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Show THE Wednesday, October 12, 1977 Page 8 Women9 s Changing Role In Film Discussed .lanrl Gilchrist Last week's 1977 Women's Conference held at the University of Utah witnessed a distinct change in mood over last year's gathering as this year's women came down off their soapboxes and brought out their easels. 'Women Art 77" featured lectures and performances in dance, theatre, literature, music and the visual arts. A Thursday afternoon workshop given by Sharon Swenson, Phd. in English, working on her dissertation in film and a film critic for Utah Holiday Magazine, focused on women and their changing role in film. Swenson began by citing the positive image of womanhood portrayed by Kerry Fisher in the latest box office extravaganza "Star Wars." "Looking at American movies is revealing," declared Swenson, "They are, if artfully constructed, a reflection of life you'll find anywhere." "Star Wars," Swenson explained, ex-plained, is a movie of universal impulses with good triumphing over evil, the theme of initiation-depicted initiation-depicted by the prince's undergoing un-dergoing of his rites of passage into the adult realm and a view of "the scum of a thousand earths" portrayed in the vivid Marakesh bar scene. Actress Fisher, she points out, plays not a passive, helpless woman but an intelligent in-telligent female who is capable not only of putting me in line when need be, but also of being admired as a woman almost in the Medieval sense. She sends her warriors out to battle with her scarves and awards the honors for their victories. vic-tories. ..."Thistis a refreshing film for those of us who survived the '60s and even more difficult dif-ficult '70s, said Swenson. OLD PARK CITY IN A NEW SUBDIVISION Prospector Park NOW FOR SALE Commercial, Condominiums, Residential, Lots "The woman is finally shown in a very positive light." She cited Diane Keaton's picture on a recent cover of Time for her role in "Meeting Mr. Goodbar" and Jane Fonda on Newsweek's cover for her portrayal of playwright Lillian Hellman in the movie "Julia" as proof of the woman's ever increasing in-creasing importance in the film industry. Women in the recent past, noted Swenson, have been portrayed as victims. They are either raped, beaten up or thrown out by their boyfriends and if they are not helpless or subservient enough, they are shown as bitchy or mean to achieve their effect. "When you go to the movies," she said, "you are, in effect, buying dreams, but you must not forget that there are elements of reality in your dreams. In dream therapy you work to program yourself to dream positively-you work on the assertiveness of the subconscious." subcon-scious." Yet, until recently, women movie-goers have identified with the most admirable character in a film who was, nine times out of ten, a male. Getting up on the soapbox for a moment, Swenson pointed out that the movie "Klute" was named after the male detective in the film rather than the key figure, prostitute Bree Daniels. Ironically, Bree is an intellectual in-tellectual woman punishing men by not becoming involved. in-volved. She is the manipulator. At this point, Swenson moved to the comfort of her Carousel slide projector and flashed decade upon decade of female screen stars in their feature roles and broke these roles into groups of recurring stereotypes. She began with the "child-woman" "child-woman" group of the early William Henry Harrison I'llll fiM-sltli' living Willi niiiifrrn i nm rllM'IH rs, llr.jWui r. 1 drill i n mis, ((ill (mills. Iifi -lii'il plus H liiu minis mum iiisfiurs In limsli us uhi ii'sirr. Ill flu- still' inu'il i')ivl tri if ti mind nt' U iIImiiii (In iilii'in). Ini' in the Misl 1 ili rvrry iihmciii hiih.IiiH-iii hiih.IiiH-iii tin- William Hunrv Harrison. The Capturing of Old Park 20th century which highlights the concept of the innocent woman, the link to virginity, the child in an adult world, often accompanied accom-panied by a male whom she overshadows intellectually. She flashed Lesslie Carone in "Gigi," Shirely Temple, Mary Pickford, Lillian Geish and the modern day Tatum O'Neal and Jody Foster. The child-woman was teachable and not threatening but merely on the brink of puberty. "In early film the 'father of filmmaking,' D.W. Griffith, Grif-fith, did not present women in films at all except for a mulatto here and there who talked men into killing or burning crosses," interjected interjec-ted Swenson. At the other end of the spectrum of stereotypes, she flashed the familiar shot of . -it MGf Vfc. JPiilililSSill Vrftf Kathy Morris, the only Park City woman to be J Ik. L.' ;,.,Ktll A ri Puntpr'C r "Utah exniuiieu in mc nu" ' v v " " . r Woman Art '77" display held in conjunction with the U. of U.'s 1977 Women's Conference. City in a new Subdivision Sold exclusively by lusty Racquel Welch in "One Million Years B.C." and discusses the role of sexuality in films from the voracious animalistic icons like Welch to Elizabeth Taylor with her sense of the more mature sex object with a personal life adding to the screen charisma. Between the child-woman image and the sex object Swenson placed the sex-innoncence-the "I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm doing it well" image embodied by Marilyn Monroe. Lauren Bacall and Katherine Hepburn were cited as examples of women breaking away early in film from the home-hugging stereotype. Bacall shows,... here assertiveness in a familiar line, "If you want me whistle. You can whistle, can't you?" Hepburn in . (Hands "African Queen" is strong and independent and helps Bogart open and reform. "The late "40s." noted Swenson, "brought on the Joan Crawford square-shouldered square-shouldered businesswoman look. Men were away at war and women were forced into new roles." . "When the war was over," she continued, "they returned retur-ned a bit insecure. Were their women faithful? How-would How-would they adjust to their wives in business positions?" The post-war films, thus, portrayed manish women who were "Successful in the office but only by becoming castrating bitches" or who were unfaithful and punished by the loss of a child or the death of a lover or husband. Then there was the "Mrs. Robinson School of Older Women" ("Summer of '42". "The Graduate,", etc.); the "It Girls" with the "you and I can have some fun" attitudes at-titudes (Clara Bow and Mae West); the images of suffering suf-fering womanhood, the mother keeping it going, (The Dame Edith Evans'); and the enigmatic, sexy, yet wholesome, southern belles. "I feel the important thing about viewing the role of women in films," Swenson summed up, " is that you are aware of what you're get-ting-of the messages presented and the possibilities for yourself and other women." "Films are showing women in new ways. We can go to a movie and be forced to see the world in a way in .,. which we've never seen it," ISSBSded. 'iffilm- alterriativeii)6ints-of-view, J jet's invest the money Thof'c u;hDt lihoi-otintl'c all That's what liberating's all about!" GRAND OPENING Saturday, October 15, 1977 We will be featuring our famous j Country Fried Chicken, along with j Sandwiches, Shrimp and other ! foods to suit your appetite. - Input On Trans. Sought Residents of Summit and Wasatch Counties will soon have a chance to provide their ideas on long range transportation plans for their area. The Utah Transportation Tran-sportation Commission will hold a state transportation planning meeting for these counties Thursday, October 20, in the South Summit High School auditorium, in Kamas. The meeting will start at 7:30 p.m. The Utah Transportation Commission holds these planning meetings annually in each of the state's multi-county multi-county planning districts. Future transportation plans and current projects are explained. ex-plained. The meetings are then opened for public comments, com-ments, and transportation officials sit back and listen carefully to community suggestions and complaints. James E. Johnston, UDOT Community Involvement Officer, Of-ficer, said, "These meetings have been a very effective tool for us. When we started the planning meetings four years ago, we had some question as to how useful they would be. We've found that we can get a much better bet-ter understanding of community com-munity needs and preferences preferen-ces from the comments received. "I think the meetings are also helpful for the public. Citizens can easily take part in what is otherwise a very complicated process. We hope as people realize how important these meetings are to the UDOT and the public, we will see greater attendance and participation." par-ticipation." Existing and future highway high-way plans, airports and rail transportation will be 1,f.niir.i.fu4 " f V w ' 'il I 1 H C- . ,. l- uisir)OU uireciorsi wniam D. Hurley,' Salt Lake City, and Jim West, Orem, will be present to answer questions and discuss local problems. WIN YOUR HOLIDAY TURKEY! One free drawing ticket with each good dollar purchase made on October 15. Good towards prize drawing to be held that evening. HOURS OF OPERATION: 10 A.M. to 9 P.M. 1 P.M. to 9 P.M. Monday through Saturday Sunday Chamber Made Submitted By The Park City Chamber Of Commerce Tom Pillsbury, a student Commercial Recreation in at the University of Utah, will work for the Chamber of Commerce as an intern during fall quarter of this year. The Division of Leisure Studies at the U of U requires that students work in a recreation related field for a minimum of 109 hours per quarter. Each student can seek out his own work area subject to approval from his supervising professor. Tom's first asignment will be to assist in updating Park City inventory (business and service listings) for winter information. Following this he will have an opportunity to work with some commercial commer-cial recreation programs in Park City such as the Racquet Club, Park City Ski Club, Ski Corp., etc. Dr. Taylor Ellis of the Division of Leisure Studies has indicated an interest in directing interns our way each quarter, since our area provides a variety of commercial com-mercial recreation activities. ac-tivities. Central Reservations will also be working with an intern in-tern this quarter. Chet Schneider will do an analysis of last year's ski customer who booked through Central Reservations, and a follow- ... . - . . i , . ...... J . a 1 ' h M.p--iu.3. rr vations for this vea This study will help in designing Commerce, both long and short range , supporf tourism by par-advertising par-advertising to attract skiers ficiDatine actively in this to Park Citv. Spring Chicken Inn Take-Out Tourist Oriented Highway Advertising It has come to the attention atten-tion of the Park City Chamber Cham-ber of Commerce that a revised version of House Bill 111, a bill relating to construction con-struction and maintenance of tourist oriented highway advertising along the freeway, will be reintroduced rein-troduced in the 1978 budget session of, the Utah Legislature. t Currently, tourist industry persons, including in-cluding area Chambers of Commerce, are in favor of the bill's reintroduction but request that the revisions be those of the Utah Tourist Organization, rather than ' tne Utah Department of , transportation,, revision. We would like to make you aware that both proposed rules and regulations and Utah Dept. of Transportation Transpor-tation proposed rules and regulations are available at the Chamber of Commerce for your convenience, and to encourage any business in Park City community to write letters to Governor Matheson supporting the Utah Tourist Organization's revised version of House Bill 111 and to members of the Utah Transportation Committee Com-mittee urging they not adopt the Utah Dept., of Transportation's Transpor-tation's version of House Bill 111 but instead adopt rules and regulations proposed by thejpurist Industry. rabies oi letter tvtifcs are . , most important issue. 405 Main St. 649-9304 REAL ESTATE SALE Western Woo MT. AIR MALL |