• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

THE FRUSTRATION OF THE ASH GIRL IN THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA: TRACES OF CARMEN IN A HOLLYWOOD FAIRY TALE Carmen Rodríguez Ramírez Universidad de Sevilla Resumen «La frustración de la Cenicienta en La condesa descalza: la huella de Carmen en un cuento de hadas hollywoodiense». La condesa descalza, que trata de la evolución personal de María Vargas, es una película transgresora, pues desmitifica el nacimiento de una diva, aunque tanto la representación de la sexualidad como la de la protagonista son tan conservadoras como en cualquier otra película convencional de estudio en Hollywood. El propósito de este artículo es realizar un estudio comparativo entre la película y una de sus mayores inspiraciones, la novela corta Carmen. Se puede considerar a María Vargas como una figura intermedia entre la pasividad de muchas heroínas de cuentos de hadas populares y el salvajismo de Carmen. María cree en las convenciones patriarcales, convirtiéndose en víctima de sus deseos. Por el contrario, Carmen resulta un agente activo que se aprovecha al máximo de la dimensión sexual a la que se la reduce, y la usa contra los hombres. Palabras clave: crítica de cine feminista, drama del mundo del espectáculo, deconstruc- ción, cuentos de hadas, Carmen. 37 Abstract The Barefoot Contessa, which tells of the personal evolution of María Vargas, is a transgressive film, since it demystifies the rise of a diva, though both the representation of sexuality and the female protagonist are as conservative as those in any other mainstream Hollywood studio film. This paper aims to complete a comparative study between the film and one of its defining inspirations, the novella Carmen. María Vargas can be understood as an in- termediate figure between the passivity of many popular fairy-tale heroines and Carmen’s savageness. After all, María believes in patriarchal conventions while longing for Prince Charming; that is why she becomes the victim of her own desires. On the contrary, taking full advantage of the sexual dimension she is reduced to, Carmen uses it against men. Keywords: feminist film criticism, show business drama, deconstruction, fairy tales, Carmen. REVISTA CLEPSYDRA, 14; 2015, PP. 37-51 PP. REVISTA CLEPSYDRA, 2015, 14; Revista Clepsydra, 14; noviembre 2015, pp. 37-51; ISSN: 1579-7902 The film The Barefoot Contessa(1954), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, tells of a Spanish gipsy woman called María Vargas, who naturally dances flamen- co in the dirt. She suddenly turns into a movie star, which involves becoming the object of desire of many men. Unexpectedly, she falls in love with an Italian count, though he turns out to be impotent. She cannot satisfy her sexual drive with her husband, but when the count learns that she is unfaithful to him, he kills both María and her lover. This film has been traditionally analyzed as a show business drama. The main feature of this subgenre is its subversion, in the sense that it aims to condemn the economic ambition of film industry. It portrays the other side of the silver screen, that is, the behind-the-scenes world of film industry. It usually adopts a critical tone on celebrities and executives. Classics such as Sunset Boulevard (1950) or All about Eve (1950) are usually categorized as show business dramas. Incidentally, the award-winning screenwriter and director of All about Eve was Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who also wrote and directed The Barefoot Contessa. In these films, Hollywood is not the dream factory, but a manipulative organization. Furthermore, The Barefoot Contessa has always functioned as a disen- chanted version of Cinderella becauseit tells the story of an overnight star who felt happier living in poverty and is finally murdered by Prince Charming. But even so, in this paper I defend that in terms of gender and female sexuality this film is not subversive at all. In order to identify and analyze the expectations produced by this subgenre regarding gender and sexuality, there is a literary referent in The Barefoot Contessa that adds a new dimension to the film discourse: the novella Carmen. Considering solid parallelisms, this novella written in 1847 by Prosper Mérimée turns out to 38 be more advanced than The Barefoot Contessa despite its misogyny because, in the end, woman is triumphant. Consequently, Carmen becomes an active agent in a society where women are destined to be passive1. She takes advantage of the sexual dimension she is reduced to and uses it against men2. On the contrary, María Vargas —the protagonist of The Barefoot Contessa— will only feel guilty about it3. In order to uncover the phallocentric ideology implicit in this film, my theoretical approach will be based on Feminist Film Criticism and Gender Studies. The plot of the film introduces and subverts certain fairy-tale motives. In particular, the ones developed in «Cinderella». Indeed, the ash girl, shoes or Prince Charming are present in Mankiewicz’s screenplay. In connection with this, the most REVISTA CLEPSYDRA, 14; 2015, PP. 37-51 PP. REVISTA CLEPSYDRA, 2015, 14; 1 Some obvious passages deal with the nerves he has: «vino a sentarse cerca de mí»; «tam- bién ella fumaba»; «los ojos tenían una expresión voluptuosa y feroz». P. Mérimée, Carmen, trans. L. López Jiménez and L.E. López Esteve, Madrid, Cátedra, 2003, pp. 120, 121, 124 (henceforth quoted as Carmen). 2 Ibidem, p. 154: «ya no te quiero. Toma, vete, ahí tienes un duro por el trabajo». 3 In fact, the protagonist is said to be based on Rita Hayworth, who was offered the part in the first place. A natural dancer in musicals, her career was reduced to sex symbol after starring in Gilda (1946). B.F. Dick, Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Ann Arbor: MI, Twayne Publishers, 1983, p. 107. popular fairy tales, those from the popular tradition (whose so-called oral origin is questioned by Ruth B. Bottigheimer due to written records)4, tend to present sub- missive female roles for the audience. In opposition to this trend, Angela Carter’s collection of fairy tales uncovers active heroines with unconventional happy end- ings that could be transformed depending on the audience’s taste: «stories without known originators that can be remade again and again by every person who tells them, the perennially refreshed entertainment of the poor»5. Still, honorable virtues are many times related to passivity, whereas power and independence are mostly condemned. For instance, in «Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs» the devoted servant is rewarded with the perfect man, whereas her stepmother is punished for her arrogance. Bottigheimer urges the audience «to see the strong heroine in context»6. The influence of fairy tales in our lives is tremendously significant: in our childhood we learn about ourselves and how we relate to others by means of these stories. In other words, we receive social conventions through fairy tales. Jack Zipes refers to Arthur Applebee to prove the role of fairy tales in «the manner in which children conceive the world and their places in it even before they begin to read»7. As a matter of fact, the collections of feminist tales are a direct product of women’s social progress; they look into other options, certifying their validity. Finally, Donald Haase reveals the absence of a female prototype in these heroines of «women-centered tales»8. The literary myth of Cinderella, whose Disney version was released in 1949, that is, five years before The Barefoot Contessa came out, is so immersed in the conception of female gender that there is a term called the Cinderella complex, coined by Colette Dowling9. This term deals with the repression that stops women from using full advantage of their ideas and projects in favor of an external factor that will change their lives for the better. This attitude implies that a woman needs 39 to wait for a man to form her identity. Even Simone de Beauvoir alluded to the Cinderella myth: «Everything still encourages the girl to expect fortune and hap- piness from a ‘Prince Charming’ instead of attempting the difficult and uncertain conquest alone». According to Rob Baum, «a sense of female agency will always by definition be absent. In this folk tale, which is also a fairy-tale, the female character 4 R.B. Botigheimer. Fairy Tales. A New History. Albany: State University of New York P, 2009, p. 2. 5 A. Carter (ed.). Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales. London: Virago, 2005, p. ix. 6 R.B. Bottigheimer. «Fairy tales and children’s literature: A feminist perspective», in 37-51 PP. REVISTA CLEPSYDRA, 2015, 14; G.E. Sadler (ed.), Teaching Children’s Literature: Issues, Pedagogy, Resources. New York: MLA, 1992, pp. 101-108, p. 106. 7 J. Zipes. Don’t Bet on the Prince. Contemporary Feminist Fairy Tales in North America and England. New York: Routledge, 2012, p. xii. 8 D. Haase. «Feminist Fairy-Tale Scholarship», in D. Haase (ed.), Fairy Tales and Feminism: New Approaches. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 2004, pp. 1-36, p. 8. 9 C. Dowling. The Cinderella Complex: Women’s Hidden Fear of Independence. London: Fontana, 1982. is positioned in terms of what it is not: not dominant, not powerful, not male»10. Therefore, Cinderella represents invisibility, the absence of an independent identi- ty. Like fairy tales, mainstream cinema exposes social power structures in which women need to transcend the role traditionally assigned to their bodies in order to achieve universal acceptance. In other words, women’s bodies are initially marked. In opposition to Cinderella and many other heroines, Carmen constitutes the best example of the female protagonist whose features are those of a villain: unreliable, disobedient, unfaithful, impolite, sexual, and exuberant. For instance, Don José behaves like a puppet in her hands11.

Load more

  16

Copy Link