Popcorn Venus

1973, 1974 Avon edition
Marjorie Rosen
Popcorn Venus: Women, Movies and the American Dream
Original price unknown, purchase price $1.50
Very worn paperback
B-

As the subtitle suggests, Rosen takes a look at the images of women in movies from the 1890s to the then present.  (She discusses at least three 1973 movies, including Last Tango in Paris.)  Overall, she's more optimistic than her contemporary Molly Haskell, as shown by the title she chose, From Reverence to Rape, coming up in '74.  For each of the decades, Rosen reveals both the good and the bad in female film images, not seeing definite progress or regress, except in the 1940s and '50s respectively.  Sometimes, to make a point about a genre, or sub-genre, she'll go a few years or even a decade or two beyond the time she's discussing, but generally she proceeds chronologically.  She has a good sense of humor, and an eye for the telling quote. 

Unfortunately, the book could've used a better editor or at least proofreader.  Not only does she trip my pet peeve of the misuse of "disinterested" for "uninterested" no less than three times, but she mistakes "penultimate" for "ultimate" and "exasperate" for "exacerbate."  I also wish she had incorporated the epilogue on women's early contributions as writers and directors into the general chronology.  Additionally, I think she overestimates the male Europeans' insights into women.  Perhaps the European (including British) female characters were more complex, but she lets Bergman off the hook too much for Cries and Whispers.  I've never seen the movie, but from what I've read here and elsewhere, the women are just as stereotypical as the women in American films of the time.  (And I'd rather finally see Klute if I had to choose.)  Finally, while less homophobic than Molly Haskell and Richard Schickel, Rosen is too dismissive of what she calls "freaky sex."

Still, a nice start to the category of feminist film criticism, at least for my book collection.