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June 1993

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Subject:
From:
MEL ROSENTHAL <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 7 Jun 1993 11:15:00 EDT
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In response to Cary Alan Nathenson request of Fri, 4 Jun 1993 00:28:03 -
0500: "Where repression of desire isn't the outcome" I would suggest WEIRD
SCIENCE as a possible film that fits that bill.  Kelly Le Brock, however,
would seem to represent a modern image of nature rooted in the forces of
subatomic physics and electromagnetic fields, not the 19th century,
Romantic notion of nature you describe in WIDE SARGASSO SEA, mysterious,
dangerous, uncontrollable. In that sense, Kelly Le Brock is also already
"repressed" by modern technology--under control--powerful,
exotic, erotic, but harnessed.  Unfortunately, the desires she gratifies
are adolescent.
 
It also seems to me that the only possible outcome to a confrontation
between a Romantic vision of nature and "civilized" man that does not
result in the suppression of nature must be that the man "goes native", ala
SPLASH.  (I'm not sure if this is what you mean by loss of subjectivity).
If I recall correctly CAT PEOPLE with Nastasia Kinski ended similarly.
 
This notion of men as the uncontrollable force of nature and woman as
civilizer seems more common.  Jeremy Butler cited TARZAN, an archetypal
example.  Others would be KING KONG, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.  THE ELECTRIC
HORSEMAN and the more recent THE UNFORGIVEN play on this theme.

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