beautiful and is seen cooking, cleaning, crying and caring for others throughout the film. Based
on this description, one might not jump to classify Volver as a feminist film.
Many feminist films celebrate the strength of women by having them fill stereotypically
“male” roles. Mulan offers a strong female role model to traditional Disney princesses when she
disguises herself as a man and joins the Chinese army. She becomes a war hero, and is exposed
as a woman during a ceremony in her honor. Everyone was appalled at first, but they eventually
came to her senses and decided to recognize her for her actions. The more “feminine” women,
who are beautiful and domestic and want to raise families are portrayed as weaker. Mulan was
only able to get respect by abandoning her female identity, becoming totally desexed and filling
the stereotypical “male, war-hero tough guy” role.
Raimunda, on the other hand, is established as a woman, in the very traditional sense,
from the very beginning. The film opens with a shot of widows sweeping graves in a village in
spain, where she cleans the grave of her parents with her daughter and sister. Her husband stays
home watching futbol and drinking beer, it is expected that she does the cooking and cleaning.
She wears low-cut shirts and struts around in heels. She always looks nice and well put together,
she wears a full face of makeup at her job as a cleaning woman. Feminist film theorists often
criticize films for their use of the “male gaze,” for making women look to sexy, to appear too
much like objects. Almodovar celebrates Cruz’s beauty and plays up her sex appeal.
Beatrix Kiddo, (Uma Thurman) the female assassin in Kill Bill, goes on a killing spree to
take revenge on those who wronged her. Unlike Mulan, she is not desexed, Kiddo is very sexy;
sexy enough for “Buck” to make a business of selling her comatose body. Kiddo is seen as strong
because she is vengeful, tough and violent. In Volver, the values of maternal love and forgiveness
are celebrated. Raimunda was raped by her father, resulting in the conception of her daughter,
Paula (Yohana Cobo). Hurt, and angry at her mother for being oblivious to the abuse, she moves
to Madrid to marry Paco (Antonio De La Torre) who raises Paula as his own. As Paula reaches
adolescence, Paco sexually assaults her and she kills him with a kitchen knife in self-defense.
Paula is seriously disturbed by the incident and it is not implied for one moment that killing him
was the “strong” thing to do. Raimunda appears as the “strong” character in the situation when
she comforts her daughter and forgives her mother. Their tears and hugging and love are
celebrated as they put the violent acts behind them .
In contrast, Suzanne (Julie Vincent), the female protagonist in A Scream From Silence is
very in tune with her femininity, she lets it define her. The film deals with her rape and her
attempt to find and persecute the culprit. Her humiliation from the incident couple with her
frustration with the “male dominated system” and its inability to help her, slowly destroy her and
she commits suicide. While A Scream From Silence demands sympathy and vengeance for
women who have been violated, focusing on putting the blame on men, the women in Volver are
able to grow stronger from negative experiences. Rather than dwelling on the past and blaming
others, they support one another and move forward. Volver is a feminist film, not because it turns
women into men, but because it celebrates them for being women.
Works Cited:
Almodovar, P (Director). (2006). Volver [DVD].
Bancroft, T (Director). (1998). Mulan [DVD].
Gray, G. (2010). Cinema: a visual anthropology (film theory).
Poirier, PA (Director). (1979). A Scream From Silence [DVD].
1 comment:
You talk a lot about things which are not in the film you discuss: I'm not sure why you describe Mulan's plot here? You can mention the film as an example, but there is no need to get into how she was or was not able to gain respect … similarly, you say that feminists "criticize films for their use of the “male gaze,” for making women look to sexy, to appear too much like objects". First, a reference is needed here, (or an example), and second, is there this feminist critique relevant here? Is this film about the male gaze? Then you move to Beatrix Kiddo from Kill Bill and Suzanne in A Scream From Silence… it makes your blog post a list of films with different female characters that have different qualities and strengths… but you only have about 500 words, so you don't have the space to make a real aalysis of one film, not mentioning four.. You say: "Volver is a feminist film, not because it turns women into men, but because it celebrates them for being women". I agree, it is a feminist film, but feminism is not about turning women into men anyway. Also only one of the counter examples you bring turn women to men …
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