Essay --

It may seem that the male characters in classical plastic film atomic number 18 given power and control over female characters, plainly the relationships between characters in Billy Wilders 1944 noir Double return and Michael Curtizs 1945 drama Mildred hurtle are complex and do non conform to specific gender roles. Rather, both(prenominal) of these films feature female characters that are both controllers and the controlled. The characters Mildred Pierce and Phyllis Dietrichson hold both of these roles in their respective films just are inverses of each other Mildred acts strongly and independently moreover is really controlled emotionally and financially by others, while Phyllis is presented as submissive further is the grand manipulator. As such, these cardinal films present different images of the independent woman, both of which are destined for failure. On the surface, it seems like Mildred Pierce undergoes a optimistic transformation and develops into an independen t woman. At the beginning of Mildreds first narrated flashback, she describes her liveness as little more than cooking and washing and having children. She works as a housewife. Her attire and environment reflect this her first interaction in the flashback is with her husband in the kitchen with an apron on. Berts departure pressures Mildred to enter to manpower to support her family and their wants. Her wardrobe changes to represent this change, also, since she is usually seen in working clothes. She builds the pauperism to start her own eating house and eventually starts her own successful restaurant chain, and once again, her physical appearance changes in that she is dressed in figure clothes. Once she understands that her marriage with Bert would hurt her financially, she actively seeks a divorce fr... ...nity and Mildred Pierce have two models of the independent woman, but both of them fail in the end. Mildreds love interest dies and her daughter is sent to prison. Phyll is is murdered by Walter. It would seem that the messages of these films are represented by the failures of these women. Mildred could not escape her motherlike instinct as it ruined her life. Phyllis treated people like tools and met a fatal end. Independence from men, then, is not the final goal for these women on the highway to happiness. These films represent this trait as shallow, since not only do these failures arise, but Mildred and Phyllis never truly escape the male gaze. The notions of independence presented in these two films lead to disaster because they are incomplete independence from men is a necessary step, but there is still more that the women in the films bespeak to accomplish.