Saturday, September 30, 2006
Task Four
Keywords
Butler, Judith (pg 24)"Butler argues that gender identity is a construction that can be changes, rather than a reflection of any fixed 'inner self'. Tradtional views of masculinity and feminity are therefore scial constructions and can be challenged and altered."
In Pretty Persuasion we see males and females who both conform and subvert stererotypes so therefore it can be argued that they are constructed.
Coming of age film (pg 31)
"A film that deals with puberty, adolescene, the growth of maturity and the search for sexual identity as set against the loss of innocence, childhood dreams and the difficulties growing up"
This can most definately be linked to my text as we see Kimberly, who is aspiring to be a celebrity and in the process we see her as a troubled teenager. She plays around with her sexuality as she has sexual relationships with males and females.
Cultural competence (pg 38)
A term used by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu to describe the advantage given to middle class children in the education system as a result of their parental and cultural background.
The main characters in this film all attend a private school which suggests that they are all rich even though they are not clever.
Family values (pg 56)
Traditional conservative beliefs associated with mainstream political and religious society. Family values are often represented as being under threat.
In this film, Randa's family values are under threat as we see her being introduced to porn and sex which leads to her being dissowned by her family and then her committing suicide.
Feminism (pg 57)
Political movement to advance the status of women by challenging values, social constructions and socioeconomic practices which disadvantage women and favour men
In this film, although it seems female dominated, it is also clear to see that all the dominating roles are played by men.
Femme Fatale (pg 57)
A female character who uses her sexuality, often in devious, disreputable, secrative ways, to achience the ends she desires.
Although not a film noir, it can be argued that in this film Kimberly is the Femme Fatale who uses her sexuality to get her what she wants: fame.
Hybrid (pg 76)
A cross between one film genre and another
This film can be seen as a teenage comedy
Male gaze (pg 91)Term used by Laura Mulvey in her essay to describe what she saw as the male point of view adopted by the camera for the benefit of an assumed male audience.
This film could be seen as a male gaze as we have young girls who are pretty and where minimum clothing maybe to attract men. Also the lesbian scenes could also be voyeuristic pleasure for the males.
Non-linear narrative (pg 105)
The narritive is not sequenced in chronological order.
In this film we have a non linear narrative as we have flashbacks but also flashbacks within flashbacks.
Patriarchy (pg 110)
Male domination of the political, cultural and socioeconomical system
In this film we have all the dominating roles playes by males
Sherish at 9:14 AM
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Med 5 Links
This is the list of websites i found on the MED5 link on the Macguffin site...The Independent Film - Review website includes two reviews on Pretty Persuasion which are relevent to my study of the film
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film/reviews/article1096305.ece
Gender, Race and Ethnicity- on this website there is a lot of information on Islam and the media which relates as in Pretty Persuasion, one of the main girls is Muslim, so this will help me to expand my interpretation of the representation
http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/resources/GenderMedia/index.html
Media Ed - There is an article on this website on "women representing women" which talks about how the gender of the director of the film can affect the representation the audience see
http://www.mediaed.org.uk/resource/view_list.php?category=ca_theory
Media, Gender and Identity - talks about how gender is represented in todays society
http://www.theory.org.uk/giddens.htm
BFI- On this site i found a 16+ guide on strong women. I can use this as the main protagonist in the film is seen as being strong and dominating
http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/library/publications/16+/strongwomen.html
Sherish at 9:40 AM
Friday, September 22, 2006
NARRATIVE• Pretty Persuasion is more multi-layered than most farces. Just when you think you have figured out all of the tangled relationships, Halim keeps surprising with new twists and subplots. His screenplay is rich and dense in ideas, going way beyond the revenge scheme of three girls
•Instead of telling the story in linear, progressive manner, Halim opts for a more complex structure, in which episodes in the past are shown in flashbacks, and sometimes in flashbacks within flashbacks.
•Disregarding chronology, title cards often announce, one month earlier or one month later.
•This particular structure makes the film more suspenseful, and also enables the viewers to validate what they have heard from the characters? subjective POV with what has actually occurred in a more objective and neutral manner.
Sherish at 11:23 AM
IDEOLOGIES AND VALUES• This film is more about the lack of values the families have. Kimberly is a product of a broken home where she lives with her father who smokes, drinks, masturbates and shouts racist abuse which is taken in by Kimberly and does the same.
•Kimberly has no respect for her step mum. Whenever them two see each other, Kimberly always brings up “…and when you were done fuckin my dog…”
•Randa, the muslim girl is wearing a headscarf which means she has strong beliefs for her religion, but when she is introduced to porn, alcohol and Kimberly – her family find out and say “you have bought shame upon this family” which results in her commiting suicide
•At one point in the movie, the central female character tries to dissuade a friend from becoming a doctor. Randa, wants to go into medicine to help poor people. She is told that in America doctors don’t help the poor. If she wants to help people, she should go into acting - after all, films contain “important social messages”.
Sherish at 11:22 AM
AUDIENCE• The film is certified 18 in the UK due to its explicit references to sex and drugs and also because of the images in the film, e.g. sex
•The racist comments in the film had caused an issue with the viewings for the distributors and the director found it difficult to find a distributor who would release the film without having to make any changes
•The characters in the film would be much younger then the audience and this wouldn’t be expected.
•The humour and satire didn’t take too well with the audience as some of them found it dirty and plain rude
Sherish at 11:21 AM
REPRESENTATION•In this film, we are immediately introduced to women. The main character, Kimberly comes across as a monstrous girl who is both amoral and immoral, willing to use her body and brain to accomplish as quickly as possible her main goal: fame. The means to achieve celebrity and ethical considerations, sexual orientation, or friendship, become irrelevant.
•There are only 3 grown women in the film:
Ø a lesbian reporter who will be stripped of her ability to express her own viewpoint by the film’s end
Ø an unhappy wife who helps transform her own birthday into a forum for her husband’s sexual fantasies
Ø a trophy step mum whose sole narrative purpose seems to be being the butt of jokes
•The mother appears to be absent in the film which would mean that the father has a more dominant role, but here we see the father as being rude and racist which is inherited by his daughter. He only seems to care about his reputation.
•The other males in this film all seem to have a more dominant role: teacher, lawyer and judge
•Pretty Persuasions is situated in the upper-middle class, though it makes finer distinctions between the nouveau rich, old-time money, and riches amongst foreign students in the
U.S., in this case a Muslim girl, who is Kimberly's classmate and becomes her accomplice.
•The muslim girl gets picked on for being from Palestine as at one point in the film, a boy asks her to point out where Palestine is on the map and she left speechless
•Jews are at the centre of the racism jokes in this film with the father screaming racist abuse which is repeated by Kimberly to her fellow Jewish school friend
•Seiga states that “this film is an exploration of those public and private morals that exist in todays society”
Sherish at 11:19 AM
GENRE•Marcos Siega’s Pretty Persuasion is a tough and cynical genre film with a twist, taking the female high-school satire farther and deeper than such predecessors as Heathers (which also came out of Sundance) and Mean Girls (a studio picture).
•“Although the film borrows some elements from the teen-comedy genre, it’s not a teen movie and I’m not even sure I feel comfortable calling it a comedy. But because the script read that way, when it finally came down to shooting the film, I was extremely careful to protect myself against all the obvious trappings of the Teen Movie genre “ Marcos Siega
•To the audience, it would appear that this film does contain the generic conventions of a teen movie as the main characters are teenagers and is set in a high school. Also it includes themes such as sex and drugs which are most likely to be related to teens
•Siega’s directing work has mainly been in television, including several episodes of cult fave “Veronica Mars,” which explains his ability to naturally portray the feelings and abilities of teenagers
Sherish at 11:18 AM
INSTITUTIONS•Hollywood film, distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films, Roadside Attractions and Renaissance Films
•Samuel Goldwyn Films is a major, independently owned and operated motion-picture company
•Roadside attractions is a theatrical distribution company. Roadside acquires and releases between four and six independent films per year
•Renaissance Films is a leading international distribution, marketing and financing company
•Pretty Persuasion may benefit from the fact that it is helmed by the gifted Marcos Siega, a music video director, who gives the film a distinctive visual look and fast tempo, dwelling on the more significant sub-themes while underplaying or rushing through the less important ones.
Sherish at 11:17 AM
MEDIA LANGUAGE•Centering on a trio of high school girls, Pretty Persuasion is a darkly humorous satire that, unlike most films of its genre, is not confined to its setting, the high school, but aims to comment on various timely social issues by including mansion, bedroom and court room
•(Writer) Skander Halim's script provides plenty of shock value, such as racist remarks, somewhat subtly out of Kimberly's mouth as an after-effect from the more overt comments made by her caricature of a father (James Woods)
•Also there are title cards which often announce, one month earlier or one month later
•The main iconographic images we see in this film are of “the media” which relate to the fact that the story is based on the main character wanting fame
Sherish at 11:15 AM
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Quotation from film
"I have respect for all races, but I'm very glad that I was born white. As a woman, it's the best race to be"Sherish at 2:38 PM
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Cult of Celebrity
The cult of celebrity is a description of the widespread interest in arbitrarily famous individuals, or 'celebrities', that became a prominent social phenomenon in late 20th century Western popular culture
Driven by constant publicity and exposure in magazines, newspapers and television, fame is an essential prerequisite for celebrity status, though the principle reason for such fame is often minor 
It is associated with an increased focus on celebrity by the entertainment industry, including the growth of the reality television and talent show genre. Gossip-oriented magazines such as Heat and OK! in the UK and In Touch Weekly and National Enquirer in the US, and television channels E! and VH1 focus almost entirely on promoting the cult of celebrity 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_celebrityIn Pretty Persuasion we see how Kimberly comes across as a monstrous girl who is both amoral and immoral, willing to use her body and brain to accomplish as quickly as possible her main goal: fame. The means to achieve celebrity and ethical considerations, sexual orientation, or friendship, become irrelevant. She back stabs her best friend, forces her two friends into helping her sue her English teacher and not caring when one commits suicide. At the beginning we see her auditioning for a show and by the end we see her turn on the TV and sees herself as the lead role in the French show. This means that she reached her goal.
Sherish at 12:57 PM
How my text relates to "other texts"
Everyone has to have "other texts" to be comparing the main one to so heres how mine relates to them :)
Mean Girls (2004) Born in Africa, Cady Heron (Lohan) thinks she knows the survival of the fittest especially when she joins the Plastics, the alpha girl group at her new high school led by Regina (McAdams). When Cady finds out about Regina's plans to just walk all over her, she decides to turn the entire school against Regina and throw her off the mighty throne. Cady soon discovers that she herself has become a mean girl.
This relates to my text as it as about teenage girls of todays society, revenge, popularity, boys and family.
Clueless (1995)
Cher, a high school student in Beverly Hills, must survive the ups and downs of adolescent life. Her external demeanor at first seems superficial, but rather it hides her wit, charm, and intelligence which help her to deal with relationships, friends, family, school, and the all-important teenage social life. Cher and Dionne are best friends who live in Beverly Hills. They are popular, rich, pretty, and charming. One day, they spot a new girl at school, Tai, and decides to do a makeover on her.
This relates to my text as it is based around 2 rich girls and another foriegn student who they try to change. Also has similar social problems.
Heathers (1989)Three high school girls named Heather run an iron clad social clique at high school. One of their anointees, Veronica, isn't sure she wants to fit into the clique. When Veronica meets the new guy at school, she starts pulling away from the clique, while some of the more popular students start showing up dead with suicide notes. A girl who half-heartedly tries to be part of the "in crowd" of her school meets a rebel who teaches her a more devious way to play social politics
This relates to my text as it is about teenagers, cliques, high school, reputation, revenge and back stabbing of friends.
Sherish at 9:17 AM
Saturday, September 16, 2006
From Me To You...
... my comments to you!Bushara: Representation of females in "Sex In The City"
Furzana: Representation of females in "Sugar Rush"
Navdeep: How do women challenge stereotypical female roles in post-modern teenage chick flicks; using “John Tucker Must Die” as an example
Heena: How are women represented in "Charlies Angels"?
Alliaya: How are teenage girls represented in "Kidulthood"
Sherish at 1:49 PM
Friday, September 01, 2006
Male Gaze
Mulvey’s article argues mainly that the cinematic apparatus (specifically of classical Hollywood cinema) inevitably puts the spectator in a masculine subject position, with the figure of the woman on screen as the object of desire. In classical Hollywood cinema, viewers are encouraged to identify with the protagonist of the film, who tends to be a man. Meanwhile, female characters are, according to Mulvey, coded with "to-be-looked-at-ness." Mulvey argues that the only way to annihilate this "patriarchal" system is to radically deconstruct the filmic strategies of classical Hollywood with alternative methods. She calls for a new feminist avant-garde filmmaking that will rupture the magic and pleasure of classical Hollywood filmmaking. “It is said that analysing pleasure or beauty annihilates it. That is the intention of this article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey
Mulvey argues that various features of cinema viewing conditions facilitate for the viewer both the voyeuristic process of objectification of female characters and also the narcissistic process of identification with an ‘ideal ego’ seen on the screen. She declares that in patriarchal society ‘pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female’
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze09.html
Sherish at 4:26 AM
Females in film
It is widely felt that female characters in film have been restricted to the easy categories that classical narratives and familiar genres demand of them (the typical complaint is that women in films are either 'virgins, mothers or whores').
While a number of famous female protagonists have been presented as strong models of motherhood we have rarely seen women whose priority is to pursue and develop their ambitions, talents or vocations. Female characters who are uninterested in motherhood and domesticity are frequently depicted as lacking something or paying a price for their success. Those who do pursue larger ambitions are often portrayed as being in some sense naïve, manipulated by other (male) characters in the pursuit of their dreams.
The representation of women in film depends as much on issues of production, institutions and genres as on social, political and historical contexts. Gainsborough melodramas, Carry On films, Hammer horrors, heritage films and recent 'Brit-grit' realist films all necessarily place limitations upon the kinds of roles open to female (and male) actors.
The situation for non-white women is slightly less rosy, in that fewer representations exist, but we still have the varied and careful characterisations.
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/824016/index.html
Sherish at 3:49 AM
Racial Quote
"I have respect for all races, but I'm very glad that I was born white. As a woman, it's the best race to be. Especially if you want to become an actress, like I do. [pause] If I wasn't white, then the next thing I would wanna be is Asian because a lot of men like Asian girls because they think they're docile and subservient and sweet which I don't really think is true because I once met this Asian girl at summer camp one time and she was a real bitch. [pause] If I couldn't be white and I also couldn't be Asian, then my third choice would be African-American because I've always wanted to be a gospel singer and also, black men are more forgiving if your butt gets big. Except I'd definitely want light skin and Caucasian features like... Vanessa Williams or Halle Berry. And finally, you know, no offense or anything Randa, but my very last choice would be Arab. I mean, truth be told you're not in a very enviable position. There's a lot of resentment in this country toward the Middle East and there's a lot of stereotypes floating around which I don't think are true because in the short amount of time I've known you, you haven't tried to bomb anybody and you currently smell okay to me."From the lead character Kimberly Joyce having a conversation with Randa, the new palestinian student.
Sherish at 1:12 AM