Gender and representation In Marleen Gorris’s ‘A Question of Silence’
During the mid 1970s and into the early 1980’s, feminists critiqued ideologies and the system of beliefs in the patriarchal society. Feminist filmmaking became key to portraying fairer representations of women in film denied to them in Early Hollywood, whilst also using experimental techniques to give authorial voice to women filmmakers. Marleen Gorris’s Dutch film ‘A Question of Silence’ (1982), is considered one of the fundamental films in early feminist filmmaking. The film follows Janine, a physiatrist, and her journey to discover why three women (Andrea, Annie and Christine) murder a male shopkeeper. Janine realises in the end of the film that the three are not guilty …show more content…
She also assumes the male gaze as a technique to remind the viewer of it uses against women. For example, when Andrea is walking down the street, a man in a car follows her watching from his rear view mirror and mistakes her for a prostitute. The framing focuses on the wing mirror as she walks, thus reinforcing a literal representation of the male gaze and how women are perceived as mere objects of desire when looked through.
The framing is also used to express and address feminist messages. For example, when the secretary Andrea is with her boss who undermines her and is overtly dominant, the camera cuts from a high angle shot of her and low angle show of him. The effect gives the illusion with the high angled shot that she looks slight and insignificant whilst the low angle camera gives the impression that he is looming over her thus further advocating the oppression the Andrea receives by the man. However, as the film develops the angled shots seem to switch; the female characters are framed within low angled shots connoting the themes of female empowerment that is expressed towards the …show more content…
In ‘A Question of Silence’, the three convicted females are ordinary women who represent all classes. Christine is a compliant housewife and mother whose duty is to look after her child and husbands needs. Andrea is a secretary who has to deal with the hardships of her boss appropriating her ideas. And the last Annie, a working class waitress who is daily harassed by male customers. Because the three women represent all classes they seemingly represent women as a whole and the adversities and oppression women by patriarchal power. By doing this, Gorris successfully uses Identification within the female viewer to question women’s positions in
During the mid 1970s and into the early 1980’s, feminists critiqued ideologies and the system of beliefs in the patriarchal society. Feminist filmmaking became key to portraying fairer representations of women in film denied to them in Early Hollywood, whilst also using experimental techniques to give authorial voice to women filmmakers. Marleen Gorris’s Dutch film ‘A Question of Silence’ (1982), is considered one of the fundamental films in early feminist filmmaking. The film follows Janine, a physiatrist, and her journey to discover why three women (Andrea, Annie and Christine) murder a male shopkeeper. Janine realises in the end of the film that the three are not guilty …show more content…
She also assumes the male gaze as a technique to remind the viewer of it uses against women. For example, when Andrea is walking down the street, a man in a car follows her watching from his rear view mirror and mistakes her for a prostitute. The framing focuses on the wing mirror as she walks, thus reinforcing a literal representation of the male gaze and how women are perceived as mere objects of desire when looked through.
The framing is also used to express and address feminist messages. For example, when the secretary Andrea is with her boss who undermines her and is overtly dominant, the camera cuts from a high angle shot of her and low angle show of him. The effect gives the illusion with the high angled shot that she looks slight and insignificant whilst the low angle camera gives the impression that he is looming over her thus further advocating the oppression the Andrea receives by the man. However, as the film develops the angled shots seem to switch; the female characters are framed within low angled shots connoting the themes of female empowerment that is expressed towards the …show more content…
In ‘A Question of Silence’, the three convicted females are ordinary women who represent all classes. Christine is a compliant housewife and mother whose duty is to look after her child and husbands needs. Andrea is a secretary who has to deal with the hardships of her boss appropriating her ideas. And the last Annie, a working class waitress who is daily harassed by male customers. Because the three women represent all classes they seemingly represent women as a whole and the adversities and oppression women by patriarchal power. By doing this, Gorris successfully uses Identification within the female viewer to question women’s positions in