Gone with the Wind and Feminism

departed with the revoke and Feminism Posted by Miriam Bale on Sat, Mar 13, 2010 at 138 PM pic molly Haskell, author ofFrankly, My Dear, forget introduce g nonpareil with the trail at bourgeon Forum on Sunday subsequentlynoon. Gone with the uprise plays this weekend in Film Forums Victor Fleming festival, still is it really a Fleming carry?Uber-producer David Selznick is the most consistent author, and Selznick doppelganger George Cukor directed a significant amount of scenes, giving this domestic war film many moments more delicate and subtle than anything else in Flemings oeuvre (and after macho Fleming was brought on replace the openly gay Cukor at Clark gable ends urging, the womens director went on to coach Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland on weekends, at their insistence, throughout the shoot) and Vivien Leigh gives a scarily mercurial performance in close every scene, stimulateing the film entirely.At the time of the films release, Frank Nugent in the New Yor k Times wrote, Is it the greatest motion picture ever make? Probably not, although it is the greatest motion mural we have ever seen. Its a mural made by many hands, and the esteemed critic Molly Haskells latest support, Frankly My Dear Gone with the cuckold Revisited does a fabulous job of parsing out the plowshares.She reveals nuggets like Howard Hawks supposed uncredited contribution in re committal to writing some of the dialogue in the last theatrical component, the involution of the sexes showdown between Rhett and Scarlett, which helps make sense why this particular section feels like an entirely different film from the historical romance of crash 1. Another uncredited writer was F. Scott Fitzgerald Haskells digging suggests that what he eliminated from the film may be as important as what anyone else contributed.She in like manner describes writer Ben Hecht importanttaining as a point-of-pride that he had never nor never would read the mass-market epic romance on which the film was basedso Selznick and Fleming stayed up all night on a diet of speed and peanuts acting out the story for him (with Selznick as Scarlett and Fleming playing Melanie). Haskells book also focuses on the one-hit-wonder novelist Margaret Mitchell, telling the ascinating memorial of this flapper-turned-frumpy matron who rebelled against her serious, feminist southern belle of a mother by becoming a connoisseur and practitioner of frivolity as an art. As Mitchells compass might suggest, Gone with the vacate is a complicated universe for a feminist to tackle. And yet this is exactly the sort of conflicted, non-PC and pre-Second Wave world of women that Haskell has consistently celebrated and examined through films, serving a unique and crucial role in American feminism.As Haskell describes this position in connection to a 1972 control panel she took part in on women in film, in which Gloria Steinem deplored the scenes in Gone with the Wind of Scarlett OHara squeezed i nto a corset and Haskell then rose to agitate that character as a courageous survivor Both of our reactions were in their own way, right.But this difference of post was also an early augur of the erroneousness lines in feminism or perhaps a necessary give way focus between those predisposed to see and proclaim signs of the victimization of women in a benighted world now progressing toward enlightenment and equality and those wedded to be heartened by the contradictionsthe women in the past (both real and fictional) whod held their own in a chauvinist culture, whod subverted the norms and gained victories not evermore homely through a literal reading of the plot. Of course, notwithstanding as Gone with the Wind is both tricky and rich personal territory for a southern-raised feminist like Haskell to examine, it is also difficulteven in coverage this brieffor a black feminist like myself to look at honestly. Gone with the Wind is unarguably, painfully racist, yet extraordinari ly valuable for examining skillful how and why.The film displays insipid white stereotypes in some of the minor characters as much as it does obscenely destructive black ones, and yet the main characters Rhett and Scarlett seem to exist outside of this orbit, beyond expectations of both gender or race identification with these two characters is widespread and complex, by all races. average as Selznicks Duel in the Sun inspired Laura Mulvey to serving her views on female identification, GWTW is ripe for looking at where racial identification splits and falls in this film, even after Haskells sharp, thorough and foxily written book has covered so uch intellectual and historic territory. Haskell will be on hand at 3pm screening at Film Forum on Sunday to introduce this problematic and fascinating ingredient of film history. Shell also be signing copies of her book, a coup of single-work film criticism that is highly intelligent, personal and never relies on jargon or cliches. Bes ides her unique and crucial role in American feminism, Haskell is also one of the scoop writers on film in America, and both as a critic and stylist shes only getting better. Molly Haskells Feminist Take on Gone with the Wind y Melissa Silverstein on March 2, 2009 in Books Molly Haskell is the shit when it comes to writing about womens films with a feminist perspective. There is no one better. Her book From Reverence to Rape The Treatment of Women in the Movies is one of the best books about women in film and it was written in the 70s. (There is an apicdditional chapter that covers the 70s and 80s in the paperback. ) That just goes to show you how few books have critically looked at this issue (from a non-academic perspective. Haskell has taken on one of the most beloved films Gone with the Wind in her new book Frankly My Dear which is out now. The book has gotten stellar reviews and including in the NY Times this weekend. Haskells argument is mounted on feminist principles that at first glance seem antithetical to a film widely regarded as prefeminist fluff. She contends that themes centering on women are always an inferior subject matter to friendlyly conscious critics of literature and film. later 70 years of GWTW bashing, a creditable critic finally says, not so fast Haskell gave up regular reviewing in the early 90s, go forth criticism that seriously examined the big-screen image of women and the hot representation of female social roles to go underground into academic studies where abstruse, tenure-seeking jargon is used to rebuff popular taste. That makes Frankly, My Dear all the more remarkable. Its Haskells feminist perspective that provides insight into a movie most academics wont spot and current critics dismiss. She disentangles the films qualities from the confounding issues of misogyny, racism and intellectual snobbery.