La Habanera Women Analysis

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Depictions of Traditional Women in Fascism
Unlike many fascism films barely illustrate about the female (Rentschler 15), both the Italian historical film 1860 directed by Alessandro and the German melodramatic feature film La Habanera directed by Detlev Sierck are united by their portraits of traditional women like Carmeniddu’s wife, Gesuzza in 1860, and Astrée in La Habanera. These two films depict the women’s images in two forms. First, both 1860 and La Habanera directly portray the women as the family keepers. Second, both the Italian film and the German film use the set designs to reflect the females’ feelings.
In both the film 1860 and La Habanera, they depict the female subjects as the guardians of their families. In many respects, the paradigm for representations of female experiences in this epoch is established through two most prominent female characters: Carmeniddu’s wife, Gesuzza, in 1860 and Astrée in La Habanera. These women show intense devotions to their families. In 1860, Carmeniddu’s wife, Gesuzza, runs onto the battlefield to look for her husband, haphazardly consoling a dying soldier, who has mistaken Gesuzza for his mother, to pass into death with some semblance of comfort.
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She sings to her son the song "Kinderlied", a light-hearted combination of a spelling song and a bedtime duet with nursery rhyme. Astrée’s song to her son about the Swedish snow as a lullaby is an extension of the maternal prerogative. The mother describes the beauties of the winter in Sweden through the lyrics to her young son, Juan, who has never seen snow in sultry Puerto Rico. Her tendency to disclose the beauty of Swedish snow and her desire to give her son a fantastic dream hint her tender and gentle love to her little son, Juan, which indicates that she occupies a maternal role in the La Habanera as Juan’s

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