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Leanna
 Oct 16, 06 - 10:00 AM |
Women and film!
I am doin a study on women and film in my media Alevel class. and am doing a close study on how women roles have changed throughout the years in the film industry!i am focusing on Marilyn Monroe, Olivial de Haviland, Drew Barrymore and Julia Roberts. Does anyone have any information or ideas they can share with me?thanks! |
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Russell
Oct 28th, 2006 - 4:52 PM |
Re: Women and film!
Hi Leanna, I hope I'm not too late to give you my two cents. While I love Julia Roberts and Drew, my forte is the older stars and I can tell you a bit about DeHavilland and Monroe. You mentioned your study focuses primarily on how women's roles have changed throughout the film industry. Monroe, in my opinion, has done more in that area than any other becuase she almost single handedly changed America's opinions about a women having the right to be sexual like men; at least, she initiated it. Sex was such a taboo subject in America until perhaps, the early 70's, really (maybe late 60's). Monroe was way ahead of her time. Before her fame, she had posed nude for a calendar. Later, Hefner purchased it and she was on the first cover of his very famous magazine "Playboy." Now at that time that could have ruined anybody else, all of the big names, and probably would have. Monroe's reply when confronted was, "The only thing I had on was the radio." It was a brilliant response and indicated that she was not ashamed. That was, in my opinion, the beginning of people's ability to start seeing their own hypocricy when it comes to sex. DeHavilland had a famous sister, Joan Fontaine, and there was apparently a lot of sibling rivalry. DeHavilland was famous first, but Fontaine won the academy award first, between the two. However, DeHavilland one two awards while her sister only won one. I don't really see DeHavilland as contributing to changing women's roles; only that she was a brilliant actress. She is still alive and I'm waiting rather patiently for her autobiography. Hope this help you! 
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Lynn Dougherty
Oct 29th, 2006 - 8:39 AM |
Re: Women and film!
Dear Russell: I do agree with you about Marilyn, she is a good example for Leanna, but what about such greats as Katharine Hepburn who wore pants and was known to do as she liked well before it was acceptable for a woman to do so and Jean Harlow who refused to wear underwear, long before the bra burnings of the 1960's. Or, what about focusing on some of the female directors of the early films like Dorothy Arzner or Ida Lupino? However, I have to disagree with you about Olivia deHavilland. She was certainly instrumental in providing better conditions for women, as well as men, in film. Please read this quote from her bio on the IMDB: "After GWTW, Olivia returned to Warner Bros. and continued to churn out films. In 1941 she played Emmy Brown in Hold Back the Dawn (1941), which resulted in her second nomination for an Oscar, this time for Best Actress. Again she lost, this time to her sister Joan for her role in Suspicion (1941). After that strong showing, Olivia now demanded better, more substantial roles than the "sweet young thing" slot into which Warners had been fitting her. The studio responded by placing her on a six-month suspension, all of the studios at the time operating under the policy that players were nothing more than property to do with as they saw fit. If that wasn't bad enough, when her contract with Warners was up, she was told that she would have to make up the lost time because of the suspension. Irate, she sued the studio, and over the length of the court battle she didn't appear in a single film. The result, however, was worth the wait. In a landmark decision, the courts said that not only did Olivia not have to make up the time, but all performers were to be limited to a seven-year contract which would include any suspensions handed down. This became known as the "De Havilland Law". Now studios couldn't treat their performers as mere cattle. Returning to screen in 1946, Olivia made up for lost time by appearing in four films, and it was one of those that finally won her the Oscar that had so long eluded her." I'd say she did a lot for women's rights. Lynn |
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