HUMANITIES SEMINAR PROGRAM. Scandalous Females in Film. Professor Mary Beth Haralovich Film & Television

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1 HUMANITIES SEMINAR PROGRAM Scandalous Females in Film Professor Mary Beth Haralovich Film & Television The scandalous female is a genre with long time box office value and cultural presence. This seminar explores the idea of scandalous female behavior on screen: is she shameful because she violates norms and conventions? or is she unruly, misbehaving to show up and critique norms and conventions? Each week, we have a film and readings that help us to understand the scandalous female on-screen (norms or conventions she is shattering; consequences for the character; how scandal is portrayed) and off-screen (film production practices and the cultural reception of film). The seminar has three parts, in Part I, we examine perspectives on female agency and different ways that scandalous behavior is presented in film. In Part 2, we consider the production culture of the Hollywood studio system which established modes of treating scandalous females that continue today. In Part 3, we explore how more recent films treat scandalous females with sympathy. Instructor Contact Information mbharalo@ .arizona.edu office: Readings: All the readings are required. Most are PDFs that will be available on our passwordprotected website at Some of the readings are available on the web. For these, the web address is listed on the syllabus. Films: All the films are readily available on streaming services, for rental, or for purchase on DVD. After each film title, you will find the year of release, the director, and the running time. You will also find the names of women who played significant roles in the production of these films about scandalous women typically as the source of the story and as screenwriters.

2 SYLLABUS Part I FEMALE AGENCY: SCANDALOUS OR UNRULY? WEEK ONE January 27 early film melodrama and the conventions of femininity The Cheat (Cecil B. DeMille, 1915, 59 min.) WEEK TWO February 3 Staiger, Janet. The White Slave, in Bad Women: regulating sexuality in early American cinema (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995), and Print. Staiger, Janet. The Butterfly, in Bad Women: regulating sexuality in early American cinema (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995), and Print. the independent woman: resisting the companionable couple A Free Soul (Adela Rogers St. John novelist; director Clarence Brown, 1931; 93 min.) Wexman, Virginia Wright. Romantic Love, Changing Marriage Norms, and Stars as Romantic Models, in Creating the Couple: Love, Marriage, and Hollywood Performance (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993), 3-19 and Print. Wexman, Virginia Wright. The Love Goddess: Contradictions in the Myth of Glamour in Creating the Couple: Love, Marriage, and Hollywood Performance (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993), and Print. WEEK THREE February 10 teen moms and 3 rd wave feminism choose either or both films clips from both will be shown during class Juno (Diablo Cody screenwriter; Jason Reitman director; 2007; 96 min.)

3 Precious (Sapphire a/k/a Ramona Lofton novelist; Lee Daniels director, 2009; 110 min.) McLennan, Rachael. Cautionary Whales? Adolescence and Genre in Juno and Push. Mosaic: a journal for the interdisciplinary study of literature 46:2 (June 2013), pp Print. Walker, Rebecca. Becoming the 3 rd wave. Ms. 12:2 (2002), Print. Part II HOLLYWOOD PRODUCTION CULTURE: GENRE, STARS, CENSORSHIP WEEK FOUR February 17 the seduction plot: spectacle and sexuality in the Depression economy Red-Headed Woman (Anita Loos screenwriter; Jack Conway director, 1932; 79 min.) Ager, Cecilia, Mae West Reveals the Foundation of the 1900 Mode (1933) in Red Velvet Seat: Women s Writing on the First Fifty Years of Cinema, eds. Antonia Lant with Ingrid Periz (London and New York: Verso, 2006), Print. Colette, On Mae West (1934 & 1938) in Red Velvet Seat: Women s Writing on the First Fifty Years of Cinema, Eds. Antonia Lant with Ingrid Periz (London and New York: Verso, 2006), Print. Loos, Anita, In Defense of Hollywood (1922) in Red Velvet Seat: Women s Writing on the First Fifty Years of Cinema, ed. Antonia Lant with Ingrid Periz (London and New York: Verso, 2006), 355. Print. reading (web): Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc., A Code to Govern the Making of Motion Pictures (1930) American Film Institute, Red-Headed Woman. Web

4 WEEK FIVE February 24 maternal melodrama and race in segregated film culture Imitation of Life (Fannie Hurst novelist; John Stahl director, 1934; 116 min.) WEEK SIX March 3 Haralovich, Mary Beth. Imitation of Life (1934): Louise Beavers and Fredi Washington in the Segregated Culture of Film Promotion. unpublished ms. Latina integration: from Marguerite Cansino to Rita Hayworth Gilda (Virginia Van Upp writer-producer; Charles Vidor director, 1946; 110 min.) McLean, Adrienne. From Cansino to Hayworth to Beckworth: Constructing the Star Person(a) in Being Rita Hayworth: Labor, Identity, and Hollywood Stardom (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2004), and Print. WEEK SEVEN March 10 adapting James M. Cain s scandalous mother to film Mildred Pierce (Catherine Turney screenwriter; Michael Curtiz director, 1945; 111 min.) Mildred Pierce, Production Code Administration correspondence, Warner Bros. Archives, University of Southern California. Primary research. Mildred Pierce, Warner Bros. production memos. Warner Bros. Archives, University of Southern California. Primary research. Mildred Pierce, Warner Bros. studio production memos. Rudy Behlmer, Inside Warner Brothers ( ) (New York: Viking, 1985), Print. Part III -- SYMPATHY FOR THE SCANDALOUS FEMALE

5 WEEK EIGHT March s natural female sexuality My Week with Marilyn (Simon Curtis, 2011; 99 min.) WEEK NINE March 31 McCann, Graham. Marilyn in Movies in Marilyn Monroe (London: Polity Press, 1988), Print. female agency and male genre Thelma & Louise (Callie Khouri screenplay; Ridley Scott director, 1991; 130 min.) Greenberg, Harvey R., Carol J. Clover, Albert Johnson, Peter N. Chumo II, Brian Henderson, Linda Williams, Marsha Kinder and Leo Braudy. The Many Faces of Thelma & Louise. Film Quarterly, Vol. 45, No. 2 (Winter, ), pp Print. Sturken, Martina. Thelma & Louise {London: British Film Institute, 2000), Print. WEEK TEN April 7 realist performance and emotion NOTE: See the film BEFORE you read the essay (serious spoilers)! Secrets and Lies (Mike Leigh, 1996; 130 min.) Whitehead, Toby. Welcome to the Family : Secrets and Lies in Mike Leigh (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007), pp Print.