I have also decided to explore Orlando for Unit 2 because I found the movie very unique and almost disturbing.
Because I felt uncomfortable throughout the entire movie I wanted to focus on a technique the movie used that I feel added to the uncomfortableness; the actors' makeup and hair.
First off, the main character Orlando seems to have a completely flawless complexion (a lot of foundation possibly?), but absolutely no other makeup. The eye lashes are not done up, there is no lipstick, no eye shadow. The hair is always long but sometimes down, sometimes pulled back, and often in some crazy over-done wig. How do these traits make Orlando seem sexless (which makes me feel uncomfortable)?
Next, the queen at the beginning of the film is a man. But the make-up is extremely overdone with, and yet again another wig. The fact that the queen can be made to look like a women even though he is a man makes me feel uncomfortable.
Do you think it is weirder for a women (actor of Orlando) to be made into a man or a man to a women (the queen actor)? How does this define the limits of our society in how make up and hair displays a person's gender?
And last, if you felt uncomfortable from these scenes like I did, why do you think we felt that way? And if you didn't, how did you feel differently and why?
I definitely agree with the uncomfortable vibe that is omitted from this film. I think that the fact that I don't know how to interpret the meaning behind this film adds to the difficulty. I don't know if it is weirder for a women to be made into a man or vice versa. I think that it is more dependent on how the actor/actress presents them self. That question actually made me wonder how the film would have been different if Orlando was a man.
ReplyDeleteI actually never really looked at the film from a makeup and hair perspective, but now that you mention it I find it very interesting that it played such a role in this film. I think that these two elements of society or clearly being omitted. Maybe the film is trying to tell us how much hair and makeup can change the way people are perceived?
Up until the point that Orlando switched from man to woman, I was not completely sure that "he" was being played by a woman. However, I remember thinking that he did have a lot of typical female characteristics and was left guessing up until the point of the sex change. When this did happen I feel like I was almost relieved! I felt more like the manurisms that Orlando portrayed fit better with "his" female body. This just goes to show that we do seem to feel more comfortable when these roles are played the way society expects them to.
ReplyDeleteI think that is more unusual for a male actor to be made into a woman than for a female actress to be made into a man. After thinking about why I feel this way, I think it is only because of the way society portrays men and women and because of the stereotypes associated with men and women. Men are supposed to be extremely "manly" and tough and not at all in touch with their emotions. Because of these views, how could a man be expected to play a woman? A woman is so in touch with her emotions and therefore able to understand how and what she is feeling, but few men are able to do that. But because a woman understand almost all spectrums of various emotions, she can certainly play the role of a man who feels very few emotions.
ReplyDeleteI did feel uncomfortable when Orlando suddenly became a woman, but not as uncomfortable as I felt when I realized that the queen was played a woman. I felt from the beginning of the film that Orlando should have been a women and played the role of a woman better than the role of a man. If the queen had a larger role in the movie I think I would have been so focused on the fact that a man was playing a woman and it would have distracted me from the rest of the film. Perhaps a man viewing the film would have felt differently? I do think the director had a man play the role of the queen so that her audience would consider a man playing a woman vs. a woman playing a man and what that means.
As we discussed in class and the rest of the group has discussed above, we are uncomfortable with certain scenes or aspects of the film because these stereotypes and scripts are engrained in us. We have trouble when we cannot label or place something. I wonder how we would feel, if at all different, if Orlando was played by a man and then turned into a woman? Does your own gender/sexual preference change how you view these things?
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