"This book [Chick Flicks, B. Ruby Rich] has been prompted by my conviction that the present landscape of feminism and film has been deprived of its own history, substituting a canon of texts for a set of lived experiences long since forgotten, shelved, or denied by those who went through them." -Rich
Thursday, March 5, 2009
friday March 6th @ 11:00 pm sharp. doors locked at 11:05.
no, not yet. der. I'm afraid to read ahead till I have watched all the films Ruby mentions. Maybe that's not the brightest idea. I'll start checking the index. Thanks
i have the opposite problem, where i can't read a book like this in chronological order. i think i read about m.i.u. in the celluloid closet recently, or maybe it's in the film?
The scene to scene breakdown in the chapter on "Maedchen..." in Chick Flicks draws out the movie in a really cool way toward not only an interesting analysis of the movie but also it's historical/social context and the practical strategic concerns it brings up. The essay explains, as a result of a lot of good research on Rich's part, that "maedchen..." was a telling example of the culture of the era and not some weird anomaly of a movie or a cautionary fable against lesbianism. Rich re-claims the movie as a revolutionary, analytical, pro-lesbian, pro-feminist movie. This movie and the massive swell of anti-fascist, pro-queer, modernist culture that it was a part of was targeted with regularity by the German gov't...especially after the nazis came fully to power when Hitler was elected chancellor in '33...the revisionist history that would claim this great movie as anti-gay propaganda of the nazis or Weimar republic is re-framed by Rich as the incisive, revolutionary piece of feminist film that it is. I think that Rich has a lot invested in this article because of the autobiographical stuff that she reveals in it's prologue, which I won't reveal here for plot spoiling reasons but that those who haven't read it yet can probably guess...anyhow, I think Rich is really focused on preserving the lessons of Maedchen for obvious personal, immediately accessible and practical reasons...one lesson being, I think, that the rising tide of repressive forces must not be allowed to co-opt and erase the victories, however small, for liberation and tolerance...those victories are hope and strategy for people facing new battles...and a warning for what happens if we forget the what we are up against and don't work for broad social change...the principal lady stalking off into the darkness like a wounded predator is so scary now knowing what came down two years after the film was made...she's like Hitler's wounded ego banished to a dark corner to gather the Ressentiment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ressentiment) with which to create nazi Germany.
yes...the chapter does all this and more...but where joaquin says "the revisionist history ht would claim .....this movie....as anti gay prop"...i thought she was arguing for a new reading of the film in the face of recent readings that had focused on the lesbianism of the film as a metaphor, for what was seen as the larger theme of anti-fascism...i think Rich is really insightful and precise in her re-reading here, but what I don't like is how she seems to claim that her reading is the correct one. while she does make a really solid case for the historical/social context backing up her reading, why not allow multiple readings of a text? why must there be one correct feminist view? that it what i get from her in everything i've read so far. and maybe that is just something about her writing style, but it bugs me. i especially like how she ends this chapter. i think i enjoyed her writing on this movie more than or equally as much as i enjoyed the film itself...and now i wanna see it again! thanks kanako!
also, she talks about the play within the film, as well as many formal elements in the movie, as referencing to High German Romanticism...and even discussed Das Blaue Licht here. so interesting. i guess that is a modernist technique, of a play within a film, and all the architectural shots as well as the use of sound...?
friday March 6th @ 11:00 pm sharp. doors locked at 11:05. 
hey kanako, did you realize there is a whole chapter on this in chick flicks?
ReplyDeleteno, not yet. der. I'm afraid to read ahead till I have watched all the films Ruby mentions. Maybe that's not the brightest idea. I'll start checking the index. Thanks
ReplyDeletei have the opposite problem, where i can't read a book like this in chronological order. i think i read about m.i.u. in the celluloid closet recently, or maybe it's in the film?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe scene to scene breakdown in the chapter on "Maedchen..." in Chick Flicks draws out the movie in a really cool way toward not only an interesting analysis of the movie but also it's historical/social context and the practical strategic concerns it brings up. The essay explains, as a result of a lot of good research on Rich's part, that "maedchen..." was a telling example of the culture of the era and not some weird anomaly of a movie or a cautionary fable against lesbianism. Rich re-claims the movie as a revolutionary, analytical, pro-lesbian, pro-feminist movie. This movie and the massive swell of anti-fascist, pro-queer, modernist culture that it was a part of was targeted with regularity by the German gov't...especially after the nazis came fully to power when Hitler was elected chancellor in '33...the revisionist history that would claim this great movie as anti-gay propaganda of the nazis or Weimar republic is re-framed by Rich as the incisive, revolutionary piece of feminist film that it is.
ReplyDeleteI think that Rich has a lot invested in this article because of the autobiographical stuff that she reveals in it's prologue, which I won't reveal here for plot spoiling reasons but that those who haven't read it yet can probably guess...anyhow, I think Rich is really focused on preserving the lessons of Maedchen for obvious personal, immediately accessible and practical reasons...one lesson being, I think, that the rising tide of repressive forces must not be allowed to co-opt and erase the victories, however small, for liberation and tolerance...those victories are hope and strategy for people facing new battles...and a warning for what happens if we forget the what we are up against and don't work for broad social change...the principal lady stalking off into the darkness like a wounded predator is so scary now knowing what came down two years after the film was made...she's like Hitler's wounded ego banished to a dark corner to gather the Ressentiment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ressentiment) with which to create nazi Germany.
yes...the chapter does all this and more...but where joaquin says "the revisionist history ht would claim .....this movie....as anti gay prop"...i thought she was arguing for a new reading of the film in the face of recent readings that had focused on the lesbianism of the film as a metaphor, for what was seen as the larger theme of anti-fascism...i think Rich is really insightful and precise in her re-reading here, but what I don't like is how she seems to claim that her reading is the correct one. while she does make a really solid case for the historical/social context backing up her reading, why not allow multiple readings of a text? why must there be one correct feminist view? that it what i get from her in everything i've read so far. and maybe that is just something about her writing style, but it bugs me.
ReplyDeletei especially like how she ends this chapter. i think i enjoyed her writing on this movie more than or equally as much as i enjoyed the film itself...and now i wanna see it again!
thanks kanako!
also, she talks about the play within the film, as well as many formal elements in the movie, as referencing to High German Romanticism...and even discussed Das Blaue Licht here. so interesting. i guess that is a modernist technique, of a play within a film, and all the architectural shots as well as the use of sound...?
ReplyDelete