Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Intact?
What did you think of all the hoopla surrounding whether the girls were "intact?" Was it just the authorities trying to figure out what had happened (i.e., whether a rape had occured), or were they too focused on that and not focused enough on their total well-being? Did the filmmaker find the focus amusing at all? (That may have been hinted at when the doctor was seen telling everybody at the house about it.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Ben, I think that was a "shame worse than death" mentality in which a young woman's value is based largely on her virtue. And when Mrs. Appleyard asked whether Edith had been molested, it seemed like she was more concerned for her school's reputation that Edith's welfare.
Agreed on both counts. The girls' being "intact" was the most important thing to everyone, based on fucked-up societal priorities. And Mrs. Appleyard never cared about anything but her school.
Did kc have her discussion of “intact” here or over on her own blog?
Last summer I read an online review of Renoir’s 1951 movie “The River”. The reviewer taught film, and he talked about how a feminist contingent of students was quite critical of Renoir for focusing on the girls’ “fuckability”. It is a good insight into the film because Renoir clearly does it, but I wouldn’t criticize it since the girls are themselves focused on their growing sexual awareness.
Weir has an even more driven focus on the fuckability of these girls. That relentless presentation while withholding almost all sex, gives the film its energy. So the discussions about the girls being intact on one hand clearly reflect the preoccupations of Victorian society—we even get a portrait of the Queen—but on the other hand they remind us the viewers that the girls are still virgin.
Somewhere I ran across a quip that the girls are “ravaged by granite”. Perhaps it is pedantic to point out that the rock is actually welded tuff. But it is not pedantic to notice that while the girls who return have been knocked around a bit, the damage they have suffered is not at all what we would expect from a sexual assault. I thought the scenes that gave us careful details about their injuries were very important and effective.
DW, I brought up the "intact" issue during our discussion of "The Last Picture Show." I said:
"There are a lot of scenes in old movies where there might have been a sexual assault, and there's always a doctor brought in to assess the "damage," which usually is just an examination to see whether the hymen is still there — her virginity being the thing that matters most!— and the doctor will make some pronouncement that the child is "still intact." And everyone breathes a sigh of relief because — no matter what horrors she may have endured — she's not "damaged goods." And the criminal is punished (to this day) less severely if penetration did not occur."
Great foreshadowing, kc.
Very good. I thought of your comment immediately when that scene rolled around this time. In fact, I was just waiting for the doctor to say “intact”. It had to happen.
Post a Comment