Discussing feminist film theory and its prevalence in film adaptions of Stephen King novels with focus on adaptions made between the late 1980s and late 1990s
https://prezi.com/_ilbrzsrv76y/edit/#20_250775363
Transcript:
Good afternoon or good morning, My name is Steven Lee and in this presentation I am going to explore feminist film theory and its prevalence in film adaptions of Stephen King novels. There will be a focus on adaptions made between the late 1980s to the late 1990s. I will be analysing the representation of the female characters in these films as well as outlining how feminist criticism towards films have been developed over time. I hope this presentation will provide us with a greater understanding of the way women are depicted in film and how we can better understand the ways in which feminist film theory can be properly used to dissect cinema
The films i will be discussing are:
Stand by me (1986) a coming-of-age drama film directed by Rob Reiner. The film, whose plot is based on Stephen King’s novella The Body (1982) tells the story of four boys in a small town in Oregon who go on a hike to find the dead body of a missing child.
Pet semetary (1989) horror film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name. Directed by Mary Lambert and written by King. It should be noted that this is one of the only adaptions of Kings work directed by a woman. it tells the story of a family in the small town of Maine who bury their recently deceased son in a haunted pet cemetery with disastrous results.
Misery (1990) a psychological thriller film based on Stephen King’s 1987 novel of the same name about a psychotic fan who holds an author captive and forces him to write her stories. Another King adaption directed by Rob Reiner, the film received critical acclaim and is the only Stephen King film adaption to win an oscar for kathy Bates performance.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont, . Adapted from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the film tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker who is sentenced to life in Shawshank State Penitentiary for the murder of his wife and her lover. the film was critically acclaimed and it considered one of the finest films ever made.
Dolores Claiborne (1995) psychological thriller film directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Kathy Bates, Jennifer Jason Leigh. It is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. The plot focuses on the strained relationship between a mother and her daughter, after her daughter arrives to her hometown on a Maine island where her mother has been accused of murdering the elderly woman whom she cared for.
The Green Mile (1999) fantasy crime drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont and adapted from the 1996 Stephen King novel of the same name. The film is told in a flashback format and tells the story of a prison officers life as a death row corrections officer during the Great Depression in the United States, and the supernatural events he witnessed.
What is feminism?: I will begin by explaining exactly what feminism is. Feminism is the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes and the organisation of movements around these beliefs.
A recent example of a feminist movement would be the 2017 womens march, a worldwide protest held on January 21 in support of women’s rights as well as other causes including immigration reform, LGBTQ rights, racial justice and workers’ rights.
Though scholars tend to agree that there is no single linear history for when feminism began it is generally believed to have originated in the 14th century but did not being to become more popular till the 18th century
What is feminist film theory?: Now that I have explained the basics of feminism I would like to move on to feminist film theory. Feminist film theory came into being in the early 1970s through female scholars such as Anneke Smelik with the aim of understanding cinema as a cultural practice that represents and reproduces myths about women and femininity. theoretical approaches were developed to critically discuss the sign and image of woman in film as well as open up issues of female spectatorship. Feminist film theory criticized on the one hand classical cinema for its stereotyped representation of women, and discussed on the other hand possibilities for a women’s cinema that allowed for representations of female subjectivity and female desire.
Laura Mulvey: One of the main theories to develop from feminist film theory was by British feminist theorist Laura Mulvey in an essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, written in 1973. Mulvey states that and i quote“the gender power asymmetry is a controlling force in cinema and constructed for the pleasure of the male viewer, which is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideologies and discourses.” This means that the male viewer is the target audience, therefore their needs are met first and that this problem stems from an old fashioned, male-driven society.
Male Gaze: From this essay the term ‘male gaze’ was coined which soon went on to become a very well known and discussed theory. The Male Gaze theory, in a nutshell, is where women in the media are viewed from the eyes of a heterosexual man, and that these women are represented as passive objects of male desire. Audiences are forced to view women from the point of view of a heterosexual male, even if they are heterosexual women or homosexual men.
From the feminist perspective, this theory can be viewed in three ways: How men look at women, how women look at themselves and finally, how women look at other women. Typical examples of the male gaze include medium close-up shots of women from over a man’s shoulder, shots that pan and fixate on a woman’s body, and scenes that frequently occur which show a man actively observing a passive woman.
The Bechtel test: From the theory of the male gaze came The Bechtel test, this asks whether a work of fiction features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. The requirement that the two women must be named is sometimes added.
The test is named after the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel, in whose comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For first appeared in 1985. Bechdel credited the idea to a friend, Liz Wallace, and to the writings of Virginia Woolf. After the test became more widely discussed in the 2000s, a number of variants and tests inspired by it have been introduced, such as instead of two women talking one women may have a narrative back story that doesn’t include a man. To this day the test is used as an indicator for the active presence of women in films and other fiction, and to call attention to gender inequality in fiction.
We will now look ay my chosen films and see if they meet any of the requirements to pass the test, once again these requirements were that a film feature two women, that these two women talk to each other and that what they talk about is something other than a man.
Stand by me (1986) this film does not pass the Bechtel test, not only that but it fails all three requirements, only one woman is shown throughout the film, one of the main characters mothers, and she barely speaks at all.
Pet semetery (1989) yes this film passes all 3 requirements of the Bechtel test, two of the female characters are named, they speak to each other and they discuss health issues though it should be noted this was the only time this happened in the film and was very brief.
Misery (1990)- this film passed 1 of the 3 requirments, whilst there are at least two names female characters, they do not speak to each other and therefore couldn’t of had a conversation about something other than a man.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Shawshank passes none of the requirements, no females are actually shown on screen through the entire film despite the main characters situation being due to the murder of his wife.
Dolores Claiborne (1995) as this film is the only one of the 5 centred on woman so its not surprising that it passed all requirements easily, 3 of the 4 main characters a woman and they speak to each other often about various subjects besides men.
The Green Mile (1998) – it is debatable whether this film passed 2 or 3 of the test, whilst there are multiple named female characters only 2 talk to each other once, for about 15 seconds about an illness one of the women recently experienced, whilst this does meet the requirement it barely does so due to the briefness of the conversation.
Conclusion:
In this presentation I wanted to explore feminist film theory and the use of the bechdel test and how it can be used to analyse the lack of female characters depicted in a selection of Stephen king film adaptions.
I hope to have been able to show the effects of the male gaze and the under utilisation of female characters in works written and directed by men.
This does of course highlight the need for more opportunities for female writers and female directors who have an understanding of the importance of female characters being properly developed as well as existing for reasons other than to be a plot device for male characters.
That’s all I have time for. Thank you very much for listening.
Steven Lee Cmp 