All About My Mother, 1999 | Analysis

any around My Mformer(a), 1999 compendiumThis is essay will attempt to examine the photograph both About My Mformer(a) using different interpretations and theories about gender roles in connection to create a view of Almadovars work. I shall explore Almadovars work in terms of his difficulty to interpret effeminate identification and how he uses kindly inter secondions as a short cut to portraying women and men as one. The movie was released in 1999 at a time when homosexuality was silent politically oppressed especially in proportion to gay marriage. Almadovar uses his video to show a more politically accepted view towards homosexuality between both men and women in a radical way of life than at the time of release were accepted. As Stephen Maddison suggests Almadovar is believed and been labelled as a Womens director in as much as he, as salutary as others (typically Tennessee Williams), signify a standard for the identification of women and/or homosexuality.All A bout My Mother, predominately uses barbs from Tennessee Williams tamper A Streetcar Named Desire and it can outright be seen that this is a benchmark for Almadovars concerns in relation to the characters and their backgrounds, especially that of the injects fe staminate protagonist, mankinduela. We also repeatedly see the uniform scene from Streetcar which is never the less done on purpose. The scene is that of the end of the play where Stella supposedly leaves her husband, Stanley. The director obviously wanted us to see this scene for what it was as he shows this scene in relation to women and their strength. The particular that this scene is shown repeatedly throughout the film (Manuela and her son watch it together and we see the scene and again after he dies) shows us how varied productions of the same play direct changed Williams ending, most notably from the original where Stella is left sobbing on a step while Stanley kneels beside her and puts his hand across her bl ouse in that locationfore re demeanor his control over her. In Almadovars film however, Stella leaves stage right unspoiled after calling Stanley a bastard. In Almadovars case, he is trying to show how heterosexuality seems insufferable today as it appeared in Williams play. It also denotes that women have choices in life and are not controlled by men.As Mulvey suggests in Performance analysis with the relation of women to men women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and titillating impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness. All about my mother seems to take this surmise and turn it on its head and throughout the entire film there seems to be this allure towards creating a performance that is different from the way courtly performances are held. Mulvey goes on to explain that Budd Boetticher saysWhat counts is what the heroine provokes, or quite an what she represents. She is the one, or rather the l ove or fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern feels for her, who makes him act the way he does. In herself the women has not the slightest importance.Almadovar uses this as a agent to show the opposite of such belief. It becomes quite clear that in All about my mother the focus is concentrated on the relationships that Manuela holds and creates with the other women in the film. She is the heroine the main objective of the film is for Manuela to aim Estabans father which takes the central put at the start but this is pushed aside quite quickly and the film becomes Manuelas journey through the past. Finding Estabans father resurfaces later on in the film but does not arrange the narrative. Of course theorists including Mulvey suggest that Man is the bearer of the look of the spectator whereas Almadovar shows us in Mother it is the women that controls the look. The focal point of the film if on Women.Almadovars film makes obvious note and eccentric to the film All abou t Eve (1950). The actress in the film Margo seems to contradict the idea that she could be seen as just a consistency and a voice but at the same time we are interpreted through the story by a man watching from a nearby stall. The man is still the bearer of the look and with this in understanding we are in some ways forced to side with the staminate protagonist in the piece.In Mother, we can see that Manuela does not equivalence with Mulveys views on the act of the female in cinema. While Mulvey suggests that women are looked at for erotic pleasure which in direct correlation to the leitmotif of erotic spectacle from pin ups to strip-tease, Manuela becomes a mother, not only to her son but to the other women in the film and shows professional mothering skills. We essential not forget that in the film she displays her skill for cooking and nursing and she is also an actress whom can improvise and lie convincingly. Predominantly the film is about mothering. And this is seen thr oughout the film and coincidently the film lacks all fathering. The only father in the film is that of sis Rosas father whom suffering from Alzheimers has become child like, dependant on a women.The consensus that is the men that are the heroes of the film and also the bearer of the look does find its way back into the picture by the end of the film. It is Esteban the second who creates the miracle at the end of the film, when his HIV passed on by sister Rosa, is neutralized. However we must realise that this comes from a child dependant on the other the women in the film and that his HIV miracle is from the utopian of his gender dissident mothers.A observe character in this film which we can interpret in some(prenominal) different ways and use to look at Almodovars work as a whole is that of Agrado. She is the lead transvestite character in the film and still bears the male hood of a penis. Almodovar uses Agrado to go against the convention of traditionalistic cinema. Like so many other lead transvestites in film Agrado does not seek camouflage or the suppression of herself. She does not profess to be anything else but what she is and this is how she gains her affirmation. The topic of Transgender is one which falls under fierce debate and with relation to drag has its place in films. Topics about the body and gender in relation to transgender and drag will help us to reconsider such concepts which, in this film, are overlaid throughout the whole film. Transgender is. as expected, one factor that has led to a reconstruction of views and theories in relation to gender. As butler says in Gender Trouble Feminism and the putrefaction of identify (1990) imitating gender, a drag queen reveals the imitative structure of gender as well as its contingency. It is hard to pick up on or read Almodovars transgender characters especially in relation to Agrado. Butler goes on to cite that of Esther Newton where Newton describes the drag as a doubly inversion where by the appearance is an illusion. The external appearance is feminine to the shopping center but the interior is very much masculine but the same can be said vice versa. With this is mind we cannot take Agrado as either a man or a women in fact her position between the two provides the dramatic escape from the male heed that is intended. Agrado, however, still portrays the characteristics of a man especially with her speech when the play is cancelled. She is brassy with her body and explains that her authenticity comes from the production of herself that she has created. Even though Agrado is not your conventional drag cabaret esque, she is a type of gender parody as Butler explains. Agrado becomes this parody of the original that of the normal gender identification. Butler explains that it is a production which, in effect that is, in its effect postures as an imitation. Agrado is nevertheless an imitation of a women and an imitation of a man. We somewhat feel sided with Agra do though with her openness and he disregard for peoples approval. Although this is somewhat because of the comical portrayal presumption by the actor. However, even though Agrado is somewhat a parody and an imitation, Butler argues still that maybe all gender is just an act. in other ritual social dramas, the action of gender requires a performance that is repeated. which leads her on to This repetition is at once a re-enactment and re-experiencing of a dictated of meanings already socially established. With this in mind we can take Agrados image in the film as one for both men and women. The male still receives some of the male gaze as it were but it is mimicked by the act of the drag.