Women in Film

This collection of film reviews and essays focuses on the role of women in films during the 1970s and 1980s. The author examines the shifting portrayals of women from the almost anti-progressive treatment of women in the early 1970s through the integration of more progressive professional women in the films of the late 1980s. She shows that most of the important movies of the period were about women and that these films seemed to reflect the momentous changes that women were going through in the society at large. The analysis is augmented with personal interviews with leading female actresses of the period.

Scheiner uses films and fan behavior as windows to decode the cultural meanings of female adolescence from 1920 to 1950 and beyond. In film, adolescent girls have been represented as powerful, subversive, problematic, or in opposition to the parent culture. Girls, in turn, have often used the same tropes to create social identity and to affirm cultural authority.

Hollywood has seen the number of camerawomen quadruple in the past 15 years. Women Behind the Camera is the first book to offer an in-depth look at the lives of camerawomen and their struggles to succeed in a male-dominated field. Krasilovsky presents interviews with 23 camerawomen, most of whom are pioneers in Hollywood and whose experiences cover the full range of the Camera Department.

In Recreational Terror, Isabel Cristina Pinedo analyzes how the contemporary horror film produces recreational terror as a pleasurable encounter with violence and danger for female spectators. She challenges the conventional wisdom that violent horror films can only degrade women and incite violence, and contends instead that the contemporary horror film speaks to the cultural need to express rage and terror in the midst of social upheaval.

This lively collection offers a wide-ranging exploration of the erotic and the fantastic in painting, illustration, and frilm. It covers Western art of six centuries--from medieval woodcuts to contemporary poster art--and the cinema of six decades--from horror classics of the 1930s to recent slasher films--documenting the surprising variety of guises in which sexuality appears in fantasy art and cinema. Among the subjects treated are occult eroticism in Medieval and Renaissance art; the use of fantasy as a vehicle for depicting erotic subjects in periods of sexual repression; the fascination with unconscious and aberrant sexuality in the visual arts since the publication of Freud's theories; movie monsters and aliens as emblems of the submerged id or libido; and monstrous metamorphosis as a symbol of the changes accompanying puberty.

Enduring Values offers a critical examination of 20th century treatments of women in several mass media areas including music, film, and television. This volume is unique in its wide coverage of various media forms and of the corresponding images of women within the respective areas. from the Preface

The first study to apply a broad range of theory to contemporary film. With dazzling insight and critical aplomb, Maggie Humm highlights and explains feminist issues and offers a fascinating array of original film analyses. She draws on the work of Laura Mulvey, Annette Kuhn, E. Ann Kaplan and bell hooks to examine films such as Klute, Dead Ringers, A Question of Silence, Orlando and Daughters of the Dust.

In 1936, Goebbels stated that 'a government that controls art will remain forever', and the German film industry became inextricably linked with National Socialist propaganda. This book is an historical evaluation of the role and image of women in the feature films of the Third Reich. The author challenges current perceptions of the National Socialist position with regards to women and examines the creation of a female film culture, as well as the 'blurring' of gender distinctions as a result of the war.Goebbels and his wife personally selected young movie actresses at their home to portray mothers, vamps, girls-next-door and exotic love interests. His interest in film opens up an array of important issues central to this book: Were women compliant with Nazism or were they the victims of a regime imposing policies ultimately detrimental to their condition? Is it true that the war helped to emancipate women who were not only romantic and patriotic heroines on screen but employed as drivers, technicians and even managers of government affiliated film departments? Did all films produced under the auspices of the Third Reich serve as propaganda and if so, how successful were they? And finally, what can the study of cinema contribute to the historical debate surrounding National Socialism?This book fills a considerable gap in the research of the Nazi star system and makes a crucial contribution not only to cinema history, but also to our view of the perceived role of women in the Third Reich.'This book will change the way that we look at Nazi Germany.'Richard Taylor, University of Swansea