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“More and Not Like Us?”: the Image of Europe Via Space, Place, & Gender in Mid- Twentieth Century American Cinema

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“More and Not Like Us?”: the Image of Europe Via Space, Place, & Gender in Mid- Twentieth Century American Cinema “More and Not Like Us?”: The Image of Europe via Space, Place, & Gender in Mid- Twentieth Century American Cinema Master Thesis European Studies Identity and Integration Graduate School for Humanities Supervisor: dhr. dr. A.J. (Alex) Drace-Francis Second Reader: dhr. Prof. dr. J.T. (Joep) Leerssen The 30th of June 2020 Samantha Staggs 11591315 Word count: 17,245 Abstract Cinema has been a central medium of entertainment in American society. It is a medium in which beliefs and notions of cultures are expressed and visualized, whilst at the same time re- shaping or influencing the cultural attitudes it sets out to represent. This research analyzes five Hollywood films from the 1940s and 1950s to realize what image of Europe in terms of space, place, and gender is presented to viewers. Through the Hollywood lens of the mid-twentieth century, it becomes evident America’s imagination of Europe is grounded in a decidedly fluid process that shifts between seeing Europe as an “other” and as a mirror for America’s own self- image. Acknowledgements I would like to firstly acknowledge and sincerely thank Dr Alex Drace-Francis who has continuously provided supportive and insightful comments, both in his role as my supervisor during this research thesis and as lecturer in my master’s program electives. I also thank Dr Joep Leerssen for the great lectures and material supplied in the Cultures of Nationalism in Contemporary Europe elective and for his role as my secondary marker. Lastly, I would like to convey gratitude to my fellow peers within the European Studies master’s track Identity and Integration. Their contributions and participation in discussions and conversations, both in and outside academics, have been invaluable and certainly embodied the interdisciplinary and dynamic spirit of the Graduate School for Humanities. Contents Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….......….1 Chapter One: Casablanca (1942) ...…………………………………………………………….12 Space…………………………………………………………………………………….12 Place……………………………………………………………………………….….…13 Gender…………………………………………………………………………………...14 Illustrations………………………………………………………………………………16 Chapter Two: Watch on the Rhine (1943) ……………………………...……………….………17 Space…………………………………………………………….……………………….17 Place……………………………………………………………….………...………...…19 Gender……………………………………………………………………………………20 Chapter Three: A Foreign Affair (1948) ………………………………………………...………22 Space………………………………………………………...…………………………...22 Place……………………………………………………………………………………...23 Gender……………………………………………………………………………………24 Illustrations…….……………………………………………...………….……………...25 Chapter Four: Roman Holiday (1953) …………………………………………………….…….27 Space…………………………………………………….…………………….…………27 Place………………………………………………………...……………………………29 Gender……………………………………………………………………………………30 Illustrations………………………………………………………………………………31 Chapter Five: Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) ……………………………….……………..34 Space………………………………...……………………………………...……………34 Place……………………………………………………………………..……………….35 Gender……………………………………………………………………………………36 Illustrations….….…………………………………………………………………….….39 Conclusion……………..……………………………………………………………...…………40 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………..46 Filmography……………………………………………………………………………………...46 Staggs 1 Introduction In his book, Not Like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, And Transformed American Culture Since World War II, Richard Pells goes to great lengths to discuss the myth of “Americanization” of Europe and how America tried to remake Europe after its own image. It is Pells’ own interpretation that a great deal of European domestication of American exports takes place in the process and it is not a static transfer of cultural products or practices (Pells, 1997). Hence, Pells’ suggestion that Europe is ‘not like us (America)’. Regardless of what happens with cultural products after exportation, the initial effort by America to construct the image of Europe after its own image is more significant, in my opinion. Kuisel criticizes Pells when reviewing his work, saying a more appropriate title for the process instead of ‘not like us’ is ‘more like us’ (Kuisel, 1998: 621). Thus, my research thesis is here to examine the image of Europe in five Hollywood productions from the 1940s and 1950s to realize its fluid imagination as an “Other” (‘not like us’) and as a reflection of the self-image of America (‘more like us’). Through the lens of Hollywood and specific themes of space, place, and gender, it becomes apparent what kind of image(s) of Europe are created and how it reflects a process that teeters between othering and equating. As I grew up in western Nebraska in the United States, I often was quite curious about the topic of Europe. Cliché as it might sound, at that time, Europe was only something I had heard about or seen ‘in the movies’. Whatever I imagined it to be, its manifestation was still something of a great unknown, and as a child, this is what made it most exciting for me. Fast forward several years later, I am thankful to have had eventually formed my envisions of Europe through more diverse sources outside of Hollywood film. Nonetheless, as a current student of European Studies: Identity and Integration at the University of Amsterdam, I am most interested to investigate the image of Europe in this American context. The selection of Hollywood films I examine in the research were released in the 1940s and 1950s, thus, they are not the ones I grew up watching. They at one point, however, could have later informed the films that I grew up watching, as we know cultural images are often reproduced and reimagined. Moreover, “cultures produce myths because they satisfy a deep-rooted human need: the need to make sense of life,” says Matthew Screech (2005). As Screech suggests, people feel a natural desire to make sense of the world around them and ‘culture’ is part of this process as it helps to construct or express the world as experienced by its contributors. Many social constructivism experts explain how the Staggs 2 world is not simply given and as is, yet one that is constructed through the actions, beliefs, and interests of the actors themselves (Collins, 2009: 71). With Matthew Screech’s and social constructivists’ insights in mind, culture can be grasped as a socially constructed set of images, that is constantly in flux and produced differently across time and space. So, what cultural studies scholars are here to do is track these developments and constructions of a given culture over time, how this is influenced by certain players or factors, and examine how expressions or images of culture at a certain time are embedded in the political and economic discourses of the same time. From my own personal experience and work as a student in cultural studies, I find it essential that research be done to examine the variations and changes in, or repetitions and reiterations of images created of Europe and understand this process from both inside and outside of Europe. There is a fair amount of literature on this subject from the American perspective in which I delve more into later, yet most of this scholarship is produced by American studies scholars like Robert Shandley and Emily Rosenberg and not led by student of European studies like myself. Cinema was one of the most influential forms of entertainment and engaging social practices of the twentieth century. Hollywood films, especially, were the most popular worldwide. In the 1930s, Hollywood films began to overtake the European cinematic market. From then onwards, American film distribution to Europe only ever increased and by the gloomy European aftermath of the Second World War “..audience numbers soared and cinemas provided an important community focus and social function, whilst the films so fervently offered audiences a shared set of images of the world. Of course, the source of the majority of the images was Hollywood, hence Sorlin’s comment that ‘we Europeans create images of the world through Hollywood’s lenses’” (Everett, 1996: 16). Hollywood films, especially, have been identified by scholars to be useful sources, not just for cultural studies scholars but for historians as well, as they contain symbolic associations and representations that “provide rich glimpses into the discursive forms of an era (embedded in the non-separable realms often called ‘politics’/culture or ‘personal/political) and suggest changes in such forms over time” (Rosenberg 1994: 60). Hollywood films pose then as a promising source for exploring ideas and images about Europe as a sort of social practice, “projected and performed, expressed and exported, labeled and legitimized, appropriated and emulated by people in the past in a range of contexts” (Patel, 2013: 23). As one of the foremost mediums of American popular culture, Hollywood films are rich in Staggs 3 their symbolic and cultural associations and representations and therefore serve as interesting sources for cultural studies. The insight from Sorlin reveals the significance of Hollywood films for European audiences at the time. It also demonstrates the impact cinema can have, as people form their ideas of the world through the images shown to them on the ‘big-screen.’ Bear in mind that mass media are the main source of knowing the “other” for average person in western society, so “the role of Hollywood depictions of ‘outsiders’ becomes essential, as most people do not have other ways to access those cultures but by seeing their representation on the screen” (Macros & Colὀn, 2015: 12). Considered by some as cultural imperialism, the export of American
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