With the hand -in date of my dissertation looming and 2000 thousand words left to write I’m gradually sensing a mild case of writers block. The topic of my dissertation, for me, couldn’t be more interesting with a wide discussion into the representation of women in the films of Alfred Hitchcock and then a look into whether we still see these women in the films we love to watch today. Reading endless feminist theory has begun to frazzle my brain and if I have to watch another Hitchcock film it may just be one too many. With the release of neo noir ‘Drive‘, featuring the ever beautiful Carey Mulligan and Ryan Gosling in September 2011, I began to look at whether actually the sexually overpowering and terrifyingly beautiful female characters of a classic Hitchcockian noir still appear in contemporary films. With it’s inherent B-movie aesthetic, Drive brings it’s audience a sense of a quintessential Hitchcock film noir at the same time as appealing to modern tastes and expectations. I looked back at one of my favourite films, Sin City (2005) and thought of the character of Shellie and her combination of stunning blonde bombshell beauty and an explicit naivety. She tries furiously to push against her violent boyfriend and in one sense perhaps is successful in that in the end he is killed and she is free. Comparing this to Hitchcock, if you take Marion Crane of Psycho (1960), her ignorance in believing that she can steal and get away away with it ultimately leads to her death! Perhaps it’s important to note that in Sin City and often in modern film, women are actually shown fighting back. Without sounding like a little bit of a grumpy feminist, I mean, Sin City’s women are often shown in a light where through coming together women can be powerful. In Hitchcock women are ultimately puchised for even attempting to take control such as the likes of Marion Crane. However, comparatively, often in the cases of Sin City and Hitchcock women are shown using their sexuality as a means to gain power which I think could be seen as detrimental to the portrayal of their character and role in the story. So, perhaps is Sin City an ironic and satirical take on Hitchcock’s and Film Noir’s classic femme fatale?? Is it mocking the fact that Hitchcock women were arguably exploited for their beauty and represented as sex objects and therefore showing that in current film it is not expected as the norm… Its a complicated topic and one that my dissertation has exhausted but as more and more new films continue to be released in this neo noir style I find it continually interesting to think whether the Hitchcockian woman has become merely a construct to be mocked or whether it will remain an inherently clever and classic representation of thoughts and fears of a current society. I know what I think..
♥ LS
