Cambridge Scholars Publishing, $79.99
By Virginia Apperson and John Beebe
Finally, a book that goes beyond assessing the stereotypical image of women in film, delving into the more meaningful waters of the neglected feminine side of the central masculine-feminine polarity. In this regard, feminine does not just belong to women, she is part of a much larger human struggle for balance which continues to lurk in the background of patriarchal awareness – and film.
John Beebe has been lecturing, writing and publishing on film for the past quarter century and Virginia Apperson is a Zurich-trained Jungian analyst who specializes in feminine psychology. Together, these two authors have joined forces to temporarily shade the solar brilliance of the masculine at center stage, to reveal the feminine’s less revered and often overlooked value. They give readers an opportunity to notice her presence and importance.
The book doesn’t pretend to encapsulate every single nuance of the feminine. More like a watercolour painting, with broad, flowing brush-strokes it lays out many significant ways that she can emerge. The structure unfolds in an elusive feminine manner as opposed to a more definable or masculine trajectory. Bite-sized chapters offer readers a series of meditations on an eclectic array of films such as Marnie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Schindler’s List, Brokeback Mountain Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Wide Sargasso Sea, Notorious, and Chocolat to name just a few.
The book’s contents generally oscillate between the authors’ views of different films, with the exception of a guest essay by Jane Alexander Stewart, offering a glimpse of the feminine hero in The Silence of the Lambs. There are also two instances where tandem essays by Beebe and Apperson are juxtaposed; Mira Nair’s 2001 film; Monsoon Wedding, and Max Ophuls’ 1948 film; Letter From An Unknown Woman, a particularly compelling read.
Each essay offers new insight into present or absent feminine qualities, tempting readers to see cited films again with new eyes. Now we can recognize the limited anima when she appears. We can witness the consequences of the lack of a strong mother. Last but not least, we can see how the values of relationship, partnership and empathic nurturing can and do have the power to heal the human psyche.
As noted in the book, the feminine’s difficulty competing with the masculine is a theme in the unconscious that Jungian analysts are encountering with alarming frequency in their work with dreams. The idea that our creative psyches have the ability to effectively mobilize the stagnant parts of our lives is significant. The notion that movies can nudge us forward as humans on the road to psychological growth and transformation is momentous. As stated by Apperson, “The screen bears witness to the feminine in ways that are impossible to refute. And our lives are better for it.”
By Sheila Reesor
Reveiw published at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca