The second entry in the column #5 Things You Should Read This Week, Written by Daisy Gillam.
In honour of news abuzz with news of the Awards season and the upcoming Oscars, here are five film-related pieces to read! From a discussion about conservatism in popular media, to sex on screen, to the dark underside to Hollywood, to the culture of women on screen, each piece is worth reading regardless of your personal relationship to film, as each piece delves into our subconscious relationship to film and how we can and should change it.
Are the Movies Liberal? by Molly Haskell
Starting off strong with a New York Times piece about political ethos in popular movies, relevant particularly with the recent rising conversations about the rise of conservative ideology in mainstream media and the relationship to Trump’s presidency. Haskell’s article really effortlessly puts into words the contradiction between the conservatism in mainstream movies, the ideologies of those in control of one of the biggest industries in the world and the assumption of Hollywood’s liberalism- because, as the article states in its opening, ‘Everyone knows Hollywood is progressive’. The article explores the ideas of the message being put through in films as one that is not necessary overtly right-wing, but rather a-political. It avoids assigning moral value to the enjoyment of conservative movies, but both and makes the argument for the importance of critically analysing the messages in the popular films we consume.
Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema by Laura Mulvey
The term ‘the male gaze’ is one that has been used and over and over, and often taken out of context to the point where it’s no longer understood. If the concept of the so-called male gaze and the gendered relationship between viewer and screen is appealing this essay by Laura Mulvey where she originates the term is worth a read! She explores the psychology and reasoning behind the representation of gender in every film we watch- from camera positioning to identity with male characters, to the sexualisation of women on screen, to the relationship between the viewer and their pleasure when watching a film and how we as viewers subconsciously internalise these gendered messages. If you are a person who consumes visual media at all, this one is an almost essential read because of the way it attempts to shift the way we view women and marginalised bodies on screen and show us how we are deliberately made to watch from a masculine point of view.
I Can’t Get That Monster Out of My Mind by Joan Didion
Joan Didion, having spent most of her life in LA, has commented countless times on the culture of film, Hollywood- this essay in particular critiques the institution of Hollywood as a whole. She explores the idea of a metaphorical monster, familiar to us as the one that exists in movies, as an analogy for what she argues for the loss of originality in mainstream visual media with the move away from what she describes as ‘old Hollywood’. What’s fantastic about this essay is that it articulates an unsettling subconscious feeling- as most of Didion’s writing does- that is often difficult to put into words- the darker side to Hollywood, the feeling of soullessness and the way this feeds into the films we watch, and the false image of glamour and romanticism the public are given in relation to Hollywood.
'Thelma & Louise': The Last Great Film About Women by Raina Lipsitz
Going into a more specific territory, this Atlantic article makes the compelling point of Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise as being the ‘last best’ film about women. She writes ‘Women who are completely free from all the shackles that restrain them have no place in this world...the world is not big enough to support them’. Even if you haven’t seen the film, Lipsitz’s article is worth reading purely because of the way it explores the kind of film that is loved primarily by a female audience, the radical nature of the film for its de-centring of physical attractiveness with its female protagonists and its comparison with other women-centred movies to argue for the unique relationship in Thelma and Louise; transcending more than the idea of female friendship to something that is ‘intensely personal and deeply political’.
Everyone Is Beautiful and No One is Horny by RS Benedict
This piece remains relevant to almost every movie that comes out, particularly amongst the constant topics of conversation on the place of sex scenes in film. The article moves back through the history of film to attempt to unpick the reason behind the sexlessness of movies. She attempts to attribute the continual loss of eroticism on the screen, despite an arguably more liberated culture, to the continual lack of reality in beauty on screen and how the people are inherently more attracted to imperfect bodies than the ‘Ken-doll’ perfection of movie stars and their aesthetic surroundings in film. More than that, Benedict explores the changing culture around Hollywood stars, how the cultural trends of beauty standards has affected film for the worst; regardless of your thoughts of sex on the screen, the article is a must-read for purely the way she argues that the image of perfection we expect from movie stars.
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