Whale Rider Assignment--Huan Zhang & Maksym Bezukh

1. 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”).

Since mainstream thinking stereotypes of women is this: the weak and passive man's attachment, in the movie " Whale rider", the protagonist Paikea definitely portrayed a counter-stereotype of female. First of all, from her appearance, she looks like a stubborn 11-years-old young boy, with short hair and a non-traditional “little girl” role. Then she is determined, confident, intelligent, diligent, and fearless young girl who defied the odds against her of succeeding in a traditional patriarchal culture. Actually, we consider she is just a kid who has been pining for love, acknowledgement from her grandpa, so she would gain the sense of identify and ignore her fatherless life after her mom died. 

According to Rubaiyat Hossain’s article, “Female Directors, Female Gaze”, she states that" from the vantage point of a woman, reality is not the same episteme we see in the mainstream world of representation around us. Men and women don’t live the same reality."(Hossain, 2011, para 4). In the movie, if you are a boy, you will an inborn leader responsibility, no mattter how you will be; but if you are a girl, you would never have the equal chance to compete with boys, even you are so talented, like Paikea.  

2. 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. 

According to the movie Whale Rider, Paikea is an understanding child who has compassion. She knew her Paka(grandpa) has been loving her deep inside even he underestimated and treated her differently than other boys. Paikea said to her father:" It's unfair. (be treat differently between boys and girls)", and when she was dedicating to her Paka on the school concert, she said:

" I was not the leader my grandfather was expecting and by being born I broke the line back to the ancient ones. It wasn't anybody’s fault. It just happened. But we can learn. And if the knowledge is given to everyone, we can have lots of leaders. And soon, everyone will be strong, not just the ones that’ve been chosen. Because sometimes, even if you’re the leader and you need to be strong, you can get tired." 

She understood her grandpa was a very responsible Maori's leader who is always value the ancestral tradition and keep trying to revitalize the Maori, so she didn't sink down or get lost when she was been mistreated, ignored. She learned how to use the fighting stick from her uncle secretly; She dived into the bottom of the sea to recover her grandpa’s whale tooth necklace, while some boys dared not and other boys failed to do so; she rode on the back of giant whale dashing back into the ocean for rescure the whales, and she soliloquized:" It's okay Paka, I'm not fear of death." 

3. 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. 

Counter cinema is defined as “non-mainstream visions, that stand in opposition to the dominant forms of Hollywood” (Danilovic, 2012, p.2, slide 9). In order to understand counter cinema, we must first look at mainstream cinema. Traditional cinema has “something for everyone” (Kord.S & E.Krimmer). It offers the viewer two contrasting views, mainly to ensure profit is made; a marketable movie. “Hollywood represents issues by offering solutions within the “realm of imaginary”…” (Kord.S & E.Krimmer). Counter-cinema is the opposite, beyond focusing on real issue of people's life, the counter-cinema also have female director to express the meaningful script by her female gaze, like Whale Rider's director Niki Caro. Also this movie choose a story happened in an alternative community of New Zealand natives, that is not a popular and fed topic in mainstreams.  

The female gaze is defined as work that is presented from a female’s perspective and it focuses on the female’s attitudes, desires, feelings, and actions. A film is usually labeled a female gaze film because of the creator’s gender (the director being female herself) or the film was geared towards a female audience. In movie Whale Rider, the little girl Paikea unexpectedly” (to Paka) becomes the Moari's new leader, because of her brave, determination, intelligent. We can see she will be a true leader and heroine after she grows up. In fact, we sense the feministic elements in this film but we don’t think it is the theme of this film. In our eyes, this film expresses Moari’s unique culture and the will of going back to tradition. 

PS: From this film we saw for the first time the Moaris’ weird habit of greeting by nose-touching. Their concept of the relationship between human and sea set the founding of this film—the ancestors of them are whale-riders; in the modern days they should go back to find the lost spirit of their ancestors. So returning back to tradition, back to the original simple and local life seems to us the focus of this film. In the last part, all the people gathered on the shore, singing and dancing in Moari, performing traditional ceremony their ancestors might do... We enjoyed the movie tremendously.

Reference:

Danilovic, S. (2012). Hollywood in the 90’s. Women in Film GHUM 1024 Course Pack. Toronto, ON: George Brown College Bookstore. (Reprinted from Hollywood Divas, Indie Queens, and TV Heroines: Contemporary Screen Images of Women ., 2005, New York, USA: Rowman and Littlefiedl Publishers). 

Hossain, R. (2011, May). Female Directors, Female Gaze: The Search for Female Subjectivity in Film. The Daily Star. Retrieved from: http://www.thedailystar.net/forum/2011/May/female.htm

Kord, S., & Krimmer, E. (2005). Hollywood Divas, Indie Queens and TV Heroines. Pages 1-13.  Rowman                    and Littlefiedl Publishers.

Mildred Pierce Assignment -- Huan Zhang & Maksym Bezukh

1. In her article, “The Genre”, Jeanine Basinger says there are 3 main purposes of the Woman’s Film. Which purpose (choose one) do you think best describes the messages in Mildred Pierce? Explain why.

According to Jeanine Basinger’s (1993) 3 main purposes of the Woman’s Film ; 

• To place a woman at the center of the universe
• To reinforce the stereotype that a woman’s true calling is that of tending to the home, the family, children, her man as his wife, a job she can’t escape from no matter what else she does!!
• To provide a TEMPORARY visual release

In our opinion, the last one purpose is exactly describes the messages in Mildred Pierce: “to provide a temporary visual liberation of some short, however small—an escape into a purely romantic love, into sexual awareness, into luxury, or into the rejection of the female role that might only come in some form of questioning (“What other choices do I have?”)” (p.13). Basinger (1993) points out that “Every movie female has to confront the major action of the woman’s film: making a choice” (p.19). In Mildred Pierce, Mildred made so many choices: decided to go outside work as a waitress to make living for family, took risk to open her own restaurant for support Veda’s pompous requirement, got married with Monte to promote her family’s social status and made herself became a scapegoat for protect her daughter in her daughter’s murdering case. These choices could liberate her temporarily, but not for long run. In the end of the movie, Mildred went back to her first husband, Bert, it signified that it doesn't matter which choice a woman makes, it will only provide a temporary liberation and couldn't change the immutable outcomes: she has to go back to her original position, give back the workforce to men.

2. 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). 

According to Molly Haskell, there are four categories for women’s film – sacrifice, affliction, choice and competition. In our opinions, Mildred Pierce would best fit the sacrifice category. In fact, the whole movie is about the sacrifices: she sacrificed herself for her children, her children for their own welfare, also got married respectability for her daughter. Firstly, she could have continued working as a waitress, but she risked and decided to start her own business, in order to make her daughter feel  not embarrassed about her social status. Secondly, she did everything possible to keep her daughter close to her, look up to her, including marrying a  person who is one of the aristocrats in decline, also she doesn't love him. And finally the most important, Mildred even chose to be the scapegoat for her daughter about her husband's death. Actually, beyond we definitely consider that Mildred Pierce falls into the sacrifice category,  we would rather say she sacrificed for her own vanity and created a femme fatale-her daughter.

3. 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.  

In the reading "Portrait of Work Women in the Pre- and Post-World War Period", Robin Morrison states that "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" (Page 3 of 5). As the story takes places after the war, the time when men returned home and went back to work. Women were no longer needed in the workforce and were suppose to go back to their traditional roles within the home. Although it seems Mildred sacrificed herself to her daughter's life completely, we would consider she is not a qualified “good mother” because of her motivation of life is totally wrong. If she couldn't bear the social status changed because of her own vainglory and aimed her life goal at enjoying luxurious lifestyle of respectable society. Finally she created a snake by parenting as a bad model. How kids can be kind-hearted and grateful if the mom only focus on material life, neglect spirit life, just try to make up to kids by money?Even Mildred tried her best to meet Veda’s material requirement, the mother-daughter relationship was getting worse. Ironically, in the money oriented people's eyes, the family is not worth a farthing. She lead her daughter's life to a wrong way. Therefore, in our opinions, Mildred is a bad mom.

4. 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). 

The following are visual images in Mildred Pierce that are reminiscent of film noir:

• Majority of scenes take place at night (in the city)
• Light falls on walls and surfaces in odd shapes (blinds + shapes reflected)
• Use of dramatic lighting (heavy shadows, faces shrouded in darkness)
• Use of flashbacks and voice-­over narration
• Themes of murder, intrigue, despair, crime, corruption
• Ending is bleak
• Femme fatale and private detective characters

In Mildred Pierce:

• The movie's opening breaks by an murder at beach house during the night time. In the very beginning, the story was confused, Mildred seems the only suspect of the murder because of her attempt of suicide after she run out from the crime scene.
• Most of the scenes expressed by Mildred flashbacks and voice of everything that actually exposed key details.
• The dramatic black & white lighting projected shadows of the characters and objects in the rooms.
• Mildred's daughter Veda is portrayed as a femme fatale, she is selfish and ruthless, also seduced and took away her mom's lover.
• The ending is a dismal: Mildred finally went back to her original woman life without daughter, business and money. She fight for her life, but in a wrong direction, in the end,the happiness life leave her away.

5. 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 in inexorably linked to either the slave-society image of surrogate materialism and domestic service (in the rearing and socialization of white children)" and "usually appeared as, the dark-skinned Aunt Jemima, whose physical largess seemed capable of enfolding a substantial portion of white Southern society's children in her loving, maternal arms."(DelGaudio, 1983)

In our opinion, Lottie, Mildred’s maid, is shown as a racial stereotype of black Mammy because she was a black woman who worked for a white wealthy lady and she was loyal, loving, respectful, skilled gentlewoman. In the article "Mammy in Hollywood", Sybil DelGaudio a mentioned that 
“Hollywood films presented two, essential, garden-variety Mammy images. One was of slave society’s historical Mammy. The other was her “liberated,” domesticated sister…In fact, the post-emancipation Mammy’s domesticity does not differ markedly from that of her slave sister” (DelGaudio, 1983, p. 23-25). In Mildred Pierce, Lottie reminded me Prissy (Butterfly McQueen). According to DelGaudio, Prissy was a good example of black Mammy in slave society and Lottie was a good example of her “liberated” sister. However, no matter what time they were in, these two characters show us a same racial stereotype of black Mammy on the screen: simple-minded, lack of education, skilled in kitchen, lack of social graces and so on. Lottie is definitely the Mammy role: she spent most of time in kitchen, provided personal service to Mildred's family, especially take care of Mildred's daughter. She is a typical traditional example of black Mammy.

Referance:

Basinger, Jeanine (1993). A woman’s view: how Hollywood spoke to women, 1930-1960. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
DelGaudio, Sybil (1983). The mammy in Hollywood film I’d walk a million miles for one of her smiles. Jump Cut, 28, 23-25.
Morrison, R. (1998). Mildred Pierce and His Girl Friday: Portrait of Working women in the Pre-and Post-World War Period.