we'll fight for your music halls and dying cities.
I find that the tireder (is that a word?) I get, the more loose and more...sarcastic, for the lack of better descriptive word - I believe the actual term is adjective, right? - I get. For example, I am finishing off a paragraph for one of the questions of my film final [Describe how Mildred Pierce is an example of a genre hybrid. In what ways is this film both a "noir" and a "weepie"?] And well, I was writing my response as to how the film fulfilled the whole weepie business and well...see for yourself.
But one of the major characteristics of the film that makes it not only a noir, but also a weepie, is the fact that the main protagonist is a female (rather than a male, which is seen in a noir). Not only that, the film is very emotion heavy and melodramatic complete with tension between Mildred and Veda. But their tension is worse than any mother/daughter tension I have ever seen before, on film or otherwise. In the scene where Mildred finds out that Veda was pregnant (not really) and learns that she was just after the money, she calls her a “stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder”… Oh wait, wrong movie. She pretty much calls Veda, for the lack of a better word, a gold digger. Veda then slaps her mother, hard enough for Mildred to fall to one knee. Not only that, like I had mentioned before, Veda has an affair with her mother’s second husband, Monte. The mother/daughter relationship is all soap opera-like, I am surprised it hasn’t been used ON a soap - unless it has, but I wouldn’t know. Anyway, although Mildred’s confession of “murder” starts off noir-like, it then turns out very feminine, as she mentions that she felt like she was born in a kitchen and would die in a kitchen (but I could be making up the latter bit, but it seems like it is something she would say in regards to her younger self). Her recounting of her life with her first husband is very melodramatic, with Mr. Pierce having an affair and leaving her and the children.
Well, there are only certain parts that I mean...but anyway. I should probably sleep. And finish the last question another time. Hm. Sounds good to me.
Next update: Facebook status overload. I stole that title from Perry, but it's completely true.
signing off, s.
But one of the major characteristics of the film that makes it not only a noir, but also a weepie, is the fact that the main protagonist is a female (rather than a male, which is seen in a noir). Not only that, the film is very emotion heavy and melodramatic complete with tension between Mildred and Veda. But their tension is worse than any mother/daughter tension I have ever seen before, on film or otherwise. In the scene where Mildred finds out that Veda was pregnant (not really) and learns that she was just after the money, she calls her a “stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder”… Oh wait, wrong movie. She pretty much calls Veda, for the lack of a better word, a gold digger. Veda then slaps her mother, hard enough for Mildred to fall to one knee. Not only that, like I had mentioned before, Veda has an affair with her mother’s second husband, Monte. The mother/daughter relationship is all soap opera-like, I am surprised it hasn’t been used ON a soap - unless it has, but I wouldn’t know. Anyway, although Mildred’s confession of “murder” starts off noir-like, it then turns out very feminine, as she mentions that she felt like she was born in a kitchen and would die in a kitchen (but I could be making up the latter bit, but it seems like it is something she would say in regards to her younger self). Her recounting of her life with her first husband is very melodramatic, with Mr. Pierce having an affair and leaving her and the children.
Well, there are only certain parts that I mean...but anyway. I should probably sleep. And finish the last question another time. Hm. Sounds good to me.
Next update: Facebook status overload. I stole that title from Perry, but it's completely true.
signing off, s.