What is the concept of feminist films? What is the difference between women's films and feminist films?

Feminist film theory: An important aspect of feminism or (feminist) thought in the field of film theory and criticism. Feminism here. Mainly refers to the new feminism that emerged in Europe and the United States in the late 1960s. Broadly speaking, feminism is a worldwide ideological movement, and its early struggles were mainly limited to demands for equality in the three aspects of politics, economics and occupation. After the May 1968 storm in France, the fourth demand, the demand for gender equality, became the main demand. This divides the two stages of European and American literary criticism, namely the female aesthetics stage and the gender aesthetics stage. The former adopts an "androgynous aesthetics" towards women's writings, which is actually a single-sex/male aesthetics point of view, denying the creative consciousness and originality of female literature. The latter develops from the analysis of the image of women in this article to the analysis of gender representation in this article, and thus enters into the post-structuralist analysis that questions the subject of language and the nature of representation. By the end of the 1980s, it was mainly focused on comparative research on gender differences. In 1973, American scholar Laura Mulvey submitted the thesis "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" to the University of Wisconsin Law Department, which was considered an important document in feminist film theory. American scholar Andrew praised the article for "clearly and powerfully connecting the two fields of psychoanalysis and film stylistics." In the article, she relentlessly reveals the essence of masculinist aesthetics in Hollywood films. In 1981, she submitted a paper titled "Reflections on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Film" when she attended a seminar on film and psychological analysis in New York, USA. The starting point of this article is generally consistent with the development stage of narrative film criticism: that is, the focus on gender differences. In the article, in addition to continuing to adhere to the original point of view, she also proposed two other lines of thinking: the nature of the pleasure of female viewers and the impact of the female character at the center of the narrative on identity.

Feminist Films

For more than ten years from the late 1970s to the 1980s, a feminist film trend emerged in the American film industry, and many outstanding actresses also appeared during this period. He has left many popular works: such as "Julia" starring Vanessa and Jane Fonda (describing the life story of the anti-Nazi heroine), Sally Field's "Inside the Heart" (describing the life story of a strong rural woman) Story), Jessica Lange's "Frances" (a tragic story about a character actress fighting against Hollywood), etc. The main reason for this trend is the feminist trend of thought and the women's liberation movement that became popular in the United States in the 1970s. On the other hand, it is also thanks to this group of outstanding actresses who are no longer satisfied with being screen vases and are willing to Challenging complex and deep female characters, of course, also gives us the honor to experience the fruitful results of their painstaking efforts. In the 1990s, this trend was replaced by many action movies with muscular stars and the technological wonders of computer animation, making us even more unforgettable about the beauty of that era.

What should a women’s film be? It's hard to define, because it's still in development. If defined in a narrow sense, it would be: movies that interpret issues about women from a female perspective. And a broad definition: films shot by female directors are not necessarily films about women's issues, or films shot by male directors, but films that explore women's activities and themes. Some directors are good at portraying female characters and female passions. The difference between this and men's expressions of passion is: they explore the soul rather than just actions; the description of the flow of passion rather than the depiction of the female body by the camera; the search for identity and recognition, Relatives and good friends may be violated by private family scandals, confessions, and honest disclosures, so it also includes communication before and after the incident. Other works include issues of gender, homosexuality, and cross-dressing. Of course, feminist films still use women as their protagonists, describing stories about these women struggling to gain dignity in life under the oppression of patriarchy and the times. The female characters depicted are not intended to praise the good wives and mothers of the old era. It further consolidates the patriarchal education; on the contrary, it describes more arrogant and unruly "bad women" who were not even tolerated at the time. Their unique behavior is not only commendable for their courage, but also subverts gender stereotypes. , and the liberation of gender oppression are even more thought-provoking.