What's up with these people?

Gold Diggers of 1933 was by far the least of my favorites. I'm glad that we got to experience a "musical" yet at the same time i feel that the musical portion is what also hindered it.

What I felt most about what I didn't like about it was that there was a strong lack of character development and character depth. I feel like it would have been better to focus on two or three stories rather than try to give glimpses of 7 characters. I'm not sure exactly how people in the past perceived the story and characters, yet i personally feel that it could've been better.

I felt like everything was rushed. I don't think it needed, per se, a "wholesome" ending if it meant spending more time getting to know the main characters. I felt, for example, that Brad was a flat character, even though his situation, him hiding his blue blood family ties, gave his character some complexity. I was always expecting more from his character, and i got disappointed when i didn't get it.

I did though respect Carol, more so than Polly, who I thought the film was going to focus. I kept asking why Polly wasn't around and I kept asking why the film seemed to revolve around her at the beginning but then doesn't.

I was actually really disappointed with this film but I hope it gets better.

Women Empowerment......nice.

Ok, so today's film, Babyface, was, let's say, unorthodox. I'm not even entirely sure if I could name another movie that has the same portrayal as Lily Power does for this film. What I found really interesting was that she had no shame doing the things she did, choosing the decisions she chose, etc. up until the end, of course. Though the film obviously exposes the "double standard" within the parameters of gender roles, etc., this film hit the nail right on the head, and then some.

Ok, hold on, there is one film i could think of, Pretty Persuasion(2005) by Marcos Siega, featuring Evan Rachel Wood. The main character plays, basically, a promiscuous, scheming bitch who manipulates and has sex with everyone around her, male and female, to get what she wants. So, in that regard, I do know of a film, but Pretty Persuasion was filmed just a few years ago, where as Babyface was filmed in the 30's, right before the establishment of "the code." I'm surprised that such a topic and story could even be fathomed at that era. I guess the 20's were not the only decade of "craziness."

I'm still in shock, in shock from the train car scene. My jaw hasn't come back up yet. I just never knew women at that time could be so direct and evil. I'm surprised Bette Davis wasn't offered that role. She's always type casted as "the bitch."

So anyways, one thing that I want to discuss further is the camera angles and how they were always upward movements and such.

It does make sense that the film is about a woman who gets what she wants and "climbs her way to the top," a bit literally actually, since she stepped all over all those men. Yet, the specific idea that i wanted share was that idea of "when you reach the top, there's no where else to go but down."

Throughout the film, the exterior shots of the bank corporate building kept getting higher and higher, as if we would never see the top. Yet, when we finally do, it was too late, Trenthold tried to commit suicide. "Coming back down from that high," that rush of being rich and powerful, and gaining back her sense of humanity, she was able to give up her material earnings.
I'm really glad the film ended the way it did, not just symbolically with the camera angles, but with the character development as well.

Bravo.

When gangsters turn up the charm...

One of the biggest things I've noticed with gangster movies, like Scarface and The Public Enemy, the main characters, though being a sly and deceptive, are charming and successfully seduces the girls that they're interested in. What is most interesting is that they could treat the girls horribly, or even just say sexist things to them yet they still "fall in love" with him.

In The Public Enemy, the main character, Tom, seduces a girl off the street into his car and excessively flirts with her. What makes this scene really apparent is that she responds with the same magnitude of enthusiasm that he came on her with; She happily hops into the back of his car and he gets "touchy-feely" with her.

In Scarface, Tony manages to make Poppy, another guy's "property," "his girl." At first, she plays it off that she hates him and ignores him but he tries harder and harder to "get on her good side." He eventually grows on her and then she eventually falls for him.

I guess this says something about American culture at that time. It says "men could be players and women are supposed to be submissive."