Michelle ELooking for Alibrandi & The Ladies of Australian Suburban Cinema
June 1st 2009 08:12
The women of Australian cinema are a complex and emotional lot. As the subject of this week’s readings, they are an important impetus in the plot of many an Aussie flick. One of the more famous suburban-set offerings is ‘Looking For Alibrandi’ (2000, Dir. Kate Woods). \
Some of the more prominent filmic incarnations of the fairer sex include the classic archetypal ‘fallen woman’ and ‘the spectator’. This film’s drama uses both, relying almost entirely upon the lives of three generations of Italian women, the Alibrandis, to drive the plot.
Firstly, the fallen woman, or she who has fallen from grace, features prevalently in the film. According to Nona, all three Alibrandi women are cursed, and all three have had connections to men that have left them unhappy and in some cases, shamed. This isolates them from their culture, as Josie observes during ‘tomato day’, and has resulted in them living unfulfilled lives. The curse is a symbolic tool used to represent how, as ‘fallen women’ they are suffering the consequences of social incorrectness, i.e. Josie punching Carlie, Nona’s affair.
Secondly, the spectator woman, or she who can’t take control, is used to much effect through characterisation in the film. Nona is perhaps the best example, having lived a lifetime married to a man who ‘treated her like a farm animal’, and being in love with another. She exemplifies the end result of the stereotype, alone and bitter. Christina Alibrandi seems to be heading the same way, clearly still in love with Josie’s father, but refusing to do anything about it. Josie is their antithesis, though, proclaiming that she will be ‘the first Alibrandi woman to have a say in how her life turns out’. She receives a personal saint from school, a symbolic hint that she may indeed rise above her present circumstance and reject mundanity. These characters move us and give the plot fuel for development and suspense.
Looking for Alibrandi is an excellent movie, and doesn’t just make use of only the aforementioned female images. It does well in showing viewers that there is a wide spectrum of female characters to be found in Aussie film.
Some of the more prominent filmic incarnations of the fairer sex include the classic archetypal ‘fallen woman’ and ‘the spectator’. This film’s drama uses both, relying almost entirely upon the lives of three generations of Italian women, the Alibrandis, to drive the plot.
Firstly, the fallen woman, or she who has fallen from grace, features prevalently in the film. According to Nona, all three Alibrandi women are cursed, and all three have had connections to men that have left them unhappy and in some cases, shamed. This isolates them from their culture, as Josie observes during ‘tomato day’, and has resulted in them living unfulfilled lives. The curse is a symbolic tool used to represent how, as ‘fallen women’ they are suffering the consequences of social incorrectness, i.e. Josie punching Carlie, Nona’s affair.
Secondly, the spectator woman, or she who can’t take control, is used to much effect through characterisation in the film. Nona is perhaps the best example, having lived a lifetime married to a man who ‘treated her like a farm animal’, and being in love with another. She exemplifies the end result of the stereotype, alone and bitter. Christina Alibrandi seems to be heading the same way, clearly still in love with Josie’s father, but refusing to do anything about it. Josie is their antithesis, though, proclaiming that she will be ‘the first Alibrandi woman to have a say in how her life turns out’. She receives a personal saint from school, a symbolic hint that she may indeed rise above her present circumstance and reject mundanity. These characters move us and give the plot fuel for development and suspense.
Looking for Alibrandi is an excellent movie, and doesn’t just make use of only the aforementioned female images. It does well in showing viewers that there is a wide spectrum of female characters to be found in Aussie film.
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