Lesson 10th May 2010

11May10

In lesson we looked at an article from the guardian newspaper “Can a feminist really love Sex and the City?” In this article, the writer questions if the series was good or bad for women.

I picked out from the 5 page article, a few comments and information I thought were interesting and relevant.

• the original show, which ran for 94 half hour episodes between 1998 and 2004 is unusually a show about women, for women. It was adapted from a newspaper column and book of the same name by Candace Bushnell, but the producer and most writers and directors were men.
• film production year- 2008 in USA
• cert (UK) 15
• “it does seem that, in the end, it had to come back to a traditional view, that the future for most women means marriage and children”. 
• “you may not applaud the way that the show tackles more serious issues, sandwiched, as they are, between dates and dinners, sex and shopping, but SATC is never just froth and froth alone. Illness, infertility, bereavement, ageing, single motherhood, sexual discrimination and divorce all play their part in the shows storylines. Glossily packaged and swiftly dispatched they may be, but you can confidently say that there is more to the programme than footwear.
• “ultimately, you just feel that it started with the four of them and they will always be together.” Not only is it a programme about women, but one about women who like each other. They identify as each others soul mates and provide emotional, practical and moral support. They don’t compete with each other for male attention. They make each other laugh. It is probably the best depiction of the genuine nature and importance of female friendship ever to win an Emmy.
• programme is funny, clever and it thinks women are important.

 

Also in this lesson, we looked at ‘Women and film timeline’. It started in 1972 with film comment publishes a filmography of women directors, there was a special women’s event at the Edinburgh Film Festival and New York International Festival of Women’s Films.

In previous research of women, we looked at Laura Mulvey’s facial expressions, relating to the film timeline. Laura Mulvey had an essay published in Screen in 1975, a film Riddle of the Sphinx in 1997 and an article published in 1981. We discussed between us that we can use this theory and apply it to contemporary ideas but we wouldn’t use it and call it a main theorists to contemporary because of the early dates.

We also recognised in 2002 Halle Berry become the first black women to win an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Monster’s Ball.

We thought that the first woman to win a Ocscar award as a director should be added to this timeline. This was in 2010, for the 2009 film.

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