penelope Wilton (Eleanor Hewett). The female protagonist is an American actress, two traits that seem to be pitiful for the snob family she enters. There is a classist family and a classist environment. The soundtrack of the film is all opera music, which gives a tragic sense to the movie, as is its final. We hear Rigoletto, l'elisir d'amore, William Tell, Bizet´s I pescatori di Perle, and Otello and Macbeth (Giuseppe Verdi). Nola Rice is the femme-fatale stereotype, nobody in the rich family provides her a good job, as has facilitated the man, Chris Wilton, the former tennis pro. Rice is treated differently in the family, has no place in it. Everybody discourages her for doing new things. We have two types of women, the wife, Chloe Hewitt Wilton, and the lover Nola Rice. Chloe Hewitt the naïve spouse only wants to pleasure his husband, blind, gullible of all her husband lies. Nola Rice would be the woman that wakes murderer instincts on men, by her femme-fatale role. She is only a frustrated actress. And she is just a passing fancy,
a whim for Chris, he needs to satisfy his sexual desire at any cost, get everything, sex, woman (the blonde¡), money, power, he is thirsty, blinded by ambition. We see also sexism, hegemonic masculinity, `patriarchal dividend´ (R.W.Connell, 1995). Only the men have important jobs, roles in this high society. Remember that Chloe is a gallerist, is not to her to whom her father designates the company´s president position, but her husband. This connects with the idea of power, the protagonist is eager for power, no matter the obstacles, he will crush them, with the help of his cynicism. The rest of the male characters shows also this male role, as his brother in law, Tom Hewett who introduces Chris in this upper class world. Tom Hewett is wealthy, sportsman, is the perfect man. The patriarch king of all this empire is Tom´s father, Alec Hewett, that represents the very essence of masculinity power, being the boss, successful business man. And, at least, we have Eleanor Hewett (mother of Tom and Chloe Hewitt, Alec Hewett´s wife) devoted wife who makes Nola Rice´s life miserable, being the first in practising inequality.
-A DISCUSSION OF THE BASIC PLOT ELEMENTS. Match point (2005)
Life is a match, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, it´s a question of luck. The Observer, has characterised Match Point's as a "clever twist on the themes of chance and fate".
The same way starts the movie with this scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX5F8hkN18k ends with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaV2Sf9AJmc In the middle of both scenes there is a world of lust, greed, money, power, and unequal relations. How far would you go for money, for power? We see that the protagonist arrives at murder, he kills for protect his achievements in life, a high economic and social position. At the beginning we can understand the love story but when we realise that he´s going to marry with Chloe, whatever it happens, we realize that it´s only sex with Nora what Chris Wilton desires, no more than satisfy his lower instincts. Nola Rice is an object for him, and a real threat when she is pregnant and loses her nerve and control of the situation. The film is also a critic to the londoner high society, to its poses and artificiality, the painting of the wealthy´s excesses and the veiled idea that everything is permitted to this high society. Scotland Yard investigates the crime and concludes it has been committed by a drug addict stealing money. Lucky has helped Chris a little bit. The script was originally set in The Hamptons (The Hamptons are a group of villages and hamlets in the townships of Southampton and East Hampton, which form the South Fork of Long Island, New York.), a wealthy enclave in New York, but transferred to London when Woody Allen found financing for the film there. The film's soundtrack consists of recordings of opera arias, most of all sung by the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso. -THE RELEVANT CONTEXT (SOCIO- HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, IDEOLOGICAL, ETC)
NECESSARY FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FILM.. Match point (2005)
The film is actual, the same date is filmed, 2005. It is based in London, the City of London economically speaking. It hasn't arrived yet the economical crisis of 2007 but it seemed that soon was going to show its effects. There was economic prosperity yet, but the economic analysis indicated at that time that there would be soon a relapse. Tony Blair was at this time Prime Minister (labour party) , but his political ideas did not differ very much from those of the conservative party. Anyway, the family in which is established Chris Wilton is very rich and even having Chris losses on the exchange, this was not a problem at all because they (Chris and Chloe) “will always have a web” in the own words of Alec Hewitt (Chloe and Tom´s father).
-ANYTHING FROM LEGISLATION TO FILM EXCERPTS, FROM NEWSPAPER ARTICLES TO TRIVIA.
Here is the full film in Spanish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8OXOrbptnQ Official website: http://www.matchpoint.dreamworks.com/main.html Full soundtrack: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/match-point-music-from-motion/id312685057 Telegraph review: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3649152/Still-waiting-for-Woodyscomeback.html Los Angeles Times review: http://www.latimes.com/topic/mmx-060106-movies-reviewmatch,0,794644.story#axzz2r9BW6ayE The Guardian review: http://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/110136/match.point The Independent review: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/match-point12abrrunning-scared-18brjust-friends-12abr13-tzameti-15brexils-nc-522136.html Ping Pong scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm8UrXOVC9E Kiss in the rain scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVjfW-P5yZY Pretty woman (1990) — Dir. Garry Marshall
Director: Garry Marshall Writer: J.F. Lawton WITH: Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Jason Alexander Characters stereotype: Edward is very rich, successful, very handsome and from the american upper class. He always has all planned. He´s a very busy businessman. He is kind, sweet, has the instinct of a Father. Protector instinct. He is perfect. She is poor, she is forced to going out her house by the fire stairs because the landlord is nearby. She has no money to pay him.She is a prostitute but she wants to leave it. A job´s acquaintance has been found in a dumpster. Her language is vernacular. She has no studies. She also has beauty. She is represented as an illiterate woman. He speaks perfectly, she is from the undergrounds. The only way she could ascend in social scale is through prostitution, as the only way to meet important people. Her great achievement, and principal aim, is not other than find a rich man and marry him. She has no other way to progress in life. Vivian always is thinking in a prince who rescues her. Costume: His dress is, from the beginning, of a perfect gentleman, her dress is
prostitute dress, she turns to be a `respectable´dolly when she dresses with expensive clothes and shoes. She, now she has the american card with her, to buy anything she wants, is well treated and respected by the sellers. The display of money makes her respectable. She suffers discrimination by her appearance, both by her dress and her physical.at the beginning. The main idea is that with money, you can achieve everything, power, respectability. She says in the movie that with money everybody can be elegant. Edward tells Vivian that “we both fuck by money”. Edward complaints “we do not build anything, do not manufacture anything!” and his friend, a fox lawyer, Phillip, says him “but we make money”. At the beginning Edward is insensitive with the people of the companies he buys, he dismantles these companies and he doesn´t matter what happens with their workers.Vivian reproaches him, sweetly, asking “people always do what you say?”. He discriminates her also saying her that she´s a whore and that she is at his service. Phillip, the lawyer, insults her too, telling her she is a whore. He is a business shark, and he will not change his mind in the movie as Edward. At the end, Edward will recover the ethic in the business, thanks to Vivian, she also reminds him that he doesn't build anything, doesn't do anything. He will stop speculating with companies, he will now work building ships, and he will associate with a good old man. Phillip commits gender violence against Vivian hitting her, crossing her face,and she says afterwards why men has always his hand prepared to hit women?”. After Edward has hit Phillip, Vivian says to Edward that he is not going to quarrell with the whole world, defending her always, that this is impossible. Because she thinks everyone will treat her as Phillips does. Another interesting character, in contrast with Phillip is the hotel manager, Barnard, treats her very well, as an equal, somehow covering her stay at the hotel. He helps her through all the movie, procuring her an elegant dress, showing her how she has to use cutlery. He is represented as a nice man. The Castle: at the end the prince ´rescues´ her princess, he ascends by the fire stairs, he gives her a flower bouquet and that´s the happy ending. She has rescued him too (in Vivian own words).
-A DISCUSSION OF THE BASIC PLOT ELEMENTS. Pretty woman (1990)
Pretty Woman is a 1990 American romantic comedy film set in Los Angeles. Written by J. F. Lawton and directed by Garry Marshall, the film stars Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. Pretty Woman is the story of a Hollywood prostitute called Vivian Ward who is hired by a wealthy businessman, Edward Lewis, to be his companion for some business meetings.
During the course of their relationship she falls in love with him, he is more reluctant to “answer questions about� them, he knows each one belongs to different places. Little by little he will be captivated by her. Finally, after a sort of difficulties precisely due by the different world from which they come, they will end together.
Both principal characters are very different, almost opposite, rich/poor, polite/vulgar, but are similar also, both are clever and good looking for the world they live each one. He always plans the things, she lives at the verge. He always begs her to be very still. so she look like a lady.
Edward, at the beginning is ruthless, he doesn't want his feelings interfere in his business. She doesn't want to kiss anybody in the mouth, this will mean that her feelings are interfering, she also avoid that. There is a interesting parallelism in both characters.
The setting of the movie is in Los Angeles. In Hollywood they will meet casually. There is other place mentioned in the movie, where Vivian goes shopping: Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, known for its luxury-goods stores.
Today this romantic comedy movie is considered the most successful of all times, with incomes of about $464 million. Julia Roberts received a Golden Globe Award, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In addition, the screenwriter J. F. Lawton was nominated for a Writers Guild Award and a BAFTA Award.
-THE RELEVANT CONTEXT (SOCIO- HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, IDEOLOGICAL, ETC) NECESSARY FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FILM. Pretty woman (1990)
In the 90’s it is the beginning of the world globalization, advances in transportation and telecommunication infrastructure, specially the emergence of internet. It is the end of the communism (it is the time Boris Yelstin will permit Mc Donalds in the Ussr) . All this favours the business world. But we can´t forget that in this precise moment is when started the global crisis that we still are suffering, the capitalistic model was beginning to decline. Edward is a corporate raider, he buys companies in economic difficulties to dismantle them. He earns a lot of money with this business (as happens today with many lawyers taking advantage of bankrupt companies).
-ANYTHING FROM LEGISLATION TO FILM EXCERPTS, FROM NEWSPAPER ARTICLES TO TRIVIA. Pretty woman (1990)
Roy Orbison´s Pretty Woman song, with lyrics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHPgco6GQk8 Bathtube scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFuXS1VpXdk Inedite scene (see at the end): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6pi4QZyd-Q Soundtrack (Julia Roberts, Collection): https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/julia-roberts-collection-music/id385076567 The Telegraph review: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9158072/Richard-Gere-PrettyWoman-a-silly-romantic-comedy.html Los Angeles Times review: http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-23/entertainment/ca-549_1_pretty-woman The Guardian review: http://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/81528/pretty-woman New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review? res=9C0CE2DD143EF930A15750C0A966958260
Billy Elliot (2000) — Dir. Stephen Daldry.
Director: Stephen Daldry Writer: Lee Hall WITH: Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Jean Heywood. The most strong symbols of the movie are the ballet slippers and the tutu. Both elements will appear and accompany Elliot in his struggle for achieve his dream. Dance is for him, in his own words, the way he feels good, he forget everything, is like he disappear, as if he had fire inside y he sees himself flying as a bird. The fight is against social pressure, his father, his brother, his friends, the society in general. Billy is a sensitive boy, he plays the piano, see with his grandmother musical movies (he admires Fred Aster, Gene Kelly is also mentioned in the movie), he is in `contact´with his mother that has died, he sees her in his imagination. This sensitivity contrasts with the rudeness of his father and brother, miners who are suffering the economic crisis, they are on strike against the political decision of closing their mine.They, his brother and father, are ´really man´ their fighting for his rights, they are the breadwinners, they won't doubt in
use the violence if it is necessary to protect their rights and the rights of their families, the same thought have the rest of miners, workers in equal situation of poverty. Billy has a friend, Michael, who is presented like a most sensitive boy, he is homosexual, and has this idea very clear from the beginning of his early years. He is in love with Billy, Billy rejects this idea at the beginning, but at the end he will accept totally his friend. The father wants Billy be an authentic man, being boxer. Boxing gloves -they are an heritage from his grandfather- are the opponent element of the ballet slippers. Also the football ball and the boxing boots. These elements contribute to the modelling of what society expect from Billy, the unstated behaviour society wants. The model of masculinity in front of the model of femininity, and thousand times the word “sissy” appears. They are only two biological terms: being male or female. You must to decide to pertaining to one sex or to another. If you dance ballet you are a girl, a sissy. (I criticize strongly that in the movie it states really clear to the spectators that Billy is not gay, but I say what if he were gay? The movie is from 2000 it´s no so old...). His friend, a girl called Debbie, treats him as an equal, she says to him “you join?” inviting him to dance ballet with her and the other girls. The ballet professor, a woman , Debbie´s mother, says “boots, out! let´s see if you dare!” referring to the boxing boots, and gives him Billy, the ballet slippers. It´s an important moment of transition when Billy decides to go against the established order. The professor also treats Billy as an equal.
-A DISCUSSION OF THE BASIC PLOT ELEMENTS. Billy Elliot (2000)
Billy Elliot is a 2000 British drama film written by Lee Hall and directed by Stephen Daldry. Set in north-eastern England, Durham, during the 1984-5 coal miners' strikes. Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) an 11 year-old boy, a dreamer dancer struggling with the society prejudices, against male ballet dancer; Jamie Draven is Billy´s brother, and Julie Walters his ballet teacher. Billy´s father longs for his son be a boxer, but the boy is not happy, he is free, happy when he dances, is a sort of escaping from the reality. His dance and joy, when he dances, contrasts with the dark of times that his people are living in Durham. There are very bad times, economically speaking. His ballet teacher encourages the boy to be a dancer, he is against his own feelings, he fights against himself by the unstated behaviour the society expects from him, the society expects from him that be a ´real man´, be a boxer, a fighter. The Billy´s father statements: “Ballet is for girls, football and boxing for boys, but boys don't dance ballet “, “you know perfectly what it means…”, discourages Billy, but he is determined to follow his instincts. He is also supported by a letter from his mother, message for him and for the film viewers: “be yourself”, never let to be yourself, “I will always be with you” . Her mother supports him `from heaven´. This is the excerpt “Letter from Mum”: http://engres.ied.edu.hk/lang_arts/tasks/BillyElliot/BillyElliotScript02.html His brother Tony laughs at Billy´s, telling him that he is a strikebreaker, ridiculous.
Billy, then, expresses his wrath with more dancing. There´s an element I would like to comment, it´s a symbol: the piano. The piano is broken by Billy´s father for firewood. There is poverty, they don't have money for electric heaters, so they need wood to be burnt. Each time Billy is more alienated from his dream. Music, joy, dance, dream, erased. Finally, he is admitted in the Royal Ballet School of Newcastle upon Tyne.
-THE RELEVANT CONTEXT (SOCIO- HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, IDEOLOGICAL, ETC) NECESSARY FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FILM. Billy Elliot (2000)
At this time, 1984-1985 there was an important UK´s miner's strike due to Margaret Thatcher´s politics, Prime Minister, and her conservative party. The strike ended with the miners' defeat and the Thatcher government consolidated its conservative political ideas. The political power of the NUM (National Union of Mineworkers) and most British trade unions was almost erased. Three deaths resulted from events of the strike: two pickets and a taxi driver taking a non-striking miner. It was the time of the closing of most of Britain's coal mines; NUM is now a small union with negligible political power.
-ANYTHING FROM LEGISLATION TO FILM EXCERPTS, FROM NEWSPAPER ARTICLES TO TRIVIA. Billy Elliot (2000)
Billy ´adulthood´ Official website: http://www.billyelliot.com/pages/home.html ´What dancing feels like´: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0tTT_87Hh8 ´Dancing for Dad´: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH8HV5gXQB4 ´Acceptance´ (in Royal Ballet School): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TOTUOFMjuo Billy Elliot, the Musical: http://billyelliotthemusical.com/ The guardian review: http://www.theguardian.com/film/movie/84830/billy.elliot The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/201730/Billy-Elliot/overview NUM (National Union Of Mineworkers)´s Webpage: http://www.num.org.uk/
The Scarlet Letter (1995) — Dir. Roland Joffé.
Director: Roland Joffé Writers: Nathaniel Hawthorne (novel), Douglas Day Stewart(screenplay) WITH: Demi Moore, Gary Oldman, Robert Duvall. He have here another heroine, with more value because the story is dated on 1666. The author of the novel The Scarlet Letter, in which the movie is based on, Nathaniel Hawthorne has been considered a proto feminist. The book was published in 1850. She arrives from England to Massachusetts, a british colony in that date. She revolutionizes the whole town, putting it upside down. The protagonist Hester Prynne, knows the Scriptures, her husband has taught her. The Governor recommend her to “dress with less laces” , the next scene she has dressed with even more laces. She has come alone, without her husband, she has to wait for him. The host invites her to stay at his home, but she refuses, she wants to live alone until her husband arrives. The host and his family says to her that it´s not appropriate for a young woman to live alone, the community has “rules, absolute order”, and that it is for “survive”. The man who takes her to see houses “on the cliffs” as she wants, tells her “well, so you have come to scandalize everyone?”
advances us a slightly idea about her
personality. She has brought, from England, a bathtub, something that the town people takes
it as a “French” whim. She also negotiates to hire her assistants, money gives her this little power. As we can see she is a woman ahead of her time. She feels free to enter into the forest -I think is a symbol of freedom- she is advised not to enter into the forest if it´s not with a man. But she enters it, following a little red bird, I think again that this bird symbolizes freedom also. There is a group in the town, also as her, more advanced than the rest of its inhabitants. They form the minorities group, a mix of quakers, indian friends, and a sort of ´witches´as they, amusingly, nominate themselves. They are funny have another vision of life, no so dramatic as the Puritan society in which they have to live. This people, this minorities, and the brave Hester Prynne are the forces that change societies, destabilize the `established order´ to advance in rights. Women were less than objects at this time, they had to be entirely subject to the will of their husbands, they have to be subservient, in her domestic role, in a private parcel, nothing to see with public organization of life. Another hint of this innovative woman is that of that she reads books. She lends some of her husband´s books to Arthur, the other protagonist of the movie. He is a Reverend of the community, also ahead of his time, and very up-minded person. He is also very intelligent, she translates the Bible to the indians. He, although the pressure of society, tries to help Hester, but he has a strong struggled in his mind, between guiltiness and reason. They are in love in a society that sees her as an adulterer, and him as a sinner. In fact she is processed by heresy, fornication and adultery. They will have to defend themselves fiercely from this scurfy society. They could be hanged only by a kiss between them. She is determined to enfront hypocrisy of this society, she doesn´t want to give a signal of order, nor a little signal of constriction. She has an iron will, courage, bravery, in front of the `iron men ´ -as she call them- society that only want to submit her. Harriot (her `witch´friend) says her: “when you defy men, that leads to death”. The secret father or `fellow sinner´(Arthur) of Hester´s child, is appealed in public as “Lust, Lucifer and Luxuria¡”. This is their ` new Jerusalem´.
Symbol of the fornication she´ll have to wear the letter `A´ of adulterer in her dress. She is considered by the authorities and rest of the town a paria, she will be rejected and defamed. People shouts her calling her `whore´. When Roger Prynn, her husband, arrives (he has been retained by the Indians), he wants to `wash the evil´ from her, and the she is as `white as snow´, and he starts to abuse his wife, maltreating her. Men had this kind of rights, because she has made a `sacred oath´, the sacred marriage. This is what marriage meant. To a woman to be prisoner of a man. Roger Prynn is a physician that has returned to town -in his own words- “to clean the evils of the community”. He wants to erase the quakers, indians converts, and `witches ´ of the community´s map. This line of thought makes Arthur ask himself about his own beliefs, feelings, shouting at her, at Hester, that he is a lie, a pollution. She asks “what have I become?”. At the end, a happy ending for our protagonists arrives by means of a kind of civil war in the community. They are freed by the Indians. Hester Prynn and the rest of minorities of the society have shaken the firm foundations of the Puritan community. But common sense have not arrived yet, they have to go to another country to live together. It´s the beginning of an evolution. A small step. We´ll have to expect many women like her yet to fight against the established order by men. Because “it isn´t a perfect world yet, we have arrived here for construct a new world and for the benefit of Pearl I must do that”.
-A DISCUSSION OF THE BASIC PLOT ELEMENTS. The Scarlet Letter (1995)
The Scarlet Letter is a 1995 American film adaptation of the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel of the same name. It was directed by Roland Joffé and stars Demi Moore and Gary Oldman. This version was "freely adapted" from Hawthorne. It is 1667 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and an uneasy truce exists between local Puritans and their neighbours, the Algonquian. Chief Metacomet succeeds his father Massaoit as head of the latter just as a new colonist, Hester Prynne arrives overseas from England. As Hester waits for her husband - who is due to follow shortly after - she falls for a young minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. When it emerges that Roger Prynne has likely been killed by Native Americans, they become inseparable lovers. They will fight against the Puritan society in which they live. She will be imprisoned because she is pregnant of Dimmesdale and she doesn't want to give the father´s name, it would suppose the death for both. Instead of that she is forced to wear on her dress a symbol of shame: a letter A of adulterous and a drummer boys follows her everywhere she goes. We are witness of the puritan ideas, men have to rule everything about women. Women can't dress as they like, can't read, can't live alone, can't have business, can´t manage money, they must to be submissive to men. Men rule society, woman serves his husband. Women can't live, breath. The setting: The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America (Massachusetts Bay) in the 17th century, in New England, situated
around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The cast: Demi Moore as Hester Prynn, does not perform a good acting at all. We see her as the protagonist of the movie ´Ghost´, or like in G.I. Jane (La Teniente O'Neill). Nor Gary Oldman as Arthur Dimmesdale does a realistic representation. The soundtrack: also a bad election, John Barry´s music reminds too much to his 1985 movie Out of Africa, just remains to be seen an elephant in the production. The plot is the most interesting and what keeps really your attention, maybe because is based in a novel written by the genius Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864).
-THE RELEVANT CONTEXT (SOCIO- HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, IDEOLOGICAL, ETC) NECESSARY FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FILM. The Scarlet Letter (1995)
When Nathaniel Hawthorne published his novel The Scarlet Letter there was an important feminist movement at that time. The Seneca Falls Convention was an early and influential women's rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York. It spanned two days: 19 July 1848 and 20 July 1848. There was also the precedent in the Vindication of the Rights Women written by Mary Wollstonecraft in 1792. Hawthorne was inspired by this line of thought. As we have said before, Nathaniel Hawthorne is considered a proto feminist. On the other hand, the setting in which is based the novel and the book was real, as we have said, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America (Massachusetts Bay) in the 17th century. Although the colonists initially had good relationships with the local native populations, frictions arose over cultural differences, which were further exacerbated by Dutch colonial expansion. And, at last, the Puritans were a significant group of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. They formed, and identified with, various religious groups advocating greater "purity" of worship and doctrine, as well as personal and group piety. They are the real Devil in the movie, as Hester Prynne says. “they are the lie, they are the pollution�.
-ANYTHING FROM LEGISLATION TO FILM EXCERPTS, FROM NEWSPAPER ARTICLES TO TRIVIA. The Scarlet Letter (1995)
Full movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwJgG5VLs5s John Barry The Scarlet Letter Soundtrack, Love Scene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwmpgjMeCQQ 1934´s film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4evK712TOM New York Times review: http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review? res=990CE7DA1538F930A25753C1A963958260 Roger Ebbet´s critic (Chicago Sun-Times): http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-scarlet-letter-1995
Photo of the 1929 silent-film version of The Scarlet Letter.
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