FILM STARS
The Tipology of Female Stars in American Cinema
The author discusses the typology of female film stars taken from German film historian Enno Patalas, which he has revised and supplemented taking into consideration typology models constructed by Edgar Morin, Richard Dyer and Molly Haskell. The first type considered is the »virgin«, linked with Mary Pickford, Lillian and Dorothy Gish, developing towards Shirley Temple and Doris Day, but also progressing in the direction of the unselfish and »pure« heroines of socialist cinema, which perpetuated this type, in their specific manner. Following is the analysis of the »femme fatale« type, its line of development starting from the seductress from theatre melodramas of the 19th century literature, through Asta Nielsen and Theda Bare, to some of the roles played by Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner and Veronica Lake. Type that is most particular for the American cinema and generically determined by comedy is »flapper« — a superficial, fearless girl whose presentation counts on suppression of sexual and generic identity for the sake of androgyny; representatives of this type are Clara Bow, Colleen Moore, Louise Brooks (before she had worked with G. W. Pabst), and Joan Crawford, who marks the evolution of this type towards a »good friend« and »independent woman«. Next, the author analyses »vamp« type as the most particular in Patalas’ typology; representatives of this type are Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West and Jean Harlow. In the analysis of the »independent woman« type, the author again stresses the generic conditioning of different types: while »vamp«, or the »fatal woman«, lives exclusively in melodramas, »independent woman« destabilizes the border between melodrama and sophisticated comedy, and from 1940s becomes a prominent type in thrillers. The author analyses Gloria Swanson and Bette Davis as representatives of this type, but stresses the unstable borderlines of the type, since »independent woman« actively intertwines with the »good friend« type in the roles of representatives actresses such as Lauren Bacall, Greer Garson and Deborah Kerr, and particularly in the stars of Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers — Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly and Eva Marie Saint. Similar instability marks the »good friend« type, and this type is also generically conditioned because it is primarily characteristic of screwball comedies of the 1930s, its representatives being Claudette Colbert, Myrna Loy, Jean Arthur, Carole Lombard, Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers. The author than proceeds to the process of layering of the type at the end of 1960s, which coincided with layering of the star system itself, but the »good friend« continues in the 1970s in Diane Keaton’s roles in Woody Allen’s films, and romantic comedies of the 1990s. Next is the type linked with musicals and musical comedies from 1940s and 1950s — the so-called »pin-up« — whose representatives are Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable and Esther Williams. However, Rita Hayworth is particularly significant for the »pin-up« type because she corresponds with the fatal woman. And the last type, the »nymphette« questions the borders of the type within which it was constructed, since it could be seen as the offspring of »flapper«, and generically could be linked to both melodrama and comedy; its representatives are Leslie Caron, Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine.
Bruno Kragić |
