7019MAPA- When the Woman Looks at 'Suspiria'
As a young female, one who has consciously avoided the world of horror film until its introduction to me in this class, I have never really considered the implications of female representation within such films. Perhaps all along it was these very representations that have made me avoid the films. In considering the 1970’s Italian horror film ‘Suspiria’ by Dario Argento (1977) set in Berlin, Germany, traditional horror female representation is simultaneously presented and negotiated with. Thus, I feel a theory that can beintegrally applied to ‘Suspiria’ is that of Williams’ (1984) ‘When the Woman Looks’. If we ignore the notion Williams presents in this text of the predisposition that any male spectator is heterosexual, and essentially views women on screen from the place of a sexual desire, it presents a useful lens with which to break down barriers of women being inclined to ‘hide’ from horror, and has pushed myself to view horror not from the perspective of fear or apprehension, but as a way of analysing deeper messages the film presents.
Williams (1984) suggests that traditionally images of terror on screen, in horror largely of female mutilation, murder and rape, are for boys and men to look at, and for girls and women to cover their eyes or hide behind men. Sense can be made from this in that a female bearing witness to her own rape or mutilation is not something that would provoke pleasure in viewing, simply due to the innate fact that it further places women as objects to be spectated, and as submissive members of the society they live in, incapable of defending themselves. The female spectator’s sympathy in viewing such images creates a subconscious barrier she must negotiate with if she then wishes to ‘look’ at her female peers being mutilated on screen. To return then to Suspiria (Argento 1977), we can apply the same notion of a female being granted the power of ‘looking’ in horror cinema as one that in itself negotiates with the subconscious barrier created between the female viewer and her on screen victimised counterparts.
Firstly, the fact that Suspiria (Argento 1977) is such a female dominant film in terms of its cast creates complications in that Williams (1984) generally assumes the ‘monster’ in a horror film to be male. In Suspiria, if we view the witches operating the ballet dance academy as the monsters, particularly when noting that all of them are played by older women, and the students of the academy are all young healthy females, it enforces the dominant societal perception that young women are the only ones worthy of being ‘looked at’. The witches as monsters arguably embody the motherly figure often presented as abject and to be feared, initially in the film presented as motherly, caring figures, for example the character of ‘Miss Tanner’, watching over all of the young girls in the academy, ensuring they have dinner by certain times and as responsible for their safety. For example, when we see Miss Tanner at the start of the film communicating with the policeman about the death of ‘Pat’ as if she were responsible for her, we can see this motherly protection emerge. However later in the film when revealed as a witch, Miss Tanner for the audience then represents something scary, something that must be defeated, and thus the motherly figure within the film has been connoted with evil and distress.
Argento himself has discussed his casting choices in his films, often accused of misogyny, in saying that he would much rather watch a girl with a good face and a good figure being murdered than an ugly girl or a man (Heller-Nicholas 2015). This in itself reinforces young traditionally attractive women as the only ones people want to look at, the only ones that can be made into a spectacle, and thus pleasure comes from viewing their mutilation. When we look at such women as only capable of functioning as objects of desire, as they have been accepted in horror film. To apply this to Suspiria (Argento 1977), it then becomes apparent that the majority of the cast as all young, thin, healthy, traditionally attractive women as the ones who are murdered and mutilated, for example at the start of the film ‘Pat’, and the character ‘Sarah’ befriended by the lead female ‘Suzy’. These both meet their deaths as a spectacle, in extremely dramatic and overt ways for which the female spectator can be horrified and feel innately inclined to shy away, as if it were herself on the screen.
Williams (1984) also notes that it is rare in the genre of horror for a female protagonist to be granted to look at the monster or at the inner goings on of the film’s narrative. If we take this very literally in Suspiria (Argento 1977), once again taking the witches as the monsters, Suzy, the female protagonist, is granted looking at the monsters all throughout the film, but without the knowledge that it is monsters she is looking at until the end, and any females within the film who catch on to the inner goings on of the dance academy are later punished. And so except for perhaps only Suzy, any female who tries to look, who catches on to the issue at hand, is later killed by the very monsters she is trying to look at, and thus this is synonymous with female punishment for looking, as opposed to simply acting as the ones to be looked at. I would note from this then that Argento’s choice in casting young, attractive women as the ones who are killed, whilst creating an almost all female cast, initially coming across as different and progressive in presenting women as capable of defeating the monster and showing no need for male help, or even a male monster to represent a twisted heterosexual male desire in castrating a young attractive female body, instead further burdens women as abject subordinates in a wider societal structure.
To refer again very literally to the notion of looking as not being one often granted to women in horror, Suzy, in trying to defeat the ultimate monster at the end in Helena Markos, she is forced to simply stab at a vague outline of the body of this monster (Heller-Nicholas 2015). And thus, even though Suzy is given the considerable privilege of being able to see where this monster lies, and to see all of the secrets hinted at throughout the film come to life, she still cannot see the ultimate thing she must defeat. From this a metaphorical blindness, or absence of looking is created, in that Suzy is still oppressed and still not deemed worthy enough to actually see what it is she is trying to overcome. Williams says that blindness in cinema generally signifies an absence of desire, and that female protagonists often then express no desire of their own through the very inability to ‘look’. Suzy is represented largely as an object of innocence throughout the film, her presentation in a white outfit at the beginning of the film as a semiotic connotation of purity, and her inability to disobey the academy and the witches that run it (for example when she is essentially forced to live at the academy as opposed to where she would like to live, and is manipulated into eating food that essentially weakens her). As the film is often associated with the traditional children’s fairytale ‘Snow White’, because of the colours and childlike portrayal of the academy students as young and innocent, Argento saying himself that he wanted them to come across as the feel of young children I a big and scary world. Thus such an innocent portrayal is seemingly broken down when Suzy is granted the permission to ‘look’ at the monster she is trying to defeat, yet also upheld in that through the blindness with which she must defeat it she is still not really ‘looking’.
Bibliography
Williams (1984) suggests that traditionally images of terror on screen, in horror largely of female mutilation, murder and rape, are for boys and men to look at, and for girls and women to cover their eyes or hide behind men. Sense can be made from this in that a female bearing witness to her own rape or mutilation is not something that would provoke pleasure in viewing, simply due to the innate fact that it further places women as objects to be spectated, and as submissive members of the society they live in, incapable of defending themselves. The female spectator’s sympathy in viewing such images creates a subconscious barrier she must negotiate with if she then wishes to ‘look’ at her female peers being mutilated on screen. To return then to Suspiria (Argento 1977), we can apply the same notion of a female being granted the power of ‘looking’ in horror cinema as one that in itself negotiates with the subconscious barrier created between the female viewer and her on screen victimised counterparts.
Firstly, the fact that Suspiria (Argento 1977) is such a female dominant film in terms of its cast creates complications in that Williams (1984) generally assumes the ‘monster’ in a horror film to be male. In Suspiria, if we view the witches operating the ballet dance academy as the monsters, particularly when noting that all of them are played by older women, and the students of the academy are all young healthy females, it enforces the dominant societal perception that young women are the only ones worthy of being ‘looked at’. The witches as monsters arguably embody the motherly figure often presented as abject and to be feared, initially in the film presented as motherly, caring figures, for example the character of ‘Miss Tanner’, watching over all of the young girls in the academy, ensuring they have dinner by certain times and as responsible for their safety. For example, when we see Miss Tanner at the start of the film communicating with the policeman about the death of ‘Pat’ as if she were responsible for her, we can see this motherly protection emerge. However later in the film when revealed as a witch, Miss Tanner for the audience then represents something scary, something that must be defeated, and thus the motherly figure within the film has been connoted with evil and distress.
Argento himself has discussed his casting choices in his films, often accused of misogyny, in saying that he would much rather watch a girl with a good face and a good figure being murdered than an ugly girl or a man (Heller-Nicholas 2015). This in itself reinforces young traditionally attractive women as the only ones people want to look at, the only ones that can be made into a spectacle, and thus pleasure comes from viewing their mutilation. When we look at such women as only capable of functioning as objects of desire, as they have been accepted in horror film. To apply this to Suspiria (Argento 1977), it then becomes apparent that the majority of the cast as all young, thin, healthy, traditionally attractive women as the ones who are murdered and mutilated, for example at the start of the film ‘Pat’, and the character ‘Sarah’ befriended by the lead female ‘Suzy’. These both meet their deaths as a spectacle, in extremely dramatic and overt ways for which the female spectator can be horrified and feel innately inclined to shy away, as if it were herself on the screen.
Williams (1984) also notes that it is rare in the genre of horror for a female protagonist to be granted to look at the monster or at the inner goings on of the film’s narrative. If we take this very literally in Suspiria (Argento 1977), once again taking the witches as the monsters, Suzy, the female protagonist, is granted looking at the monsters all throughout the film, but without the knowledge that it is monsters she is looking at until the end, and any females within the film who catch on to the inner goings on of the dance academy are later punished. And so except for perhaps only Suzy, any female who tries to look, who catches on to the issue at hand, is later killed by the very monsters she is trying to look at, and thus this is synonymous with female punishment for looking, as opposed to simply acting as the ones to be looked at. I would note from this then that Argento’s choice in casting young, attractive women as the ones who are killed, whilst creating an almost all female cast, initially coming across as different and progressive in presenting women as capable of defeating the monster and showing no need for male help, or even a male monster to represent a twisted heterosexual male desire in castrating a young attractive female body, instead further burdens women as abject subordinates in a wider societal structure.
To refer again very literally to the notion of looking as not being one often granted to women in horror, Suzy, in trying to defeat the ultimate monster at the end in Helena Markos, she is forced to simply stab at a vague outline of the body of this monster (Heller-Nicholas 2015). And thus, even though Suzy is given the considerable privilege of being able to see where this monster lies, and to see all of the secrets hinted at throughout the film come to life, she still cannot see the ultimate thing she must defeat. From this a metaphorical blindness, or absence of looking is created, in that Suzy is still oppressed and still not deemed worthy enough to actually see what it is she is trying to overcome. Williams says that blindness in cinema generally signifies an absence of desire, and that female protagonists often then express no desire of their own through the very inability to ‘look’. Suzy is represented largely as an object of innocence throughout the film, her presentation in a white outfit at the beginning of the film as a semiotic connotation of purity, and her inability to disobey the academy and the witches that run it (for example when she is essentially forced to live at the academy as opposed to where she would like to live, and is manipulated into eating food that essentially weakens her). As the film is often associated with the traditional children’s fairytale ‘Snow White’, because of the colours and childlike portrayal of the academy students as young and innocent, Argento saying himself that he wanted them to come across as the feel of young children I a big and scary world. Thus such an innocent portrayal is seemingly broken down when Suzy is granted the permission to ‘look’ at the monster she is trying to defeat, yet also upheld in that through the blindness with which she must defeat it she is still not really ‘looking’.
Bibliography
- Argento, D. (1977) Suspiria. [DVD] USA: Seda Spettacoli
- Heller-Nicholas, A. (2015) Devil’s Advocates: Suspiria. Leighton Buzzard: Auteur
- Williams, L. (1984) ‘When the Woman Looks’. In Re-vision: essays in feminist film criticism. Ed by Doanne, M., Mellencamp, P., and Williams, L. Los Angeles: University Publications of America, 83-99
Comments
Post a Comment