I got bombarded with many written responses in class yesterday, some of which contained good ideas and analyses. This fact also points to some frustrations, though: where were all these comments in our class discussions? Recall a post I made early in the semester about speaking up in class, taking intellectual risks, and voicing your ideas. By showing up for class, doing the standard requirements, and not separating yourself from others (in class or in written form), you will earn a 'C' (the default grade for all college-level work). It is all too obvious that some are still playing on their computers, phones, or doing other classwork (with headphones in ears!). Others sit quietly with no texts, notes, or obvious effort to engage the class in any way whatsoever.
As for A Woman Under the Influence and "A Room of One's Own": notes are now online. However, I want to encourage you to strike out on your own in terms of analysis, particularly connecting the two texts. Obviously they are both focused on "woman." How (as film specifically) deal with Mabel, her house, and her marriage? How does the camera function? What is the relationship between camera and its subject/object? Don't write merely about story here but about elements that are particular to cinema. How might the ideas that Woolf highlights be seen in the film? How does Woolf see history and the future for woman?
I feel as if Mabel was crowded throughout the film, this is the reason for the tension that she felt, The most glaring scene that shows this is the one when the doctor comes to commit her to an institution. She knows that something is wrong from the moment the doctor arrives, and while she is trying to calm herself down everyone, including the camera, is up in her face, she has her mother in law yelling at her and the doctor, her husband is constantly touching her and she can't get a moment to breathe. This is shown through close shots on Mabel. Also the camera doesn't treat Mabel like a person, we (as the viewer) never get to know what is really going on in her head because the camera keeps a safe distance from her emotionally.
ReplyDeleteA Woman Under The Influence felt more like a documentary than anything. The camera was constantly following Mabel and Nick around and their really wasn't much narrative throughout the film. It was nothing but long takes showing the turmoil that Mabel was going through and the effect it was having on the people around her. I thought one of the more revealing scenes was when Mabel was out in public waiting for her kids and she couldn't even ask someone for the time without the people thinking she's crazy. I thought that was a very sad moment because it showed that Mabel would never be able to co-exist with the outside world. I agree with Elizabeth in that the camera does seem to keep a safe distance from Mabel. As the film goes on it is also evident that Nick's actions further antagonize Mabel and it makes her act even more out of control. As I said in the beginning, the narration is very weak. It starts and ends with Mabel and her problems, with maybe a glimmer of hope in the end. However, the movie as a whole definitely leaves a bad taste in your mouth. It was an extremely tough movie to watch.
ReplyDelete"A Room of One's Own" was a very thoughtful essay written on women, fiction, and freedom. Although the text of the essay was at times difficult follow, it still represented a powerful message in my opinion. The essay is packed with insightful thoughts on the idea of being an independent woman.
ReplyDeleteVirginia Woolf expresses her concerns on inequality that women artists faced in the 19th century. Noting the fact that many great female writers never got noticed or their talents never fully developed mainly because of men's domination in Literature.
Woolf's essay was inspiring and encouraging. She let it be known that women have more choices besides staying at home and doing housework. In A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf wants the limitations removed, and for women to have the same intellectual freedom that men have had for centuries.
I agree with what Nick says the film starts off without giving viewers any background info or "warning". It is as though a camera has just been placed into a person's life and has started filming; this move gives the film more authencity in a way... life is not all simple and easy and ordered like Hollywood films in the sense of there is no establishing shot, POV1 shot, and POV2 shot. In fact the camera never tries to show things from Mabel's point of view; the camera is just always a viewer of Mabel's craziness. For instance the next day when the strange man is looking for Mabel the camera follows him around looking for Mabel, but it never goes inside the bathroom that she is in. In fact the door is marked Private though the camera can never follow her there;the bathroom seems to be her "sanctuary" a place she can think and breathe and yet the camera never tries to enter into her process of thought. The camera constantly scrutinzes Mabel as people do in her "real" life.
ReplyDeleteSomething I found interesting about "A Woman Under the Influence" is that Mabel never came across as "Other" or objectified in the way women--especially women with problems in the sort of exploitation fare that the title "A Woman Under the Influence" kinda conjures up, for me at least--typically are in movies. This is especially unique because the lack of Otherness didn't come from Mabel being an especially developed "Empowered Woman!" character; rather, it came from the narration's disinterest in judging anything that happened in the film. As has always been my (admittedly pretty limited) experience with Cassavetes, the narration imposes more *and* less distance than that of conventional films. On the one hand, the film is uncomfortably intimate at times, often going out of its way to show the little awkward moments, in-jokes, and endless conversations most films are content to leave between the scenes. On the other, it never makes any effort to get into its characters' heads, at least no more so than would be possible from simply watching the way they conduct themselves from day to day. There are no dramatic "This Is How I'm Feeling Now!" monologues, very few moments of non-diegetic music, and no conventional cause-->effect narrative structure in the film. As a result, both Mabel *and* Nick (and all the other characters, really) seem equally human, and I guess equally "Other" compared to characters in a more conventional narrative.
ReplyDeleteTHIS POST IS FROM ALEX C
ReplyDeleteI noticed a powerful literary tool used in Woolf's 'A Room of One's Own' was in it's use of identity. The main character and narrator of 'A Room of One's Own' never mentions her real name, almost exclusively referring to herself as "I". She states early on, "call me Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Carmichael or by any name you please—it is not a matter of any importance". Her identity shifts throughout the story and this constantly shifting identity help transform this character into a more universal one. She speaks for more than just herself now. Through this universal voice she explores more than just gender equality, but the theme of materialism is heavily explored as well. Woolf puts forward the idea that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction". Thus the title of the story is the same as Woolf's theory. A woman must have her own room and space to let her creativity come to her. She questions the conditions under which creativity is able to fluourish and why there haven't been as many notable female literary works, working in history with fiction. The freedom of the female mind is an overarching theme and Woolf uses her unique identity to explore the restrictions of the female mind and lack of exposure to intellectual work. One such example is when Woolf's narrator states "I thought of the organ booming in the chapel and of the shut doors of the library; and I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse perhaps to be locked in". This first person perspective, again, allows for a greater attachment to the narrator's thoughts and struggles.