I don't seew how you can say this. Female sexuality - long before West and
Marlene - has always been visible, exploited, enacted and expected in
films. It is MALE sexuality that almost never appeared before Brando.
At 05:57 PM 11/15/99 -0500, Peter Warren wrote:
>Louie: As some of the replies to your query have indicated, the major
>difference between classic and current film noir femmes fatales was the
>Hollywood Production Code, which was finally abandoned in the mid sixties.
>While it was acceptable to show greed (allowing for "compensating moral
>values") overt sexuality was not allowed - particularly female. After all,
>it was the aggressive, if comical, sexual come-ons of Mae West - and the
>androgony of Marlene Dietrich - which finally made the Hays Office
>implement the Code - thanks mainly to the Catholic Church's Legion of
>Decency and its threat to boycott all Paramount Studios movies. (Both Mae
>and Marlene were under contract to the studio). Also, social movements such
>as female equality helped the neo-noir females to show their sexuality, as
>well as their classic-noir greed and manipulation of the often weak male
>protagonist. A worthwhile exercise is to compare the 1946 and 1981 versions
>of THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, particularly the seduction scenes. Also,
>DOUBLE INDEMNITY in 1944 and BODY HEAT (a virtual remake) in 1981.
>Peter Warren
>
>----------
>> From: louie reayner <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: QUERY:femme fatales of 90's
>> Date: Monday, November 15, 1999 6:22 AM
>>
>> Hi,
>> I am researching the change between the femme fatales of the early noir
>> period and those of the nineties. In particular, I am searching for any
>> tit-bits on the femmes of the 90's. If anyone can provide any examples
>> of how the new femme differs to that of the old then I would be indebted
>to
>> them.
>>
>> Thankyou.........Louie Rayner.
>>
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