ENGL 280 - Intro to Film

 Cormac Clune Female trouble exists as an example of Waters's talent to translate trash into something entertaining and poignant. The film doesn’t express this pretentiously, it uses comedy and extravagance in order to drill home its point. It’s vile but dangerously entertaining. I watched it with a group of people and we all having a great time despite the terrible subject matter. It can come off as a bit jarring to transition from a rape scene to a woman getting slapped in the face with a fish. But Waters's directorial style firmly places it within camp throughout its entire runtime. At first, the film feels tonally inconsistent, but as it goes on everything clicks into place. It’s consistently balanced between being a farce and genuinely shocking. It makes sense in the world that it creates.   This is all helped by a breakneck pace with little to no filler. People are constantly saying the wildest shit, and within the film, nobody bats an eye. All of this quirkiness it trea...

  Kaitlyn Woodard Professor Matt Wisniewski English 280 September 18, 2020     “Female Trouble” is an exploitation film which does everything in its power to shock an audience to gain attention for its criticism on certain topics. I will acknowledge that this black comedy did not age well for all audiences but, at the same time it does offer valid criticism on certain culture values within his societies subcultures.     The world that John Waters and his team creates is full of violence and contradictions. This can be seen within the sets and costuming. Dawn Davenport and her friends are obsessed with the idea of beauty and fame yet when she is upset with her parents she is willing to have sex on a matress on the side of a road with a man who does not respect her or find her beautiful. Plus that scenery is far from something that suggests that he respects her or sees her as much more than someone to get him off. This idea of pursuing beauty and fame is...

Viewing Female Troubles directed by John Waters felt like an ongoing manic episode, though I enjoyed that about it honestly, it didn’t hold back on it’s content. I can understand how some might not have been comfortable making through this, it’s not common to find in our media to be unfiltered in it’s dark and raunchy comedy. Some jokes would be distasteful or needed to be worded better to be more acceptable now, though I saw reason as to why the humor was taken to such crude and extra lengths to make fun of certain subjects or groups.  Any subject that was brought into this movie had to be made fun of, it had to be turned ridiculous.  If you heard anyone say a quote from this film in any serious context it would be viewed with concern. Though that’s part of the weird enjoyment you can get out of this, if you know this isn’t going to be serious, it’s labelled as a comedy for a reason. Not all of it is tasteful or going to be for everyone, but it doesn’t try to be, it’s not t...

  Female Troubles is a 1974 dark comedy film by John Waters, who also wrote "Pink Flamingos". It is  about the life of a "troubled" girl named Dawn Davenport. It starts from her ruining Christmas presents to her being executed for murder.    When I first saw this film, I thought it was about daily troubles for "females". I didn't realize it was about  a "troubled" girl that ruin everyone's life around her. When she got pregnant, she still wreaks havoc and not even caring at all.   Overall, this film was kinda interesting. Some parts of the film were very disturbing and shocking. This film wasn't the "best", but at least Dawn got what she deserved at the end and everyone she hunted can  now live in peace.

Female Trouble is unlike any movie I’ve seen before.  Although I was a bit desensitized to some of the content, this is not an easy film to digest.  The absurdism and satire throughout the whole film just felt like John was trying to see how far he could push boundaries, and he succeeded. Each scene, from Dawn giving birth on the couch alone, Taffy being chained to a bed in the attic, the multiple sex scenes, Aunt Iba in a large bird cage, Dawn and Gator calling Taffy the “r” slur, and more, was chaotic to say the least. I think the most disturbing part of this movie is having to watch Dawn descend into a person deeply consumed by fame and cosmetics.  She clearly was a terrible person, but what concerned me the most was watching how much her selfishness affected the people around her, more specifically Taffy.  I hated the way Dawn treated her daughter, especially since Female Trouble is a dark comedy and I knew there would never be a serious take on the outcome of ...

  The John Waters underground exploitation satire film Female Trouble is definitely a film that would be hard to make today. From its flagrant use of child abuse to its many sexually deviant scenarios, its definitely of its own time. However between Water’s own self proclaimed trashy cinema, there are underlying themes and messages. Aside from the film’s shoestring budget and intentional camp, the film offers a fairly significant commentary. Throughout the story we see Divine’s “Dawn Davenport” metamorphose from troubled teen to full on monster. The film itself is a meditation on the levels of immoral actions one may take in the search of fame. Now from the beginning we aren't supposed to sympathize with Dawn, as she is painted starkly as a very unlikeable and terrible person. However it is obvious that the road she takes isn't all the fault of her own. Within her microcosm of darkly hilarious enablers, none are darker than the salon owning and self proclaimed artist couple T...

               Female Trouble (1974) is one of several films directed by John Waters and starring Divine that depict violence and sex so candidly that this is the first NC-17 rated film I’ve had the pleasure(?) of seeing. This was also one of the hardest films to watch as I was cringing through most of it and looking away at other times. Reasons for this being that I found the cinematography just as abhorrent as the grotesque visuals that I did see clearly. But to his credit, if I’m cringing at the sight of horrible people doing horrible things to other people then I guess John Water’s point has been made. And he gets this across while on a shoestring budget and the power of Divine and much like Natural Born Killers describes the rise to fame of criminals to celebrity status. I however don’t think Dawn Davenport (Divine) was as big of a star as she claims to be. Does she really get to be such a big celebrity that the whole nation goes bonkers...

“Female Trouble” is a 1974 dark comedy film. It is by far one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. The story kept jumping around to different time periods and it wouldn’t be very clear. It was hard to follow and keep up and it plain out didn’t make sense to me. Although there were some funny moments, for the most part it made me feel uncomfortable and pretty disgusting to watch. I would not recommend this film to anyone simply because if I did they wouldn’t trust me to recommend a film again. In my opinion the film was just obnoxious and had unnecessary explicit scenes that I could not bear to watch. The scene with Taffy’s father coming onto her was especially disturbing and something I didn’t need to see. I understand that it was a dark comedy and the message about the negative effect the beauty industry can have, but it was downright not a good film. The acting wasn’t believable at all, it kind of just looks like they threw it together.

Hunter Bardin Professor Wisniewski  ENGL 280 October 30, 2020     Female Trouble  directed by John Waters is a film that can put many people off when they watch it. The themes and the images that are portraying themes are enough to make some members of the audience stop watching before the movie is complete. The main themes behind this film are the idea of how people can perceive celebrity, fame and beauty. While some say it is just trying to push the envelope for what was acceptable at the time, the film doesn't stop at just that. The themes is shows off, while satirical, even satire can be the basis for a critique.      The main character Dawn Davenport only strives for very few things in her life: fame and beauty. She is a person who sees it as something that should come easy to her and doesn't actively push herself to achieve her goal. It could also be said she is misguided in how she is supposed to achieve this goal. While she is a teenager she ru...

Within the film Female Trouble there are very distinct choices that are made by the team that makes this film stick out as not one of your average, everyday films. With these choices made they are a few that really helped make the world of the film. One of these choices being the uses of costumes throughout the film. Although distasteful, distinct and out there, the film still has a very clear world within itself. During the film there was a lot of nudity as well as most of the costumes were very revealing. For the film this was a bold choice but they did keep it consistent from beginning to end of the film. This consistency made it memorable as well as made it seem normal to the movie world. The film was overall hard to watch as an audience member. It was hard to watch because it is so different from the mainstream media today because it was created a while ago as well as the bold choices throughout. The hair throughout the film really was able to represent the time period because the...

      Female Trouble is a film I will never watch again. I could barely get through it the first time. It was offensive, obnoxious and unnecessary. While there may have been underlying messages such as the negative effect the beauty industry and beauty standards on society, it could have been done in a much classier way. There was language used that would not fly today such as the “r” and “f” slur. There were also multiple scenes that made me outright uncomfortable such as the sexualization of Taffy when she was supposed to be 14. The client also talks to her hair dresser about her 6 year old daughter and him being sexually attracted to her. The incest scene between Taffy and her father was another moment I didn’t need to see. And again, this may have been intentional, in order to bring the audience’s attention to these sensitive topics. I also understand drag is very campy and performative, but by the end of the movie I was highly annoyed from everyone constantly yelling...

Female Trouble is painful, disgusting, and hard to watch, however, there's a method to the madness of John Waters. In Female Trouble, a nonsensical story of hideous people in a disgusting world delivers a commentary on fame, beauty, and art.  Personally, watching Female Trouble was a strenuous task, having to take breaks from the movie every 25 minutes. I didn’t even finish the movie by our class meeting and later had to rewatch it. John Waters dubs himself the “Pope of Trash” for a good reason. But in this trash, there is a story (it wouldn’t be a movie without one). Repeatedly, John Water’s shows us how gross the characters are and the world they live in. Dawn’s pursuit of fame is entrenched in filth from head to toe, from murdering multiple people to injecting beauty products into her veins she does anything to be famous. Her greed is portrayed as horrific and yet during the entirety of the film the rest of the characters believe it is beautiful. The Dashers are in constant amaz...

     Female Trouble by John Waters was a film that was not good at all in my opinion. I could barely get through the whole film. I had to force myself to finish the film. This film had so many scenes that made you want to turn it off because of how poorly they put the scenes together. It made you want to look away because of the way the main character was portraying a female. Dawn Davenport’s character developed over time to a crazy woman with no limits on what she does for her audience. She will go to any limits to make her famous, and to show her “fans” what she is capable of. This character will go through times where some of the times it may be considered normal, and other times it’s not.  This film may not make direct comments about female celebrity, fame, and beauty but there are. Some of the key points that stood out to me was how Dawn’s character developed over time to become someone who wasn’t the original person in the first place. Dawn went crazy, and so m...

Female Trouble at it’s base, is a movie about a spoiled girl, Dawn, who runs away from home after not receiving the shoes she wanted for Christmas, gets knocked up, starts frequenting a beauty salon where she marries one of the beauticians, then Dawn starts working with the shop owners who photograph her partaking in various crimes. Eventually, Dawn’s husband leaves her and his aunt Ida, throws acid at the girls face, disfiguring her. The beauty shop owners capture Ida, lock her in a cage and Dawn cuts off her hand as revenge. After this the beauty shop owners start a nightclub where Dawn performs, before performing she strangles her daughter to death and then she starts shooting people in the audience. When the police arrive, they too start shooting the audience. Dawn then goes to death row for murder where she electrocuted to death. Sound like a mess? That’s because it is. If there’s one thing that John Waters does well, it’s repulse people. This movie was vile and disgusting and ve...

Courtney Woodring Professor Wisniewski ENGL 280 October 30th, 2020 “Female Trouble” directed by John Waters is in a category of its own. The main character Dawn Davenport is a ridiculed female who by the end of the film becomes victim to the crime of beauty. Between the memorable characters and shoves at beauty standards, this film delves into many odd subjects.  The film begins with fat shaming and bullying within a high school setting and I feel like it really sets the tone to who Dawn is as a character. Being harassed at such a fragile age can cause one to second guess their look without realizing it. Getting pregnant soon after leaving high school also does not help. Dawn was susceptible to corrupt beauty from the first moment she was criticized for her weight. The word “beautiful” became a foreign word, until she let it define who she was as a mother and as a person.  The film definitely mocked both American culture, especially in regards to fame and beauty. Dawn wa...

          When I first laid my eyes on the promotional poster for Female Trouble , I thought the characters looked outrageous. Surely the characters in the movie can’t look that garish, then the movie began. The movie starts off with a fairly box standard outcast/brat situation with a hard fat shaming slant. Once Dawn runs away from home, things start to fall into the deep end. I could barely watch the rape and pregnancy scene, just…. No. Once we skipped to early adulthood, I figured that the movie would focus on the trio robbing random people slowly escalating to a weird heist setup but that never happened. Instead we continue on this crazy train of Dawn chasing an unattainable “beauty” culminating in her nightclub act, which acts as a summary of the transformation of Dawn. Starting off with simple tricks then descending to depravity mixed with self indulgence and ending with pure madness. Almost every character on screen is comically over the top and perv...

Female Trouble , the John Waters film created in 1974, features the character Dawn Davenport committing several crimes and desiring the spotlight. At a certain point in her life, she even uses those criminal acts as leverage to earn her spotlight. While watching this movie, it made me think back to a movie with a similar presence: Rob Marshall’s Chicago . Why is it that the antics of Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly don’t cause us to cringe and turn up or noses while the story of Dawn Davenport does? If you haven’t seen Chicago, here’s a brief summary. Roxie cheats on her husband Amos with a man named Fred who promises to make her a star in exchange. When Fred changes his mind, Roxie shoots him and finds herself on death row with Velma. Roxie learns that by manipulating the press and public into seeing her as an innocent woman (with the help of a famous yet fishy lawyer Billy Flynn) she can escape her death sentence. Roxie and Velma compete throughout the film for Billy’s attention in orde...

  Jacquelyn Heinen Matt Wisniewski ENGL 280 October 30, 2020 Female Trouble: New Standard of Beauty I first wanted to start out by saying that the film “Female Trouble” directed by John Waters, was a film unlike any other I have seen before.  In my opinion this film was very obscure and covered subjects that I wasn’t quite ready for it to be about based on the title.  I really understand why the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” is so well known.  The title being “Female Trouble” led me to believe that the film was going to be about the struggles that a typical woman would face growing up in this time period, but that was not the route that Waters chose to take with this particular film, or for that matter most of his films. In this film the main character Dawn Davenport was actually the actor Divine in drag.  Throughout the film Dawn had a horrible growing up getting fat shamed in front of her whole class, then running into trouble at home on Christm...

            Before I focus on the question, I’ll first tell my thoughts on the movie. I actually had to take Benadryl about 30 minutes before watching the film, and if you know anything about Benadryl, it makes you very drowsy. The film was so obscure that it kept me awake, and I was able to watch the entire thing through. Also, in the beginning, I thought the film was going to take place at the high school and Dawn would go back to the school complaining to her friends about not getting the Cha Cha heels she wanted. But once she ended up sleeping with Taffy’s dad, I was like okay… things are gonna be whack. What I found mos t memorable about the movie were the extravagant costumes.  I thought the costume design of the film was really well done. All of Dawn’s dresses were on-point with her personality, and really added that unique element to the film. When I think of Dawn Davenport, not just one image comes to mind. I can imagine her in almo...

1. Why do you think Waters chose to dedicate the film the Charles "Tex" Watson? 2. Does the production design and costumes create a memorable cinematic world? What kind of environment is on display? Is it thorough? Inconsistent? Does it enforce the film's focus? Is it the film's focus? 3. Does the film make comments about celebrity? Fame? Beauty? Or is it simply an exercise in pushing the envelope? 4. What sort of claims does the film make about American culture? What sections of American culture? 5. What do you think motivates Waters to go to the lengths he does in this film? 6. Is there anything that is held sacred in Female Trouble ?

              With Parasite essentially sweeping the Oscars (as it rightfully should), The Academy Awards established a set of standards that are to be met in order to not only qualify for the Academy Award for “Best Picture”, but to also contribute in reinforcing diversity. Some veteran artists might view the standards may complain; saying things like “Art is dead” or any other sort of phases that may express their frustrations towards how limiting these standards might feel. My take on this? The structure of the actual standards themselves might feel limiting, but when it comes to putting them to practice, it is not that hard. It is essential, even.             When viewing the actual inclusion standards there is a pattern of words that are conveyed when it comes to the listing of “underrepresented groups” or “underrepresented racial or ethnic group”.   As of now,...

Cormac Clune  One of the core concepts that Parasite tackles is the idea of economic mobility. The idea that the only thing separating the poor from the wealthy is hard work and lack of effort towards climbing the societal ladder. In Parasite Writer Bong Joon-Ho seeks to dispel this idea by presenting the two different sides of wealth. The wealthy Park family and the lowly Kim family. The Kim family is destitute. They resort to folding pizza boxes for minimal pay and live in a run-down bug-infested apartment. But the Kim’s are not portrayed as “Lazy”. They succeed in manipulating the Parks and are competent at the jobs that they manage to attain. Meanwhile, the Parks are portrayed as aloof and simple, as they are unable and unwilling to do simple tasks such as housework. They are not outwardly bad people, but the film showcases them holding contempt towards the poorer Kim family. They are entirely disconnected from the struggles of those less fortunate. As a monsoon destroys the Ki...

    Parasite in itself is a deplorable wake-up call from the lower class who clamor to be heard. Its multiple voices that need to speak their truth, its lyrics in a song whereas some shine bright and are noticed while others fall flat and keep the melody going. Its complete chaos and yet while we are all watching and lower class is calculating their movements as regards to how to move forward. This has to be my favorite film we have watched in my class because not only is it suspenseful, the writing in this movie is off the charts. There were many instances where I thought the Kim family would be caught or exposed, but then they used their smarts to get out of the situation. But technically, it seemed like the sister was the ringleader of the entire group. She knew how to manipulate the family and one scene where it’s obvious that she holds the power is when Ms. Park was telling the sister that the son was kinda “odd” in the sense that his drawings were extremely bizarre,...

    The film Parasite was really good in my opinion, I am glad to have finally crossed it off my watchlist. Going in I did not know what to expect. Here are some notes on many different topics across the whole film:       It was very interesting to see how poverty looks in different parts of the world. We are so accustomed to what it looks like in our country, I think we tend to forget that different people have different types of struggles in other places. I enjoyed the cinematography too. When we were shown the poverty-stricken family the lighting was very harsh and cool. The neon lights of the cluttered city gave you a stark and uncomfortable feeling. However, when we were shown the rich family, everything was bright, white and airy. Almost like you could breathe fresh air.  I found the title to be fitting. The family slowly overtakes the the upperclass house and makes themselves right at home. At first I was proud of the family for being so cunning...

Parasite uses many techniques in order to show its unique class commentary. One of the strongest tactics that Bong Joon-ho chooses to implement is symbolism. Through just one symbol, such as the scholar’s rock, we get a whole lot of information about the story Parasite aims to tell. “(The scholar’s rock) is some kind of symbol of (Ki-woo’s) desire”  - Bong Joon-ho, Vanity Fair, 2019 No better way to explain it than to take the words directly from the director. The scholar’s rock is a part of Ki-woo, he even says “it keeps clinging to me” further emphasizing the fact that they are inseparable. Ki-woo’s desire in the film, in my opinion, is for his family to have a better life. We see him put himself in increasingly dangerous situations, along with the rest of the Kims, to provide that better life for his family. Ki-woo has that same desire before he is gifted the rock, however, the rock is introduced as a symbol of agency as well. It is when Ki-woo gets the rock that he also gets th...

 I don't typically follow the questions to consider straight on, but I feel like the questions asked are important ones to reflect over while writing my blog post for Parasite. Firstly, the photo we were given titled "Emerging Man," by Gordon Parks, gave me instant flashbacks to the beginning of the climax in Parasite. It could easily relate to the Kim's family and their condition of living. This film gives us a glimpse of the troubles that come with poverty, how the Kims were, essentially, watching from the shadows and trying to get in on the upper side of life. This image could also relate to the scene where the Kim family discovered Moon-gwang's (the previous housekeeper before Mrs Park) husband had been living in the basement and slowly, but surely, going insane. One of the scenes in the film shows Guen-sae (the husband) coming up at the stairs in total darkness, but surrounded by light; as seen also in "Emerging man". Both the photo and the scene we...

  South Korean director Bong Joon Ho is no stranger to social commentary in his films. From the satirical jab at factory farms in Netflix produced “Okja”, to the classist dystopian train of “Snowpiercer”.  Tackling the class divisions touched upon in the other latter film, Ho’s commentary is even more refined and honed in his latest venture that is “Parasite”. Told through the lives of two families on opposite sides of wealth; Parasite tells a genre bending tale of what some are willing to do to achieve that wealth. Alongside the intersection of our families, Ho sprinkles in many iconic items or actions that represent said wealth. One very important item is a Scholar Stone that our poor family, the Kims, receive from a friend of the son Ki-Woo. The stone is a metaphor, as stated by Ki-Woo himself in the film. However its meaning shifts a few times throughout the film. First is its intended meaning to bring wealth and prosperity during the start of the film. After it is recei...

Bong Joon Ho knows how to tell a story, and his films stand as a testament to this claim. Parasite is one of my favorite movies from the modern era because of its transparency and depth.  There is so much to discuss with Parasite , but I want to shine light on the opening and closing shots.  The first and last shots of the movie not only symbolize the mental state of character Ki-Woo, they are a gateway to understanding how ‘fixed’ economic status is.  Throughout the film, we watch the Kim family invade the Parks household to obtain a sense of wealth and power in themselves, but evidently, they finish off in a terrible place.  Mr. Kim is hiding in the basement of the Park's former house, Ki-Jung is dead, and Chung-sook is back at home taking care of Ki-Woo, who is injured and filled with unattainable dreams.  One of the major subjects of Parasite is status, specifically financial status.  In our current economic system, there is a wide divide between the ...

          Parasite (2019) is a movie about two households, both alike in dignity. In fair Korea, where we lay our scene. From forth the fatal loins of these… two… foes, ok the Skakespeare metaphor is falling apart but it does deal with two families and how the struggle between the rich and poor is ever present in today’s society and how it looks even worse than here in the good ol’ U.S. of A.  This struggle brings up the question the title of the film subtly suggests. Who is/are the real parasites? At first glance it seems obvious that it’s the Kim family. When given the opportunity they do what they can to try and mooch off of the Park family’s success and even push out the old housekeeper and sure enough the whole family slyly finds a job to do for the family without the Park’s knowing they are all the same family. And yet we find ourselves both rooting for them to find success and also shame and look down on the methods of manipulation used to get...