Week 5

Today, I saw a preview for a movie coming out called The Other Boleyn Girl. It's supposed to be about Anne and Mary Boleyn and their relationships with Henry VIII. One thing that really stuck out to me from the preview is the fact that Henry VIII is being played by the hunky Eric Bana. I have seen pictures of Henry VIII and I'm pretty sure he was a fat guy with red hair and pale skin. Eric Bana is extremely fit with dark hair and an olive complexion. This really took me back to our discussion about the gaze. In reading more about the movie I learned that Henry falls for both Mary and Anne Boleyn. He falls for Mary first but loses interest in her when she gets pregnant and loses her looks. Scarlett Johansson plays Mary Boleyn and Natalie Portman plays Anne Boleyn. In watching the preview I noticed that despite the fact that all of the characters are attractive, Portman and Johannson are the main receivers the gaze. Their goal in the movie is to catch the eye of the king but their goal on the screen is to catch the eye of the viewer. They're depicted as flawless and the camera seems to stare at them. Eric Bana is also very attractive but somehow his looks seem to have less importance. When he is being filmed the camera seems to move around much more as if it's responding to his personality. This reminded me of something I wrote in my notebook from class, "Women are and men do." It's obvious that all three of the actors were chosen for their roles with much thought given to their looks but there is much more stress given to the women's appearance than Bana's.