Dangerous Dames: Women and Representation in the Weimar Street Film and Film Noir

Anonymous

at 1:26 am

Many feminist critics see the Film Noir and Weimar Street films styles as subliminally promoting the repression of women. The filmmakers do it by introducing the seducive and dangerous femme fatale who lures the man into threatening situations. The woman is finally subdued at the end of the filme either by a bullet or marriage (and which is worse?). Wager takes another view. She believes that the majority of women are not influenced by the misogynistic directions of film noir and Weimar street films, rather, they are enraptured by the femme fatale and her freedom. For a female to watch one of these movies is to become free for two hours, though they always know they must pay for their freedom at the end of the movie. Your vocabulary will be increased by one when you read this book. Wager made up the term femme etrappee, who is the antithesis of the femme fatale. She is the woman who has about 2 minutes of screen time, if she is lucky, and is most often seen serving drinks or taking care of children. She doesn’t die at the end because she is fulfilling society’s demand. However, if she travels outside her stewardship – POW! I have Jans Wager for a class at Utah Valley State College. She is a nut for film, psychoanalysis, and those dangerous dames. If you want a wild experience, watch the movies she critiques while you read the book, you will rise to new levels of awareness, not quite nirvana, but close. I was surprised to see that so many movies from the Film Noir and Weimar Street were more than just entertainment. There are some really weird things going on beneath the surface of these films. Probably the the most amazing thing about this book is that it started out as a doctoral dissertation, and it is actually interesting. Very few dissertations ever get beyond the blue bound books that collect dust on university shelves. Imagine actually making money from your education.
Rating: 4 / 5