EDITED MAY 7, 2012 TO ADD: Looks like the video has been made private. What a pity!
when you wish upon a star from Cams Compsers on Vimeo.
While ritually Googling "marlene dietrich," I spotted a Carleton College Cinema & Media Studies (a.k.a. film school) events page, which literally highlighted Anna Swanson's presentation about herself, Lady Gaga, and Marlene Dietrich. I immediately thought, "Well, I want to watch it," and easily found it online, as you see above. It's more than a presentation, as the events page describes it. Swanson identifies it as "an experimental, historically re-interpretive, non-narrative, quasi-documentary piece on gender performativity and the construction of the female star." To me, it's a short film that cleverly splices audio and video of its subjects to address gender performativity and performance. Oh, and Swanson sounds a lot like My So-Called Life's Angela Chase, too!
When Swanson epiphanizes, "Marlene Dietrich may not be what I want her to be the way Lady Gaga is," and then cuts to Dietrich (as Mrs. Bertholt in Judgment of Nuremberg, a detail that I perhaps shouldn't bother to mention because it isn't relevant to Swanson's narrative) stating, "That's why it's so ironic," I can't help but wish that all the folks who ever professed that Dietrich was their feminist icon would watch Swanson's piece! Indeed, it is ironic because Dietrich's gendered performances have been so much more visibly striking overall than Lady Gaga's, whose only stand-out act was as Jo Calderone, yet we only know of Dietrich's vehemently anti-feminist ideology in Maximilian Schell's documentary Marlene, whereas Gaga has publicly spoken about feminist causes such as rising rates of HIV infection among women and self-identifies as a feminist.
There is, however, one caveat to this. As Swanson said, she is exploring Gaga and Dietrich's embodied self-expressions. Well, Dietrich's rant about women's lib was disembodied and perhaps intoxicated self-expression. What do we make of that? I feel as ambivalent--and possibly as naked--as Swanson does at the end of her short film. I don't feel uncomfortable, though! If Noel Coward could compare Dietrich to Helen of Troy, I have no qualms about comparing Dietrich to Lady Gaga and whoever else hits the scene years from now. I encourage the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table.
when you wish upon a star from Cams Compsers on Vimeo.
While ritually Googling "marlene dietrich," I spotted a Carleton College Cinema & Media Studies (a.k.a. film school) events page, which literally highlighted Anna Swanson's presentation about herself, Lady Gaga, and Marlene Dietrich. I immediately thought, "Well, I want to watch it," and easily found it online, as you see above. It's more than a presentation, as the events page describes it. Swanson identifies it as "an experimental, historically re-interpretive, non-narrative, quasi-documentary piece on gender performativity and the construction of the female star." To me, it's a short film that cleverly splices audio and video of its subjects to address gender performativity and performance. Oh, and Swanson sounds a lot like My So-Called Life's Angela Chase, too!
When Swanson epiphanizes, "Marlene Dietrich may not be what I want her to be the way Lady Gaga is," and then cuts to Dietrich (as Mrs. Bertholt in Judgment of Nuremberg, a detail that I perhaps shouldn't bother to mention because it isn't relevant to Swanson's narrative) stating, "That's why it's so ironic," I can't help but wish that all the folks who ever professed that Dietrich was their feminist icon would watch Swanson's piece! Indeed, it is ironic because Dietrich's gendered performances have been so much more visibly striking overall than Lady Gaga's, whose only stand-out act was as Jo Calderone, yet we only know of Dietrich's vehemently anti-feminist ideology in Maximilian Schell's documentary Marlene, whereas Gaga has publicly spoken about feminist causes such as rising rates of HIV infection among women and self-identifies as a feminist.
There is, however, one caveat to this. As Swanson said, she is exploring Gaga and Dietrich's embodied self-expressions. Well, Dietrich's rant about women's lib was disembodied and perhaps intoxicated self-expression. What do we make of that? I feel as ambivalent--and possibly as naked--as Swanson does at the end of her short film. I don't feel uncomfortable, though! If Noel Coward could compare Dietrich to Helen of Troy, I have no qualms about comparing Dietrich to Lady Gaga and whoever else hits the scene years from now. I encourage the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table.
Marlene was ahead of its time in every respect. The male, female and transgender deserve a detailed study on Dietrich. Lady Gaga, Madonna new list and suction of the above she knows how to use their cards, but in my opinion she does not add anything; Madonna had the merit of bringing something new, it was a girl more fractious and ambivalent. In the gestures, the clothes, the poses of the Madonnas-Gagas are elegant and sensual ways of our Marlene. Marlene Feminist ¿? Of course, Marlene was that and much more ... Thanks for your blog my friend.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, Miguel! So you think Marlene was feminist? I don't. About 30 minutes into the Marlene documentary, she said she was opposed to women's liberation--attributing women's frustration to penis envy--and she made those comments about women's brains weighing half as much as men's.
DeleteShe also says, "They're [women] not like men, right? Because if they were like men, they would have [been] born like men. So they're women. Stay women! And be happy with it, right?" When Swanson said that she thought identity is self-determined, she was arguing against Dietrich's opinion that we are who we are from birth, which is also an anti-transgender stance.
Nevertheless, Marlene played a lot of roles and presented many images that we can take to empower ourselves, whether we're women, transgender, men, etc. Personally, I don't look to Marlene for empowerment anymore. In fact, Dietrich always defied being what I'd wanted her to be, which keeps me interested. If she weren't so aloof, I'd probably be bored of her by now and move on to someone or something else. In fact, I find Lady Gaga terribly dull because she makes herself so accessible. When Madonna called "Born This Way" reductive, I agreed. Lady Gaga is very easy to figure out.
Hello, I meant "feminist" in the sense that she always did what he felt like it without subject to any man (or any woman). I do not speak of it as a feminist in the sense to speak. Marlene was very much a woman, very feminine and above all a person who said and did what he wanted and perhaps all women today are looking for that. Can you be more feminist to do, act and go through life freely?
DeleteMiguel, I agree that Marlene was a powerful woman and could be an empowering role model for lots of women. Personally, I would value more what Marlene did throughout her lifetime than what she said toward the end of it.
DeleteAgreed, one must remember MD's age at the time of 'Marlene', the younger MD might have said something completely different.
ReplyDeleteYeah, in that documentary, Dietrich seems to take a contrarian stance solely to make Schell sweat. It's hard to believe anything she says because she also feigned ignorance of politics, which the Rivas quashed in 2005 by telling the press that Dietrich called political figures in attempt to free Gorbachev during his 1991 house arrest.
DeleteI do believe that a lot of what Marlene said in that documentary, much as I did in fact find it illuminating and fascinating, must be taken with a grain of salt. While she was ahead of her time, Marlene comes from a very different time and before her Weimar period was raised with very traditional gender roles. I think our childhood tends to resurface in our old age, I think there were a lot of times during those interviews where she wanted to be contrary, and I don't think she had the same understanding of what the feminist movement is about than you or I might have. I, for one, do not see feminism as about trying to be male!
ReplyDeleteSo, I think the thing to do is look past her life. She was a woman who lived on her own terms, who respected and encouraged other women to do so. She was very in touch with both sides of the genderline, was close to many people who blurred those lines, and was famous for blurring them herself. She took whoever she wanted as a lover, regardless of their sex or where they were from. She was ultimately in charge of her legend and career. She can deny it if she wants(from the grave), but I call that a feminist life.
Marlene était féministe dans sa vie, ses amours, sa façon de se comporter. Elle n'était pas militante et détestait les féministes qui brûlaient leur soutien-gorge en public...
ReplyDeleteEn fait, Marlene ne se posait pas de question, elle était dans l'action. Est-il bien de tomber amoureuse de sa tante ? Sa conscience ne la tourmente jamais, d'après ses journeaux intimes. Elle considère toujours que ce qu'elle veut est bon.
Proverbe français : "Quand le Diable est vieux, il se fait ermite". Dans les années 80, Marlene avait changé. Elle donnait une grande importance aux conventions sociales. Dans ses interviews vendues aux journaux, elle demandait à son entourage ce qu'elle "devait" répondre. Elle essayait de polir sa légende, d'en donner la version officielle. Si l'épisode de l'alliance neuve est vraie (récit de Maria), nous voyons que Marlene voulait donner d'elle une image "traditionnelle", plus "bourgeoise". Elle se plaignait d'avoir trop joué les "filles de mauvaise vie".