hello everyone and welcome to film 1701 Hollywood all the new I'm your course director Julianne Hough field and this week were continuing with our exploration of film noir and the neo noir thriller fatal attraction directed by Adrian Lyne in 1987 and starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close it was based on a screenplay written by James Deardon based on his own 1980 short film diversion which tells the story of a happily married man who while the wife is away has an affair with an attractive woman who wants more than just a one-night stand just look at you [Music] fatal attraction was hugely successful the highest-grossing film of that year and during six Oscar nominations for Best Picture director adapted screenplay film editing and best female actor for Glenn Close as well as Best Supporting female actor for an archer who plays the wife it was also generally well received critically but was also at the same time considered quite controversial on the one hand it's more or less familiar from noir plot particularly with the Alex character as the quintessential femme fatale echoed in the film's title fatal attraction who sets out to destroy the poor clueless Schmo who falls into her trap it's also a familiar cautionary tale about the perils of sexual promiscuity and marital infidelity however in the context of post feminism there was a familiar tale that was offensive to feminist critics who objected to the depiction of Alex as a psychopath for them this was another example of the way in which intelligent independent career women had long been demonized with in Hollywood and represented a step back from the supposed gains of the feminist and women's equality movements of the sixties and seventies while Alex is horrific Oliva laughs I'd and punished Dan gets off comparatively scot-free supposedly Alex's harassment of him and the endangerment of his family teach him a valuable lesson but in many ways he comes off looking like a victim rather than a sleaze who cheats on his wife and uses another woman for his own sexual gratification feminists also found it disturbing that the original role of Alex was changed to a much more negative character and the den shows little compassion for her suffering or any sense of responsibility the blame is pretty much laid at her door and there was objection to the ending of the film spoiler alert if you don't want to know stop here and come back after you've seen the film feminists agreed that the ending was over-the-top and that the confer could have been resolved in a number of different ways without the horrible violence that takes place instead of just ending the affair or handing her over to the authorities dan takes his revenge by destroying her as she had set out to destroy him and it's been argued that in many ways Alex invites this as part of her mental illness manifests itself in self-destructive behavior on the other hand is also been argued that in many ways this is just an excuse for the perpetuation of male abuse and violence toward women and in that sense that disturbingly echoes the bloody endings of so many horror films with Alex as the monstrous female who must be obliterated before our eyes so that we and Dan know for sure that it's finally over what's neo-noir this term is from the greek neo foreknew and the french noir for black and it refers to a new type of phone war that used elements of classical film war but then updated it updated the themes the narrative content the filming style the characters and the visual elements all of these are slightly changed to suit the contemporary context and the social mindset of the era in which the film is remade is neo noir the same as a revisionist film or or is it different a neo more foam tends to be more of an update but it's not necessarily questioned the values and ideals imparted in the classical film noir the way a revisionist film would in other words and Neil Moore is a new version of the film or the jar but not one that critically engages with the genre itself interrogating its ideology a revisionist film noir would be a film noir that not only updates the jar but subverts its conventions and systemics so as to interrogate or critique them using them in other words to make a new social or political statement one could argue the fatal attraction is both it is a neo noir through its reference to so many of the genres classic conventions including the urban setting the archetypes the mill drifter the femme fatale and the good girl on the sidelines it also refers to classic film noir social conflicts and the powerlessness of the lower or working classes in relation to the dominant structures and institutions of authority which clearly don't have the public's best interest at heart we also have the class mores deeply cynical and pessimistic view of the world in human nature and of course underpinning all of this is the classic form or Meisel sin that suggests through various cinematic techniques a dark and unbalanced universe the film also updates and modernized as several of the film or conventions to suit its 1980s context but as we will also discuss it critiques or interrogate the conventions and archetypes of classical phone waar in particular the representation of women and the femme fatale from the context of post feminism and in that sense fatal attraction is a revisionist film war as well updating is important for what make what may make sense or be familiar to audiences in the 40s or 50s may no longer be recognizable or relevant audiences in the 1980s and 90s film has to reflect current fashions hairstyles dacor ways of speaking expressions and the ways in which couples meet court also cultural values social behavioral norms and so on while still retaining nor touchstones so that the audience recognizes it as such and knows what to expect as well the social circumstances are updated so that the principal mood of paranoia makes sense in a more current context for example social conflict is translated into gender conflict between powerful men and oppressed women and correspondingly the social structures and institutions of authority are now squarely aligned with patriarchy at the same time certain views of women in a post feminist context would not fly as easily as they might have in the post-world War 2 era or at least would not pass without some serious objections from female critics and audience members and so the post-war misogyny which informed classical form or is critiqued and interrogated through its translation to the feminist backlash of the 1980s in the counter counterculture and the new wave of conservatism that followed the liberalism of the 60s and 70s