Judith Mayne, Directed by Dorothy Arzner, P139
Since 1970s film theory developed an analysis of cinema based on the way which the look functioned as the quintessence of power-- cinematic & narrative, as well as sexual
1970s Feminist film theory insists upon the gendered quality of the authority and power of the look
Men as onlookers & women as performers
"Where Arzner's films are most challenging is not in a reversal of the male subject/ female object dichotomy, but in bracketing the dichotomy itself and therefore extending the look beyond the power of the male"
"Two radically different modes of performance- burlesque and ballet-- and two radically different approaches to one's career-- exploited versus artistic self-expression- are juxtaposed in the film"
"neither woman is villainized in the process"
"the contrast is an element of the bond between them, not an obstacle"
Many of her film concern about social class; Bubble is definitely from a less than privileged background; 'class,' for Arzner's heroines, is always simultaneously function of social class and sexuality
This kind of dance challenges the rigid boundaries between "high" art and "low" art, between vaudeville and ballet, and between Bubbles and Judy
If this 'hybrid' from of dance breaks down the opposition between the kinds of dance favored by Bubbles and Judy respectively, then the awe-struck look bestowed upon the Bubbles look-alike by Judy as she watches her perform also suggests a more complicated and ambiguous relationship between the two of them than that of the stereotypical good girl rivals and enemies. Bubbles bumps and grinds her way up the economic ladder, while Judy simultaneously pirouettes up the path of artistry; both women share a desire to climb out of the class into which they were born
The community of women is central throughout the film
Representation of dance as a form in which different desires intersect
Basilova confuses gender expectations
When Basilova is pictured with Judy, the effect is strikingly similar to the numerous publicity photographs of Arzner pictured with female stars. NoT only do Arzner and Basilova dress alike; they both exchange looks of desire and longing with their more "femme" companions
Arzner's view of performance and her view of the relationship between subject and object were never absolute; women may be objectified through performance, but they are also empowered; men may consume women through the look, but women also watch and take pleasure in the spectacle of other women's performance
Limitations: by two assumptions of heterosexuality as master code of meaning and representation, and of visual pleasure as a bad object
