Mildred Pierce

Mildre Pierce

1. Watching Mildred Pierce to its conclusion, I was left with a great dissatisfaction. Mildred Pierce Beragon at the end of the movie had lost everything that she loved seemingly because of a pursuit of independence to provide unabashedly for her children. Yet, somehow ending up with the person she had shunned in the first place.  Jeanine Basinger's The Genre  claims that the genre the women's film was just that, a contradiction.

The women's film is the slybots of genre; or, to put it bluntly, the women's two-face. Of all the genres in Hollywood's history, the woman's film is the most deceptive, as appropriate to the sex that has had to achieve its goals partly through subversion. Everything it destroys, it reaffirms.p.7 

In this, Mildred Pierce exemplifies the third purpose of this genre: the temporary visual release.  Her venture into the working world and eventually as a successful business owner is pleasing because this is a woman doing this at that time. However, Mildred's rejection of the traditional family role of dutiful wife was wrought with missteps, failure and despair.  As the viewer in a modern day world I know that the decision that she made was a right one because her husband was being unfaithful to her. She could not continue to live in the same home with him.  Yet nearing the end of the film you get the sense (implied) that if she had stayed with Mr. Pierce and had listened to his admonishments about Veda, none of the resulting events would have occurred. She said as much at the beginning of her interrogation  by the detectives exclaiming when asked "why did you divorce him?" "because I was wrong. It took me four years to realize that I was wrong."

2. On introduction to Bert Pierce, he states emphatically that Mildred shouldn't be raising the girls like he was a millionaire and that if she didn't spoil them that Veda wouldn't act so belligerent towards him.   Mildred is adamant that the girls need have everything that she could provide for them. This is a clear example of Molly Haskell's (1987) SACRIFICE category. Mildred during her argument with Bert states "they'll never cry, if I have anything to do with it... Those kids come first in this house before either one of us. Maybe that's right and maybe it's wrong but that's the way it is." Mildred proves this statement to be true when she made the monumental sacrifice for Veda's love and attention by giving Monte Beragon one third of her restaurant to satisfy Veda's vanity.  At first it seemed like a normal emotion to want to maintain a proper upbringing for her children, but as the movie progresses it becomes almost a pathological need.  After catching Veda and Monte kissing, Mildred still ended up protecting Veda. Mildred was going to commit suicide so that the suspicion of murderer would be on her. More so, when her suicide attempt was thwarted Mildred would have sacrificed her freedom by confessing.

4. I was so awed by the visual aspect of this film. The actresses with their flawless faces, the clothes that I wish I could get my hands and the beautiful sets everything was catching to the eye. The film noir era is undoubtedly a visually captivating genre. Every scene has dramatic stagings that draw you in. The scene at the boardwalk when the officer emerges from the shadow and the preceding minutes when Mildred has her hand on the bars the way the shadows fall around her.  This film's cinematography had to be dark because of the nature of the plot: investigating a murder. The score was dramatic orchestrations designed to put emphasis on a plot twist or dramatic occurrence.  The scene where Veda explains to her mother about the blackmail and the reasoning behind it the score builds and builds to an ominous crescendo when Mildred tears up the check. 

5. The "mammy" role has been defined in movies as a means to render black woman as entities only capable of being wet nurses and maternal figures to white children.  The Lottie character is not represented as a maternal figure in this film but as the "liberated" mammy. 

Hollywood films presented two, essential, garden-variety Mammy images.... The other was her "liberated," domesticated sister, characterized by McDaniel, Beavers and others as the maid, servant, cook and faithful soul. this image supposedly emancipated the Mammy from her antebellum entrapment by a more equal posting in the home of the white family. p.5

Lottie was seen in the kitchen at Mildred's and at the house.  She was eternally cheerful and peppy proclaiming at the opening of Mildred's "this is just like my wedding night. So exciting!" A loyal servant, Lottie was so happy when Mildred returned from Mexico.

6. I do not get the sense that Mildred Pierce is a mixture of the "male gaze" and the "female" gaze. What I have gleaned from watching the movie and reading the following material is that the "female gaze" is not seen in this film.  The male gaze is seen prominently even in the most simplest scenes. For example when Mildred was changing the lightbulb the first thing we see is her perfectly sculpted legs sitting a top a ladder. In another scene, a newly emancipated Veda is dressed seductively and singing for sailors at an establishment. There weren't any evident "female gaze" scenes. It could be argued that the "female gaze" was employed when Monte Beragon was courting Mildred, but even in those scenes Mildred was the object. At the beach house, the camera shots were cut away from him to reveal a seductive Mildred posing on the floor. Also, the moment when they were on the beach the focus was on Mildred and what bathing suit she was wearing. The femme fatale, Veda, was an object of the male gaze when her mother, being too independent, could not fulfil that role anymore. You see Mildred go from wearing clothes that showed off her femininity to big fur coats and boxy shaped clothes. This happened because Veda was now of age to be desired; able to receive the male gaze.  Also with her new found sexuality and femininity her lust for money and lifestyle was even greater. She now was using deceit and manipulation to obtain what she wanted. Blackmailing a man that was clearly in love with her showed the femme fatale manipulation at full steam. Veda personifies the femme fatale character by being deceitful and manipulative to the end, pulling on her mother's heart strings guilting her into taking the blame for the murder.