possessed not in thai

[vegasvamp]

the task that i have set for myself is to take film recommendations from slavoj zizek. his 2006 film the pervert's guide to cinema feels like a video essay (i would say a Long video essay but some of the stuff on that website is feature-length anyway). i haven't seen any perversion yet but i am hoping to soon. every time i come across a picture i have not yet watched i watch it. today i watched possessed from 1931 which is one of these pre code post silent pictures which are always quite funny to me. they are just discovering cinematic conventions and are in the in-between of cinema of attractions and narrative cinema -- narrative is certainly a major part, but so is performance and just things that look cool. marian's fantasy is shown through the carriages of a passing steam train (which is what zizek points out in his film) and i completely did not realise this when i was watching it because i am stupid. she watches high life through the windows of the carriages like she is watching pictures on the silver screen and this take shows her desire very prominently. the film is very interesting as a representation of women and i think that if this were produced by a female director (although there was a female writer!), with a different set of ideologies than were accepted in the 1930s -- though feminine empowerment was quite the theme in the '30s -- the film could have been a lot better. marian, the female protagonist, is a factory worker (wow... employed!) and her character is quite selfish and ambitious; qualities which i'm sure were looked down upon by society in a girl. she is completely open about the fact that she wants money and only money; that she does not desire love or marriage. she will do anything to get what she wants even if this means leaving men who want to be in a relationship with her. however the outcome of this film is very unsatisfying. she is a flawed character which i really do admire, especially due to the fact that she is a protagonist -- women very often are expected to be 'perfect' or act 'irrationally' in older pieces of cinema, but her desires are put forward clearly and you are shown precisely her reasoning behind everything. despite all of her efforts, she becomes once more under the control of a man (her new rich boyfriend) and decides to break up with him and get with the boy she knew from when she was poor. when he finds out she had a boyfriend he also does not want to marry her. for a woman who never once before had desired romance, i don't understand why at this point she could not have been happy. she instead goes BACK to her rich ex when hes running for office and makes a speech sitting in the audience about their relationship. then she cries and stuff and runs off and her rich ex comes up to her and gives her a hug and suddenly they are getting married again. here i can say that she was acting irrationally. as well as her rich ex. i don't know if i'm taking it wrong or something but i don't understand all this changing of minds. whatever. joan crawford is a cutie pie and i have a jar of tap water in front of me. next film is the birds