by Ana-Maria Comanescu

Created on: April 27, 2009

Generally, women in the cinematographic industry have been depicted as the "damsel in distress" cliche. On the other hand, there have been very powerful female characters, but also showcased as sexual objects.

The more interesting examples are those of females that appear to be powerful, yet still keep their vulnerability. Starting from the stereotypical "Hitchcock blonde", who was an elegant woman with a cool attitude and heartbreaking sighs, best portrayed in "Rear Window" by the beautiful Grace Kelly, to the delicate but tough as nails Madame Olenska, portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer in Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence". There can be a certain confusion when it comes to women regarded as sexual objects. As they may appear to have strong, powerful personalities, they actually keep their sexual inferiority by their own will. Examples can be given: Isabella Rossellini as Dorothy Vallens in David Lynch's "Blue Velvet", Helena Bonham Carter as Marla Singer in David Fincher's "Fight Club", Michelle Pfeiffer as the villain seductress Catwoman in Tim Burton's "Batman Returns", Pam Grier as Jackie Brown in Quentin Tarantino's "Jackie Brown", or Anamaria Marinca as Oana in Cristian Mungiu's Romanian masterpiece "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days". A very interesting example is the contrast between the three main female characters in the Stephen Frears film "Dangerous Liaisons": Glenn Close plays a strong woman, Michelle Pfeiffer plays a weak woman trying to be strong and Uma Thurman plays a woman just plainly weak. Fact is, they are all equally vulnerable.

All those women mentioned above can help us reach a more profound conclusion, that they become sexual objects because they allow themselves to. What is most important, is that this approach is not generally so pertinent, because in the end, it's the women that hold the psychological control, due to their emotional superiority. A very cheap example I could give is Sharon Stone's role as Catherine Tremell in "Basic Instinct", but I have more self-esteem than that.

There are also films that are ostensively male-oriented, who flash a more misogynistic approach. Examples are: Martin Scorsese films, such as "Goodfellas", "Raging Bull", "Casino", Brian DePalma's "Scarface" or Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction". An interesting thing to notice is that even though these women appear to be prosecuted, they always get things in exchange, most frequently, material goods.

An example of films promoting an equality between men and women would be movies based on scripts adapted from Agatha Christie's crime novels. For instance, in "The Orient Express Murder", the women are suspected of murder just as much as the men, by the famous detective Hercule Poirot.

Some female cliches in cinematography can be: the damsel in distress (women in comic book adaptations, vampire movies, horror films such as "A Nightmare on Elm Street" or "IT"), who usually becomes so because she desires the male control, the female hero (Lara Croft in "Tomb Raider", The Bride in "Kill Bill"), or the vicious villain (Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest").

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