Final Essay - Adam Mohanlal

 Analyze the portrayal of a queer character (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning) in a film of your choice. Please analyze 6 scenes from the film.  Build an argument around stereotypical representations of sexual identity in film. Is the character a stereotype or counter-stereotype? Are they punished or vilified in the film? What are some of the coded messages in the film? 

The movie chosen for this essay was “Transamerica”, which is about a pre-operative male-to-female transsexual who finds out that she has a son. The main character Bree Osbourne, is trying to get a vaginoplasty after having waited a year for this surgery, however, her therapist thinks it best that she does not renounce her past and forget about the son she never knew existed, who was currently in jail in New York. Her therapist refuses her permission to get the operation if she does not face her past and go to her son to work things out. After meeting her son she finds that there are a lot more problems awaiting her on her journey.

The first scene analyzed is when Bree is talking to her therapist. While talking to her therapist she mentions that she recently found out that she may possibly have a son, but believes it to be a scam considering she only has her Vaginoplasty on her mind and wouldn’t want anything to get in the way of it.  Her therapist says that she can’t just dismiss her past entirely because it may affect her in a way that isn’t good for her and it would be best to see how meeting her son would change her. The therapist then refused to give an approval for the vaginoplasty unless Bree went to her son and tried to see how things go.

The next scene to be analyzed is Bree with her new found son. She refuses to tell him at first that she is actually a male, and his father, instead she tells him that she works with a church. Her son is a drug hustling male prostitute who is just getting by living in an old run down dirty apartment.

Another scene is when they are back in Toby’s, Bree’s son, home where his step father lives. As it turns out Bree thought she was doing a good thing by bringing him home to his step father, when infact all it did was make things worse for Toby considering his step father molested him as a child and after Toby confronted him in front of Bree, his step father started hitting him in which the neighbour then took a machine and hit Toby’s step father over the head with.

Fourth, is when Bree and Toby are on the road and Bree has to pull over to use the washroom. As she is peeing behind the car, Toby notices that Bree is holding her penis standing and peeing. He then gets upset with her immediately and stops talking to her and calling her a freak saying that she has been lying to him this entire time. He then tells the people they encounter this lady is no lady, she is a man with a penis, thus embarrassing Bree publicly.

Fifth scene to analyze is when Bree and Toby go to Bree’s parent’s house. They immediately start off negative with the parents slamming the door on Bree because her mother is not accepting of her son’s transformation. As he eventually is let inside his mother yells at him and asks about what happened to her boy and why did he do this, she then grabs Bree’s crotch to verify that she still has a penis. She ended up happy knowing that Bree was not yet complete with her transformation, however she broke down in tears when Bree grabbed her mother by the hand and placed it on her chest showing her that she is still undergoing transformation.

Sixth, is where Bree is in her room and Toby enters wearing a robe. He then sits on her bed and holds her hand and she is happy thinking he is really caring for her like a mother. However, Toby kisses Bree and confesses that he loves her and would get married to her. This is when Bree admits to Toby that she is his father, he then furiously storms out of the room with Bree following fast pleading to him to listen and understand. He then hits her and says that she is not his father and ends up missing. He later visits Bree at home and shows her that he is doing well and is now a gay porn actor, and can accept that Bree is his father.

I think the character of Bree is a stereotypical transgendered, because she does identify with a gender that is not her biological sex, and is an effeminate male cross-dresser. The way her appearance looks can be considered stereotypical considering she keeps long pink nails and tends to wear bright colours such as pink.

At times in this movie, Bree was vilified by Toby her son, and her mother. At first Toby called Bree a freak for having a penis yet being the way she is, he then retracted that comment of her being a freak considering he didn’t mean it, he was just upset that she had been lying to him this entire time. Later on in the movie Bree is vilified by her own mother, who treats her horribly because she wishes to be a woman when she in fact was born a man. Her mother who is very against the idea of Bree’s sexuality because she is homophobic and states they she loves her but cannot respect her.

There are many messages in this film, such as being who you are regardless of what other people say or do, and how they treat you. Another message could be that you shouldn’t give up on people because they can surprise you.

WhaleRiderAssignment - Adam Mohanlal

 How is Paikea a female counter-stereotype? Use the "female gaze" theory to describe how the film and the character fit this model of the female perspective and female “voice”. Use the web link provided in Week 11 module on the Female Gaze (the Rubaiyat Hossain article, “Female Directors, Female Gaze”).

Paikea is a female counter-stereotype because she wanted to do all the things that the men were allowed to do. Paikea wanted to learn the same thing all the boys were learning. She didn’t just be another one of the women who would chant and cook.

The female gaze is used in this film because it’s a story told to you by Paikea. You are getting everything from her perspective and through her eyes. From Paikea you get to see her actions and hear her thoughts. As it says in the article Female Directions, Female Gaze: The Search for Female Subjectively in Film “Men and women don't live the same reality. They belong to different plains of power and are meant to see different versions of the same images as they both stare at one single object, or truth, or reality.”

How is Whale Rider a statement of empowerment for women and girls? How does Paikea challenge gendered expectations? Use scenes/characterization/dialogue from the film to give examples.

Paikea challenges gendered expectations by trying to learn how to be a chief although that is something reserved only for males because women cannot be leaders. She does all she can to learn the old ways by going to her uncle Rawiri who use to be a taiaha tournament winner. In the movie Paikea would stand behind the boy’s school listening in on their lessons and practicing alone so that she could learn what they are learning rather than just sitting in the back watching quietly. At the end of the movie when Paikea gets on the whale and saves it from being beached, it shows that women to have the power to be leaders and can do things alone without relying on men and being able to do things that men can’t.

How is Whale Rider an example of “counter-cinema” and the “female gaze”? Use the 1990’s Lecture notes in Week 11 Module to help with this answer and the “Hollywood” article by Kord and Krimmer in the course package.

This is an example of counter-cinema and the female gaze because the director of this movie is a female which makes this movie have a more real view, for example the “Lady Sings the Blues” was directed by a male so the director made the film following his masculine ideals, meanwhile, this movie is directed by a woman, about a woman.  This is counter-cinema because as the week 11 notes say it “stands in opposition to the dominant forms of Hollywood." 

MildredPierceAssignment - Adam Mohanlal

Into which Women’s Film category (Molly Haskell's four categories) would you place Mildred Pierce? Why? (Use the Woman's Film Lecture notes for this question). 

As soon as I reviewed the lecture film notes for the four categories I was instantly drawn to “Sacrifice” considering everything Mildred did was for her child Veda. She married a man she didn’t love to give her, now only, child everything she wanted. Even before leaving her husband she was trying to give Veda everything only to have her want more expensive, luxurious things. In the movie Mildred says “Everything I touched turned into money, and I needed it. I needed it for Veda.” All Mildred has tried to do is buy Veda’s love. The only reason she didn’t sacrifice for Kay is because she already loved her mother.

Robin Morrison contends that Mildred cannot be seen as a “good mother” because she’s working outside the home – in what ways is she shown to be a “bad mother”? Please differentiate here between YOUR personal opinion and critical analysis; you want to employ critical analysis and situate Mildred Pierce as a representative icon of patriarchal structures and sexist ideologies. Try to disengage here from what your personal beliefs are on this matter.  

“A woman cannot be an effective mother while being self-employed, for a number of different reasons. If she is a working woman, she cannot properly take care of her children, but also if she is a mother, her business decisions are negatively affected by that role, and she lets consideration of her children cloud her judgement.”

Mildred is a “bad mother” because for women, their only job should have been taking care of the house, children and husband.  In the movie Mildred says “I was always in the kitchen. I felt as though I’d been born in a kitchen and lived there all my life, except for the few hours it took to get married.”

Kathryn D’Alessandro describes how many of the visual images (cinematography, lighting) in Mildred Pierce are reminiscent of film noir. Explain how. (You can also refer to notes from 1940's FILM NOIR Lecture notes). 

Visual / Narrative Style:

·         Majority of scenes take place at night (in the city)

·         Light falls on walls and surfaces in odd shapes

·         Use of dramatic lighting

·         Use of flashbacks and voice-over narration

·         Themes of murder, intrigue, despair, crime, corruption

·         Ending is bleak

·         Femme fatale and private detective characters

Page 5 Film Noir & Psychoanalytic Theory Lecture Notes

In the beginning of the movie it starts off with a crime scene which then leads you to finding a character you believe is the femme fatale which intrigues you because as the camera shows the scene of the crime it shows only Monty dying but not the shooter thus making you believe the woman you saw is the murderer. At certain scenes when things were more chaotic the lighting was much darker and much more dynamic than usual.

Sybil DelGaudio defines the racial stereotype of the "Mammy" role in the "Mammy in Hollywood" article in your course reader (also available online). What character is shown as a racial stereotype in Mildred Pierce? How does she fit the Mammy role? 

“The Mammy’s image is inexorably linked to either the slave-society image of surrogate maternalism and domestic service (in the rearing and socialization of white children), or to the pernicious myth of black matriarchy (in the sole parenting of the fractured, father-absent black family).” - The mammy in Hollywood film by Sybil

Lottie is the racial stereotype in the movie, considering she fits the role of the Mammy which is essentially a happy black woman who resembles Aunt Jemima. Lottie is always in a happy mood always polite and up beat while working which is essentially what they want.

Mildred Pierce is representative of a mix between the "male gaze" and the "female gaze". Explain how, using the FILM NOIR and PSYCHOANALYTIC Theory lecture notes as well as the web link on DEFINING THE FEMALE GAZE. "Mildred Pierce" has ONE femme fatale. Who plays the femme fatale and how does she fit this stereotype?

The femme fatale in this film is surprisingly the daughter Veda. Since she was a little child she was always going on about getting money and being rich. She is a beautiful young woman who uses her attractiveness to lure in men to get money. An example of this would be when she married Tommy and then divorced him to get the $10 000 financial settlement after claiming she was pregnant. Although she has no appetite for sex, at least not outwardly, but does have a huge appetite for money and living a luxurious lifestyle.