In Sebastian Lelio's Oscar-nominated A Fantastic Woman, a girlfriend is continually shunned, barred, and forbidden from grieving over the sudden death of her boyfriend. His surviving family do everything they can to push the woman away and insist, then demand, that she not come to the funeral and never speak to the family again. If this seems rash, we soon learn why. A Fantastic Woman tells the story of Marina Vidal (Daniela Vega), a lounge/jazz singer by night, and waitress by day, who has just moved in with Orlando (NAME). Despite a significant age disparity, the couple are very much in love and at a celebratory birthday dinner for Marina, Orlando has just arranged for a Brazilian birthday trip. Life is good. After a romantic evening at …show more content…
Would the hospital offer the same care and protections were it Marina admitted to the emergency room? Moments like this are just a few of the probing, insightful observations that Lelio makes with his new film. Powered by a stunning, debut, breakout performance from Vega, A Fantastic Woman is compelling cinema, with important optics and significance in not only the annals of LGBTQ cinema, but also in advancing representation. Perhaps more importantly, Vega is woven into the tapestry of a unique and intriguing drama, a script co-authored by Lelio and Gonzalo Maza that looks at the complexity of familial fracture, misunderstandings, and how we sacrifice and grow when touched by love. The film is also rather unpredictable in how it injects symbolism, musical sequences, and an almost dream-like haze in the lensing of D.P. Benjamin Echazarreta. The use of a clever song score brings smiles and sorrow and standing in the storm of Lelio's vision is a luminous performance from …show more content…
Lelio plays things a little too cute at times and the screenplay struggles to give agency to Orlando's family. Though they are cruel at times, and deplorable in their actions, we are left to fill in the blanks. That's easy enough to do: Save one kind-hearted brother, Orlando's family doesn't understand how someone could be transgender, they see Marina as something broken or a person mentally ill, they refuse to try and understand how and why Orlando could fall in love with someone like that. And though the film never explores those knee-jerk recoils beyond surface-level cliche, Marina clearly deserves so much more. Among the final moments in A Fantastic Woman, we see Marina elevate, improbably high in the air, her eyes fixed on the camera and staring right at us. A confident smile tells us that Marina will not be rejected any longer, well on her way to becoming a most fantastic woman
In My Antonia, Willa Cather pens a nostalgic story focused on a two people with a unique connection. Jim Burden narrates the story of Antonia Shimerda, the girl next door who happens to be a Bohemian emigrant. Jim moves to his grandparents’ house after his parents die; Antonia arrives in the United States with her family and little else. The two are vastly different, but bond quickly on the Nebraska prairie. Most people who study the novel acknowledge the obvious impact that Antonia has on Jim and see Antonia as “in one way or another, the center of the novel” (Lucenti).
The family accepts them and invites her to the funeral. When she attends, she is embarrassed by her own weeping. She is homesick, and has been making attempts to belong for so long, and this reminds her of what she left behind. The funeral ended at the crematorium, a symbolic act of immolation. It’s possible that her unease at this part of the ceremony is related to the dislike which Westerners have about facing mortality, but it could also be that the reminder of the limitation of time made her shallow attempts at connecting with others seem ludicrous.
Nicole Martinez P.2 2.23.17 In Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot utilizes female sexuality as a form of power. Lola uses the power her sexuality to escape from her problems. While in Santo Domingo, Lola finds out her mother wants her back home.
The late 19th century was a monumental era for the city of Paris. As the city kept growing and increasing in popularity around the globe, the city itself was being modernized from its dated medieval layout. These modernizations had a direct impact on the culture of the city, the lifestyles of its inhabitants, and the prominence of the city across the world. Paris’ inhabitants were as social as ever, and often enjoyed themselves at cafés and bars. This modernization acted as a perfect catalyst to support the surging wave of capitalism across Western Europe.
Deborah Tannen, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, is a popular author in the United States of America. Mostly of her focus in her articles and books is on the expression of interpersonal relationships in contentious interaction. Tannen became well known after her book You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation was published. However, this was not her only claim to fame. Along with this book, she also wrote many other essays and articles including the popular article “Marked Women, Unmarked Men.”
A lesbian is a woman- indentified woman and Adrienne Rich calls it ‘Lesbian continuum’ she explains lesbian continuum is “Include is a range through each woman’s life and throughout history of woman indentified experience no simply the fact that a woman has had consciously desired genital sexual experience with another woman (25)”. Rich argues to embrace many more forms of primary intensity between and among women including the sharing of a rich inner life. Their Eyes were watching God is overwhelmingly centered on Janie’s relationship with Tea Cake. Whereas certain critics recognize the female search for self and need for community as key issues in the novel, most still give priority to heterosexual love and experience as the sole informers of Janie’s existence.
The book, Bad Feminist, written by Roxane Gay, is a collection of essays that argues about many topics of feminism and typical problems in today’s society. “What We Hunger For," is one of her personal essays. Gay reveals to her reader the difficult journey she had to endure as a teen, while also taking her reader through the cultural experiences that many girls endure but never talk about. She later explores The Hunger Games trilogy and its heroine Katniss Everdeen to emphasize the cathartic and sobering stories in young adult literature. Gay claims that through the use of young adult literature and movies that speak of true experiences and accomplishments, the dark past young adult endure can be unlock and resolved.
When I was nine years old (2010), death touched my family through my older sister, Margot Kate Jackson Fowler, known by many as Katie Fowler. This affected me in tremendous ways which will stay with me for life. Whenever I see or hear of death regarding family members, I draw instant connections to the death of my sister. When guddu and Saroo were separated that night, not knowing that it would be their last moment together; they didn’t say goodbye. I can relate to this on a personal level as I never got to say goodbye to my sister.
The movie “Real Women Have Curves” tells the story of Ana Garcia, a high school graduate on her way to pursuit the American dream. Ana lives in barrio in Eastern Los Angeles, she is a brilliant student whom teacher really admire. Although she wants to go to college, her family, especially her mother, Carmen, tells her not to. In her mother’s eyes, Ana is a spoiled child who only thinks of herself. As the movie rolls along, the conflict between Ana and Carmen grows larger and Carmen turns into Ana’s biggest obstacle in achieving her American dream.
The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and the Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Stetson were both written by women to express how they were treated in their time period. Both of these stories were criticized because they challenged the belief that a woman should not be just a docile wife. These two pieces of literature utilized symbolic imagery, repetition, and dramatic irony to convey the common theme shared that women are opressed by the standards of society. In Chopin's Story of an Hour, Mrs. Mallard sees the outside world through the only window in her room.
The six determinates of culture include: religion, political philosophy, economic philosophy, education, language, and social structure. In the movie, Crash, Christine Thayer (played by actress Thandie Newton) plays the wife of a successful television director who is also Buddhist. Being a beautiful, light skinned, black woman whose black husband is well off puts her in a specific social structure that is of higher class than the average black woman living in Los Angeles. Throughout the movie we learn that Christine is privileged in the sense that she has always known the finer things in life. She has always lived a wealthy lifestyle and this resulted in her being strong willed and independent.
The essay Be Specific by Natalie Goldberg was an essay thats main point to me was respect. Respect is something that every individual deserves. A synopsis of what respect means to me all leads back to the golden rule, treat others as you want to be treated. The example that Natalie used that was the most realistic to me was when she said "Hey, girl, get in line.". Many people in today 's world do not take the time to use names it is always hey you, dude, bro, girl, and so the list goes on; as a result our generation is known for being disrespectful in regards to previous years.
Both the play Real Women Have Curves by Josefina Lopez and the movie adaptation make an attempt to communicate the message of female empowerment through their respective protagonists, Estela and Ana. Men resolve most of Ana’s problems, whereas Estela relies on herself and other women. The play conveys the theme of female empowerment because it is female-centric, successfully addresses the issues of body image, and focuses on women’s independence and self-validation. Lopez’s play serves as an example of what can happen when women uplift and depend on each other, as opposed to men.
Ridley Scott’s ‘female buddy movie’ Thelma and Louise centres around issues of male dominance and the freedom of release from society. Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) are women suppressed by the men in their lives. They take a vacation to escape for a few days and after an attempted rape and murder they end up fugitives on the run for their lives. This unintended event ends up being for them the best adventure of their lives, as they are able to divest from the rules of society and become the independent women they are. By subverting the traditional role of gender in the genre, the film shows how feminism impacted the film industry by challenging Hollywood and the gendered myths and social patriarchy, providing women with a voice, and changing how spectators view how women are looked at through women’s eyes and their experiences.
Incredible is working a desk job under the name of “Bob”. As the opening scene develops it is apparent that Mr. Incredible still strives to help the common man as he approves a claim for a sobbing elderly woman, who is “on a fixed income” (The Incredibles). While jumbling this task Bob’s wife, Elastigirl, calls him and begins to talk about their recently successful move into yet another undercover home and notes as she hangs up, “go save the world, one policy at a time” (The Incredibles). Bob’s wife essentially displays herself as an image of what was once individualism, but has changed over time to present an image of socialist equality on a basis of personality and character. By telling Bob, a man who longs for the feeling of freedom and helping others, to “save the world” by average means, she presents an active theme of repression to fit a societal