Desperately Seeking Susan: Comparison of the Representation - Essay Example

Desperately Seeking Susan: Comparison of the Representation of the and the Suburbs Abstract On the surface, Desperately Seeking Susan appears to be a light romantic comedy. However, closer examination exposes a strong feminist message commenting on the constraints of suburban life opposing the freedom of urban life. The film portrays marriage as a trap and the bohemian lifestyle devoid of responsibility as a desirable, fulfilling alternative. This is evident after exploring the various cinematic devices used throughout, such as the film's depiction of its male and female characters and their lifestyles, as well as their spaces and dress, and the music selection as outlined by Graeme Turner's Film as Social Practice. Desperately Seeking Susan: Comparison of the Representation of the City and the Suburbs The motion picture Desperately Seeking Susan serves well as a case study of contrasts and oppositions between suburban and urban life. Nuances are heightened by the filmmaker's use of lighting, dcor, music, and fashion. The holograph of the social history of the eighties in America finds its complex, multidimensional embodiment in both realistic and metaphoric terms in the films of the decade. Twenty years ago in 1970, Ian Jarvie described how there was something else that was vigorous and exciting about the American cinema, something deeply entwined in the relation it bore to its society: its ability to portray every aspect of American society with almost clinical accuracy: from the urban, rural and negro slums, through suburbia, to its highest social and political realms: American film men knew their society and put it on their screens. 41 (Palmer, 1995, p. 15) Oppositions are demonstrated through dramatically contrasting scene changes, as well as through the film's music selection. These can best be demonstrated through the film's depiction of its characters and their spaces, dress and behaviour, as well as music selection. First, a plot synopsis will set the context for an investigation into the way in which characters and their lifestyles are represented. Plot Synopsis Desperately Seeking Susan was released in 1985. At this time its star, pop singer Madonna, was enjoying the first of what would be many peaks in popularity. The "Material Girl" - and the lifestyle she embodied - was both envied and idolized, and it is safe to say that the biggest attraction of the film was Madonna herself. Desperately Seeking Susan is a story about mistaken identity that plays off the contrasting lifestyles of its two central characters: Roberta (Rosanna Arquette), a bored middle-class suburban housewife, and Susan (Madonna), an adventurous free-spirited wild child with no visible means of support who seemingly lives on the goodwill of friends and acquaintances. Roberta becomes aware of Susan through a series of personal advertisements in the newspaper. Each ad, placed by Susan's boyfriend Jim as a means of contacting her, begins with the mysterious tagline "Desperately Seeking Susan". Roberta, who feels trapped and restless in her marriage to unsupportive, inattentive husband Gary, is entranced by the seeming glamour and mystery of Susan's lifestyle. She becomes increasingly preoccupied by Susan to the extent that, after reading a new personal ad, she decides to go to the designated meeting place. Roberta finds Susan and follows her into a clothing store, and watches as Susan exchanges her jacket for a pair of shoes. Impulsively, Roberta buys the jacket once Susan has left the store. She finds a key that Susan has left in the jacket, and discovers that it opens a locker where Susan has stored all her personal belongings. Roberta tries to contact Susan by placing her own "Desperately Seeking Susan" personal ad. Meanwhile, Susan is wanted by the police for questioning in relation to her previous boyfriend. She is also being pursued by Nolan; an Atlantic City gangster who suspects Susan has appropriated a pair of Egyptian earrings that he stole. Nolan sees the personal ad placed by Roberta and heads to the meeting spot hoping to find Susan there. He accosts a woman wearing Susan's jacket, assuming it is Susan, however it is really Roberta. Roberta falls and hits her head, but is then rescued by Dez, a friend of Jim's (whom Jim has sent to meet Susan in lieu of himself). Dez thinks Roberta is Susan, and upon regaining consciousness, Roberta has developed amnesia and also thinks she is Susan. The rest of the film depicts Roberta struggling to cope with the lifestyle she has inherited along with the jacket (and with the romance that develops between her and Dez), and contrasts this with Susan's adventures with Roberta's husband Gary, whom she has contacted in pursuit of the key she accidentally left behind. After much confusion, matters come to a head when Susan and Roberta finally meet, and are then pursued by Nolan. After receiving a second head injury, Roberta regains her memory, but leaves her old life with Gary behind, in favour of a new one with Dez. (Tham, 2001). Depiction of Female Characters The two female characters are depicted very differently. Susan is an adventurous free spirit, who appears to be happy living on nothing, indeed she thrives on it. Roberta is a typical suburban middle-class housewife who is growing increasingly disenchanted with her oppressive lifestyle. The problem for Roberta (Rosanna Arquette) in Desperately Seeking Susan is that she has a fascination for something she is not, for Susan (Madonna). The conflict between her life and Susan's could be represented as follows: Roberta Susan conventional unconventional bourgeois anti-bourgeois suburban urban married unmarried sexually submissive sexually aggressive boring exciting constrained free. (Turner, 1999, p. 86) From the beginning of her career, Madonna's self-representation in promotion and publicity material portrayed her as defiantly independent, a woman who challenged and overcame gender restrictions. This representation was greatly bolstered by Madonna's role in Desperately Seeking Susan. In contrast to the image of woman as nurturer, Madonna was unashamedly focused on success in her own career. She clearly articulated that she was out only for herself, that stardom and its perks of money, power, and respect were her goals. In contrast to the image of woman as keeper of decency and morals, Madonna was clearly thumbing her nose at the traditional model of femininity. None of this was articulated in vengeful or vindictive terms, but simply as a means of self-expression. Like Susan, who is wanted by the police in relation to another person's crime, and who is pursued by a gangster because she has accidentally taken his stolen goods, Madonna was a "bad girl only in a performative sense." (1993, p. 245) Roberta, on the other hand, is very clearly a "good girl". She dresses, acts, and speaks just as she is expected to. She does not work - instead she keeps house and provides all the comforts of home for her husband, just as she is expected to. Despite the fact that she begins to rebel privately, her public face is never questionable. In fact, up until the point where she follows Susan into the clothing store, Roberta is the very essence of the middle-class suburban housewife. Depiction of Male Characters The male characters of Desperately Seeking Susan also provide some interesting contrasts. Gary is an insincere social climber who is oblivious to Roberta's dreams and desires. Dez is an underemployed blue-collar worker who ends up stealing Roberta's heart. He promises no suburban comforts and no security, but rather the excitement of an affair in urban uncertainty. Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan is primarily about women's struggle to create and control their own identity in contemporary society and, in so doing, to shape the sort of relationships they have with men. (Langer, 1996, p. 199) Gary leads a shallow life surrounded by things - appliances, business, home, cars - that promise happiness but deliver dissatisfaction and disillusionment instead. Dez epitomizes a simpler lifestyle. He takes life as it comes, trusting that all his needs will be met in due time. As a sharp contrast to the ever-popular consumerist lifestyle of the period, many films of the eighties chose to make heroes of men who were anything but yuppies such as Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, cowboys, astronauts, and loner cops. (Palmer, 1995, p. 280) Marriage is depicted as a trap in many of these: In Desperately Seeking Susan, the abandonment of the marriage is presented for the same automatic approval from the audience as marriage once was. Roles identified with such actresses as Jill Clayburgh or Jane Fonda in films such as An Unmarried Woman or even Nine to Five represent marriage as a domestic trap, which is limiting and boring, and even sexist. The meaning of marriage, and thus its ability to happily close off a narrative, has been altered by shifts in traditional attitudes (Turner, 1999, p. 89) The men of Desperately Seeking Susan reflect their habitats and the way in which suburban and city life is portrayed in the film. Gary, superficial and insincere, thrives in the spiritual and cultural wasteland of suburbia that stifles Roberta. Dez, on the other hand, is not driven by the need to possess, and therefore is suited for the idealized city of the film, where fun, independence, and fulfilment are rated higher than material wealth. Roberta's rejection of Gary and suburbia in favour of Dez and the city, therefore, are synonymous with the fact that in doing so she is changing as a person and forging a distinct personality in which she is no longer just another "thing" owned by Gary. Space Design The world, which Susan inhabits, the low-life, rock-orientated, street world of New York City, becomes an image of the normal in Desperately Seeking Susan; the suburban world, which Gary inhabits, is increasingly bizarre, abnormal, and unacceptable. (Turner, 1999, p. 202) Opening Scenes - Roberta and Susan The opening scene shows a line of women in a beauty parlor undergoing an array of treatments. Roberta is seen with her sister-in-law discussing Roberta's hairstyle, which must be conventional and acceptable to friends and family, and must not be "weird". One shot shows a pair of sharp, slender stilettos on one of the patrons. Roberta has begun to show signs of discontent by living vicariously through Susan, a woman in the personal ads. Roberta is situated within this world through the framing, the pink tones of the salon's dcor and the women's protective smocks, and (ideologically) by her plea to the hairdresser not to do anything 'weird' to her hair. The image of constrained femininity is capped in the following sequence which has Roberta and her sister-in-law framed under the hairdryers-a parody of middle-class suburbia. (Turner, 1999, p. 196) Contrasting this scene is the following one showing Susan on the floor of an Atlantic City hotel photographing herself. Playing cards, clothes, and alcohol bottles are strewn haphazardly about the room. The strange man in Susan's hotel bed contrasts the estranged one in Roberta's marriage bed. Susan's lover and her residence are transitory; both can be cast off whenever she pleases. Roberta's are permanent - not easily cast off, as both she and her home "belong" to her husband. Susan is attired in black with an eclectic mix of asymmetrical jewellery. Roberta is controlled. Her fashionable pastels are matched. Her routine is set. Roberta's Environment - Home Roberta's suburban home is well-appointed, with spa bath, swimming pool, automatic appliances, and spotless interior. Susan does not have a fixed address. She does not know where she will spend the night. When she is seen indoors, it is usually a shabby interior with quirky dcor. Her interiors are dark while Roberta's are light and pastel. During the birthday party scene in Roberta's living room, everyone can be seen decked out in pastels in imitation of the popular eighties television show Miami Vice. Even the carpet and furniture are pastel. Roberta offers hors d'oeuvres to her guests, while Susan steals left, right, and centre throughout the film. While the crowd at Roberta's watches Gary's advertisement, she stares wistfully at the George Washington Bridge connecting the New Jersey suburbs to New York City. The lights on the bridge and skyline seem to twinkle, offering an enchanting promise of what could be. Hollywood reverses its trend in depicting the suburbs. In a way, the description is the same, but the emphasis switched from positive to negative. The Hollywood film industry and the new national radio networks disseminated images of the good life that centred on wealth, leisure, youth, beauty, and abundance. Borrowing from the techniques of the popular press, the movies used sensationalized, voyeuristic depictions of the life styles of the rich to attract audiences. In the 1920s Hollywood directors such as Cecil B. De Mille invented a popular formula for moviemaking: turning the sumptuous world of the wealthy into a setting for romantic comedy and drama. Movies thus provided alluring lessons in how to live a life of leisure in modern America. The movies brought the lavish interiors of country estates, the clothing, accessories, and cars of the wealthy into the experiences and fantasies of ordinary Americans. (Baxandall & Ewen, 2000, p. 16) Susan's Environment - The Clubs In contrast to the suburban party scene, Susan is seen at a punk club. Faces are indistinct, but mohawks and other unconventional hairstyles are unmistakable. Susan wanders through a dark smoky haze to find an anonymous dance partner for a few minutes. In Susan's environment, there are no specifics or permanency. Everything - dance partners, homes, lovers, - can be picked up or left behind whenever she pleases. This contrasts the suburban scene, which is permanent, distinct and detailed. Susan visits a friend at the Magic Club to mooch a place to stay. The club features amateurish musicians and magicians, and a host wearing a bizarre tuxedo with a shiny red-ruffled shirt. The mother of the club owners is a shrewish, domineering type. These are all city depictions: rough, roguish, imprecise, amateurish, and full of tough characters. Part of Roberta's transformation into Susan-imitator is getting a job at the Magic Club. She performs poorly, but gradually becomes more comfortable in this foreign environment. This shows an additional change in Roberta - as a suburban housewife, she did not work, but in the transition to the city, she obtains a job, and with it independence and an identity distinct from that of her husband. Such scenes emphasize that while Roberta will never really be a Susan, she is capable of transforming herself from wife into person. Roberta cannot change as long as she remains with Gary in the suburbs, but in the urban environment, anything is possible. Dress "Role models may not formerly have worn black lace mitts, but in 1985 they did." (McCreadie, 1990, p. 65) Hairstyles and clothing are emphasized to contrast the suburban and the urban. When Roberta dons Susan's well-worn jacket depicting a bright gold pyramid, Gary scoffs at it because it is used and they can afford new. Gary senses a radical departure from the suburban norm. Susan is almost exclusively dressed in black punk. Roberta is almost exclusively dressed in perfectly matched tailored pastels. Roberta is symmetrical and well-coifed while Susan is eclectic and wears a dishevelled hairstyle pinned up haphazardly. Roberta carries a matching purse while Susan carries an old hat box with painted skulls on the exterior. Roberta drives a current Mustang convertible while Susan's boyfriend drives a rusting van with skulls painted over the exterior. The key idea here is that the oppositional conflict in narrative is not just a feature of narrative structure but is interwoven with the full range of meanings generated by the film as a whole. The binary structure produces not only the bald outline of a narrative but its specific images too; we see the specific opposition motivating key images in the film-Ethan framed between the desert and the homestead in The Searchers, Roberta in Susan's pyramid jacket in Desperately Seeking Susan. A pattern of opposition, once set up, produces both structure and discourse-the movement of the plot and the specific means of its representation in sound and image. (Turner, 1999, p. 87) An interesting thing to note is that it is clothing that defines Roberta's transition from suburban to urban, and her temporary transformation into Susan. Up until the point where Roberta buys Susan's jacket, she has been merely an observer in Susan's life - but the jacket changes everything. It is buying the jacket, and the key left behind in it, that prompts Roberta to contact Susan, and it is wearing the jacket that makes both Nolan and Dez think Roberta is Susan. As the mistaken identity charade progresses, Roberta retrieves Susan's items from her locker, and begins wearing even more of Susan's clothing. At the same time, Susan heads to suburbia in search of her locker key - encountering Gary and his home, and claiming for herself a jacket belonging to Roberta. However, while Roberta becomes Susan when wearing Susan's clothes, Susan remains herself when donning Roberta's clothes. Susan is too firmly entrenched in her city identity to be affected by suburbia; however Roberta's suburban identity is a thin skin which begins to peel away when she encounters the realities of the city. Soundtrack Selections An important component, for instance, is the music track. In the opening sequence in the beauty salon we listen to a 1960s 'girly' group, an emblem of old-fashioned romanticism and, less obviously, male domination. When we move to Susan's world it is rock and roll of a more contemporary, unromantic, and insistent kind-the song is 'Urgent' [M]y essential point here is to establish the connections between the narrative structure and the languages used to represent it. (Turner, 1999, p. 197) The individual track selection for Desperately Seeking Susan is significant because each track emphasizes a specific mood or idea. Not all tracks will be analyzed here. Into the Groove, performed by Madonna, written by Madonna and Steve Bray. (Courtesy of Sire Records and Warner Bros. Records). "Live out your fantasy here with me Just let the music set you free" This track plays in a punk club while Susan waits to meet up with Gary. Susan dances to an infectious beat, with lyrics that express her bohemian attitudes. The song's opening line, "you can dance for inspiration" emphasizes the idea that Susan lives in an uninhibited world where it is possible to express yourself through things like dancing and music - something that would surely be scoffed at in Roberta's middle-class suburbia. Urgent, performed by Junior Walker (Courtesy of Motown Records). "You're not shy, you get around You wanna fly; don't want your feet on the ground You stay up, you won't come down You wanna live, you wanna move to the sound" This track is a driving song with a hard beat that plays during one of Susan's scenes to contrast the softer, more feminine and romantic tunes performed during Roberta's opening scenes. Music helps to underscore the fact that these two women are different in almost every way imaginable. You Belong to Me performed by Carly Simon (Courtesy of Elektra/Asylum Records). "Why'd you tell me this Were you looking for my reaction What do you need to know Don't you know I'll always be your girl You don't have to prove to me you're beautiful to strangers I've got loving eyes of my own" This track plays softly in the background during the suburban birthday party scene. This deceptive song sounds romantic and hopeful, but the lyrics reveal sadness and hurt. Much like Roberta's life, there is the sense that there are flaws beneath a seemingly perfect surface. Someday, Some Way performed by Marshall Crenshaw (Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records, Inc.). "I can't stand to see you sad I can't stand to hear you cry If you can't tell me what you need All I can do is wonder why Someday, some way, Maybe I'll understand you" This track expresses Roberta's strong desire to leave the protective cocoon of the suburbs, and to create her own identity. Respect performed by Aretha Franklin (Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.). "What you want Baby, I got What you need Do you know I got it All I'm askin' for Is for a little respect when you come home" This track plays as Roberta enters the city to find Susan. It marks the beginning of Roberta's transformation from housewife into a free and assertive woman. Her actions and the song give her a new identity independent of her husband, signifying that in the city she will become a person in her own right, rather than being merely a reflection of someone else. Conclusion Desperately Seeking Susan has a distinctly feminist flavour. In its contrast of marriage and suburbia versus the single city life, it uses characterization, spaces, dress and music to highlight the transformation of Roberta from suburban housewife to "real" city woman. In contrasting the suburbs and city in this way, the film emphasizes a portrayal of suburbia as an emotional, spiritual and cultural wasteland, while it is the city and its inhabitants that capture the imagination, heart and mind of Roberta. Her transformation from suburban housewife to city-dwelling independent woman, who chooses to have a relationship with Dez rather than being trapped in marriage with Gary, is underscored by changes in dress, by the acquisition of new friends, a job, and a new urban environment. References Baxandall, R., & Ewen, E. (2000). Picture Windows: How the Suburbs Happened. New York: Basic Books. Retrieved December 24, 2005, from Questia database: (1993). The Madonna Connection: Representational Politics, Subcultural Identities, and Cultural Theory (C. Schwichtenberg, Ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Retrieved December 24, 2005, from Questia database: Langer, C. L. (1996). A Feminist Critique: How Feminism Has Changed American Society, Culture, and How We Live from the 1940's to the Present. New York: Icon Editions. Retrieved December 24, 2005, from Questia database: McCreadie, M. (1990). The Casting Couch and Other Front Row Seats: Women in Films of the 1970s and 1980s. New York: Praeger Publishers. Retrieved December 24, 2005, from Questia database: Palmer, W. J. (1995). The Films of the Eighties: A Social History. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Retrieved December 24, 2005, from Questia database: Seidelman, S. (Director). (1985). Desperately Seeking Susan [Motion Picture]. United States: Orion Pictures. Soundtrack Selections retrieved December 24, 2005 from Tham, Christine (2001) Michael D's DVD Reviews Page. Retrieved December 24, 2005, from Turner, G. (1999). Film as Social Practice. London: Routledge. Retrieved December 24, 2005, from Questia database: Read More