mary rouillé

∼ 24 ∼ cultural historian & future sociologist ∼ i'm talking about the image of women in films, books and social life ∼🍎most interested in the phenomenon of youth🍎∼

[maryrouille]

Why do women (adults and older teenagers) want to look or bahave like little girls?

They want to go back to childhood and carefreeness

They just like the aesthetic

They want to feel innocent

They want to use children's features for manipulation

I agree with everything

I have a different answer (please leave a comment!)

Voting ended onFeb 14, 2025

[dear-science]

“Yorgos does not do digital, as he feels it doesn’t do anything for his films. So like The Favourite and Poor Things, this was always going to be shot on film. He loves color and contrast, and the 50D delivers color and contrast in abundance, so what’s not to like? Obviously, it’s a slow stock, but as we were filming in New Orleans we had consistently bright or sunny exteriors and could shoot without a problem. And the results on 50D look luscious.”

- cinematographer Robbie Ryan BSC, ISC on shooting Kinds of Kindness on 35mm

ph. Yorgos Lanthimos

[maryrouille]

Kinds of Kindness dir. Yorgos Lanthimos (2024)

I must admit that I watched it because of the combination of Emma Stone and William Dafoe, who will appear together in Lanthimos' Poor Things (2023) and they did it brilliantly. And what can I say about Kinds of Kindness? Not much. It was a strange and long movie. Watch it.

[maryrouille]

Lana del Rey for Vogue Italia (photos by Steven Meisel, 2024)

I leave here a little Lana's quote from the entire interview by Corinne Corci:

I think of my songs as if they were films. Flashbacks, cuts, memories, with a monologue that’s running. Cinema was always a family thing. I think back to childhood, all these people with giant cameras filming me, my sister and my brother. They captured all my every single Christmass. And my sister became a talented photographer. She’s the one behind most of the images you see of me.

[maryrouille]

Joker: Folie à deux (dir. Todd Phillips) disappoints because Arthur Fleck himself is disappointing

We have already seen the premiere of the loudly announced Joker: Folie à deux (2024) by Todd Phillips. There were equally loud voices of disappointment and negative criticism of this film. Although many people think, myself included, that Joker 2 was a relatively good movie and we do not regret the two hours spent in the cinema. I think the important question we should be asking is whether are we disappointed by the trashy musical or by the character of Joker and his choices? Or maybe both of these things, i.e. the form of the film and the hopelessness of the main character, worked together?

He is not the Joker archetype, he is just a colorful symbol

The action of our Joker, cut off from DC by such a thick line, takes place in 1981. Why do I mention this? Because there has been no other Joker so far. Without wanting to spoil anything for anyone, the last scene of the film is key here. We then witness the fall of the first Joker and the birth of all those that followed.

The movement of the clown killer with an exaggerated amount of make-up on his face has already been born. And it does not intend to stop with the loss of its idol. In this case, society cleverly "borrows" symbols created by this Joker and begins to attribute to him such features that in its idealistic approach it considers worthy of such a character. In this way, the archetype is born in the minds of the audience, distorted and devoid of weaknesses. Arthur Fleck in all this is an unclear symbol, very truncated and checked to a few phrases.

Phillips' Joker is not a genius

Joker is a product of a society that simultaneously stigmatizes marginalized individuals and perversely glorifies psychopaths and serial killers. Unfortunately, this movie does not fulfill our fantasy of a genius psychopath wronged by fate. Joker played by Joaquin Phoenix is ​​pathetic and weak. At some point, he also allows himself to be manipulated by a mentally stronger (not to be confused with mentally healthier!) woman. Only when he puts on his mask and red jacket does he seem to be dealing cards. However, everything breaks during his final confession in court, in which he says that Joker is gone and there is only a desperate, gray, wronged Arthur. And the spell is broken. He is neither a genius nor a psychopath, just a lost man with a whole host of fans, whom he is now disappointing. Though not for long, because as they say: the king is dead, long live the king.

The world of delusions, the world of musicals

What is true in this image and what is not is difficult to say. But we could say that at certain moments songs appear here for no reason at all, strangely and seemingly out of nowhere. Many viewers would probably cut them out of this film. But let's look at it from a different angle. Since Arthur himself becomes exceptionally pathetic and banal, doesn't this musical form complement this similar disappointing picture? After all, all the tacky moments on stage are just the imagination of Arthur in love, whose love fuels the image of the great Joker. And the viewer watching this feels weird, because it turns out that there's Broadway music playing in Joker's head. And there's basically nothing else there.

In summary, yes, Joker: Folie à deux is disappointing. Much like the character himself, because we haven't seen him in this form before, but nevertheless the whole thing in this disappointment is coherent.

[maryrouille]

∼ Late September ∼ Changes in life

In a few previous update posts I mentioned a large study project I've been working on for a very long time. Yesterday it was… positively approved by the committee! I was stressed for a week, but everything went very well.

Now, something I did not mention before is that a positive acceptance allows me to transfer to a new, more prestigious university. This involves moving to a wonderful, historical city. I must admit at this point, one of my dreams has come true!

I am starting a new semester here in October and I am very curious about how it's going to be. The worst of the worst is behind me, now I can do my research in peace. I have great hope that my research focused on the phenomenon of youth will lead me to new academic degrees.

[galaxisban-stoppolo]

[maryrouille]

Thought for today 🧬

[maryrouille]

∼ Late August ∼ Study update

I thought the next update would be in September, but I woke up today and I saw in my email box a positive review of my first scientific paper to be published, hurray! It is also pleasing to think that it was written by a professor who is an authority in the field of popular culture and visual arts.

I’ll leave a fragment here so I can come back to it more often 🧡

One of the more interesting research achievements [!] proposed in the forthcoming publication is "Changing stereotypes as a method of creatively using the image of a woman in advertising" by [my name]. Thanks to the rich and interesting literature on the subject, the Author competently [!] presents the issue of creativity in advertising, achieved through the transformation of stereotypes.

The second joyful achievement is that I have completed the design of a large research study. All that remains is to submit it at the end of September and wait for the approval review.

Fingers crossed and at this stage it seems like it makes sense to open the champagne, right?

[maryrouille]

Book Review. Reinventing Love: How the Patriarchy Sabotages Heterosexual Relations by Mona Chollet (2024)

In July of this year, a book by a famous French feminist and the author of In Defence of Witches: Why Women Are Still On Trial (2022), appeared on the publishing market. Although Reinventing Love was originally published in 2021, we have to wait three years for the English translation.

Mona Chollet, journalist and essayist does not hide the fact that this book belongs to feminist positions. She also does not shy away from evaluations and subjective commentary, which is already heard in the particularly extensive introduction. The following chapters based on citing selected novels, films or posts on social media become more analytical.

(...) our whole amorous culture tries to naturalize and even celebrate the signs of male domination and female submission, by presenting them as the secrets of a harmonious union. [p. 70]

This brings new values, especially from the point of view of someone unfamiliar with French-speaking culture. But it is worth remembering that this is only a selection of topics that interest the author, such as sexual power, diminishing the merits and position of women in relation to men, domestic violence and the eroticization of a woman's image. However, treating this reading as a collection of essays that refer to statements repeated many times in feminist literature and are supported by examples from cultural texts, it is an interesting attempt to assess the structure of relationships (not only love ones) created by representatives of the opposite sex.

Personally, it was new for me to see the perspective of women of different races and the additional stereotypical traits attributed to them due to their background. I also found the chapter on women's erotic objectification to be great, as it presented the essence of this phenomenon.

How to reinvent love?

And finally, the most important question that occurred to me when I reached for this book: how to reinvent love? Mona Chollet does not give a clear answer to this question, but she indicates, through the prism of her own experiences, possible ways to create healthy, equal and partnership-based love relationships. She also gives, what is even worth considering the most valuable, a lot of examples that we should not imitate.

[maryrouille]

Divine intervention, mortal consequences. About MaXXXine (2024) by Ti West

Speaking about Ti West's latest work, I'll start with a quote from Kim Carnes' song, which we hear at the end of the film: She'll take a tumble on you, roll you like you were dice until you come up blue. Doesn't this perfectly describe our titular Maxine? She'll kill without hesitation if need be. She also has no problem doing whatever she's asked to do in auditions and on film sets. She casually drives past people protesting horror films, calling them satanic and completely out of place, while the Night Stalker hunts the city. Considering the earlier X and Pearl, I get the impression that Mia Goth's characters are devoid of human feelings. Even in the face of death, they seem to feel no terror as if nightmares were their profession.

Adult films are my profession

If we wanted to approach this film from a psychological perspective, we would have to ask ourselves what made our main character behave this way. Why does this young girl strive for fame, and crystal fame at that, because money doesn't turn her on, literally walking under dead bodies? We can look for the answer in a childhood focused on the cult of her own father and rebellion against extremely Catholic values. This would explain the path of a porn star who was far from modest and also was the easiest path for an uneducated girl to enter in her early days. Especially since in those years the pornographic film industry was gaining momentum. But still, rebellion and ease of work do not provide an answer to her downright disgusting pursuit of fame.

In my opinion, Maxine has not completely abandoned all the Christian values ​​instilled in her since childhood. Her desire for everyone to know her name is a pursuit of a kind of immortality, or eternal life promised in the Bible. It is also a kind of sanctification and elevation in the world of commercialism, because as a star she becomes someone above ordinary people, someone inaccessible to mortals. They can admire her brilliance only on a glass screen that shows icons but not people of flesh and blood.

Blonde Devil

Personally, I must also admit that I am fascinated not so much by the plot, but by the creation of the character of Maxine in this film. In X we see a simple girl dressed only in dungarees and blue eye shadow. Pearl shows us a modest figure of a girl with a bow in her hair and dresses to the ankles, which was a limitation of her time.

In MaXXXine, on the other hand, there is a much greater variety of stylizations of the character (at least in terms of appearance, because her general attitude - the devil - does not seem to evolve at all). The amount of clothing, hairstyles, and makeup that Maxine wears in different scenes is pleasing to the eye and captures the atmosphere of the 80s, which was basically like our main character: colorful, free, and sexy on the outside, but with an enveloping darkness underneath. This combination makes her opposite of the delicate, fragile and not very intelligent blondes of classic cinema.

Hypertextuality

What really caught my eye first was the number of references to characters and events from old Hollywood. Characters such as Theda Bara and Black Dahlia appear here. There is also the horror classic Psycho (1960) and the pornographic classic Behind the Green Door (1972). Ambiguity can also be found in the dialogues, which cleverly refer (often without the characters being aware of it, but only the viewer) to events from earlier films or the characterisations of actors. And so we have, for example, a sentence thrown at the character of Mia Goth herself, that no one has ever made it big by acting in a horror film. Neat, isn't it?

She's got Bette Davis eyes [song]

One of the greatest legends of the silver screen, Bette Davis, holds a place of particular honor in MaXXXine, as she opens and closes the film. I think it was best described by Julio Bardini, so I'll leave the quote here and the link to the whole article [here].

Both Davis and Maxine had to swim against the current on their own in Hollywood's male-dominated world in order to succeed. Davis started making a name for herself playing willful and sardonic roles on the big screen in the 1930s and 1940s. She challenged the audience's image of women with the fiery Julie Marsden in Jezebel, the hedonistic Judy Traherne in Dark Victory, and the witty Margo Channing in All About Eve. In the years following her breakout, Davis also had to fight Warner Bros. in court to be able to work on the projects she wanted at a time when actors were exclusive to studios.

In this business, until you’re known as a monster, you are not a star

I'll end with a quote from Bette Davis that opens the film. I think it's a timeless summary of the entire film industry. What are your thoughts on the final installment of the Ti West trilogy, or what are your expectations if you haven't seen it yet? Let me know! XOXO

[horrortvfilmsource]

X (2022) dir. Ti West

[maryrouille]

It made me feel like I wanted to soak in water in a blue eyeshadow 💅🏻

But without that alligator... I'm off to write a text whose heroine will be this very girl!

[maryrouille]

Romanticization of drinking alcohol as a manifestation of  quasi-feminism

The inspiration to write this text was an aimed at women Van Gogh Blue vodka ad I recently came across. Its heroine is a shapely pin-up girl sipping a martini and the slogan next to talks about the benefits of not wearing underwear [see here]. The whole styling and its spicy-sexist nature are reminiscent of ads from the 1950s, but after deeper research I checked that it is from around 2010. This search and finding images on the same subject raised a problem in my head which I will try to raise here.

In the book Living Dolls: the return of sexism (2010), Natasha Walter discusses the recognition of activities such as pole dancing or photos of scantily clad women as quasi-feminist rhetoric. Let me borrow this concept, without going into the Walter's examples, in order to talk about the romanticization and feminization of drinking alcohol.

Illusory feminism in a full glass

The images in this post [I have to thank Pinterest once again for being a source of endless inspiration] show the wonderful, almost magical effects of alcohol. It turns out that having a drink eliminates all our sadness, worries, stress and heals a broken heart, sometimes even PMS. This perception of things as without flaws is romanticization. On the other hand, this content seems to be very feminist, because we see a strong woman who only needs a glass of champagne to know her worth, control her emotions and be confident. Alcohol is a woman's best friend, helping her to meet social expectations and and get through the day.

Drinking alcohol by women is also a symbol of emancipation, because it was only during World War II that they gained the ability to drink all types of alcohol without restrictions [from my unpublished work, 2023]. It also seems, looking at examples, that drinking is now part of the lifestyle of attractive and successful women. However, this emancipation is only apparent. What good does it do for women to escape from men's rule if they fall into another trap, which is alcohol addiction?

Roses are red, violets are blue, vodka is cheaper than dinner for two

So under the guise of feminism and emancipation we get freedom of choice in the liquor store, but we can lose control over ourselves, our health and our choices. Does this mean that alcohol + femininity is a bad combination? There is no clear answer to this. I personally love wine, its diverse taste, sweet warming effect and sexy culture, which I do not hide. I think that we should find a golden mean in everything. It is certainly not worth romanticizing alcohol and placing it within the framework of feminism. A martini or tea with vodka will bring a smile to our faces, but it will not solve our everyday problems nor replace relationships with other people. No matter how colorful the pictures will convince us of this.

In closing, no matter how beautifully dressed and made up women are, they still have beautiful little weaknesses for percentages. And the belief in their agency when they are drunk is merely quasi-feminist.

P. S. When I finish reading the book Living dolls, I plan to share its review with you here.

[maryrouille]

While waiting for Lana Del Rey's new album, Tough featuring Quavo turned out to be great and left me wanting more, I've been digging through demo versions of earlier songs. I found a few songs that resonate perfectly with me for summer and I wanted to share a few quotes. Under each picture with a quote I leave a link to the song on YouTube. Enjoy!

[maryrouille]

∼ August ∼ Life update

Hi, I am Mary and this is a blog where I combine everything that interests me - cultural phenomena, sociology and art. As a scientist and journalist, I try to smuggle here knowledge and inspiration.

The most beautiful month of the year has arrived, so it's time for a little update. First of all, I've been soaking up the sun and enjoying the beach for a while now because all my big projects so far seem to be going in the right direction!

⚘️ My first article to be published in a scientific journal has received a positive review from a major authority in the field of culture, so I am very happy.

⚘️ My major research project seems to be almost complete and ready to be presented to a wider audience and evaluation. The road to its completion was very long and required familiarization with difficult things, so I had to limit writing here a bit. My professional work also took a backseat, but I don't regret these decisions.

⚘️ In this whole reality, where my brain had to work at top speed… I found a new hobby. It happened by accident, but it came at a great time, because it relaxes me and stimulates creativity. And what do I do? Collages from photos and fragments from newspapers. I didn't know that glue and scissors can bring so much joy to an adult. Maybe I'll show something of my works soon.

P. S. Recently I managed to write quite an extensive post about film The Piano Teacher (2001), so if you know it, it is worth checking out.

[maryrouille]

La Pianiste as a timeless movie. About The Piano Teacher (2001) by Michael Haneke

If it were not for the gift I received in the form of books about Haneke's work, I wouldn't have watched this film so quickly. Although I've wanted to see that iconic bathroom scene for a long time. Anyway, have I, as I intertwined with film experts - which I am definitely not one of with my subjective selection of films - begun to enter the era of writing about film based on professional literature? Perhaps!

More than twenty years ago, the film adaptation of the novel Die Klavierspielerin written by Elfriede Jelinek was released. Michael Haneke not only changed it to the French La Pianiste, but also showed the story in a different way. I will not make a book-film comparison here, but I will only mention that the novel is more explicit and much less subtle, which is visible in its vulgar language of the narrator-critic of the broken world.

Sublimity and dirt. Sacred and profane

Knowing the plot of the film, it is easy to notice Erika's touching relationship with her disturbed mother, which results in the perverse development of her sexuality. The dramatic love relationship, as if from an ancient tragedy, of a piano teacher and her student Klemmer is also clearly exposed. But there is something else hidden beneath it. In the literature about La Pianiste, you can find a description of Erika's conflict. Classical music belongs to the world of culture, but the heroine's sexuality reduces her to the level of an unrestrained animal world, manifested in cheap pornography [R. Koschany, Open Composition. The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek and Michael Hanake, 2019].

Georges Bataille in Erotism: death and sensuality (1986, p. 144) wrote:

Beauty is desired in order that it may be befouled; not for its own sake, but for the joy brought by the certainty of profaning it.

The activities Erika engages in to satisfy her sexual desires seem deviant from the norm, even disgusting, to a stereotypical viewer. This, in combination with the beauty of the main character and her grace, the beauty of the music and the sterility of the rooms, and the perfection of the piano playing skills, creates a striking contrast. Erika seems to profane the beauty around her, and the destruction of the ideal becomes what excites her. Recalling Bataille, it is not the act itself that brings satisfaction, but making a scratch on the transparent glass. While remaining reserved towards psychoanalysis, it can be said that she rebels against her mother in a much more extreme form than teenagers do.

Nudity without a body

Haneke's film is shocking. However, he does not do this through direct images denuding the characters. Even in erotic scenes, the camera is directed not at the characters' body parts, but only at their facial expressions, from which we read the emotions they experience. Regardless, the viewer in this situation is still a voyeur and feels embarrassed to see something that makes him step out of his comfort zone [T. Heimerl, Michael Haneke und seine Filme. Eine Pathologie der Konsumgesellschaft, 2008]. I would say that La Pianiste shows the nudity of the characters, leaving their bodies almost completely covered. In this film, the part focused on eroticism is narrated by eyes staring at each other and hands circling the piano keyboard.

Reception in the 2020s

What would an analysis be, here in a telegraphic version, without reference to today. It must be admitted that the Internet is amazing, that such a film can be turned into memes that accurately comment on the reality presented in it. Were both Erika and Klemmer red flags? On the one hand, a woman with masochistic tendencies, and on the other, a boy who tries at all costs to win and become his teacher's lover. It seemed like the red lights were blinding their eyes from a mile away! However, I would question whether Erika was asexual. Her sexuality was somehow disturbed, unawakened or malformed, but I still think she had it to some extent. This may be a point of discussion.

Coming to the end, I think this is one of Haneke's best works and will be remembered for a long time. It also seems timeless because of the perspective of a female narrator, unusual for the cinema of the 2000s, and the presentation of an attractive woman as an object far from sex appeal, which is cold, strange and caricatured.

[wildflowersweetashoney-deactiva]

[maryrouille]

It could be me...

...but I have too much work. On a positive note, I found a well-written book on the basics of conducting social research in practice. If anyone is interested, I can recommend!

[hauntedbystorytelling]

Max Thorek (1880 – 1960) ~ Despair, 1936. Published: Creative Camera Art; 1937 | src American pictorial photography

Despair (1936); from: Creative Camera Art; 1937. On left page: “Despair” contact print from original negative On right page: the ‘manipulated’ image: “Highlights on shoulder and on background introduced on paper negative”…

view more on wordPress

[maryrouille]

The ability to retouch photos before the days of computers always amazes me!

I remember a conversation with my editor-in-chief, who said that there used to be a special person in each editorial office responsible for retouching analog photos. Therefore, correcting photo defects is not just a modern procedure ;)

[poetsandwriters]

—Ursula K. Le Guin, from a 1988 interview, collected in Ursula K. Le Guin: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations (Melville House, 2019)

[maryrouille]

The time after 8 p.m. resonates with me a lot.

It's time to be stupid. Just kidding, back to work tomorrow...