Respond to some aspect of the Silberman article. Do you agree or disagree with his point? Interpret his point, using other articles or the film to support your argument.
The film Romance in a Minor Key gives the audience more insight into fascist views about women and sexuality during this time period. The article Illusion of Escapism Romance in a minor key discusses the film as a story of escapism from reality and the power of female emotional female seduction. The seducing power of a woman plays a crucial role in this film. While woman has the power to seduce man, a woman is able to let her desires get to the better of her rationale. While Madeline knows that deceiving her husband is wrong, she is desperate to escape the confinements of her emotionally suffocating marriage. Krautner allows the audience to sympathize with her and understand that fulfilling her desires makes her come alive and be able to feel her feelings rather than suppress them. This is a differentiation from Maupassant short story that it was based on. The message of succumbing to order is a deeply fascist ideology, so Krautner uses the weakness of women and their inability to control their desires as a way to condemn non-governmental order and liberalism. Madeline ignores her loyalty and initial intuition not to pursue an affair with Michael, but instead disrupts order and the authority of her husband and ends up dead. The brilliance of Krautner is his ability to instill the illusion of escapism within the fascist ideology. The effect of escapism is different from the Les Bijoux short story because the focus is on the husband and his discovery of his wife’s betrayal. In the film, the focus is on the wife’s struggle between desire and her loyalty to her husband despite her distaste for him. Krautner’s view of women is complex and not all sexual, Madeline seduces the lovers not with her body or her appearance but with her hypnotic smile that Michael cannot read. Madeline is not only viewed as a sex object in the film because the audience is allowed to feel her emotional distress and struggle with her predicament. She also provides the rule of the muse which the author calls a “nonsexual threat” and allows Michael to compose beautiful music. The author also analyzes Madeline’s lack of words and how she fears using words else “speaking will frustrate her desire to escape”, so her silence is her self-protection. In the song Romance in a Minor Key, Madeline sees that romance not as important as loyalty to her husband. The final scene at the performance of the minor key that she helped create, causes Madeleine to dwell on the past and see her mistakes and sees the decision to choose death in order to save her husband. Krautner gives Madeline a lot of power and integrity since she chooses to sacrifice her own happiness and even her own life over Romance and passion. The film ends with no one getting what they want. Madeline is dead , Victor is killed, Madeline’s husband is no longer blissfully ignorant that his wife never loved him, and Michael is permanently impaired. Perhaps the message is much simpler than I thought, do not have an affair, and if you are unhappy with your marriage, leave and do not smile so mysteriously.
It's an interesting interpretation you make of the moral. What if you were to consider when the film was set? Was divorce acceptable at the time? How would a woman be able to support herself?
The film Romance in a Minor Key gives the audience more insight into fascist views about women and sexuality during this time period. The article Illusion of Escapism Romance in a minor key discusses the film as a story of escapism from reality and the power of female emotional female seduction. The seducing power of a woman plays a crucial role in this film. While woman has the power to seduce man, a woman is able to let her desires get to the better of her rationale. While Madeline knows that deceiving her husband is wrong, she is desperate to escape the confinements of her emotionally suffocating marriage. Krautner allows the audience to sympathize with her and understand that fulfilling her desires makes her come alive and be able to feel her feelings rather than suppress them. This is a differentiation from Maupassant short story that it was based on. The message of succumbing to order is a deeply fascist ideology, so Krautner uses the weakness of women and their inability to control their desires as a way to condemn non-governmental order and liberalism. Madeline ignores her loyalty and initial intuition not to pursue an affair with Michael, but instead disrupts order and the authority of her husband and ends up dead. The brilliance of Krautner is his ability to instill the illusion of escapism within the fascist ideology. The effect of escapism is different from the Les Bijoux short story because the focus is on the husband and his discovery of his wife’s betrayal. In the film, the focus is on the wife’s struggle between desire and her loyalty to her husband despite her distaste for him. Krautner’s view of women is complex and not all sexual, Madeline seduces the lovers not with her body or her appearance but with her hypnotic smile that Michael cannot read. Madeline is not only viewed as a sex object in the film because the audience is allowed to feel her emotional distress and struggle with her predicament. She also provides the rule of the muse which the author calls a “nonsexual threat” and allows Michael to compose beautiful music. The author also analyzes Madeline’s lack of words and how she fears using words else “speaking will frustrate her desire to escape”, so her silence is her self-protection. In the song Romance in a Minor Key, Madeline sees that romance not as important as loyalty to her husband. The final scene at the performance of the minor key that she helped create, causes Madeleine to dwell on the past and see her mistakes and sees the decision to choose death in order to save her husband. Krautner gives Madeline a lot of power and integrity since she chooses to sacrifice her own happiness and even her own life over Romance and passion. The film ends with no one getting what they want. Madeline is dead , Victor is killed, Madeline’s husband is no longer blissfully ignorant that his wife never loved him, and Michael is permanently impaired. Perhaps the message is much simpler than I thought, do not have an affair, and if you are unhappy with your marriage, leave and do not smile so mysteriously.
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting interpretation you make of the moral. What if you were to consider when the film was set? Was divorce acceptable at the time? How would a woman be able to support herself?
ReplyDelete