Notes
Introduction
1. For example, Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone) in Basic Instinct (1993) is commonly labeled a femme fatale but the characters played by actor Pam Grier in various blaxploitation films are not. Mainon and Ursini’s study is an exception to the latter. 2. Foster (Gender and Society) is one of the few exceptions that have engaged explicitly with gender and sexuality in Brazilian cinema. More recently, although not focusing primarily on gender and sexuality, Conde and Marsh have provided insights into women’s experience(s) of and changes in gender roles in Brazil in the twentieth century. In her work on cinema, writing, and modernity in Rio de Janeiro during the early decades of the twentieth cen- tury, Conde writes a chapter on cinema’s female spectatorship, discussing middle-class women’s new social roles after the First World War. The author informs us how women came to occupy the public spaces, unlike in the past when they were mostly confined to the private space: the home. The author argues that cinema was part of the Brazilian “modernity project” (and there- fore an aspect of the consumerist culture that developed at that time) in which women played a crucial role. For instance, Conde observes that women were the majority of Brazilian filmgoers. Concerning Marsh’s study, it looks at how Brazilian female filmmakers’ audiovisual work from the 1960s onward chal- lenged the institutional power that limited women while promoting under- standings of gender, female sexuality, and women’s role in the country during limited political and civil freedom (i.e., the military dictatorship). She claims that their work during the dictatorship contributed to “the reformulation of sexual, cultural, and political citizenship in Brazil” (3). 3. The English translations of the Portuguese film titles will be in italics if they have been released in English or translated by other researchers. Otherwise, they will be my translations. 4. For example, in 2011 there were 266 murders of homosexuals in Brazil in homophobic crimes, but this number rose to 338 in 2012. Furthermore, such statistics only include cases that were openly discussed—the actual numbers could be much higher, particularly in cases in which the victim was not openly gay. For more information on this, see Grupo Gay da Bahia at www.ggb.org.br. 176 Notes
5. However, her control of the camera in this case should be understood in terms of how the camera focuses on the characters, not how the director positions a camera to give the actors the space on which the camera focuses. That is, it might be better understood in terms of visual presentation rather than in the filmmaking process itself. 6. Sexual practices presented in neo-noir films depicting the femme fatale include sadomasochism (S/M henceforth), sexual violence, drug taking while having sex, and lesbian sex. The last of these, although serving mostly to titillate the heterosexual male audience, especially in sexploitation films, also indicates anxieties regarding changes of hegemonic gender and sexual roles. 7. This is developed in chapter 2. 8. This was because of the creation of the Ato Institucional 5, AI5 (Institutional Act Number 5), which removed any political rights of civilians, allowed strict censorship of art production, and gave the president full power. 9. For a detailed historical coverage of this period, in English, see Fausto and Skidmore. 10. This was the department that carried out torture against subversives. 11. As I have observed elsewhere, this expression in English approximates to the term “old maid.” It means that a woman is unlucky in love and still single long after the age people “normally” marry (Da Silva). 12. See Schwartz for an extensive list of more than 600 neo-noir films. 13. Whether or not film noir constitutes a genre is a contentious point. For example, some of the critics’ definitions of this group of films include genre, style, theme, mood, form, texture, and cycle (Bould, Glitre, and Tuck). Spicer argues that film noir has been defined as “a movement, a visual style, a prevailing mood or tone, a period, or as a transgeneric phenomenon” (24). Despite these debates, it is important to remember what Schwartz points out: that “no American director during that period ever used the word ‘noir,’ nor did he or she set out to create a style or genre. It was the French critics who applied the term ‘noir’ to this group of films that shared a similar photo- graphic, artistic, and thematic style” (ix). Because of this, Schwartz argues that film noir is not a genre but an “unconscious stylistic movement” (ix). Regardless, this study shares the view that film noir is a genre. 14. For a discussion of the sexual revolution, see Weeks (Sexuality). For a critique of the sexual revolution from a feminist perspective, see Jeffreys. 15. For discussions on the femme fatale in other contexts see the follow- ing authors: Barba; Bell; Bergfelder; Davies; Hershfield; Murphy; Powrie; Vincendeau; Wager; and Wood (Italian Film). 16. Concerning the presence of the lesbian, Orr argues that the context of pro- duction facilitated this in neo-noir as sexuality was not portrayed openly in the 1940s noir films because of the Studio Code. Phillips observes that both “adultery and homosexuality would be forbidden by the 1934 code” (31). Nevertheless, the lesbian fatale became prominent in neo-noir. 17. Of course this relationship the films create between lesbianism and violence is very problematic and stereotypical because a lesbian identity does not Notes 177
make a woman violent, as is constructed in patriarchal society’s imaginary. On the other hand, this is clearly the intention of the films of the period: to portray lesbianism as a negative aspect of a woman’s identity, which func- tions as a kind of “backlash” against lesbians. 18. Two examples of these in Brazil are Masculino . . . até certo ponto (Male . . . Up to Some Extent, 1986) and Estou com AIDS (I Have Got AIDS, 1986). In an international context, see the episode After It Happened from the American television series Midnight Caller (1988) and Killing the Right People—an episode of the series Designing Women (1987). 19. For more information on representations of the prostitute as a femme fatale, see Bade. 20. For a discussion of multiculturalism in Brazilian cinema, see Stam (Tropical). 21. For more information on Hari, see Shipman. 22. The term “class” in this case means “a social category sharing a common set of subjectively salient attributes within a system of stratification” (Wright 14). 23. Pollution in this case refers to the femme fatale’s acts that challenge “social morality”; the latter is understood in Foucaultian terms as “a set of values and rules of action that are recommended to individuals through the intermedi- ary of various prescriptive agencies such as the family (in one of its roles), educational institutions, churches, and so forth” (Foucault, The Use 25).
1 The Black Femme Fatale in Xica da Silva
1. For a detailed study of this historical character, whose name was originally spelt Chica da Silva, see Furtado. 2. All the translations from Portuguese are mine unless indicated otherwise. 3. Since the late 1960s when the Brazilian sexploitation film (pornochanchadas) appeared, this word has become a derogative way to refer to other films that are not considered to be of “good quality” or address any content related to sex in a more explicit or perhaps “tasteless” way. For a discussion of porno- chanchada, see Abreu and Dennison (Sex and the Generals). 4. Cinema-novo director Glauber Rocha wrote a manifesto titled An Aesthetics of Hunger. Xavier (Allegories) provides an important analysis of cinema-novo aesthetics. 5. This was one of the first movements that attempted to end Portuguese colo- nial rule in Brazil. For more details on this, see Perrin and Skidmore. 6. Public sex will be discussed in detail in chapter 4. 7. This applies to the film only—the historical character Chica is said to have had as many as 14 children with João Fernandes (Dennison and Shaw; Johnson, Carnivalesque). 8. Rape was a titillating sadomasochistic feature used in many (s)exploitation and pornographic films in the period mostly concerned in this book, espe- cially in pornochanchada, WIP, and rape-revenge films. These films targeted mostly heterosexual men as their main audience. For more information on this, see Da Silva. 178 Notes
9. Tate’s proposal of beauty performativity derives from Butler’s (Gender Trouble) conception of gender as performative. 10. This has been something that appears in different reviews of the film as no one gets to know exactly what she does. For an example of this, see Oliveira. 11. There is no doubt that Xica has control over her sexuality, but the different ways in which the film portrays her sexual identity could suggest (on a super- ficial level) an objectification of the slave’s body and sexuality. An example of this is in the film’s theme song, which repeats the refrain “Xica da, Xica da” (Xica “gives out”). The word da can be a conjugation of the verb dar (to give) and the contraction of the preposition de (of) plus the definite article a (the), which is part of different surnames such as da Silva. The film plays with the word da from Xica’s surname to connote sexual passivity, but this strongly indicates a male-biased construction of her sexuality because Xica’s acts in the film show that she does not “give out.” On the contrary, she devours the males, who are scared of her domineering and castrating sexuality, but she is not scared of theirs. 12. An exception is Yee’s study, which discusses a “dark” femme fatale in French Indochina. 13. An example is Mainon and Ursini’s book about the femme fatale in cinema. Very few of their “most unforgettable lethal ladies” are nonwhite. 14. His wife was left behind in Portugal. 15. Dona (Mrs.) is a term mostly used to address a married woman. It shows a degree of social respect toward such a woman. In this case, Xica’s appropria- tion of a word that surely would be applied only to white women at that time is very significant as it shows that she is imposing herself as a woman that the colonial society must respect. 16. In this research, cannibalism (or cannibalistic) refers to the understanding of the term as used by modernist Brazilian writers in the 1920s and reappropri- ated later in cinema novo in the 1960s. The use of cannibalism came from the radical movement Antropofagia that Oswald de Andrade, Tarsila do Amaral, and Raul Bopp created. This movement took a critical approach to primitiv- ism and rather than rejecting or imitating foreign culture it symbolically, like the native indigenous population, “devoured” foreign culture—took the best it could from it, without losing its own national cultural identity. Cannibalism became a cultural movement as well as an ideology in Brazil (Campos, qtd. in Stam, Tropical). For a discussion on Brazilian cultural can- nibalism, see Bellei. 17. There is a similar scene touching on whiteness in another film of the same year: Aleluia Gretchen (Hallelujah Gretchen, 1976). For an analysis of this film, see Stam (Tropical). 18. In this study, Fanon deploys a psychoanalytical framework to discuss the struggle black people face while living in a “white country,” which for him derives from dependency on the “mother country” (i.e., the colonizer—in the case of Fanon’s study, the French) and black people’s feeling of inadequacy in such a “white context.” 19. This “gravy” is prepared with vinegar and the blood of poultry. Notes 179
2 The Femme Fatale’s “Troubled” Gender in Madame Satã
* An early version of parts of this chapter was published as “Troubling the Femme Fatale Gender in the Brazilian film Madame Satã (2002).” Latin American Issues and Challenges. Ed. Lara Naciamento and Gustavo Sousa. New York: Nova Publishers, 2009. 81–95. It has been included here by the kind permission of Nova Science Publishers, Inc. 1. This nickname is derived from the American film Madam Satan (1930) that was playing in Brazil at the time. According to Green (O Pasquim), João would have worn a costume at the homosexuals’ carnival fancy-dress com- petition, called Desfile dos caçadores de veados (The Faggot Hunters’ Parade), that made him resemble the main female character of the American film. 2. The word performativity will be used in this chapter to refer to gender or sex, whereas the word performance will be related to João’s act on stage as an artist. 3. The name Tabu (in English “taboo”) does not seem to have been chosen ran- domly. It strongly indicates criticism of the established patriarchal norms that the film clearly challenges. 4. This is a slang word that was commonly used among homosexuals but which has become popular and is recurrent in recent soap operas. Rede Globo’s soap opera Caras e bocas (literally, Faces and Mouths, 2009–2010) is an example of this. Another variation developed for the term is bofe escândalo or bofescândalo (literally, “scandal straight-acting man”), which means that a man is very attractive. 5. WIP film is a very good example of this. For a discussion on this topic, see Da Silva. 6. This was a weekly tabloid newspaper of the 1960s/1970s that presented views opposing the military regime. It was considerably critical of homosexual- ity and feminists and was extremely misogynistic (the feminists called its male editors and contributors “chauvinist pigs”); despite this, it interviewed João/Madame Satã in 1971. In this interview, Green (O Pasquim) argues, João acquired the status of a “counterculture icon.” 7. For further discussions of race in the film, see Leu and L. Shaw. 8. See chapter 1. 9. This sequence is potentially based on an incident involving the real-life João. He killed a policeman for a similar homophobic attack that the character suffered from the drunkard in the film. For more details on this killing, see Green (O Pasquim). 10. The word Carioca refers to people or things from the capital city Rio de Janeiro. 11. The so-called whitening project became government policy and was aimed at literally whitening the nation’s population by encouraging the immigra- tion of white Europeans into Brazil. The policy was based on racist theories that deemed the black race unable to transform the country into a powerful nation. In 1912, for instance, João B. Lacerda, a Brazilian physician, scien- tist, and director of the National Museum, calculated that in 2012 the black 180 Notes
population in Brazil would be zero percent of the country’s total population while the mulattoes would represent only three percent (Skidmore, qtd. in Stepan 155). In adopting such a policy, the government expected to “purify” the Brazilian race by banishing the black race from the country. 12. Tijuca is a district of Rio de Janeiro—the capital city of the state Rio de Janeiro. 13. It is interesting how João adapts the story Vitória uses in her performance to a new context. The story he narrates while rehearsing in front of a mir- ror takes place in China where the Brazilian character Jamacy fights a mon- strous shark. The story he creates goes as follows: There lived in wonderful China, a brute and cruel shark that turned into dust whatever it bit. To calm the beast down, the Chinese sacri- ficed seven wild pussycats every day that it ate before sunset. With the desire to put an end to this cruelty there came Jamacy, a goddess of Tijuca Forest. She ran through the woods and flew over the hills. And Jamacy turned into a gentle golden puma of delicious taste. She fought with the shark for a thousand and one nights. After much struggle, the glorious Jamacy and the furious shark were so hurt that we couldn’t tell them apart. And in the end, they became one and the same creature. In Bussinger’s understanding, the fact that João recites the story in front of a mirror suggests that he is reciting it about and to himself. In the author’s interpretation, the aggressive and ferocious shark represents João, the macho, who cannot be easily contained; the gentle puma is João, the muse, who is seductive and courageous, and represents a romantic ideal. 14. This also illustrates the point Parker makes that the homosexual “tends to be at least partially ostracized, finding employment only in highly marginal lines of work or in jobs traditionally reserved for women” (52). 15. An example of this occurs in Basic Instinct in a nightclub sequence where Catherine Tramell, her female partner, and other people are in the toilet tak- ing drugs and having group sex. 16. As Stam explains, “Capoeira was born out of the desire of slaves to defend themselves against better-armed captors . . . slaves camouflaged it by practic- ing it with drums and music, as if it were ‘merely’ a samba” (Tropical 308). Capoeira is commonly practiced in contemporary Brazil, has expanded to other countries, and has turned into a symbol of Brazilian culture. 17. This is developed in chapter 4. 18. Even if Laurita was not a prostitute, she would surely be considered one at that time in Brazil for being a single mother. 19. For instance, during World War I, the American Army, in an attempt to educate its soldiers about the dangers of getting involved with prostitutes, printed in one of its “sexual education” materials that “a German bullet [was] cleaner than a whore” (Brandt 377). 20. The first case of AIDS in Brazil was found in this very year, 1982. At that time, the disease was associated with rich gay males as these were accused of catching it in Europe or in the United States where they would have been on holiday (Green, More Love). Notes 181
3 Social Class and the Virgin/Whore Dichotomy in Bonitinha mas ordinária
1. This play was first adapted for the cinema in 1963 (this version is unfortu- nately unavailable) and was adapted once again in 2010, but released in 2013. 2. This is, of course, a key element in the film that attracts much condemnation of the femme fatale as it was seen as an act of perversion, which is well illus- trated in one of the federal police’s censorship reports of the film. The female censor writes that the rape was “prepared for Maria Cecília’s satisfaction; a rich girl that got pleasure from such sick practices” (Parecer 5776 1). Although this is the Government’s censorship body, one can see that the comment sounds very much like the censor’s personal opinion. 3. For example, those discussed in chapters 4 and 5. 4. He says: “Nowadays, no one gives a damn about a cabaço (‘cherry,’ i.e., hymen). And what’s more, there is a doctor’s surgery in which a woman can leave more virgin than when she went in. He is the Pitanguy of pussies.” (Ivo Pitanguy is a famous Brazilian plastic surgeon.) This was one of the sen- tences censored at the time of the release of the film. The cuts were included in the film again from 1986 (see Parecer 0463/479/480). 5. An example of this in recent Brazilian films includes the maid marrying a famous foreign musician in O casamento de Louise (Louise’s Wedding, 2001). This is quite an obsession in various soap operas. In them, there are female characters whose objective in life is to find a rich husband. Examples of these are the characters Adriana, Amanda, Clara, Natalie L’amour, and Valdirene in Rede Globo’s soap operas Salsa e merengue (Salsa and Merengue, 1996–1997), Ti-ti-ti, Passione (Passion, 2010–2011), Insensato coração (“Foolish Heart,” 2011), and Amor à vida (“Love for Life,” 2013–2014), respectively, to cite a few. 6. It goes without saying that this is rather old fashioned given that the play was written in the early second half of the twentieth century. 7. The word Mineiro refers to someone who originates from the state of Minas Gerais. 8. Edgar uses this phrase to say that he was not going to marry Maria Cecília because of Heitor’s money. He uses it for the first time in the film when he is told to marry Cecília. It becomes a motif and is also spoken by other characters. The phrase was a joke Rodrigues made but he attributed to his friend from Minas Gerais, the journalist and writer Otto Lara Resende, which Rodrigues used in a few short stories he wrote. But Resende always denied authorship of the joke. 9. Peixoto is married to Maria Cecília’s older sister but, as already pointed out, he is also in love with the young femme fatale. Apparently, his wife has as many lovers as she wants and he accepts being a cuckold for the sake of the money he has access to by being married to a woman who belongs to the dominant class. 10. As in English, the word in Portuguese should be “dog” for the masculine but Maria Cecília uses the term “male bitch,” which does not exist in Portuguese dictionaries. Unlike in English, the word “bitch” in Portuguese has strong sexual connotations and is used as a synonym for “slut” or “whore.” 182 Notes
11. Considering rape as a forced sexual act against the will of one of the persons involved, this scene cannot count as a rape, at least for the femme fatale, as she wants the “rape role-play.” If one party is uneasy with this sexual act, it is surely the males—not her. 12. In Brazil, a woman’s behavior prior to a rape is, although not in the law, very often taken into consideration before deciding whether she is a “real” victim of rape or if she was “asking for it.” For a detailed discussion on this subject, especially in the law, see An Americas Watch Report. For changes in Brazil’s federal law in recent years regarding penalties for violence against women, see the most updated law created in 2006—the so-called Lei Maria da Penha (Maria da Penha Law). 13. For example, this was constantly replicated in many films among the hun- dreds of pornochanchadas that were produced in the 1970s. In them, the working-class women were frequently represented as maids and secretaries. 14. This is the case on the film poster and DVD cover of Basic Instinct as Catherine Tramell scratches Nick (Michael Douglas) on his back. In addition, in Body of Evidence the femme fatale Rebecca Carlson leaves marks of her “claws” on her male counterpart’s back, which are found by the latter’s wife. It is a way the new femme fatale compromises her partners: she leaves evidence of her sadomasochistic “treatment” of men to be noticed, seemingly on purpose. 15. It is important to emphasize that the film maintains the tone of the play in this regard. De Araújo argues that Rodrigues constructs characters, mainly females, who are “full of desires that are socially unacceptable and unconfessable in a modern Brazil of the 1940s, 50s and 60s” (n. pag.). It shows that female sexuality that does not conform to hegemonic sexual roles dictated to women—although there had been advances in this by the time the film was made when compared with the period the play concerns—is still taboo and condemned by society.
4 The Fetish “Dirt” as “Social Pollution”: The Married Femme Fatale in A dama do lotação
1. This was one way underground cinema produced in Brazil in the late 1960s and early 1970s was referred to. It plays with the pronunciation of the English word by Portuguese speakers. For a discussion of this genre in Brazil, see Stam (On the Margins). 2. Embrafilme was the Government’s film regulator, producer, and distributor at the time of the film’s release. 3. See the Introduction chapter. 4. This was a common feature in other films—for instance, in Brazilian porno- chanchadas, especially in the 1970s. 5. Dennison and Shaw argue that some elements in this Brazilian film make it seem like a parody of Buñuel’s Belle de Jour; one example of this is the scene in which Solange makes her first advances to Carlinhos’s closest friend in a nightclub. 6. Motels in Brazil are predominantly used for sexual encounters. Notes 183
7. Examples of references to betrayal in films of the same period in Brazil include A mulher de todos (The Woman of Everyone, 1970), Amor e traição (Love and Betrayal, 1974), Contos eróticos (Erotic Tales, 1977), Dona Flor e seus dois maridos, Mulher objeto, Ninguém segura essas mulheres (No One Can Hold Back These Women, 1975), O clube das infiéis (The Unfaithful Females’ Club, 1975), O vale dos amantes (The Lovers’ Valley, 1982), and Os galhos do casamento (The “Horns” of Marriage, 1978). Examples in films of the same time in an international context include the British films Suburban Wives (1972) and the confessions series (especially Confessions of a Window Cleaner, 1974, and Confessions of a Driving Instructor, 1976). 8. Brazilian pornochanchadas, the British confessions series, and WIP film are good examples of film genres that have been accused of using images of women mostly for titillation. 9. This scene is remarkable as it demonstrates that more women are becoming dominating and the “tough” males who batter women are becoming scared of even touching the women as they are unsure of what may happen to them. A great example of this, albeit in another film genre, occurs in rape-revenge films. The victims, who are subjected to atrocious treatment by males, strike back in deadly ways that were previously unseen in (World) cinema. See, for example, the international films Baise Moi (Fuck Me, 2000), Bandit Queen (1994), I Spit on Your Grave (1978), and Monster (2003). In the Brazilian con- text, one finds some examples in WIP films such as A prisão (Bare behind Bars, 1980) and Escola penal de meninas violentadas (Penal School for Violated Girls, 1977). 10. This dialogue also indicates development in the portrayal of and the lan- guage used by the femme fatale when compared with the traditional ones in film noir. However, most importantly, it predates the kind of language and behavior that femmes fatales would adopt from the late 1980s onward, mainly in American films. 11. As already pointed out in this book, this was also the case in Brazilian cin- ema at the time. 12. See Parker for a discussion about this. 13. This was a common feature in other films that portray (suspicious) betrayed husbands in Brazilian cinema at the time. 14. Although this does not happen with Solange in the film, same-sex relations is another characteristic of radical sex that challenges hegemonic gender roles and is constantly repeated in contemporary femme-fatale films. It became a staple of the genre, especially from the 1990s onward. 15. Catherine Tramell uses this line in Basic Instinct.
5 The “Abject” Lesbian Fatale in As intimidades de Analu e Fernanda
1. In a review of the film, Carneiro argues that “José Miziara, moving among genres, makes a great drama, an erotic romance, using lesbian love as its 184 Notes
theme.” For a discussion about genre blending in cinema with (neo)noir film, see Bould, Glitre, and Tuck. 2. This is a common feature of many softcore thrillers in the 1970s and 1980s in different national cinemas, but it was also present in similar films from the 1990s and 2000s. See Andrews for more information on this. 3. This idea of a male coming between two women (a single one and a mar- ried one defying her husband’s authority) in a relationship is also illustrated in other films. For example, in the well-known American film Thelma and Louise (1991), a man causes the eponymous two women to fall out with each other, although in this film a lesbian relationship is only suggested. Thelma and Louise has also been included in studies about the femme fatale in American cinema. 4. An example of this in American neo-noir occurs in Basic Instinct in a scene in which Nick watches Catherine Tramell having sex with her girlfriend. 5. The line “I am a total fucking bitch” is used by Bridget Gregory in The Last Seduction. See Schubart for an interesting study on the “super bitches” in cinema. 6. For more information on this, see Da Silva; McCaughey and King; Rapaport; and Schubart, especially Chapter 3 for the last of these. 7. Similar lines are used by many of the neo-noir femmes fatales in American cinema. For instance, some scholars researching American cinema state that such lines derive from Fatal Attraction (1987) in which the femme fatale tells her male counterpart: “I won’t allow you to treat me like some slut you can just bang a few times then throw in the garbage.” But as this chapter shows, Intimidades predates this American film. For a discussion about Fatal Attraction and other erotic thrillers, see Williams. 8. The “bunny boiler” is an exception to this. This term comes from the famous scene in Fatal Attraction in which the femme fatale boils the bunny of her male lover’s daughter out of revenge for being dumped by him. Williams argues that the “bunny boiler” “has become synonymous with a certain kind of aggressive female” (171)—the one that avenges the male who leaves her. For Williams, Fatal Attraction is “the grandmother of the erotic thriller as revenge tragedy” (171). 9. For more information on this, see Moreno. 10. This is particularly suggested in sexploitation films such as Intimidades itself. 11. This is implied in Fernanda’s lines in response to Analu’s “discovery” of the “new world”: “But there is another world. A world based only on love. A place where people are not catalogued as men or women. A place where it does not matter who and what the person is. The only thing that matters is that they love each other.” 12. This also occurs in the American film The Last Seduction. Similar to what happens in Intimidades, in this film Bridget Gregory enters a bar after she had been driving for a long time to escape her husband. She tries to buy a drink, but she is demanding and ultimately rude (“For fuck’s sake! Who’s a girl gotta suck around here to get a drink?”), so the barman refuses to serve Notes 185
her. But a man—her future victim—steps in to buy her the drink and he uses the opportunity to chat her up. Similar examples (in American cinema) can be found in Thelma and Louise and One Night at McCool’s (2001). 13. This reference to Gary Cooper as the archetype of Hollywood masculinity is interesting, and it coincidently also occurs in Madame Satã. In the latter, there is a sequence in which João asks Laurita who she saw in him when she looks at him. She replies by comparing him to Gary Cooper.
6 “Quoting” the Film-Noir Femme Fatale in A dama do Cine Shanghai
1. For detailed information about the film including production, reception, and casting, among other aspects, see Robson. 2. For a detailed account of this topic, see Naremore. 3. It is a coincidence but Welles’s The Lady also had its release postponed for a while in America. It was even released in other countries before its American release. See Robson for more information on this. 4. A similar (subjective) ending is used in the American film Basic Instinct. Its ending is constantly debated in different studies about the film. See, for instance, Stables.
Conclusion
1. As previously discussed, it is difficult to single out these films under a defi- nite genre as some of them could be and have been classified in various ways. For instance, As intimidades de Analu e Fernanda has been described as a drama, thriller, pornochanchada, and detective story, among others. 2. However, it is important to highlight that “bunny boilers” in American cin- ema were portrayed as heterosexual femmes fatales. Filmography
Brazilian Films
Aleluia Gretchen (Hallelujah Gretchen). Dir. Sylvio Back, 1976. Amor e traição (Love and Betrayal). Dir. Pedro Camargo, 1974. Ariela. Dir. John Herbert, 1980. Bonitinha mas ordinária (Pretty but Slutty). Dir. Braz Chediak, 1981. O casamento de Louise (Louise’s Wedding). Dir. Betse de Paula, 2001. O clube das infiéis (The Unfaithful Females’ Club). Dir. Cláudio Cunha, 1975. Como era gostoso o meu francês (How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman). Dir. Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1971. Como esquecer (How to Forget). Dir. Malu de Martino, 2010. Contos eróticos (Erotic Tales). Dir. Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Eduardo Escorel, Roberto Palmari, and Roberto Santos, 1977. A dama do Cine Shanghai (The Lady from the Shanghai Cinema). Dir. Guilherme de Almeida Prado, 1987. A dama do lotação (Lady on the Bus). Dir. Neville D’Almeida, 1978. Do começo ao fim (From Beginning to End). Dir. Aluízio Abranches, 2009. Dona Flor e seus dois maridos (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands). Dir. Bruno Barreto, 1976. Escola penal de meninas violentadas (Penal School for Violated Girls). Dir. Antônio Meliade, 1977. Estou com AIDS (I Have Got AIDS). Dir. David Cardoso, 1986. Os galhos do casamento (The “Horns” of Marriage). Dir. Sérgio Toledo, 1978. Giselle. Dir. Victor di Mello, 1980. As intimidades de Analu e Fernanda (Analu and Fernanda’s Intimacies). Dir. José Miziara, 1980. As intimidades de duas mulheres, Vera e Helena (Two Women’s Intimacies: Vera and Helena). Dir. Mozeal Silveira, 1980. Madame Satã. Dir. Karïm Ainouz, 2002. Masculino . . . até certo ponto (Male . . . Up to an Extent). Dir. Wilson Rodrigues, 1986. A mulher de todos (The Woman of Everyone). Dir. Rogério Sganzerla, 1970. Mulher objeto (Woman as Object). Dir. Sílvio de Abreu, 1981. Ninguém segura essas mulheres (No One Can Hold back These Women). Dir. Anselmo Duarte, 1975. A prisão (Bare behind Bars). Dir. Osvaldo de Oliveira, 1980. A Rainha Diaba (Devil Queen). Dir. Antônio Carlos da Fontoura, 1974. 188 Filmography
Sofia e Anita (Sofia and Anita). Dir. Carlos Alberto Almeida, 1980. O vale dos amantes (The Lovers’ Valley). Dir. Tony Rabatoni, 1982. Xica da Silva. Dir. Carlos Diegues, 1976.
International Films
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Dir. Stephan Elliott, 1994. The Babysitter. Dir. Guy Ferland, 1995. Baise Moi (Fuck Me). Dir. Coralie and Virginie Despentes, 2000. Bandit Queen. Dir. Shekhar Kapur, 1994. Basic Instinct. Dir. Paul Verhoeven, 1992. Belle de Jour. Dir. Luis Buñuel, 1967. Body of Evidence. Dir. Uli Edel, 1993. Confessions of a Driving Instructor. Dir. Norman Cohen, 1976. Confessions of a Window Cleaner. Dir. Val Guest, 1974. The Crush. Dir. Alan Shapiro, 1993. Devil in a Blue Dress. Dir. Carl Franklin, 1995. Fatal Attraction. Dir. Adrian Lyne, 1987. Hard Candy. Dir. David Slade, 2005. I Spit on Your Grave. Dir. Meir Zarchi, 1978. Jennifer’s Body. Dir. Karyn Kusama, 2009. The Lady from Shanghai. Dir. Orson Welles, 1948. The Last Seduction. Dir. John Dahl, 1994. El lugar sin límites (The Place without Limits). Dir. Arturo Ripstein, 1978. Madam Satan. Dir. Cecil B. De Mille, 1930. Mini’s First Time. Dir. Nick Guthe, 2006. Monster. Dir. Patty Jenkins, 2003. One Night at McCool’s. Dir. Harald Zwart, 2001. Poison Ivy. Dir. Katt Shea, 1992. Poison Ivy 2. Dir. Anne Goursaud, 1996. Rear Window. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1954. Suburban Wives. Dir. Derek Ford, 1972. Thelma and Louise. Dir. Ridley Scott, 1991.
TV Series and Soap Operas
“After It Happened.” Midnight Caller. NBC, 1988. Television. Amor à vida (“Love for Life”). Rede Globo, 2013–2014. Television. Caras e bocas (“Faces and Mouths”). Rede Globo, 2009–2010. Television. Insensato coração (“Foolish Heart”). Rede Globo, 2011. Television. “Killing the Right People.” Designing Women. CBS, 1987. Television. Passione (Passion). Rede Globo, 2010–2011. Television. Salsa e merengue (Salsa and Merengue). Rede Globo, 1996–1997. Television. Ti-ti-ti (“Gossip”). Rede Globo, 2010–2011. Television. Bibliography
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abertura política, 6, 100 androcentric ideology, 79 see distensão política androgynous character, 52 abjection, 127–30 anonymity, 103, 114 abject, the, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131 Antropofagia, 178n16 body waste, 128, 130 Arabian Nights, The, 58 as exclusion or taboo, 128 Arena, Rodolfo, 32 menstrual blood, 128 Ariela, 127 urine, 128 articulated categories, 37 abortion, 6 gender, race, and class as, 37 adaptations, 77 artistic life, 57 adultery, 12, 111, 176n16 asexual femme fatale, 101 Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the asexuality, 100 Desert, The, 54 atemporality, 3, 16, 172 aesthetic quality, 171 avacalhação, 23 Aesthetics of Hunger, An, 178n4 affection, 114, 133 B film, 30, 155, 157 After It Happened, 177n18 Babysitter, The, 73 agency, 9, 11–15, 92, 121, 123 backlash, 13, 14, 111, 177n17 denial of, 13 Baise Moi, 183n9 indication of, 12 Bakhtin, Mikhail M., 29, 30, 35, 55 question of, 12, 43 Bandit Queen, 183n9 AI5 (Ato Institucional 5), 176n8 Bare behind Bars, 183n9 political rights of civilians, 176n8 see A prisão AIDS, 9, 16, 67, 69–71, 180n20 Barreto, Bruno, 98 Ainouz, Karïm, 47, 52, 64 Basic Instinct, 17, 180n15, 182n14, Aleluia Gretchen, 178n17 184n4, 185n4 Amaral, Tarsila do, 178n16 Bataille, Georges, 120 American femme fatale, 8, 170 Bauraqui, Flávio, 48 American society, 7 beauty, 2, 25, 34, 86, 171 American softcore thrillers, 111 as culturally intelligible, 34 Amor à vida, 181n5 as effect of discourses, 34 Amor e traição, 183n7 as performative, 34, 178n9 Anders, Glenn, 150 Beauvoir, Simone de, 56 Andrade, Joaquim Pedro de, 44 Belle de Jour, 98, 99, 182n5 Andrade, Oswald de, 178n16 Bhabha, Homi K., 40, 41, 42 202 Index bicha, 48–51, 52, 56, 63 Brazilian culture, 49, 140, 180n16 bigamy, 52 model of masculinity and big-budget erotic thrillers, 111 femininity in, 57 binaries, 48, 61, 172 Brazilian Emmanuelle, 98 binary categorizations, 61 Brazilian female filmmakers, 175n2 binary frame, 53 Brazilian modernity project, 175n2 binary pair, 56 Brazilian readers, 76 biographical films, 171 Brazilian society biological body, 48, 53, 54, 56, 61, 129 Brazil’s patriarchal society, 6 biologically born bodies, 56 colonial, 129 biological destiny, 5 conservative, 64, 91 biological gender, 17, 70, 153 contemporary, 4 bisexuality, 29, 67, 131 crises of patriarchal, 92 bitch, 81, 131, 181n10, 184n5 margins of, on the, 40 calculating, 10 modern, 76 cold, 110 patriarchal Brazilian society, 7, 17, cold manipulative, 10 49, 92, 113, 127 black beauty, 34 view of gay and black people, 3 black body, 21, 34, 38, 39 Brazilians’ sexuality, 49 black femme fatale breadwinner, 90 fears of, 38 British cinema, 100 as sexual degenerate, 27, 32 brothel, 48, 92 as sexually insatiable “other,” 27 quasi-brothel, 77 shameless, 27 budgets, 169 black homosexual male bunny boiler, 133, 184n8, 185n2 protagonist, 16 (conclusion) Black Skin, White Masks, 43 bunny-boiler type, 166 see Frantz Fanon lesbian as, 144, 173 black widow, 97, 107, 109, 123, 161 Buñuel, Luis, 99, 182n5 blackness, 37–8, 42, 51, 171 Butler, Judith, 5, 53–7, 60, 66, 141, 142 associated with degeneration, 37 “authentic,” 63 cannibalism, 16, 28, 42–4, 178n16 and constitution of identity, 16 black femme fatale’s, 42 film noir’s relationship with, 21 Brazilian cultural, 178n16 blaxploitation films, 175n1 cannibalistic mimicry, 41 Body of Evidence, 10, 15, 17, 120, cannibalistic other’, 27 182n14 as cultural movement, 178n16 bofe, 49, 50, 63, 68 as ideology, 178n16 bofe escândalo (or bofescândalo), sex and, 42 179n4 capitalism, failure of, 80 bonecas, 66 capitalist class exploitation, 92 Bopp, Raul, 178n16 capitalist economic crises, 8 box-office success, 4, 23, 98 capoeira, 63, 180n16 Braga, Sônia, 97, 99 as symbol of Brazilian culture, Brasília Film Festival, 23 180n16 brasilidade, 11 Caras e bocas, 179n4 Index 203 carnivalesque costumes, 41 colonial cultural matrix, 40 carnivalesque inversion, 55 colonial elite, 27, 31, 32, 36, 39, 43 carnivalesque, the, 29–30, 35, 173 anxiety for, 26 Cartaxo, Marcelia, 48 mockery of, 40, 41 casamento de Louise, O, 181n5 white, 45 castration, 28, 107 colonial period, 24, 40, 171 metaphorical, 61 colonial sexual order, 38 threat of, 28 colonial social disruption, 34 castratrixes, 8, 14, 140 colonial social order, 16, 29 categorization, 61, 68, 141 colonial society, 29, 36, 38, 45, 178n15 Catholicism, 88 Brazil’s, 15 Catholic Church, 6 control over, 25 Church, the, 30 paternalistic, 37 Caucasian Euro-American femmes patriarchal, 28, 31 fatales, 38 prestigious place in, 25 Caucasian femmes fatales, 22, 25, racist, 16 34, 174 subaltern position within, 35, 42 censorship, 12, 24, 75, 176n8 symbol of otherness in, 44 18 classification, 18, 75, 126 threat to, 24, 25 changes in, 164 white, 30, 32, 34 heyday of, 75 color in neo-noir film, 162–3 influence on film classification, 126 monochrome look, 163 Chagas, Walmor, 22 Technicolor aesthetics, 163 chastity, 88, 102 commercial film, 155 chauvinist pigs, 179n6 communist enemy, 70 Chediak, Braz, 73, 75, 76, 77, 88 communist “penetration,” 70 chiaroscuro lighting, 152, 163 Como era gostoso o meu francês, 27 Chicago International Film Festival, 47 Como esquecer, 52 childish personality, 83 Confessions of a Driving Instructor, Christian Bible, 136 183n7 cigarette, 61, 62, 64, 107, 144, 156 Confessions of a Window Cleaner, 183n7 absence of, 87 confessions series, 183n7 iconic, 153 consumerism, 40, 45 cinema novo, 23, 178n16 cannibalistic, 44 cinema-novo aesthetics, 177n4 contemporary anxieties, 7 cinema-novo filmmakers, 23 male anxieties, 149 cinema-novo films, 23 contínuo, ex-, 80 cinematic experience, 161 Contos eróticos, 183n7 citations, 156–8 Cooper, Gary, 143 classic femme fatale, 10 as archetype of Hollywood claustrophobia, 8, 137 masculinity, 185n13 cleanliness, 120, 129 counterculture icon, 179n6 clube das infiéis, O, 183n7 Creed, Barbara, 28, 127–32, 135, 136, 148 cold femme fatale, 103, 122 criminality, 7, 129, 140, 153, 162, 163 Cold War, 7 critical transmission of Hollywood, colonial context, 25, 26, 39, 42, 45 19, 169 204 Index crônica, 99 distensão política, 6 crook, 66 Do começo ao fim, 52 as symbol of hegemonic Doane, Mary Ann, 1, 7, 14, 27, 33 masculinity, 66 domestic chores, 104 cross-dressing, 54, 57, 65 dominant ideology, 99 Crush, The, 73 dominatrix, 38, 107, 109 cultural codes, 53 Dona Flor e seus dois maridos, 98, cultural inscriptions, 53 183n7 cultural intelligibility, 34 DOPS (Department of Social and cut-throat razorblade, 61, 165 Political Order), 6 Douglas, Mary, 18, 64, 105, 106, 107, 120 D’Almeida, Neville, 97, 99, 101 Douglas, Michael, 182n14 DaMatta, Roberto, 29, 36, 37, 113, 114 drag queen, 48, 54, 57, 66 danger-beliefs, 107 drug taking, 63, 131 dark femme fatale, 178n12 while having sex, 176n6 daughters of patriarchy, 132, 136 dutiful housewife, 103 daughters of postfeminism, 73 Dworkin, Andrea, 13 decency codes, 99 degeneration, 37, 76, 80, 142 economic exchange, 78 delinquency, 140 economic power, 77, 78, 80, 82, 90 Deneuve, Catherine, 99 as trigger of amorality and Desfile dos caçadores de veados, 179n1 corruption, 76 Designing Women, 177n18 effeminate homosexual, 68 detective films, 154, 159 effeminate man, 69 detective story, 185n1 (conclusion) as a synonym for sexual passivity, 51 deviant condition, 67 elite, 23, 32, 58, 81, 91 deviations, 18, 76, 92, 132, 154 sexual excesses of, 77 Devil in a Blue Dress, 22 social disintegration of, 77 devilish teenage femme fatale, 82–8 see colonial elite devil’s gateway, 28 Elke Maravilha, 32 devoradora, la, 42 Embrafilme, 98, 155, 182n2 dichotomous pair, 17, 32, 38 embranqueamento, 40 dichotomy empowerment, 15 “good girl” and “bad girl,” 93 black femme fatale’s, 25 lady/whore fusion, 89 enfranchisement letter, 22, 42 master/slave, 25 epistemological trauma public/private, 50 femme fatale as, 7, 149 sex/violence, 75 erotic films, 164 virgin/whore, 17, 27, 88–95, 172 erotic thrillers, 8, 111, 184n7 dictatorial regimes, 70 Escola penal de meninas violentadas, Diegues, Carlos, 22 183n9 direct-to-video films, 8 ESG (Escola Superior de Guerra), 70 dirt, 17, 18, 115, 119, 120 Estou com AIDS, 177n18 dirty acts, 80, 97, 102, 118 Euro-American femmes, 171 as fetish, 105–12 European colonial metropolis, 45 disintegrations, social/personal, 8 European colonizers, 26, 28 Index 205
Eve, 136 femininity, 41, 59, 61, 102, 139 daughter of, 136 constructed, 60 existential crisis, 137 mimicry of, 60 exotic lawless countries, 153 parody of, 54 exoticism, 26, 38 reiteration of, 60 of the femme fatale, 26 woman’s rights to, 140 imperialist, 26 feminism, 111 antipornography, 14 Fagundes, Antônio, 154 black, 13–14 Falabella, Miguel, 165 in Brazil, 7 fallen woman, 91 lesbian, 14 Faludi, Susan, 13, 111 second-wave, 13, 14 families, 6, 9, 92, 94 feminist agenda, 14 family feminist film theorists, 12 in bourgeois society, 17 feminists, 13, 14, 179n6 disintegration of, 76, 77 American feminists of color, 37 dysfunctional, 64 antipornography, 99 as a failed or near-failing “man-haters,” 134 institution, 76 femme fatale relationships, 92 attempts to control the, 12 traditional, 66, 76, 138 bearer of sexual diseases, 106 family planning, 6 beyond American film noir, 4 Fanon, Frantz, 43, 178n18 cause of anxieties, 16 fatality, 16, 102, 107, 161 concerns about female Fausto, Boris, 176n9 domination, 37 feelings of rejection, 152 definitions of, 1–2, 4, 9 feline claws, 89, 114 destruction of the, 12 feline gestures, 159 in European and American female agency, 92 cinemas, 5 and the femme fatale, 11–15 feline nature of, 61–2 female characters, 10, 12, 93, 102, 181n5 as an imagined figure, 149 female criminal, 13, 131 ingénue type of, 104 female sexual killer, 140 neglecting of her racial identity, 37 female sexuality in other contexts, 75, 174, 176n15 aggressive expression of, 131 as parody of femininity, 58 as destructive, unbridled and performatively constituted unhealthy, 101 identity of, 2 as intrinsically diseased, 69 performing the, 61–6 masculine view of, 113 as product of a male’s mind, 149 patriarchal hypocrisy toward, 99 “rebirth” of, 6, 149 patriarchal males’ fantasy about, 25 revenge against, 151 unrestrained, 27 as sexually frustrated women, 161 female spectatorship, 175n2 as a smokescreen, 24 female subjectivities, 12, 13 transgressive potential of, 153 female wickedness, 11 unknowability of, 151, 171 feminine temptation, 136 voracious sexual appetite of, 101 206 Index
Festival of Biarritz, 47 illicit sexual encounters, 68, 69 fetishism multiple partners, 67, 68 fetish object, 108 in public spaces, 67 fetishism is directly linked to in public toilets, 67, 68 castration anxiety, 107 risky sexual encounters, 68 fetishization of women, 108 sauna, 68 fidelity, 93 transgression of “polite” sexual film distribution, 164 activity, 68 film genres, 2, 4, 7, 15, 171 unsafe sex, 16, 68 international film genres, 19 see also public sex women in different, 131 gay-magazines, 74 see under specific names gaze film intertextuality, 158, 159 audience’s, 4 film literates, 157 hero’s, 4 film noir indication of anxiety, 108 American, 4, 12, 21, 134, 149 male, 58, 108, 160 chaotic environment in, 151 male gaze in reverse, 32 feminist criticism of, 12 male spectators’, 34 “impurity” of, 154 paranoid, 135 perilous and shadowy streets of, 84 gender as a transgeneric phenomenon, and biological sex, 53, 61 176n13 equality, 6, 99 financial independence, 123 as a performative construct, 53–61 Fiorentino, Linda, 10 public performativity of, 51 Fisher, Vera, 80 and racial boundaries, 38 foreign femmes fatales, 15 and sexual politics, 6 foreignness, 21 gender performativity, 5, 48, 53–61, Foucault, Michel, 31, 102, 177n23 63, 64, 65 French Indochina, 178n12 theatrical permissiveness of, 55 Freud, Sigmund, 10, 107 as a threat to patriarchy, 47 Freyre, Gilberto, 28, 40 see Judith Butler frigid femme fatale, 100, 101 gender politics, 127 frigidity, 97, 100–2, 104 gender traitors, 70 as challenge to masculinity, 101 gendered bodies, 56, 134 genre blending, 159, 184n1 galhos do casamento, Os, 183n7 girl-on-girl action, 133 gangster films, 154 Giselle, 127 Garbo, Greta, 21 Godard, Jean-Luc, 156 gay and lesbian rights, 6 goddess of Tijuca Forest, 60, 180n13 gay men, 16, 70 Gold Hugo, 47 gay sex Gonçalves, Ênio, 125 anonymous sex, 68 good white woman, 27 barebacking, 67, 68 grã-fina, 73 cottaging, 68 Gramado Film Festival, 155 cruising, 67, 68, 69 GRID (gay-related gay men and death, 70 immunodeficiency), 69 Index 207
Grier, Pam, 175n1 ideology of whitening, 44 Grupo Gay da Bahia, 175n4 immigration, 179n11 guerrilla warfare, 6 immorality, 114, 115, 128 guilty pleasure, 76 immoral acts, 36 guinea pigs, 101, 110 immoral contagion, 86, 109, 116 in-between space, 115, 116 Hard Candy, 73 incest, 52, 76 hardcore pornographic films, 164 incestuous relationship, 52 Hari, Mata, 12 Inconfidência Mineira, 26 Hayworth, Rita, 15, 21, 150, 153 infidelity, 75, 121, 122, 137, 140 hegemonic sexual roles, 29, 50, 103, fear of betrayal, 113 129, 182n15 marital, 115 heteronormativity, 52, 56 risks of, 111 challenges to, 56 and women’s empowerment, 111 heterosexual male audience, 109, 112, innocence, 73, 74, 77, 83, 87, 163 114, 131, 172, 176n6 innocent devilish femme fatale, 17 heterosexuality, 119, 125, 134, 141, Insensato coração, 181n5 142, 148 intimidades de duas mulheres, compulsory, 147 Vera e Helena, As, 127 naturalization of, 147 inversion of power historical films, 171 see power inversion historical truth, 24 Irigary, Luce, 78 Hitchcock, Alfred, 158 HIV, 16, 67, 70, 71 Jennifer’s Body, 73 homosexuals as the main source of, 9 Jewish joke, 10 Hobsbawm, Eric J., 17, 78 homophobia Kaplan, E. Ann, 12, 38, 136, 151, 153, in Brazil, 175n4 173 homophobic attack, 55, 179n9 Killing the Right People, 177n18 homophobic crimes, 4 kindness as a masquerade, 132 homophobic signifying knife, 51, 139, 158, 163 economy, 64 penknife, 86, 133, 142 violence against homosexuals, 172 Kristeva, Julia, 18, 127–8, 130, 132, homosexual characters, 3, 133, 164 135, 136 homosexuality Kroeber, Carlos, 77 Brazilian perceptions of, 16, 52 as an expression of perversions, 70 lack, 42, 152 as fatality, 16 compensation for, 152 patriarchal views of, 67 of fulfilling sex, 111, 127 polluted status in society, 64 of a phallus, 42 horror film, 86 of racial equality, 42 hotel de alta rotatividade, 115 of sexual satisfaction, 145 hypersexuality, 27 lady, 88, 89, 105, 106 Lady from Shanghai, The, 18, I Spit on Your Grave, 183n9 149, 150–4, 166, 185n3 iconography of image, 4 (chapter 6) 208 Index language, 4–5 limp fairy, 67 cross-dressing through, 65 linguistic failure, 61 effect on “victims,” 35 loneliness, 132 obscene, 131 loss of capital, 78 valorization of the obscene lottery jackpot, 86 through, 29, 35 lugar sin límites, El, 54 verbal acuity, 4, 5 luta armada, 6 Lapa neighborhood, 47, 48 see guerrilla warfare Last Seduction, The, 10, 17, 120, 184n5, 184n12 machão, 49, 50, 51 Latin America, 70, 153, 154 macho performativity, 63 Latin American woman’s as a device to seduce, 63 sensuality, 99 macho-orientated cultures, 54 Lei Maria da Penha, 182n12 Mackinnon, Catharine A., 13 lesbian Madam Satan, 179n1 butch, 135 made-for-cable films, 8 experimenting, 128, 130 Madonna, 10 lesbian sex, 127, 130, 176n6 Maia, Nuno Leal, 98 lesbian sexuality, 141 malandro, 48, 49, 53, 57, 61, 66 perception of violent women as, 140 as homme fatal, 51 psychopathic, 133 male seen as masculinized women, 131 as avenger of damaged honor, 122 lesbian characters, 49 fallen, 115, 121 lesbian fatale, 130–6 as guardian of female sexual and jealousy, 126, 140, 144 morality, 105 as metamorphosis of the femme stereotypical patriarchal, 52 fatale, 147 male anxiety, 3, 12, 75, 101, 107 related to violence and aggression, male crises, 8 125 see crises of masculinity as social abject, 18, 135 male fantasy, 10, 28 violent behaviour of, 18, 131, 139, male neurosis, 110, 113 143, 144 male pleasure, 14, 15, 108, 114 lesbianism, 126, 127, 133, 135, male spectator, 33, 34, 58 177n17 man-eater, 1, 92 in Brazil, 140 manhunting, 68, 102, 109, 122 and criminality, 140 marginality, 57 negative social perception of, 144 marginalizations, 56 patriarchal perceptions of, 134 Maria, Márcia, 125 stereotypical perceptions of, 131 Marques, Felipe, 48 and violence, 18, 140, 176n17 marriage lesbiphobia, 135 married woman’s sexual role, 98 lesbiphobic behaviour, 139 monogamous, 102 lesbiphobic terms, 135 patriarchal society and, 17 Lewgoy, José, 157 sex before, 93 Lilith, 136 unhappily married woman, 145 Lima, Altair, 27 Marxist ideas, 80 Index 209 masculinity motel, 103, 109, 110, 115, 116, 182n6 “authentic,” 63 mother figure, 18 crises of, 8, 17, 98, 174 Motta, Zezé, 22 culturally constructed, 51 movements failure of, 95 gay/lesbian, 3, 5, 9 fallen, 45 feminist, 5, 6, 13 hegemonic, 27, 50, 61, 66, 95, 165 feminist struggle, 13 masculinization, 9 mulata do balacochê, 60 Masculino. . . até certo ponto, 177n18 mulatto essentialism, 40 masochism, 28, 122, 172, 173 mulatto woman, 28, 40 masochistic behaviour, 122 mulattoes, 180n11 masochistic desire, 36, 91 mulher de todos, A, 183n7 masochistic pleasure, 25 Mulher objeto, 101, 127, 183n7 maternal penis, 108 multiculturalism maternal qualities, 93 in Brazilian cinema, 177n20 matriarchal family, 82 multicultural society, 11, 170 ménage à trois, 158 Mulvey, Laura, 32, 42, 108, 114, 121 mental state myth, 24 mental breakdown, 145 and the femme fatale, 24 mental disturbance, 134 see vagina dentata mental illness, 90, 145 mental stress, 146 narcissism, 114 nervous breakdown, 145 narcissistic nature, 122 psychological stress, 145 narrator’s mind, 150, 152, 165 metacinematic film, 18, 159 national authenticity, 60 metacinematic reflection, 156 national cinemas, 2, 8, 19, 154, 171, michê, 68 184n2 Midnight Caller, 177n18 femme fatale in other, 176n15 military dictatorship in Brazil, 6–7, 75 naturalized idealization, 142 end of the, 6 neon signs, 152, 162 military government, 6 neo-noir (or new-noir) films most violent period of, 75 in Brazilian cinema, 18, 149 mimicry, 40–2, 45, 59, 60, 63, 64 definition of, 7–8 as cannibalistic, 40, 42 femme fatale in, 8–9 colonial discourse and, 40 femme fatale’s language in, 5, 183n10 as mockery, 40 second cycle of, the, 8 Mini’s First Time, 73 three key areas introduced into, 64 Miziara, José, 125, 126, 132, 183n1 time tensions of, 3 modernist Brazilian writers, 178n16 neo-noir femme fatale, 10, 11, 29, 121, molho pardo, 43 149, 162 Monarchy, 30 neo-sisters, 166 Monster, 183n9 Nercessian, Stepan, 26 Moraes, Milton, 74 new femme fatale, 5, 8, 9, 10, 14 moral degradation, 153 new woman, 108, 110 moral hypocrisy, 100 sexuality of the, 122 moral pollution, 105 Ninguém segura essas mulheres, 183n7 210 Index noir femme fatale, 1, 11, 15, 16, 28, 30 patriarchal rule, 15, 29 noir film, 7, 18, 105, 164, 176n16 patriarchal society see also film noir attitude toward difference, 138 noir narrative, 160 institutions’ moral codes, 76 clichés, 158 patriarchal trap, 143 strategy, 150 patriarchal violence, 9, 56 unreliability in, 152 patriarchal womanizers, 99, 137 non-Caucasian femmes fatales, 15 patriarchy normative politics, 56 definitions of sexuality and northeastern migrant, 56 pleasure, 173 nudity, 77, 164 exploitative and oppressive nymphomaniac, 99, 101, 107 regime, 153 patriarchal social order, 18 objectification, 12, 14, 43, 92, 99, 178n11 support of patriarchal domination, 10 obsession, 8, 133, 146, 154, 166 pederasts, 50, 55 camera’s, 108 pedophilia, 76 with female betrayal, 103 Peeping Tom, 108, 131 One Night at McCool’s, 185n12 Peixoto, Floriano, 61 oppressed woman Pereio, Paulo César, 103 social condition of, 145 perfect Subject, 10 ostracism, 142 peripheral sexualities, 67 Otto Lara Resende, 181n8 Perlongher, Nestór, 49, 68 Otto Lara Rezende, 76 phallic gun, 122 phallic object, 50 palimpsestic body, 135 phallic woman, the, 28 paranoias, 8, 152, 162, 166 phantasmatic idealization, 141 parodic films, 40 phobia, 39, 56, 128, 135 parodic repetition, 59 a self-defense mechanism, 139 Pasquim, O, 50 toward drag queens, 54 Passione, 181n5 see homophobia; lesbiphobia passive subjects, 15 physical performance, 65 patriarchal control, 91, 103, 106, pimp, 48, 66, 114 123, 130 Pitanguy, Ivo, 181n4 patriarchal discourse, 58, 64, 93, 132 plastic surgeon, 77, 79, 181n4 echo of, 64 playwright, 74, 76, 90, 98 mimicry of, 63 see Nelson Rodrigues patriarchal economy, 172 point-of-view shot, 160, 161 patriarchal law Poison Ivy 2, 73 challenge to, 4, 7, 12, 115, 120 Poison Ivy, 73 rejection of, 153 political and cultural intersections, 56 transgression of, 6, 92, 106, 112, 154 polluting person, 106, 107 patriarchal oppression, 136 popular culture, 12, 110, 116, 120, 169 patriarchal order, 10, 109 femme fatale in, 1, 107 patriarchal power porn’ vogue, 126 fall of, 77 pornochanchadas, 2, 3, 4, 177n3, 182n13 fragility of, 80 disguised, 23 Index 211
intellectualized, 98 public sex, 17, 67, 68, 116–21, 129 luxurious, 98 bathhouse, 115 pornographic films, 87, 92, 98, 164, Brazilian law regarding, 118 177n8 in a car, 115 pornography, 12, 13, 164 contested territory, 115 see antipornography feminists dark and deserted alley, 115 porno-tropics, 154 new femme fatale and, 62 Africa and America as, 26 on public transport, 17, 98, 116 postfeminism, 13 risk of being caught, 116 as a contentious term, 13 sex in a cemetery, 90, 117 postfeminist discourse, 13, 14 sexual acts outdoors, 113 postfeminist era, 9, 12, 121, 122, 123, 133 punishment postfeminist period, 14 by death, 81 see postfeminist era male destruction, 162 potential slut, 91 symbolic killing of the male, 121–3 power inversion, 29, 30, 59 puppet, 77 Prado, Guilherme de Almeida, 149, purity, 77, 88, 109, 117, 154 154–64 puta comunista, 6 prisão, A, 183n9 prison, 57, 66, 72, 90, 146 race see WIP Brazil as a racial democracy, 40 private detectives, 103, 115 in Brazilian cinema, 22 procreation, 47, 102, 111, 114, 133, 138 Brazil’s racial project, 40 Production Code, 153 motivates evil, 22 1934 code, 176n16 noir’s minimum focus on, 22 of the 1940s (in the United States), 164 race relations, 40, 171 depiction of homosexuals and, 164 racial abject, 129 Proença, Maitê, 154 racial anxieties, 16 promiscuity, 22, 69, 99, 137 racial identity in Brazil, 39 prostitute (female), 16, 69, 180n18, racialised sexuality, 27 180n19 racism, 22, 39, 41, 44, 59 as a femme fatale, 9, 177n19 racist reactions, 39 as source of STDs, 9, 69, 106 racist theories, 179n11 prostitution, 90, 92 radical sex, 17, 119–20, 123, 172, 183n14 psycho-femmes, 133, 134 radical sexual practices, 17 psychologist, 101 Rainha Diaba, A, 71 public and private performances, 59 Ramos, Helena, 101, 125 public and the private spaces, 112–16 Ramos, Lázaro, 48 boundaries between, 112 rape, 34, 74, 77, 181n2, 182n11, 182n12 the city as a male territory, 115 gang-rape, 77 the home, 92, 104, 109, 119, 121, 175n2 as a “patriarchal tool,” 87 laws of consumption and desire, 114 as perversion, 181 private realm, 50 rape role-play, 182n11 private space, 50, 51, 59, 175n2 as sexual fantasy, 74, 85, 91 private sphere, 112 as titillation, 177n8 public domain, 50 victim of, 73, 77, 83, 144, 182n12 212 Index rape-revenge films, 8, 177n8, 183n9 sex radical, 119, 120, 121, 122 Rear Window, 158 see also radical sex reassertion of control, 123 sexploitation films, 2, 30, 108, 120, 176n6 Rede Globo, 52, 179n4, 181n5 educative aspect of, 138 redemocratization, 6 sexual advances, 36, 88, 109, 116 reiterations, 60 sexual and social subversions, 35 Renaissance European travelers, 26 sexual arrangements, 5 repellent body, 135 sexual autonomy, 111 respectable patriarchal housewife, 91 sexual danger, 21, 28 revenge, 8, 128, 135, 151, 152, sexual domination, 50, 131 184n8 sexual education, 180n19 revenge tragedy, 184n8 sexual experimentation, dominant rite of passage, 109 class’s, 77 Rocha, Glauber, 23, 177n4 sexual fluids, 106 Rodriguean female characters, 102 sexual frustration, 113 Rodrigues, Nelson, 74–8 sexual insecurity, 113 role inversion, 144 sexual objects, 12, 153 sexual playthings, 27, 38, 86, 103, 166 S/M (sadomasochism), 15, 35, 109, sexual power, 15, 26, 34, 42, 116 131, 164, 172 sexual practices, 5, 16, 64, 66, 70, 164 sadomasochistic desires, 79, 85 sexual predator, 106, 165 sadomasochistic fantasies, 34 sexual revolution, 5, 7, 110, 114, 134, sadism, 172 176n14 Salsa e merengue, 181n5 postsexual revolution, 75 samba, 180n16 sexual transgression, 39 same-sex relationship, 66 sexual violence, 74, 80, 176n6 Santos, João Francisco dos, 47, 71 sexualities and pleasures, perverse, Santos, Lucélia, 73 66–71 São Paulo’s Belas Artes, 155 sexuality Sartre, Jean-Paul, 144 as an active force, 153 satirical films, 40 commodified, 15 scapegoat, 8, 69 countercultural expressions, 70 Scheherazade, 58 domineering and castrating, 178n11 scopophilic object, 121 independence through, 153 scoundrels, 74, 99 in neo-noir film, 164 seductive objects, 140 against patriarchy, 153 sensuality and violence, 34 risks of, 70 serial killer, 70, 74 threatening, 38 sertão, 23 unrestrained, 82 sex sexy white femmes fatales, 21 without commitment, 110 Sganzerla, Rogério, 23 as dirty, 37, 64, 77, 85, 93, 129 shameless femme fatale, 122, 131 and family disorganization, 77 shot/reverse shot, 144 indoors, 113 as a common editing pattern, 35 and slavery, 31 Silva, Adalberto, 32 see procreation; public sex Silva, Chica da, 177n1 Index 213 single mother, 66, 180n18 Stone, Sharon, 175n1 Skidmore, Thomas E., 176n9, 177n5, striptease 180n11 aggressive, 32 skin color, 37, 42, 58 public, 109 as sign of inferiority, 39, 41 social inversion through, 41 Sloane, Everett, 150 Studio Code, 176n16 soap operas, 15, 52, 78, 179n4, 181n5 see Production Code social abject, 18, 135 subaltern condition, 38 see lesbian fatale subjectivities, 11, 12, 13, 14, 172, 173 social anxieties, 17, 69 submission, 31 social class lack of, 34 ascendance through marriage, 78 suburban middle class, 90 class boundaries, 91 Suburban Wives, 183n7 class exploitation, 73, 82, 90, 92 subversive warfare, 70 class status, 83, 90, 94 sucker-partners, 10, 121, 174 destabilization of, 88–95 suicide, 71, 133 modern bourgeois society’s super bitches, 184n5 ideology, 81 symbolic borders, 129 relations, 82 symbolic disavowal, 146 see under social class types symbolic order, 128, 135 social conventions, 55 syphilis, 9, 69, 70 social fetish, 105 the cure for, 69 social inversion, 24, 25, 31, 41 as a punishment for sexual social ladder, 94 deviants, 69 social morality, 177n23 social performance, 53 taboo, 3, 74, 76, 120, 126, 128 social pollution, 18, 64, 106, 107, 125 teacher, 80, 82 agent of, 109 textual eradication, 123 femme fatale’s “polluting status,” 109 the law of the father, 14 see Douglas theater audiences, 76 social relations, dichotomous, 67 theatrical and nontheatrical social uncleanliness, 129 domains, 54 socioeconomic power, 78 on and off stage, 55 Sofia e Anita, 127 theatrical conventions, 55 softcore heroines, 111, 112 theatrical realm, 55 softcore thrillers, 111, 184n2 Thelma and Louise, 184n3, 185n12 spicy tales, 26 thriller, 125, 126, 171, 185n1 STDs (sexually transmitted diseases), (conclusion) 9, 67, 68, 69 titillation, 3, 85, 126, 172, 183n8 stereotype, 1, 10, 132, 144 titillating behaviour, 114 of black men, 75 titillation device, 15 of black people, 40 Ti-ti-ti, 52, 181n5 blacks as sex machines, 172 traditional femme fatale, 1 of homosexuals, 49, 165 trail of smoke, 61, 156 of masculinity, 165 trans-genre possibilities, 154 sexist, 10 transgressive acts, 106, 116, 118 214 Index transgressive woman, 7 virginity, 7, 73, 76, 94 hypersexually active, 14 female, 88 into “unconventional” sex, 14 loss of, 77, 79, 90, 92, 93, 102 transnationality, 154, 155 virgines intactae, 78 of film noir and neo-noir, 18, 149, visual pleasure, 109, 114, 131 150, 155 visual style, 4, 34, 83, 114, 160 transnational characteristics, voiceover narration, 160 8, 174 key feature in films noirs, 150 transvestism, 29, 54 reliability of the narrator, 18, 159, 160 TV Globo unreliability of film noir’s narrator, see Rede Globo 159 voracious native woman, 27 udigrudi, 97 ultimate femme fatale, 1 wedding ring, 65, 146 ultra femme fatale, 1 Welles, Orson, 18, 149–64, undead, the, 148 185n3(chapter 6) underground cinema, 182n1 white culture’s fears, 38 universal archetype, 170 white married woman, 28 unreliable narrator, 151 as the “prudish” conformer, 32 unsafe sex, 16, 68 whiteness, 37, 39, 42, 178n17 urban space, 103, 115, 162 whitening project, 179n11 whore, 55, 79, 88, 180n19, 181n10 vagabunda, 88, 92 honest woman’s attraction to, 105 vagabundagem, 90 wife vagina dentata, 27–8 frigid, 113, 104 the myth of, 27 impossible, 104 vale dos amantes, O, 183n7 Wilker, José, 23, 78 vampire femme fatale, 117, 121 WIP (Women in Prison) Film, 3, vampirism, 116–18 177n8, 179n5, 183n8, 183n9 cross, 117 witch, 128 exorcism, 117 witchcraft, 128 gravestones, 117 witch-hunting, 128 mouth movements, 117 women representation of the vamp, 116 aggressive, 131, 136, 138, 140 supernatural being, 117 assertive and independent, 110 tropical reincarnation, 118 bad, 13, 17, 88, 97, 162, 172 vampire, 107, 116, 117, 118 black colonial, 28 Vespucci, Amerigo, 27 as castrated, 28 Victorian capitalist culture, 77 as castrators, 28 Victorian moralism, 70 as a constant threat, 75 Villaça, Paulo, 154 corrupted, 10 Vinícius, Marcus, 26 demonic, 138 Virgin Mary, 88, 104, 114 “deviant” and “loose,” 87 virgin/whore dichotomy as direita, 92 see dichotomy as eternal victims, 13 Index 215 exchange of, 78 as temptation, 136 good and bad, 17, 73, 88, 97, 162 traditional married, 65 as good and maternal, 13 women-plus-property, 78 good girls and wives, 15 women’s liberation, 99, 131 heterosexual Caucasian, 1 women of color, 22 honor of, 80 sexual contact with, 26 independent, 110, 130, 134 violent, 21 innocent marrying-type, 93 women’s agency, 13 liberated, 111 women’s subjectivity, 13 mediating role of, 113 working class, 75, 78, 81, 82, 90 nurturing, 104, 105 working-class girls, 77, 93 outcast, 137 working-class men, 79, 81, 101 to “pass,” or be seen as, 54 working-class women, 88, 94, 182n13 promiscuous, 102 World-cinema femmes fatales, 100 as sexualized threat, 75 sexually “dangerous,” 1 young femmes fatales, 73, 83, 87 subjugation of, 113 subversive sexualized, 104 Žižek, Slavoj, 9, 10, 87, 121