Film &Theater studies

Material: Watch the movie “Some Like It Hot (1959) ” also I will be uploading you some readings. Here’s what I need is for you to answer these questions in three paragraphs NUMBERED with each paragraph containing at least 90 words in each.

(Questions for #1 Paragraph): Haskell explains that although Monroe has become a cultural icon for many contemporary women, women’s feelings toward Monroe have differed over time. As she explains, “[w]omen, particularly, have become contrite over their previous hostility to Monroe, canonizing her as a martyr to male chauvinism, which in most ways she was. But at the time, women couldn’t identify with her and didn’t support her” (113-114). Why do you think this was the case, both then and now? Why do you think women’s responses toward Monroe have changed so dramatically over time?

(Questions for #2 paragraph):  Haskell argues that Marilyn Monroe “catered to these [men’s] fantasies and played these roles because she was afraid that if she stopped – which she did once and for all with sleeping pills – there would turn out the be nothing there, and therefore nothing to love” (115). Though Some Like It Hot contains some of the characteristics of the screwball comedy genre, Monroe is not the fast-talking dame of screwball comedies. How does her catering to the fantasies of others set her apart from the screwball heroines we’ve seen this semester? How does her identity work within and complicate the screwball elements of the film?
(Questions for #3 paragraph): Devito and Tropea talk about the shifting representations and meanings of Marilyn Monroe. What do you think Monroe “means” now in 2010? What is our current historical/cultural memory of her? How do we feel about her? How does this differ from earlier meanings?                                                     Due 4/21/10