Female Perversions 1997
There is a scene early in ``Female Perversions'' where a prosecuting
attorney is summarizing her case in a courtroom. Her body language
indicates her aggressive intelligence: She uses abrupt, decisive
movements. Her language is crisp and definitive. As she talks, the
camera uses closeups to indicate what the judge and the male attorneys
are noticing: the neckline of the white blouse beneath her business
suit, the slit in her shirt, her high-heeled shoes.
Is this a
scene illustrating male chauvinist piggism? Not at all. The attorney is
precisely aware of the impression she is making. She is a gender warrior
who is fiercely ambitious (she's in line for a judgeship) and fiercely
competitive (she throws away a lipstick when she sees another woman
using the same shade). The woman, whose name is Eve (Tilda Swinton), is
rising in the legal world and succeeding at romance, too--she has a
relationship with an executive that involves twisted sex in his office
with the door unlocked.
All of these accomplishments are driving
her mad. And ``Female Perversions,'' uneven and sometimes infuriating,
is one of the most provocative films I've seen about the complications
of being female in the modern world. It opens with a quote by feminist
scholar Louise J. Kaplan, who says that the roles women are required to
play in our society are in themselves a form of perversion. Throughout
the movie we see graffiti scrawled on billboards and benches, saying
things such as, ``Perversion scenarios are about desperate need.'' They
are in Eve's case.
Sex for her is a form of hunger, and she is
less interested in the other person than in the sudden, savage
gratification of her needs (which include the need to dominate, to be
desired, to be admired). While continuing her relationship with the male
executive, she picks up a female psychiatrist (Karen Sillas) in an
elevator, and they become lovers, too--until the other woman calls it
off, saying she moved precisely to get out of ``this kind'' of a
relationship.
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