From Unruly Housewives to Revengeful Mothers: The representation of motherhood in contemporary Dutch cinema

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From Unruly Housewives to Revengeful Mothers

The representation of motherhood in contemporary Dutch cinema

Gwyneth Sleutel Supervisor: dr. Maryn Wilkinson 10666699 Second reader: prof. dr. Patricia Pisters Gwyneth.Sleutel@student.uva.nl Master Film Studies Professional Track University of Amsterdam June 26th_{, 2017}

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provided textual analysis on a cross-section of Dutch films in order to study the representation of mothers in contemporary Dutch cinema and to see if the conservative image of mothers from American cinema holds up. This thesis used psychoanalysis, comparable to classical feminist film theory, in order to argue that the representation of the domestic mother is fixed in the visual image and narrative patterns. This conservative image is in line with the

representation of motherhood in American cinema. Building on horror theory, this thesis argued that in the transitional figure of the monstrous mother the collision of a conservative image and a more progressive representation of motherhood can be found. Although the

monstrous mother is still subjected to sexual and controlling gazes in the monstrous a source

of female agency is analyzed. Informed by feminist perspectives and extended with critical theory, this thesis investigated a new form of motherhood in the figure of the Final Mother. Acting as a female agent and expressing female power in resistance practices, female gazes and alternative forms of communication, in the image of the Final Mother this thesis found a progressive representation of motherhood in Dutch films. With the Final mother in mind earlier scholarly researches concerned with cinematic motherhood can be revisited. The insights gained in this thesis contribute to the understanding of motherhood in Dutch cinema and perhaps can be extended to study dominant patterns in other national cinema’s.

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Key words

Dutch cinema, feminism, mother, motherhood, agency, abjection, domesticity, female victimization, horror theory, monstrous, postfeminism, critical theory, gaze.

INTRODUCTION

A while ago, my mum and I watched the Dutch comedy film Soof (Beumer, 2013). We enjoyed watching the clumsy and chaotic maternal character, Sophie (Lies Visschedijk), and laughed at the way she manages her family life and household. My mother, who had great empathy for the film character, enjoyed the dramatized representation of motherhood in the film, even seeming to sympathize in a nostalgic way with the cinematic mother Sophie. However, when the excessive alcohol consumption and the cheating practices of the maternal character came to light, my mother’s sympathy started to lessen. After the scene where Sophie forgets to feed to her young twins, my mother began to reject the maternal character by stating: ‘She is a bad mother’. My mother, who always cooks delicious and nutritious dishes, rejected the cinematic mother, who fails in the mother’s nurturing tasks and prioritizes her professional career. This led me to think about why we judge mothers on screen and how these characters are represented.

From this moment on, I began thinking about the way in which the representation of the mother in Soof differs from the representation of other Dutch cinematic mothers. Does this classification of Sophie as a ‘bad mother’ suggest that my mother is used to filmic images that represent motherhood in a more positive or conservative way? If that is correct and cinematic mothers are represented primarily as nurturers upholding the traditional construction of motherhood, what does that say about the representation of motherhood in films? Do these mirror the culture and the time we live in? I became intrigued by these questions which lead me to the research question of this thesis: In what way are mothers represented in

contemporary Dutch film? To narrow this research question: in which way can the cinematic Dutch mother be read as a feminist figure, representing a progressive image of motherhood?

Because of the lack of substantial interest in Dutch cinema at universities (Verstraten 15-16), I will need to turn to writings about American cinema in order to understand the representation of Dutch motherhood. However, E. Ann Kaplan suggests that there is a noticeable lack of writing on the mother within the field of American cinema studies as well. Until the 1980s, academic research on cinematic motherhood was scarce, and the maternal character did not receive much academic focus. According to Kaplan, “she was usually discussed as an integral part of a discourse […] always on the margins, always not the topic

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per se under consideration” (1992:3). This suggests that the maternal character has only been studied indirectly thus far. In this thesis, I will discuss three different ways to look at the representation of motherhood. The first way is concerned with the archetypical representation of mothers in American films. Kaplan, who criticized the lack of scholarly attention to

mothers in cinema, made a major contribution in an attempt to fill this theoretical gap by centralizing cinematic motherhood in several works. During her studies, Kaplan found that the mother on screen is presented as flat and one-dimensional. She argues that “the mother as a complex person in her own right, with multiple roles to fill and conflicting needs and desires, is absent from patriarchal representations” (2000:127). This suggests that the cinematic mother is generally restricted on screen, set against the notions formed by

patriarchal constructions of motherhood. In support of this argument, Kaplan introduces four archetypical images of mothers she observed in Hollywood cinema. Aside from the Heroic Mother and the Silly, Weak or Vain Mother, the dichotomy between the Good and Bad Mother is most prominent in cinema. She describes the Good Mother as an “all-nurturing and self-abnegating” figure, and in contrast, she characterizes the Bad Mother as “sadistic, hurtful and jealous” (2000:128). Because the Bad Mother threatens patriarchal power, she is usually punished at the end of the film. Does this mean that my mother’s conception of the maternal character in Soof as a ‘bad mother’ signals a wider pattern of a recurring archetypical image of motherhood in Dutch cinema, similar to American cinema?

The second way to look at the representation of motherhood is through the recurring theme of maternal sacrifice in mainstream American film (Bisplinghoff (1992); Arnold (2013); Kaplan (2013)). This ubiquity of the sacrifice theme in film seems to hold a

connection with Freudian thoughts underlying the patriarchal discourse. In this ideology, the maternal figure sacrifices herself to nurture others (Bisplinghoff 121). This makes her

subordinate to the care of her family, which suggests a certain form of passivity. According to Alexandra Keller melodramas especially articulate a “two-fold maternal sacrifice”: first, the woman gives up her sexual satisfaction and second, she often needs to give up her child (3). Gretchen Bisplinghoff also recognizes a link between melodrama and sacrifice when she argues that “[…] woman’s self-sacrifice appears as the norm in Hollywood melodrama” (121). Pioneering the idea that the theme of maternal sacrifice is linked with the genre of melodrama is Molly Haskell, who discusses the concept of fixed maternal representation in the ‘woman’s film’ in her book Reverence to Rape (1974).

In American cinema, the representation of maternal sacrifice often starts with the visualization of childbirth (Keller 2), which is the third way to consider the image of

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motherhood. American cinema represents childbirth primarily through the screaming voice and the suffering female body, who in most films, is surveilled by a male member of the medical staff. Although she becomes the object of passivity, Robin Blaetz refers to the birthing woman as an “unruly woman” (18). He argues that in the act of giving birth, the female body communicates an extreme power in her stretching body. For this reason, Blaetz suggests that the sounds the woman makes during childbirth represent the woman as an active agent and “can stand for the continuum of women as speaking subjects” (16). Although the suffering body of the birthing woman is visually represented, in the act of giving birth also lies a source of female power. Most mainstream films show giving birth in a one-dimensional way, representing childbirth as a horrific act but the often discussed film Alien (1979)

presents several primal scenes in which alternative representations of childbirth are shown. This suggests that childbirth scenes are associated with horror. In this thesis, I will further investigate giving birth by using horror theory in order to look at the image of the progressive mother.

In this thesis, I will use the abovementioned perspectives concerned with cinematic motherhood in American cinema in order to study the representation of motherhood in Dutch cinema. Most of these texts focus on motherhood as a fixed, patriarchal construction and concern topics such as motherhood and sexuality, the representation of childbirth and the archetypical visualization of motherhood. This thesis will study in which ways the Dutch representation of mothers is similar to the conservative image of American motherhood. Most of the abovementioned scholars study motherhood within the boundaries of a single genre. This thesis will not restrict its research to genre borders but rather will provide insights on the representation of cinematic motherhood in different types of Dutch film. In doing so, new insights will be gained in the understanding of the image of the Dutch mother and it will attempt to contribute to the theoretical gap that exists in scholarly research regarding Dutch film.

Since the 1990s scholarly research on the representation of motherhood has grown and the cinematic mother has become increasingly studied as a complex and ambivalent character who communicates female fears or desires. In this period “motherhood has become an

increasingly charged site on which unresolved conflicts about ideologies of gender, race and class collide” (Karlyn 3). Due to its focus on gender ideologies to understand the figure of the mother in Dutch film, feminist film theory will lay at the core of the theoretical framework adopted for this thesis. In feminist theory the mother has been a topic of interest, studied in different ways by scholar adhering to the different feminist waves. In order to study both

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female victimization and female agency, this thesis will trace the development of feminist film theory in its argumentation. For this reason, this thesis’ argumentation structure runs parallel to the development of feminist film theory.

In line with feminist theory of the first wave, Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (1975) studied fixed patterns in mainstream cinema. Using psychoanalytic discourse and ideology she revealed fixed gender positions and binary oppositions between men and women. Mulvey introduced the concept of the male gaze to argue that female bodies are subjected to a three-fold male gaze, which reduces them as to-be-looked-at-ness objects. This thesis will use Mulvey’s psychoanalytic view to study female victimization and the fixity of female images. Although her highly cited theory is still used to test power structures between men and women in film, several scholars critically expanded or contested her theory. Examples of these expansions include arguing for active female spectatorship (Doane 1982), the existence of a female gaze (Williams 2002) and investigating the male body as site of spectacle (Neale 1983, Dyer1982). Rather than presenting my arguments as an attempt to challenge the fixed gender positions posed in Mulvey’s essay, I will explore alternative forms of female agency through the use of second wave horror theory, that can be found in the works of Julia Kristeva, Barbara Creed and Carol J. Clover.

Horror theory is concerned with the violation of the female body and the disruption of the normal. It suggests that in the monstrous there is the potential to challenge and transcend boundaries. The use of horror theory will help to understand female monstrosity as a capacity to violate the norm. Finding ways to move outside patriarchal framings, horror theory will support this thesis’s search for female agency. Much of the early feminist film theories use a psychoanalytic methodological framework. I will extend psychoanalysis in the work of Kristeva and her definition of the concept abjection. Although Kristeva’s Powers of Horror (1982) is concerned with literary texts, her concept of abjection, which signifies the collapse of borders, will be applied in order to study the ambiguity of the cinematic in-between figure of the monstrous mother. During childbirth, which acts as a transition to motherhood, the inner body of the woman is broken to give life to another human. The visualization of childbirth represents the collapse of a border in which the birthing body becomes a site of

abjection. Kristeva’s work guides this thesis to horror film theory, which enables this thesis to

negotiate female victimization with a more active, monstrous part of the female body that challenges patriarchal conventions. Building on Kristeva’s work, Creed centralizes female monstrosity in films in her book The Monstrous-Feminine (1993). In contrast to Mulvey and other scholars, who utilize Freudian patriarchal thoughts in their theoretical framework, Creed

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argues for the image of woman-as-monster rather than woman-as-victim. Arguing for the image of a female castrator (1993:136), she suggests forms of female agency. Carol J. Clover also focuses on the empowerment of the female victim, when she introduces the concept of the Final Girl in order to study the female gaze in film in her book Men, Women and

Chainsaws (1992). Deriving from Clover’s concept, this thesis will explore the figure of the

Final Mother as an active agent who deconstructs male power.

Moving away from the representation of female victimization, this thesis will search for Dutch films’ strategies of communicating forms of female agency. Agency is a

multidisciplinary concept, which makes it hard to define. This thesis uses the concept to indicate the active and resistant power of femininity. The concept signalizes space for power shifts and allows for the control over one’s own situation. Using postfeminist texts from scholars such as, Angela McRobbie and Rosalind Gill, this thesis will provide insights into the representation of a woman’s individual power. In contrast to the fixed patterns, as was theorized by early feminist film theorists, third wave feminism and postfeminism argue for the fluidity of identities and the “remaking of subjectivity” (Gill 440). The argumentation of this thesis will trace the movement of feminist film theory from the first wave to the third wave. The first chapter of this thesis will look at fixed images of cinematic motherhood, which is in line with the fixed patterns and identities studied in feminist theory of the first wave. The second chapter will be concerned with the transitional phase of cinematic mothers, in order to consider the potential for fluidity in power structures. Following the transition from the second wave to third wave feminism the addition of critical theory and postfeminist theories in feminist film theory can be noticed. Tracing this transition in my argumentation the third chapter actively searches for instances of female agency and female power.

Although there is a significant lack of scholarly research on Dutch film, in order to study the image of the Dutch cinematic mother, this thesis will also very briefly consider Dutch film history and the uniqueness of the national identity of Dutch films. Up to the 1970s Dutch film culture was relatively restricted. The amount of Dutch films produced was

insignificant compared to imported American films additionally the content of Dutch films was subordinated to the criteria of the Centrale Commissie voor de Filmkeuring (CCF), which censored violent or sexual films. However, during the 1970s, democratization processes, the sexual revolution and the depillarization of Dutch society signified the end of the CCF (Van Nieuwenhoven et al. 47). In this period, Dutch film culture began to produce highly

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“renaissance of Dutch film culture1_{” (73). However, a large amount of films distributed in the}

Netherlands were still of American origin and, according to Hofstede, Dutch film became increasingly influenced by foreign films in the 1980s and the 1990s (86). This thesis will investigate the American influence in the Dutch representation of motherhood and will look for a new form of motherhood in Dutch cinema.

Although this thesis is not concerned with the national characteristics of Dutch cinema, it may be relevant to briefly consider some of the Dutch accents that might be

articulated in Dutch films, to see which elements belong to the representation of the cinematic mother and which are just part of the nationalistic tradition of Dutch cinema. One of these Dutch undertones is derived from Calvinism (Maan 284), which centralizes stiffness, sobriety and thrift. According to Peter Verstraten, Calvinist influences can be found, in the work of the famous director Alex van Warmerdam (20), and Loes Nas also suggests that his films reflect the traditional Dutch stiffness (48). Another Dutch undertone articulated in Dutch cinema is characterized by a certain “authentic roughness” and the freedom of expression, which fits with the Dutch mentality of being direct and straightforward (Verstraten 35). The last Dutch accent recurring in Dutch cinema that I will discuss here can be summarized in the Dutch saying “Doe maar gewoon, dan doe je al gek genoeg”, which Giselinde Kuipers explains as “[…] you show yourself “as you are”, that is: not by elevating yourself above others” (241).

Aside from these recurring undertones articulated in Dutch films, Dutch cinematic culture can also be typified through certain clusters of feature films. In De Filmproducent.

Handboek voor de Praktijk (2008), Carolien Croon and Stienette Bosklopper note three

dominating clusters of films in Dutch cinematic culture: the mainstream film, the arthouse film and the child or family film (19). Other ‘clusters’ that can be distinguished in Dutch film culture are the book adaptation film, that since the millennium gained popularity, and auteur cinema, that can be found in the works of, for example, Marleen Gorris, Alex van

Warmerdam and Paul Verhoeven.

The versatility of film types in Dutch cinema culture motivates this thesis to take a cross-section of contemporary Dutch films. In an attempt to study the image of the Dutch filmic mother, a broad spectrum of films from the last three decades will be analyzed. This thesis will consider commercial films, (A Thousand Kisses (Van Sande Bakhuyzen, 2006),

Zus & Zo (Van der Oest, 2001), The Happy Housewife (Beumer, 2010) and Soof) which

achieved great success in the box-office2_{, as well as arthouse films made from a feminist}

1 Original text “renaissance van de Nederlandse film” 2 For the box-office see www.imdb.com

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perspective (A Question of Silence (Gorris, 1982) and Antonia’s Line (Gorris, 1995)). Some films bridge the categories between mainstream and arthouse, by being commercially distributed, but still using an unconventional narrative structure and unusual stylistic characteristics (Leef! (Van Sande Bakhuyzen, 2005)) or by becoming a cross-over film through unexpected box-office success (Abel (Van Warmerdam, 1986)). Within these categories some films are book adaptations (A Thousand Kisses and The Happy Housewife) and the films of Gorris and Van Warmerdam can be labelled as auteur films, since the filmmakers have made a clear and personalized imprint on them. Although this thesis attempts to locate cinematic motherhood in a broad spectrum of Dutch films, all the mothers in this corpus are white and middle-class. This seems to suggest that the image of the white, middle-class mother is the dominant tendency in contemporary Dutch cinema3_.

To summarize, this thesis will provide a textual analysis of the following

contemporary Dutch films: A Question of Silence, Abel, Antonia’s Line, Zus & zo, Leef!, A

Thousand Kisses, The Happy Housewife and Soof. By the term ‘contemporary’ I refer to films

released post- 1980. By tracing the last three decades of motherhood in Dutch film, this thesis will provide possible insights into historical changes in the image of the Dutch cinematic mother. However, it is not my intention to give a historical periodization of motherhood in Dutch cinema, but rather to take a cross-section of a certain period to see what the image of the cinematic mother looks like in Dutch cinema and which representational aspects circulate in this period of Dutch films.

Structured in three chapters, this thesis gradually works from the representation of female victimization towards the image of female agency. Each chapter will focus on a certain ‘type’ of Dutch mother and will be preceded by a theoretical positioning. The first chapter centralizes the conservative image of the domestic mother, who is entrapped in the patriarchal construction of motherhood. This chapter will trace fixed representations of motherhood in Dutch film by using early feminist film theory and psychoanalysis. The second chapter will concern the figure of the monstrous mother, whose monstrous body revolts against female victimization. This chapter analyzes the visual tension between motherhood and sexuality and investigates sexual and controlling gazes to discuss the surveilling principals of the

patriarchy. This chapter will investigate that in the transitional image of the monstrous mother a collision of the conservative image and a progressive representation of motherhood can be found. Searching for forms of female agency and a new representation of motherhood in 3 The corpus of this thesis does not incorporated children films. In this genre it is possible to find more diversity in the figure of the mother.

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Dutch films, the third chapter will investigate the Final Mother. The Final Mother will be considered as a self-reflexive figure, who uses resistance practices and finds forms of female power in collective female actions and individual acts. This chapter will investigate the cinematic mother outside her fixed representation, which is in line with feminist theory of the third wave and postfeminist studies.

By investigating Dutch cinematic motherhood, this thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of motherhood in Dutch cinema and, by extension, to look for feminist

frameworks that can define forms of agency. By tracing a period of three decades, this thesis might indicate a historical change in the image of the Dutch mother.

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CHAPTER 1: THE DOMESTIC MOTHER

This chapter will concentrate on the figure of the domestic mother, who characterizes female victimization. I will start this chapter by theoretically defining the domestic mother by going back to how women and mothers were defined and discussed in classic feminist film theory. This chapter will investigate the ways in which the representation of the domestic mother is fixed and corresponds to the conservative image of American motherhood. Analyzing the visual representation of the cinematic mother and considering her role in narrative patterns, this chapter will analyze the ways in which Dutch films visualize motherhood as an

institutional or patriarchal construction.

Classical feminist film theory often builds theoretically on a Freudian, psychoanalytic framework, which is concerned with fixed representations and images of female

victimization. In order to study conservative images of motherhood in Dutch films, this chapter will use psychoanalysis in two ways: first, following Mulvey to show how the mother is visually entrapped on screen, and secondly, from a Freudian perspective to consider how the films fix the role of the mother in narrative patterns and restrict her narrative progression. In “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” Mulvey builds on Freudian and Lacanian concepts in order to analyze the unconscious patriarchal power relations between men and women in mainstream film. She argues that mainstream film is characterized by a three-fold male gaze. In the diegetic film world, male characters look at female characters (I), the camera follows the male gaze and displays male point of view shots (II), and this results in the film viewer being structured with a male gaze throughout film (III). According to Mulvey men actively look at women as erotic objects, while women are unable to look back, which reduces them to “to-be-looked-at-ness” objects (837). She argues for binary oppositions between the

active/male and passive/female and suggests that identities are fixed. Using Mulvey’s view, this chapter will investigate the fixedness of the visual representation of the cinematic mother.

Although the validity of Mulvey’s arguments have since been widely discussed (Stacey (1987); Modleski (1988); Manlove (2007)), her essay still motivates feminist film scholars to study the unequal power structures and to focus on the representation of female subordination. Just like Mulvey did, most feminist scholars during the seventies adopted a

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Freudian psychoanalytic framework, which resulted in the centralization of female victimization in feminist film theory. Following Sigmund Freud, the patriarchy defines women as incomplete creatures, due to their lack of a penis. By defining women in these terms, the wholeness of men is emphasized. Although this thesis will not discuss Freudian psychoanalytic concepts or theories in detail, Freud’s Oedipus Complex will be explored briefly. In this chapter the Oedipus Complex is used as theoretical instrument to analyze narrative development. Preceding the castration anxiety, where the child is traumatized by the mother’s “bleeding wound”, is the phallic phase, which centralizes the Oedipus Complex. In this complex the little boy feels an erotic desire for his mother and begins to see his father as a rival. As a consequence of the Oedipal Complex, the male child loses his idealized image of his mother. He feels betrayed by his mother and begins to construct symbolic images of his Good/Bad Mother (Kaplan 122). In this outcome of the Oedipus Complex, the dual image of the Good/Bad Mother from which Kaplan derives her archetypical images of cinematic mothers, can be recognized. This chapter will utilize the fixed structure of the Oedipus Complex to understand narrative trajectory.

1.1 Visual entrapment

In order to consider the representation of the domestic mother, this section will analyze the ways the domestic mother is visually restricted in her movement. Several examples will show that the cinematic mother is imprisoned in the domestic space and fixed in a patriarchal construction of motherhood through visual entrapment. In line with the conservative image of women in classical feminist film theory, this section will suggest that the mother’s visual entrapment is a traditional depiction of female restriction. For example, visual entrapment is visible in The Happy Housewife [De Gelukkige Huisvrouw], in which the camera constantly reframes the female protagonist Lea (Carice van Houten) within frames after she has given birth. Before Lea becomes pregnant the film introduces her as a self-confident and

independent woman, who works as a stewardess. During the opening sequence, she is

displayed in smooth tracking shots and framed in medium long or long shots. These framings leave open space to maintain contact between Lea and her environment, which suggest that the woman is in constant connection with her social environment and has free space to move. In contrast, after Lea has given birth the smooth tracking shots are replaced by unsteady

handheld shots, which capture Lea in medium close-up and close-up shots. These framings

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that she is stuck or, more specifically, trapped in an unstable or unbalanced world. After Lea has given birth, the film reinforces the idea of imprisonment by constantly reframing Lea within frames created by the mise en scene (fig. 1 and 2). These frames within frames suggest that the cinematic mother is unable to escape her environment of the domestic space of the house.

Figure 1 and figure 2: Visual entrapment of the mother in The Happy Housewife

The contrast that is visible in the film before Lea’s pregnancy and after Lea gives birth seems to suggest that motherhood results in a restriction or a loss of a woman’s independence and freedom. Moreover, by reframing Lea in the domestic space of the house, the film also traps her in the role of housewife. This suggests that mothers are trapped in domesticity. This is also visible during the opening credits, where the house itself is visually represented as a threatening force. During this scene, the colors desaturate and the camera moves in a tilt shot from the sky to the house of Lea and her husband, while the letters forming the title ‘The Happy Housewife’ fall apart and dissolve into the house (fig. 3 and 4).

Figure 3 and figure 4: tilt shot in The Happy Housewife

The falling movement of the tilt shot visualizes the degradation and opposition between Lea’s former life and work as stewardess and her new role as mother and housewife. Her former life as stewardess that follows along with a free and unfettered life is represented in the open sky, while the big locked house with several square windows surrounded by bars emphasizes maternal entrapment. Thus, the tilt shot visualizes the duality between childless/free and motherhood/restricted. By representing the childless woman as not bound to one place but by visualizing the cinematic mother as a prisoner of the house, restricted to the role of housewife, the film seems to be critical of domesticity by suggesting that motherhood results in a

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restriction of a woman’s free movement.

A similar form of visual entrapment is visible in the film Abel. Abel tells the story of the thirty-one year old Abel (Alex van Warmerdam), who still lives with his mother Duif (Olga Zuiderhoek) and father Victor (Henri Garcin). While the father tries everything in his power to get him out of the house, the mother seems attached to his presence. Although the narrative is about Abel who refuses to leave the house thus, making him a voluntary prisoner, the mise en scene suggests that it is instead the mother, who is held prisoner in the house. In several shots, the mother is visually entrapped in constructions of frames (fig. 5 and 6).

Figure 5 and figure 6: Visual entrapment of the mother in Abel

The images above show that even when the mother and the father are sitting on the same couch, only the mother is presented with the frames in the background. This emphasizes that only the mother’s representation is restricted on screen.

In the feminist film A Question of Silence [De Stilte Rond Christine M.] a female psychiatrist tries to discover the motives of three women who are in jail for murdering the male owner of a clothing boutique. During the film it becomes clear that the women, and specifically the mother, are represented as always having been locked up. In A Question of

Silence, the shots before the women commit the murder and get arrested show visual

entrapment. Several shots portray the mother Christine (Edda Barends) as a woman who lives under the patriarchal rule of her husband. This is suggested in the scene where Christine is rebuked by her husband for not ‘properly’ taking care of her children. During this shot, Christine is located in the kitchen and depicted through the door opening (fig. 7). This framing restricts the space of the cinematic mother to the area of the kitchen, which suggests an association between motherhood and household work.

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Figure 7: Visual entrapment of the mother in A Question of Silence

Above discussed films all show that the cinematic mother is restricted in her movement and visually entrapped in the domestic space. The mother’s representation is fixed on screen, which upholds her conservative image in Dutch film.

1.2 Isolation

Visual entrapment ‘captures’ the cinematic mother in the domestic space of the house. That this results in the image of an isolated mother is visible in The Happy Housewife, where after giving birth, Lea becomes cinematographically separated from her social environment. Before getting pregnant Lea is portrayed in medium long and long shots, which permit the maternal character freedom of movement. However, after Lea has given birth, she is displayed in

selective focus and framed in medium close-up and close-up shots. These tight framings

combined with selective focus exclude other characters from the shot and isolate the cinematic mother from her social environment. This suggests that motherhood results in the isolation of the mother. In The Happy Housewife motherhood seems to be represented in a way that fits the patriarchal construction of motherhood.

This argument is reinforced because in The Happy Housewife, the cinematic mother is only visually connected to the other members of her family: mother, husband and child. This is visualized in shots, where the camera frames Lea between her husband, her baby and her mother (fig. 8). By entrapping the mother in family life, the representation of the mother upholds the patriarchal ideology of the nuclear family. In the film, Lea is not able to take care of her child after giving birth. Lacking an image of a ‘good’ mother in the character of the female protagonist, the film represents Lea’s mother as the reflection of ‘good’ motherhood.

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Her character seems to function as a surrogate mother, fulfilling the mother’s nurturing tasks and fitting the construction of traditional motherhood. Although at some points the film seems to take a critical stance against domesticity, the film still searches for a way to communicate an image of traditional and institutional motherhood. This idea is reinforced in the shot where Lea watches her husband, child and mother through the window (fig. 9). While Lea moves closer to the window her reflection becomes superimposed over the image of her mother. Although the reflection in the shot still visually separates Lea, as a ‘bad’ mother, from the image of a ‘good’ mother, which is represented in the character of her mother, the

superimposition of the shot foreshadows that at the end of the film Lea will take on the image of a ‘good’ mother, an observation that will be further explored in the second chapter.

Figure 8 and figure 9: Mother visually entrapped between family members in The Happy Housewife

In contrast to The Happy Housewife, A Question of Silence presents a cinematic mother who resists the passive image of motherhood. Although Christine’s specific form of resistance will be discussed at greater length in the third chapter, for this chapter it is necessary to pay attention to the representation of her role as mother. Unlike the visual isolation of the cinematic mother in The Happy Housewife, A Question of Silence isolates the cinematic mother from her own personal identity. For example, this is visible when the psychiatrist visits Christine for the first time and suggests talking about Christine herself. For the first time Christine ‘looks up’ at the psychiatrist. However, the psychiatrist only asks about Christine’s husband and children, which suggests that the mother can only be defined or be spoken of in relation to her family. In this scene, the film seemingly suggests that mothers only exist in relation to their family. The female identity becomes subordinated to the motherly identity, which is defined strictly in relation to the well-being of her family. This suggests that being a mother results in a loss of the mother’s personal identity. In the next section I will explore the theme of identity by focusing on the childbirth scene, which visualizes the transition to motherhood.

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1.3 Childbirth

So far, this thesis has discussed how the representation of the mother is visually restricted or fixed. In this section, I will consider the one-dimensional representation of the childbirth scene as the beginning of the conservative representation of the cinematic mother. Childbirth represents the transition from a childless woman to a mother, and thus can be considered as a rite-of-passage. This section will argue that the childbirth scene in The Happy Housewife visually represents that the identity of the birthing woman becomes fluid. The theme of a mother’s fluid identity will be further explored in the second chapter, when this thesis investigates the transitional phase of the mother in search of female agency. During the birthing scene in The Happy Housewife, the framing is narrowed and Lea is increasingly displayed in close-up shots. This is the beginning of the visual isolation discussed above. The feeling that Lea is becoming isolated is enhanced by the sound, which, after Lea has given birth, switches from environmental noise towards the shrill sound of an interference signal, which represents Lea’s inner feelings. The film suggests that motherhood results in isolation by marking the transition to motherhood with diegetic sounds shifting to non-diegetic sounds.

During the childbirth scene, Lea’s point of view is visualized as blurry and unstable. This disturbed gaze continues and seemingly becomes a motif during the film, which is visible when Lea starts hallucinating signs (fig. 10 and 11) and imagines seeing her deceased father. Moreover, showing Lea’s point of view through the glass of windows serval times, her

gaze is mediated, which distorts her vision. The interference of the gaze seems to reduce the

ability to see clearly from the mother’s perspective. Lea’s inability to reflect properly signifies a reduction of the individual and independent female power. Distorting the mother’s gaze, the film presents the gaze of the mother as unreliable, misleading and restricted. At the same time the restricted gaze of the mother seemingly reflects the restricted gaze of the viewer, who is unable to look beyond the fixed representation of motherhood.

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Abovementioned arguments show that in The Happy Housewife childbirth, as the transition to motherhood, is represented as the beginning of a mother’s rigid image. That Lea becomes ‘stuck’ in the image of motherhood is visually represented when she faints, just after giving birth. During Lea’s faint, the film visualizes her drowning (fig. 12), which associates motherhood with suffocation. The parallel between motherhood and dying seems to be repeated later in the film when Lea bathes her baby. While Lea bathes her baby, she becomes distracted by her own reflection in the mirror, which is unclear and almost fragmented by the vapor (fig. 15). This unclear mirror image seemingly suggests a fragmented identity. Lea starts scrubbing the mirror, an act that can be read as an attempt to identify again with a mirror image that confirms her physical unity4_{. During this attempt Lea forgets the baby who}

subsequently almost drowns (fig. 13), just like Lea herself did after giving birth. The (almost) drowning of both mother and child creates a parallel between them, which reflects the life of the mother as essentially bound to the life of the baby.

Figure 12 and figure 13: A parallel between mother and child in The Happy Housewife

However, where in the first scene drowning is preceded by the disturbed gaze of the mother, during the second scene, the mother is confronted with her own distorted reflection in the mirror, representing her own distorted identity. The inability to recognize with an idealized mirror image, emphasizes the stagnation and deterioration in the formation of the mother’s identity5_{. This distorted mirror image is in direct contrast to the idealized reflection of Lea in}

the mirror during the opening sequence. In this sequence, Lea agrees with her husband to try to make a baby. After making this decision Lea stares at her clear mirror image (fig. 14). This clear mirror image of the childless woman contrasts with the disturbed reflection of Lea after she has become a mother. This evokes the suggestion that motherhood results in a distorted and fragmented identity of the mother.

4 In his concept of the mirror stage, Lacan argued that the imperfect child misrecognizes with an idealized mirror image that confirms his physical unity. This suggests that in the mirror image an idealized image of the Self can be found which leads to narcissistic identification. Therefore, the misrecognition of the child with the mirror image forms the first step in the formation of an identity.

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Figure 14 and 15: The distorted identity of the mother represented in her mirror images The Happy Housewife

After Lea gives birth the midwife tells Lea: “Well done, woman”6_{, which seemingly suggests}

that by becoming a mother, she has become a ‘complete’ woman, who fulfilled the natural female duty of reproduction. Although the film communicates a traditional idea about

femininity, the film ironically represents the mother as fragmented, unable to identify with the idealized mirror image that shows her physical unity. In this observation echoes ironically Betty Friedan’s conceptualization of the feminine mystique7_{. Again, The Happy Housewife}

upholds a conservative image of mothers, while simultaneously criticizing it.

1.4 Constructed identity

Abovementioned arguments discuss several ways in which visual entrapment and isolation practices restrict the movement of the cinematic mother. This suggests that the domestic

mother is represented on screen in a fixed way, which is in line with the conservative image

of mothers in American cinema. Although the films discussed above communicate a conservative representation of institutional motherhood, by also presenting a critical stance against the domesticity of motherhood, The Happy Housewife seems to adopt an ambiguous perspective. Following last sections’ observations which are concerned with the

representation of the fragmented identity of the mother, this section will study motherhood as a performance in order to look for the construction of the cinematic image of motherhood.

In Leef!, mother Anna (Monic Hendrickx) writes an autobiographical novel in order to understand the complex relationship with her mother and to reflect on her own motherhood, which carefully suggests that the narration of the film itself is concerned with the image of motherhood. Underlying this narration is the search for Anna’s own identity. This search is directly established in the opening sequence, in which Anna uses her imagination to recreate

6 Orginal text: “Goed gedaan vrouw” (The Happy Housewife, 2010).

7 In the feminist work The Feminine Mystique (1963), Betty Friedan argues that society was haunted by the myth that suggests that women should be happy with a life as mother, nurturer and housekeeper. Friedan coined “the problem that has no name” to emphasize how women were seduced and mystified into a maternal role, but remain unsatisfied, unfulfilled and subordinated.

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the dressing room of the theatre where her mother performed in her younger years. In this dressing room, Anna enters into a dialogue with her younger self, who is also recreated by Anna. By reconstructing her younger self, Anna literally doubles herself as a tool to reflect on her own memories, but also to reflect on the formation of her identity. In Anna’s search to her own identity, Anna uses not the spoken language, but rather the language of imagination to reflect on her identity. Assuming that spoken language serves patriarchal needs, Anna’s power to imagine can be read as an alternative instrument to consider the mother’s identity outside the patriarchal construction of institutional motherhood. This suggests that her power to imagine becomes a tool of female agency, destabilizing the fixed image of mothers.

During the dialogue between the mother and the imagined younger Anna, both are visualized through the use of mirrors (fig. 16). The doubling function of the mirrors represents Anna’s identity as fragmented and artificial. The feeling of artificiality is reinforced in the location that the scene takes place, a theatre’s dressing room, a place that characterizes the temporarily transformation of an actor into a (fictional) character by the use of clothes, make-up and props. I suggest that in Leef! the theatre’s dressing room signifies a space representing transformation and performance. In this space Anna uses the alternative language of

imagination to reconsider the mother’s identity outside the patriarchal construction of motherhood. This could be read as an ‘undressing’ of traditional values, the patriarchy

imposes on motherhood. This suggests that motherhood itself is a performance (Butler 1990), that needs to be learned.

Figure 16: Motherhood as a performance in Leef!

The idea that the film represents motherhood as a performance is reinforced, when Anna introduces her mother as a ‘performed identity’. By introducing her mother through a photograph, Anna introduces her mother to the viewers via an object that is in itself staged

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and constructed. When Anna introduces the picture, she claims that this would have been what the photograph looked like, had it existed. This suggests that the photo itself doesn’t exist but is constructed in Anna’s imagination. Anna reconstruct a version of her younger self, but also imagines a constructed or staged object to introduce the identity of her mother. This suggests that Leef! considers the maternal identity as socially constructed. In contrast to The

Happy Housewife, which presents the hallucinating gaze of the mother as unreliable and

misleading, in Leef! the imagining power is considered as a female tool to construct the mother’s identity from a language of her own.

While Anna searches for an own identity, her husband is cheating on her and her daughter is evicted from the house. This suggests that Anna’s search for a form of

motherhood outside its patriarchal construction, results in the punishment by the disruption of her family. However, near the end of the film Anna gives up her alternative language by leaving her imaginary younger self. This is suggested through the visual disappearance of the younger Anna. The conclusion that this sacrifice results in the reunion of her family is

visualized in the last shot, when the family members hug each other. The cinematic mother gives up her own language and returns to spoken language in order to restore the balance in her family. Although the film seemingly questions the constructed identity of the cinematic mother, in the end the film upholds the ideology of a nuclear family, by the mother giving up her own language. Although Leef! reveals the constructed identity of the mother and The

Happy Housewife criticizes maternal domesticity, in the end both films uphold a fixed,

conservative image of motherhood.

1.5 Dual gaze

So far, this thesis has discussed films that finally represent motherhood within the patriarchal framings of institutional motherhood. However, this is not the only image of motherhood that can be found in Dutch cinema. In this section, I will briefly step away from the main line of my argumentation in order to explore in which ways Abel, as an arthouse film, problematizes fixed patterns and imagery.

One of the ways in which Abel challenges the fixed imagery is by doubling up on the

gaze. During the film Abel seemingly adopts a male gaze to objectify and fetishize the female

body. This is visible in the scene where Christine (Loes Luca), a woman from Victor’s theater company, visits Abel’s family. Following Abel’s gaze, the camera tracks along the female body (fig. 17 and 18). Christine’s body is objectified and fetishized and becomes a spectacle

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for the male gaze, an observation which is in line with Mulvey’s argument. This idea is radicalized during the scenes where the female stripper Zus (Annet Malherbe) performs on an illuminated rotating platform, while several men voyeuristically watch her performance from tiny windows surrounding the platform (fig. 19 and 20).

Figure 17-20: The voyeuristic male gaze fetishizing female bodies in Abel

Although Abel seemingly adopts Mulvey’s three-fold male gaze, the film also problematizes the male gaze. In the opening shots, the film shows Abel in a traditional voyeuristic male position, using his binoculars, which represent an extension of the male gaze. By showing the viewers the images from the binoculars, the camera adopts the male gaze’s extension to guide the viewers through the shots. However, the images through Abel’s binoculars do not present female bodies, as one would expect from a traditional male gaze, but rather male bodies struggling with a deficiency. This seemingly suggests that male bodies are also passively looked at and subjected to the voyeuristic gaze. However, in “Don’t Look Now: The Male Pin-Up” Richard Dyer argues that male bodies are not passively looked at. He states: “the male image still promises activity by the way the body is posed” (1982:67). The images from Abel’s binoculars, for example show a man who tries to train on his cross-trainer, but is counteracted by his broken leg, a man who died from two arrow’s in his breast, and a man that is being beaten in a sexual way by a male shadow. Although these shots voyeuristically

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expose the vulnerability of the male body, which suggests the breakthrough of fixed gender representations, all of these images in some way connote action, an observation which is in line with Dyer’s argument. However, although these male bodies are only relative passive, the male bodies still become the object of spectacle and lack substantial forms of narrative meaning. Due to their lack of narrative progression, the male characters seem to become stuck in the narration of the film. This observation corresponds with the image of the

to-be-looked-at female body, which is visually entrapped and also unable to participto-be-looked-ate in narrto-be-looked-ative

progression. In the next section, I will return to the main argumentation of this thesis by using the concept of the Oedipus Complex to show that narrative progress follows a fixed pattern.

1.6 Oedipus Complex

Earlier sections have discussed visual entrapment and isolation practices to show how the visual representation of the cinematic mother is fixed. However, due to her visual

imprisonment, the cinematic mother is unable to take part in narrative progression. In an attempt to understand narrative development, this section will analyze the Oedipal relationship between mother and son in Abel.

Throughout the film the constant struggle between Abel and his father seems to arise in the love and desire for the mother, an observation which resounds the Oedipus Complex. This is visible in the scene where Abel violently buries himself under a pile of books, after his mother chooses the side of the father in a conflict. While Abel pretends to be unconscious, his mother slowly crawls on her knees towards her son and starts licking him. Through the juxtaposition of the scenes, Abel’s self-punishment can be read as an act of self-sacrifice in an attempt to win his mother’s love. The complex sexual interaction between mother and son is also visible in the scene where Duif and Abel reenact the first meeting between Duif and Victor. In this scene Abel touches his mother’s face, a form of physical contact that suggests their incestuous character (Nas 39). During this reenactment, the son has replaced the role of his father by pretending to be his mother’s lover. The idea that the son has replaced the role of the father is reinforced later in the film, when Abel takes the place of his father in bed next to the mother (fig. 21 and 22). This replacement of the father by the son in his bed suggests the loss of the authoritarian power of the father and indicates a power shift.

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Figure 21 and 22: Displacement of the father in Abel

Although the father is not literally killed in Abel, which is what occurs in Freud’s Oedipus

Complex, his replacement by the son suggests his figurative death. This figurative death

represents the displacement of his authoritarian function as father and the loss of his

authoritarian power. Although this might suggest that the son has become the new symbol of power, the mise en scene suggests that not Abel, but the mother becomes the new

authoritarian figure in the house. This can be read in the shots above, where the mother has taken the father’s place in bed. This suggests that the mother is able to appropriate the power, which was first allocated to men. However, in the film’s Oedipal structure the mother is still subordinated to male desires. Both the father and the son look at the mother as a sexual object of love and desire, which suggests that the cinematic mother is captured in a traditional female representation, which corresponds with classical feminist film theory. The image of the cinematic mother is fixed in a narrative pattern, in which she cannot take part in narrative progression. Although the Oedipal structure restricts the mother’s narrative progression and upholds the conservative female image, it displaces the authoritarian figure of the father. This suggests that there is a threat concerning the destruction of power relations within a family structure underlying the narrative trajectory. For this reason, the next section will investigate if this narrative displacement of patriarchal power in Abel results in a visual change in the image of the mother.

1.7 The mother’s gaze

Throughout the film, binoculars are consistently linked with being the subject of looking, which makes binoculars a powerful tool. Although these binoculars mainly extend the

masculine gaze of Abel, near the end of the film, with the father displaced as an authoritarian figure, the mother also uses the binoculars. This is visible in the scene where Abel uses his

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binoculars to observe his mother, who stands in front of the window. However, rather than passively being looked at, the mother looks back at Abel through binoculars and waves at him (fig. 23). By taking up the binoculars, which represent phallic extension, the cinematic mother ironically uses a male device to turn the gaze female, and to establish a mother’s gaze. This female act of looking, blocks the voyeuristic male gaze. Abel drops his binoculars (fig. 24), which suggests that he gives up his power to look. This suggests that the male gaze loses power, the moment the female gaze becomes active. A few scenes later in the film, the mother uses the binoculars to watch her own husband (fig. 25 and 26). By using the binoculars, the mother becomes the active subject of looking. Although the film seems to present the

binoculars as male, with the mother being the object of looking during her introduction, in the end the mother finds the power to look back. By showing alternatives to the fetishizing male

gaze and by offering a female gaze, which is established through a male device that

traditionally extends the male gaze, the film seems to experiment with a more progressive image of the cinematic mother.

Figure 23-26: The mother’s power to look back in Abel

This chapter focused on the domestic mother and analyzed several ways in which the

representation of motherhood is fixed in films. By visually entrapping the cinematic mother, the films suggest that mothers are trapped in domesticity. The films isolate the mother from the social environment and bind her to the domestic space of the house, which upholds the

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patriarchal ideology of the nuclear family. The fixedness of the visual image results in the mother’s inability to contribute to the narrative progression and she becomes mired in the narration of the film. These investigations suggest that the representation of motherhood is fixed and in line with a conservative image of motherhood in American cinema. However, in the arthouse/cross-over film Abel a development in the representation of the cinematic mother seems to be found, who moves from the conservative image of a to-be-looked-at-ness object to the more progressive image of the subject of looking. Does this suggest that arthouse films are willing to break with the conservative image of motherhood? In the search for the

progressive image of the mother, the next chapter will explore the monstrous mother to analyze the transitional phase of the mother caused by bodily monstrosity.

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CHAPTER 2: THE MONSTROUS MOTHER

The previous chapter investigated the fixed representation of the domestic mother and analyzed several ways in which Dutch films frame mothers within the patriarchal

constructions of motherhood. This analysis is in line with the image of the woman-as-victim that dominates classical feminist film theory. However, in horror theory, for example, several feminist scholars react critically to this image by claiming that women in film can also embody active elements. This chapter will focus on the monstrous mother, a concept derived from the concept of the monstrous-feminine coined by Barbara Creed (1993). The monstrous

mother is a figure that lies directly on the border of abjection, she is situated between mother

and monster and will be considered as a transitional figure. One of the main concerns of this chapter is to question how the representation of motherhood portrays female sexuality and conflates it with monstrosity in Dutch Cinema. This chapter will consider the representation of giving birth as a collapse of a border and a violation of the female body, signifying the transition from a childless, sexual woman to a monstrous mother. This chapter will look for forms of female power and agency in the transitional phase of the monstrous mother, in an attempt to investigate a progressive image of the cinematic mother in Dutch films. Aside from the fetishizing male gaze, this chapter will discuss controlling gazes of male surveillance, which the patriarchy uses as a defense against the threat of the female agency of the

monstrous mother.

In classical feminist film theory, the image of woman-as-victim dominates (Creed 7). Many academic studies from this time, concerned with the female representation, use a Freudian male-centred theoretical framework, in which women are portrayed as passive and incomplete beings. However, since the 1980s, these studies of female victimization have come under attack from scholars who argue for the active female and for reducing the passive, victimized representation of women. During this period, several academics called attention to the monstrous aspects of women in films. In line with Mulvey’s argument, Linda Williams argues that the female spectator is unable to return the objectifying male gaze in “When the Woman Looks” (2002). However, in horror film Williams argues that the female spectator can identify with the monster because both are objects of the patriarchal gaze. For this reason, Williams considers the monster in horror film a double for the woman and suggests that when

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the woman looks at the monster she “recognizes their similar status within patriarchal structures of seeing” (62). Williams recognizes an affinity between the monster and the woman, who are both characterized by their power-in-difference. Because of their lack, they are perceived as “biological freaks”, which makes them a threat to males (63). Although William’s text is not concerned with female monstrosity, she seemingly suggests that women can perhaps use their lack as an active and forceful tool of defense. In the article “Feminist Frameworks for Horror Films”, Cynthia A. Freeland also recognizes a link between the monster and the woman when she states: “[…] although monsters may threaten the bodies of women in horror, even the fates of women and monsters are often linked. Both may somehow seem to stand outside the patriarchal order” (197). Both Williams and Freeland argue for an affinity between women and monsters because both are patriarchal objects.

In The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, Creed explores the link between the monstrous and the woman. She does this by focusing on the representation and the construction of female monstrosity. By introducing the concept of the

monstrous-feminine, Creed concentrates on the image of woman-as-monster rather than the image of

woman-as-victim. By suggesting that the monstrous-feminine transfers male fears, Creed challenges the binary oppositions between active/male and passive/female, which were adopted by feminist scholars building on a Freudian framework. Unlike Freud, who claims that a woman terrifies because she is castrated, Creed suggests that women frighten because of their potential power to castrate (7). In the monstrous, Creed (just like Williams)

recognizes a source of female activity and potential female agency. For this reason, in this thesis I consider horror theory as a useful instrument to analyze possibilities for female agency.

In order to study female monstrosity, Creed uses the concept of abjection, which is a central term in Julia Kristeva’s work Powers of Horror: an Essay on Abjection (1982). Kristeva argues that during childhood children begin to understand that bodily excretions, like blood, pus, urine, and feces, are abject and therefore must be rejected. When bodily fluids leave the body, they become abject and can no longer be part of our body. These bodily fluids do not become abject because of their uncleanliness, but rather because they appear on the other side of the border (Kristeva 3). They are separated from the living subject and signify the collapse of borders, which suggests that they “do not respect borders, positions, rules” (Kristeva 4). For this reason, bodily wastes confront us with the instability and restrictions of the human body. They threaten the border and therefore, we must dissociate from them. According to Kristeva abjection is “what disturbs identity, system, order” (4). Because

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abjection is about displacement and obscuring the border, abjection is what makes something

horrific. That is why Creed uses the term to study the image of woman-as-monster.

The figure of the mother especially deserves theoretical attention in this field of horror theory. For example, Williams recognizes a connection between the monster and the mother, because both possess “[…] the power to mutilate and transform the vulnerable male”

(2002:65). Their shared power-in-difference, which forms a threat against male and by extension, patriarchal power, evokes identification processes between the female spectator and the monster. Building on Kristeva, Creed also suggests that the maternal figure is especially linked to abjection. The mother becomes abject by her child’s attempts to break free from her to enter the symbolic order, often represented by the father (Creed 68). During pregnancy and giving birth the maternal body becomes a site of abjection as well, when the female body begins to deform and finally tears apart during the dilatation. In the act of childbirth the collapse of the border is realized, when the inner body of the birthing woman breaks to extricate another living subject. For this reason, Kristeva refers to childbirth as the “ultimate of abjection” (115). The blood from the vagina, which is reminiscent of

menstruation, and the disruption of a woman’s sexuality signify that childbirth goes along with several taboos that Freud recognizes in society. Throughout her book, Kristeva suggests that abjection grounds the origin of why things become taboo in our society. Although the umbilical cord, as connector of two living beings, is itself abject, the cutting of the umbilical cord and the physical separation between mother and child means that the child is no longer abject while the mother still is. Therefore, motherhood itself becomes a taboo, which can no longer be associated with sexuality.

In feminist theory scholars often argue for a border between motherhood and sexuality. In “Breasted Experience” Iris Marion Young does not concern herself with the filmic representation of motherhood, but rather investigates motherhood in social life. She suggests that becoming a mother goes along with a loss of a woman’s sexuality (85). Her breasts are no longer a sexual object, but rather a milk production source to nurture her child, which argues for a border between motherhood and sexuality. For this thesis, it would be interesting to explore whether the filmic representation upholds that divide. Especially, because recent scholars have argued against this trend of ‘desexualized’ mothers in American cinema. For example, feminist author Margaret Tally finds that older women, in the mother role, are increasingly visualized as sexual beings in the last decades (33). This suggests that in American cinema there is a trend towards blurring the border between motherhood and sexuality. In this thesis, I will investigate if Dutch cinema upholds the divide or shows a

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similar development to American cinema. Although patriarchal logic still upholds the border, in the concept of abjection the two seem to melt together. Abjection both repels and attracts (Creed 14). Therefore, Kristeva claims: “[w]e may call it a border; abjection is above all ambiguity” (9). For this reason, abjection will be a useful concept to analyze the monstrous

mother, as a convergence of mother and monster, as an entity that crosses the border of

institutional motherhood. In order to study the monstrous mother as a transitional figure, the use of horror theory will provide a theoretical tool to investigate forms of female agency evoked by the monstrous. In this chapter, the monstrous will be considered as a way the films attempt to disturb the conservative image of mothers, which is embodied through the

domestic mother.

2.1 Sexuality and motherhood

In the Dutch films this thesis analyses, the border between motherhood and sexuality is visualized through contrasts and juxtapositions between the character of the mother and the character of a childless woman. These films present the childless female body as a sexual spectacle, while the maternal body is showed as impure or threatening. This juxtaposition is visible in the film A Thousand Kisses [Ik Omhels je met Duizend Armen], which contrasts the character of Giph’s mother Lotti (Catherine ten Bruggencate), who suffers from MS, and the character of his girlfriend, Samarinde (Carice van Houten), who works as a model. That the childless Samarinde visualizes sexuality, while Lotti represents desexualized motherhood is directly suggested during the introductory scenes of both characters.

In the opening scene of the film, Samarinde is introduced through photographs, which the male protagonist Giph (Tijn Docter) views on at his laptop (fig. 27). By reframing

Samarinde in the frame of the picture and the frame of the laptop, the woman becomes

trapped in the artificial and restricted qualities of the staged photographs. Via the male gaze of Giph, she is introduced through sexual photographs, showing some parts of her naked body. This suggests that the film entraps the female character in a conservative representation of femininity, upholding the image of female sexuality.

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Figure 27: The childless woman framed as sexual and organic woman in A Thousand Kisses

During this introduction, the male character has, seemingly, been given the power to guide the introduction of Samarinde, since he is able to decide which photograph he uses to introduce the woman to the viewers. Both the highly sexualized nature of the pictures and the

entrapment of the woman in the artificiality of the photograph introduce Samarinde as a sexual object under male control. Aside from Samarinde’s sexual image, the film represents her also as an organic or natural woman, which could be suggested because her body is placed in constant relation with the beautiful side of nature during the film (for example, fig. 27). This suggests that her character embodies the virtues of fertility, which is underscored when her pregnancy is confirmed.

In contrast to Samarinde’s introduction, the introduction of mother Lotti shows the horrific manifestations of the maternal body, as we see Lotti staggering through the kitchen. This shows that the mother has lost the power to exert control over her own body, which is presented as fragile and deteriorated. Preceding to Lotti’s introduction a sex scene between Samarinde and Giph is shown, which visually represents the celebration of the sexual and fertile female body. Several Dutch films seemingly celebrate fertility and associate it with sexuality as opposition to motherhood8_{. In several sequences in Abel, the mother Duif talks}

about fertility, but she always mentions this in relation to sexual attractive and childless women. By explicitly relating sexuality to fertility, the film seems to suggest that fertility is what makes a woman’s body sexual. This idea is also suggested in Leef! where the cinematic mother, who works as a midwife, is constantly confronted with her own infertile body. That her infertility desexualizes the female body is suggested in the lack of sex between Anna and her husband and the way the film visually emphasizes the sexual and fertile body of the 8 While it is true that some of the cinematic mothers depicted in the films this thesis analyzes are too old to be fertile it is outside the scope of this thesis to investigate the interplay between age, fertility and sexuality. For literature about this interplay see Margaret Tally’s “She Doesn’t Let Her Age Define Her” or Torbjörn Bildtgård’s “The Sexuality of Elderly People on Film: Visual Limitations.”

From Unruly Housewives to Revengeful Mothers: The representation of motherhood in contemporary Dutch cinema