The role of women in Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1959)

Résumé du document

In his article in Film Culture, Jonas Mekas wrote about Shadows: "It doesn't prove anything, it doesn't even want to say anything, but really it tells more than ten or 110 other recent American films." Later, he wrote in Sight and Sound: "Since their most passionate obsession is to capture life in its more free and spontaneous flight, these films could be described as a spontaneous cinema." This quotes show how much Shadows enables us to understand the American society of the 50s. John Cassavetes chose indeed to represent the New York life in 1959 in a very spontaneous and realistic way. Moreover, he tackles serious social, cultural and racial themes.

Then, it is relevant to analyse the representation and the role of the main female character, Lelia. In the 50s, the feminist movement was just beginning to grow. But the pill invented by Pincus was for instance not commercialized until 1960. Thus, the 50s are an interesting transition period. Lelia represents the typical young woman of the 50s: on the one hand, she wants to become independent and emancipated; on the other hand, she is still seen and represented as frail and even quite superficial.

Extraits

[...] Then, it is relevant to analyse the representation and the role of the main female character, Lelia. In the 50s, the feminist movement was just beginning to grow. But the pill invented by Pincus was for instance not commercialized until 1960. Thus, the 50s are an interesting transition period. Lelia represents the typical young woman of the 50s: on the one hand, she wants to become independent and emancipated; on the other hand, she is still seen and represented as frail and even quite superficial. [...]

[...] He brutally asks Tony to leave Lelia in peace. Similarly, Tony treats Lelia as if she was a delicate and frail person. After they first made love, Tony says to Lelia: didn't know you were a virgin”. This reaction shows that there was a kind of categorization of women: on the one hand, the “easy trick to on the other hand, the “virtuous” women. Tony would not have behaved like that if he knew Lelia had not already slept with men. [...]

[...] These are two black marks in the racist and sexist society of the 50s. When Tony disapproves the fact that Lelia is black, she really understands how difficult it is to be black in this society. She is later trying to take her revenge on Davey. When this young black man is wooing her, she makes him wait and treats him like a nobody. She wants to show her power on him (just as on David, the other she sees at the beginning of the movie) and to convince herself of her superiority on men. [...]

[...] But she also claims her independence as a woman trough declaration such as belong to or am what I When she behaves like that, Davey even says to her that she has “masculine attitudes”. It shows that this desire of emancipation was considered as a “masculine” desire. These situations show us that the will to become emancipated was not quite normal yet for a woman. But Lelia lives with her tolerant brothers (who let her see men). The process of independence is then easier for her to begin. [...]

[...] She uses the stereotype that woman should take a long time to put make-up on, to get dressed, to do her hair In Shadows, John Cassavetes represents with subtlety the change of traditional values which happened in the 50s. Lelia is indeed still standing between modernity and conservatism, between to conception of femininity. She wants to become emancipated but at the same time she is still influenced by traditional ideas and attitudes. It is also interesting to see that women are still in the 50s considered as a kind of possession, something that gives a social status: Benny says, at the end of the movie, that he wants to become a “normal guy”. [...]