Outline and discuss a film of your choice studied in the course paying particular attention to gender and sexuality (1500 words)
It can be argued that throughout Corpo Celeste, gender and sexuality are a main and constant theme. These two themes without-a-doubt plays a huge part in the development of the main character Marta as she experiences life in an Italy that is very different to the life she had before living in Switzerland, we also see her develop as a person going through many changes not only in her life but her body too, referenced to the title Corpo Celeste which translates too ‘heavenly body’. This essay will outline and discuss the link between gender and sexuality and Corpo Celeste while linking them to Italy’s notion of gender and sexuality both historically and modern.
Gender and the role of women in Corpo Celeste are key topics that run throughout the film, but in order to understand it more fully we must also look specifically at women’s right’s in Italy as a whole to provide better context to the film. Italy has always been seen as a liberal country with a liberal mentality, however reality does not often match myth. In terms of equal rights Italy there was incremental change, women were given the vote in 1925 however this was only for local elections, not national and it took until the fall of fascism in 1945 for women to fully gain the vote. After the second wave of feminism hit in the 1970’s throughout the West, women in Italy too saw greater rights and equality especially when divorce was legalised in 1974 which became a watershed moment in the next few years more laws were passed that helped women than in any previous time in Italian history. Progress was slow however, shown in an analysis commissioned by the European Parliament “ Women’s position in the Italian society has been deeply affected by social-cultural changes since the beginning of the 1970’s […] Although in a slow and incomplete way, the legislation has incorporated many claims of the women’s movement”.
Having seen the historical context into gender in Italy, we can now apply this to Corpo Celeste. Throughout the film we see Marta, the main character, go through a revolution of thought as the film progresses. Much like previous famous Italian directors such as Fellini, Rohrwacher (the director) styles this film much in the same way as a documentary, and we follow Maria’s life in a poor area of southern Italy with a curious fascination that only can be found when looking at a documentary. One scene in particular highlights Maria’s journey into the unknown and trying to figure out her place in the world, during one of the rituals during her catechism of First communion Maria is blindfolded and made to wander the church. This rich imagery lends us the metaphor of the blind leading the faithful, though it is a some what obvious metaphor, the director is trying to portray how the church is blinding Maria and we can see that as the film progresses she learns to take off the blindfold and experiences an awakening. Marta also throughout Corpo Celeste stares longingly at the boys collecting scrap metal in a ditch, we can see her fascination with this as being a way of trying to get away from the stuffy confirmation classes she has to attend rather craving the freedom and rebellion of rubbish collection. This also lends to the various scenes of the first communion which try to emphasise to Marta the gender defined roles of women, prevalent mostly in the south of Italy. As Marta experiences her first period we can see this as the bloom of womanhood in a place where there are rigid codes especially in southern Italy “As Marta struggles […], Rohrwacher crafts a subtly insightful story of adolescence that is also an exploration of the changing role of the Catholic church in modern Italian life”. We can see this through her rejection of the strict teachings in confirmation class, however when Marta lets slip a small chuckle during an amusing scene when the sunday school teacher slips over we can see the Churches control over her fade a little, as well as her rejection of the pre-destined life that was put on her. This outburst was however put down when the teacher slapped her, which could be seen as the patriarchy of the Church trying to re-establish control of Marta, “Marta struggles to reconcile what Santa [the sunday school teacher] insists is the incomparable sacred body of Christ with her own body, and the throbbing signs of life around her”, we see again this rejection as she cuts off her hair in an attempt to distance herself from the rigid system.
Having looked at Gender and it’s role Corpo Celeste and Italy itself we must now look at sexuality, one of the most important themes of the film. We are presented in this film with Marta, a twelve year old girl who has just moved from Switzerland back to Southern Italy. Marta is on the cusp of womanhood, which we see when she gets her period for the first time. This film places importance of sexuality but more of a curious fascination about how she is going to cope with the changes her body is going through as she goes through the on coming puberty.
Gender and sexuality are intertwined fields of study, which focus on the rights of the various genders and how they have progressed throughout history and the complex rights in present times. Sexuality is linked because it is the expression and experience of one’s gender, therefore we see Marta’s burgeoning sexuality as she reaches the beginning of a new chapter of her life which clashes with the world around her. Marta throughout this film is very different to her peers, we see that she is much more interested in her body and how it’s changing for example in a scene when she steals her mother’s bra and tries it on, a telling sign that she is aware of a change in her body chemistry but also gives us as the view a glimpse in the flowing sexuality this young girl is experiencing. With very little dialogue to help the viewer understand her frame of thought we are often left to decipher Marta’s feelings, perhaps intentionally done so by the director Rochwacher in the style of many neorealist directors before her like Fellini and Visconti, she tries to show how Marta- the ‘’heavenly body”, is juxtaposed to the downtrodden and rough looking environment of Calabria in the south of Italy. While Marta is experiencing this change, we can see the church around her trying to suppress her sexuality, notable in the scene when Marta first meets Santa. Santa asks how old she is and Marta replies “almost 13” to which Santa almost insultingly (though probably not intentional) how “she doesn’t look it”. Interestingly we do not see Marta’s reaction to this and could probably imagine her not being to happy. This rejection of her flowering sexuality is might be a statement on the Roman Catholic teachings that surround this poor neighbourhood and the south in general, contrasted to the sexuality that has emerged in the Berlusconi-era of media television in Italy that rochwacher herself says is “hypersexualised”, she also makes an interesting point that Marta is not like the others, perhaps the “otherness” of having spent many years abroad has made her almost a foreigner in the country she was born in or, through her timidness and generally more introverted personality: “Even from very young they’re under pressure to be superwomen, to proclaim their femininity in a very aggressive way”, Marta experiences her own sexuality in a different way from the other girls, dressing more discreetly and arguably less feminine
Overall, this film is important in showing how gender and sexuality can present themselves in even the most remote, hostile place. Marta is an exceptional girl, not like the girls in the confirmation classes and not like what society pressures her into conforming to be. This therefore could be why Rochwacher decided to name the film Corpo Celeste or Heavenly Body, Marta is a ‘pure’ girl in an impure environment.