The Eve Made from the Rib of Female Spectators: The Construction of Rudolph Valentino’s Effeminate Screen Characters Under the Female Gaze—Case Studies of Three Films Starring Rudolph Valentino in 1921
Main Article Content
Keywords
Rudolph Valentino, Character Construction, Female Spectatorship, Gaze theory
Abstract
The objective of this essay is to analyze the construction of Rudolph Valentino’s effeminate cinematic characters in the early 1920s Hollywood cinema, specifically case studying three films, namely, Camille (1921), The Sheik (1921), and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921). Through textual analysis, it would illustrate how these characters were crafted in terms of three pivotal aspects: melancholic romanticism, ethnic exoticism, and meticulously designed aesthetics, which together foster the sense of otherness and objectification that imitate the common situation of womanhood, and thus evoked profound resonance among female spectators. Through referring to the gaze theory of Laura Mulvey and the mirror theory of Jacques Lacan, this essay would further distinguish the male and female gaze, arguing that Valentino’s on-screen presence facilitated a reversal of the conventional looking pleasure and created a unique form of female gaze that mirrored their subjective projection and the experience of being gazed upon. This positioning of Valentino’s characters as both the object and the embodiment of feminine sensuality and suffering also symbolizes the self-awareness and empowerment in female spectatorship.
References
Barrett, M. (2018). Becoming the latin lover: Rudolph Valentino collection. Pop Matters. https://www.popmatters.com/rudolph-valentino-collection-film-feature
Bertellini, G. (2005). DUCE/DIVO: Masculinity, racial identity, and politics among Italian Americans in 1920s New York City. Journal of Urban History, 31(5), 685-726. https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144205275981
Doane, M. A. (1982). Film and the masquerade: Theorising the female spectator. Screen, 23(3-4), 74-88. https://doi.org/10.1093/SCREEN/23.3-4.74
Girelli, E. (2015). Before the sheik: Rudolph Valentino and sexual meloncholia. Film International, 13(2), 6-18. https://doi.org/10.1386/FIIN.13.2.6_1
Hansen, M. (2018). Pleasure, ambivalence, identification: Valentino and female spectatorship. JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, 1000(1), 6-32. https://doi.org/10.1353/CJ.2018.0088
Horak, L. (2010). "Would you like to sin with elinor glyn?" Film as a vehicle of sensual education. Camera Obscura, 25(2), 75-117. https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-2010-003
Ingram, R. (1921). The four horsemen of the apocalypse R. I. Productions; Metro Pictures.
Lawrence, A. (2010). Rudolph valentino: Italian American. In P. Petro (Ed.), Idols of modernity: Movie stars of the 1920s (pp. 87-107). Rutgers University Press. https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813549293-006
Melfor, G. (1921). The sheik F. Players–Lasky; Paramount Pictures.
Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Screen, 16(3), 6-18.
Radway, J. A. (1987). Reading the romance: Women, patriarchy and popular literature. Verso.
Slater, T. J. (2010). June mathis's valentino scripts: Images of male "becoming" after the great war. Cinema Journal, 50(1), 99-120. https://doi.org/10.1353/CJ.2010.A405350
Smallwood, R. C. (1921). Camille N. Productions; Metro Pictures Corporation.
Stacey, J. (1988). Desperately seeking difference. In L. Gamman & M. Marshment (Eds.), The female gaze: Women as viewers of popular culture (pp. 112-129). Women’s Press.
Studlar, G. (1989). Discourses of gender and ethnicity: The construction and de(con)struction of Rudolph Valentino as other. Film Criticism, 13(2), 18-35.
Studlar, G. (1996). This mad masquerade: Stardom and masculinity in the jazz age. Columbia University Press.
Article Sidebar
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.