Portrayal of Women


I saw this film for the first time last week, and I find that I can't stop thinking about it. I had a wonderful time watching it. It was incredibly funny, Marcello was fantastic (of course), and it had a social message. The only thing that had been bothering me was the portrayal of women in the film. By reducing them to charicatures and making the wife particularly annoying, it seemed to be condemning the divorce laws, ideas of masculinity, etc. alone, while siding with the males' horribly shallow view of women. I had heard of this film being hailed as a feminist film ahead of its time. Naturally, things didn't seem to fit.

After thinking about the film more, though, I've begun to think that the stereotypical depictions of women reinforce the audience's ultimate condemnation of the lead character. Though we laugh at him and even hope he succeeds, we know that he is not a good person. If we are seeing the female characters from his perspective, and he sees them as flat, shallow objects, then that is just another example of what an ignorant, selfish person he is. (Wow, I think I may have just used the highest number of commas that can be used in one sentence.)

What does everyone else think?

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the men weren't portrayed as holy spirits either in this, i think overall women came off better





so many movies, so little time

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Why do people like you always only focus on the women? Everyone in this film is a caricature. Why aren't you complaining about the portrayal of elderly males as dirty old men? Or the town gossip, who was very exaggerated.

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