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Research
Paper
INDS
June
13, 2019
Research Paper
Le
Bal
Introduction
Le Bal is a silent French film that
takes place in a lounge and travels through time (Boulangé,
2016) .
Through the film, about 50 years of both social and political time passes,
showing the change in dress, politics, and culture. As time passes, the actions
of the characters change their dress, their opinions on groups and politics.
Even though there is no speaking, it is possible to fully understand what is
happening and the change in the world.
Purpose of the research
The main purpose of the study is to
find out different changes through different times, such as a change in
politics, culture and dress. The movie is a complete mixture of elements that
are enough to understand what is happening in the world and what type of
changes have been occurred through these times.
Thesis Statement
The
change in politics, culture and dress can be understood by understanding the Le
Bale film.
Representation of Life through Le
Bal
At
the beginning of the movie, there is a woman going inside the lounge, and other
women join as well. They want somewhere underground, so people do not see them.
She stops at the top of the steps, wanting to search for a table, and checks
her makeup in the mirror on the wall (imdb, 2019) . Most women came in
the same way and then sat at a table. After the women come in, the men come in,
dressed nicely. There are about 12 people at different ages, some look like
they could be young, and the others look like they are about 60. The men go to
the bar and smile at the women to see what they are interested in. The women
then choose the men they want to be with.
The
music in the bar starts playing. This makes all of the men go over to the women
to try and dance with them. One man, especially seems to be rich and doing
well, and has a female partner that he spends time with. Someone women dance.
It seems they are celebrating something. They are all drinking and dancing and
very happy. There is also a rich man and women that people seem to do
everything for. The partner of one woman brings drinks for musicians. They stop
for two minutes. The rich man wears glasses and breaks a glass every time he
tries to use one.
All of the people are still dancing,
and dancing looks almost like a flower. Each couple goes inside the flower. One
man goes in. A woman takes him to dance, and she puts him in the middle and
puts a red flag on the floor for dancing. The man, however, goes to the wife of
the rich man. He has a flag as well and puts it forward for the wife because he
wants to dance with her. The woman with the red flag gets very angry, she kind
of sticks it on them when they dance.
The
woman then goes to find someone to dance with. The rich man gets angry because
the man and his wife did something wrong, maybe just being together or dancing.
The other man did not seem to know that it was the rich man’s wife. The man
also brings drugs onto the table. He wants to take the drugs, but the bartender
cleans off the table. The rich man then goes to the bathroom because he is
angry. He goes to the mirror to look at himself. He has a glass of wine. The
glass in his eyes fell in the glass of wine after he broke it. He wants to kill
himself. The man who was dancing with his wife helps him out, and then all of
them go back into the main area. The rich man takes his stuff, although his
wife at that point is so drunk.
This
is all before World War II. French soldiers come into the bar too. One girl did
not dance with any of the French soldiers. She was watching the time and then
told a man that she needed to leave because it was late. German soldiers went
after the man once he left.
Nazi
German soldiers come into the bar, and the people inside seem to be very
nervous with the Nazis. This shows the politics at that time and the stress
that people were under. Regardless, even though politics and social feelings
change, people still come into the lounge. They talk to each other, flirt,
argue, and makeup. Some leave together, but most do not. Regardless of the
politics or social climate, from the 1930s to World War II, before and after,
the normal process does not seem to change (Drucker, 2017) .
Some of the people in the film seem
to play multiple roles throughout the movie. Some people stay only one
character in the movie. In the beginning, it seemed more lighthearted and happy
and funny with music and dancing, but as the film goes on, they are not as
lively and happy and funny. It seems to go with the time, as the wars do not
show happy times in France - or anywhere.
Also
as the film goes on, the faces and characters start to get a bit blurry. We
cannot tell if people are the same or different. Is the older person at the end
someone who was younger at the beginning? Are they the same people at all? Or
is everyone different? Things in France are changing with time, as are the
people (Lamont & Mizrachi, 2013) . Maybe we are
watching the characters age, or some characters change to something or someone
else in their lives. It is life - as we grow and age, we change as people.
Politics change, social climate changes, and styles and activities change.
Even
though this was a silent movie, it seemed like it was possible to figure out
what was going on with everyone. As time passed, people became more anxious.
Wartime made people nervous, especially the Nazis (Riess, 2014) . People began to age
and acted differently, to dress differently, and celebrate differently.
Although only a movie, it seems to be a good representation of life.
Cultural Changes
After
World War II, many things have been a change in the world, especially in
France, which can be easily reflected by the movie Le Bale. According to Mark
Davis, France was on its knees in 1945, and it faced a lot of destruction at
that tie (Davis, 2015) . However, after the
war, everything changed. People started to live according to their choice.
There has been a strong impact of war on the people and societies that has also
become a major field of the study. For example, the difference between rich and
poor people have been increased in terms of income and wealth due to the tax,
the position of working classes have been improved, state welfare has been
increased etc. It can also be determined by the movie, in which where an
ordinary man wants to dance with the wife of a rich man and get the wrong gesture.
The rich man gets angry because he finds himself superior to that man.
Scola has beautifully represented
the people and social class in the movie by showing a wealthy couple entering
in the room, and everyone is attracted to this presence. However, there is an
important point that has been discussed about the rich people is that things
always go wrong around them rather than their elegance and rich composure. For
example, the rich man falls off from the chair, drop his eyepiece and then his
wife is taken for dancing by another man. The main objective of this act is to
show that the working class was superior to the higher class.
Moreover, the thinking of people has
also been changed due to the war. For example, Assmann and Short in their
article, give a complete description of how people have been changed after the
war, along with their thoughts and thinking (Assmann & Shortt, 2012) . According to them,
some people cannot seem to tolerate the changes that have been occurred during
the past few years. While, there are some people who are still in transition,
and then comes the people who have already accepted the changes. These changes
can be bolstered by the new research implemented by a non-governmental
organization such as NGOs and truth commissions. However, the main issue is the
memory that does not allow people to forget the harsh things about the war.
The movie also represents an element
of feminism. According to the historical significance in France, the women in
the movie were advocating for the feminism. It is because, during the war,
women were not given full rights, as it was meant to be given (Stephenson,
2013) .
The director of the movie, Scola, have shown the power of women by making them
stronger in the movie and representing them in the movie before men. Moreover,
he has also shown the independence level of the women by making them wear pants
instead of the traditional women dress. This act mainly depicts the
independence of women. Similarly, other women in the movie are represented with
her loneliness, by showing that she dances with anyone and enjoys her
independence alone. The movie represents different types of attitudes of women
that have power and can get the attention of the men. According to Ashworth,
during the 1940s, the feminist theory was in practice (Ashworth,
2011) .
Different women at that time constructed strong support for the women by
working on feminist theory. However, it has been indicated by the author that
the feminist agenda had been the part of France even before 1939. However,
during the war times, women were not independent as they were after the war.
Political Changes
The
film turns its theme by presenting the future and then going into the past in
time to 1934 changing the scene where the alliance of communist, socialist and
other radical elements were present in France. The movie represents only a
single colour red, which indicates the presence of communism. According to
Vacche, Le Bal is a little bit different from the historical Hollywood film in
terms of cultural and political cliché (Dalle Vacche, 2014) . There are some acts
of the past in the movies in Hollywood that do not draw the attention of the
audience, but Le Bal adds a self-reflexive edge to the film. However, it can be
indicated that all the problems during the war can be encountered by the film,
along with the diffusion of new history and redefining the boundaries of
history. Today, people live in a society of the spectacle, where the living
styles, culture and political rules have been changed. Through this movie,
people have learned a lot about the past, and are still learning by facing the
future.
In the movie, the environment
doesn’t remain the same; when Nazis enter into the room. It means that people
were afraid of the Nazi at that time as they lived under their control. For
this purpose, Thomas, in his book, wrote about the events that have been
occurred during the war in France (Thomas, 2017) . At the end of the
war, the first priority of the French Government was to consolidate and expand
the French empire, keeping the country independent. Different generic
socio-economic issues have been presented by the author that describes the
changes in politics in France. The author also discusses the contributions of
cinema films and the popular press who have brought a sense of imperialism in
the age of mass media. During the world war, about four rebellions were
affected that shook the French empire such as Kongo war, the rif war of
Morocco, yen bay mutiny and Syrian revolt. However, the people in France were
majorly affected during colonial nationalism and anti-colonial movements.
The movie has also represented the
traditional changes during the world war period. For example, a woman is
represented with the traditional instrument such as violin which sets a certain
mood to the scene. The fact that only women dancing on the dance floor show
that men have gone to the war. The movie also shows the hate of French people
for the Nazi. For example, when a German officer enters into the ballroom, no
one wants to dance with him, not even the lonely women, which shows that no one
was in favour of fascism in France.
Conclusion
The
main objective of this research was to understand the political, cultural and
traditional changes during and after World War II through a French movie Le
Bal. The director of the movie has a quality of presenting culture through the
stories. Basically, it is a dance comedy movie, without dialogues that show the
events during and after World War II. Analyzing this movie is the best way to
examine political change, dressing styles and social climate changes during the
war. The paper mainly shows how people are affected during the war, and then
after war. The movie Le Bal seems to be a good representation of life if
analyzed critically.
References
Ashworth,
L. M. (2011). Feminism, War and the Prospects for Peace: Helena Swanwick
(1864–1939) and the Lost Feminists of Inter-War International Relations. International
Feminist Journal of Politics, 13(1), 25-43.
Assmann, A.,
& Shortt, L. (2012). Memory and political change: Introduction. Memory
and political change, 1-14.
Boulangé, G.
(2016). Memories of Jacques Demy in the cinema of André Téchiné. Post
Script, 35(2), 75.
Dalle Vacche, A.
(2014). The body in the mirror: Shapes of history in Italian cinema .
Princeton University Press.
Davis, M. (2015,
May 5). How World War II shaped modern France. Retrieved from
euronews:
https://www.euronews.com/2015/05/05/how-world-war-ii-shaped-modern-france
Drucker, P.
(2017). The age of discontinuity: Guidelines to our changing society.
Routledge.
imdb. (2019). Le
Bal (1983) Plot Summary. Retrieved from imdb:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085213/plotsummary
Lamont, M.,
& Mizrachi, N. (2013). Ordinary people doing extraordinary things:
responses to stigmatization in comparative perspective. Responses to
Stigmatization in Comparative Perspective, 13-29.
Riess, C.
(2014). The Nazis go underground. Fonthill Media.
Stephenson, J.
(2013). Women in Nazi society. Routledge.
Thomas, M.
(2017). The French empire between the wars: Imperialism, politics and
society. Routledge.
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