Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Food, Glorious Food
The two main characters in Daisies are constantly eating or at least playing with food. They have lavish dinners at restaurants, bathe in milk and playfully slice bananas and sausage. This trend culminates in the scene in which they sneak into a feast, indulge their palettes, and engage in a food fight. What is the point of all this food, glorious food? Can you make sense of the use of food in at least some of these scenes?
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I believe the main usage of the food in this film represents them breaking the norm. I feel like the expectation for women when this film was made, was for them to be extremely skinny and to watch what they eat. The usage of the food shows that they are not only disregarding the expectation for their bodies, and they are showing that no one else can control their life. The scene at the end where they crash the banquet represents the destruction of the expectation for them to be “lady like”. I think that there would be an expectation for them to use proper manners and to not make fools of themselves. The ending scene was to show that they have no cares for the social expectation for their behavior. They were making a mess of the food, not using the proper utensils, and they were wrecking the room. Not to mention they had a massive food fight that ended up ruining many of the dishes and almost all of the food. Another example of them breaking the normal expectation of society is when they are tricking older men into buying them food. They set up the men, who probably are cheating on their wives, and convince them to buy a massive meal and promise to go back on the train with them. Only to jump off at the first chance and return to their house. They are unorganized, filthy, and act like children, but it is all in rebellion to the idea that women are supposed to be controlled and well behaved.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the fact that the two main characters (girls/women) are always eating symbolizes two things. Firstly, I think that it symbolizes those breaking social norms, since typically women are viewed as eating more modestly or at least at the proper times only. However, these two girls are extremely impolite and eat like there is no tomorrow in everything that they do. A great example of this is the many times they are in the restaurant with all the different men. It is in these restaurants that they order seemingly hundreds of courses, and scarfing them down in an almost disgusting way to watch. Another thing that I think this constant eating or playing with food symbolizes, is their hunger for something, whether it’s, feel like “bad-girls”, to feel emotion/lack of emotion, for a feeling of power, for guilt, for immortality, it’s hard to tell. However, one point where it is clear to depict their purpose is when they are playing with/cutting up the bananas and sausages. In this scene, we get a sense that they are in a way making fun of/de-masculinizing the image of a man. From there, we can look back and almost that is very similar in intent to what they did by having all those men take them out to dinner. They de-masculinized those men by getting them to a somewhat vulnerable state – in which the men were desiring only these two girls/women and put all else aside for the time being – and then they pulled the plug on them as they did with sausage and banana. In the very end of the film however, when the girls sneak into a feast, this in and of itself is very symbolic/revealing of the girls and of life in a way. Firstly, we see that as soon as the girls mess up a place setting, they simply move right along to the next clean set, never wanting to stay at the dirty or messy place at the table. I see this as the girls always wanting sort of a fresh start/a chance to start over. However, in terms of the ending and of life, the film depicts that you only get so many redoes in life (if any). In addition, at the end even when they try to fix it all and put the plates back together they cant. This shows that life is fragile and you have to be careful what you do with it because once you make a bad decision you cannot undo it. It will always be there.
ReplyDeleteThe food in Daisies is part of a feminist background. Women notoriously have a complicated relationship with food. Often times, women will diet, depriving themselves of food, in order to look skinny and attractive to men. Counterintuitively, however, it is often looked at that a more well-endowed women is stronger and healthier, signaling that she will be able to provide any potential offspring with a greater chance of survival and sustenance. Even though food is the source of sustenance, strength, and health for human beings, and women are inherently given the ability to birth children and provide them with care an sustenance , it has somehow come about that women should be thin, depriving themselves of the food that gives them the very right and access to these characteristics. In Daisies one of the girls mentions not wanting to eat because she doesn't want to get fat, however, this comment is forgotten as she eats ravenously throughout the rest of the film. The way the two girls eat is unmistakably disgusting and gluttonous - not adjectives that would be used hand in hand with femininity. The way the girls choose to eat their food is a rebellion against femininity, and at the same time a weapon against masculinity. In the scene in which the girls are cutting up the sausage with scissors, and eating eggs whole, there is an unmistakable reference to phallic symbols and masculinity. In that scene, the girls cut, chew, and abuse the food, potentially relaying the message that that is what they would do to a man's masculinity. This would make sense, as the film opens with the girls at dinner with an older man, seducing him and exploiting his lust for them into getting an expensive and lavish dinner for their efforts.
ReplyDeleteThe use of food in Umbrellas is simply an added tool to convey the idea of "bad" behavior. Although the film is confusing and hard to interpret at times, it is clear that one of the main messages of the film is the idea of being bad. The two main characters are often portrayed misbehaving by making a mess or acting out of control in public areas, but one of the more subtle misconducts is their indulgence in food. they are often seen eating and wasting deserts and unhealthy foods just for fun. This is interesting because being healthy and taking care of your health is generally a good thing. however since the message of the film is about the girls becoming bad, having them eat unhealthily and waste food more depth to the idea that they are bad and careless people. At the conclusion of the film, this idea is brought out even more as they are shown having a feast as the culminating event of the film. Not only does this scene show them indulging in food, but they are also stealing food that doesn't belong to them making it the ultimate crime in a way.
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