OVERVIEW: Maneater follows the story of a woman embodying the femme fatale accordingly to Hall & Oates’ 1982 hit “Maneater.”
PLOT: The woman’s night starts off at what can be considered a restaurant date. She continues getting ready in the car until she arrives at the restaurant. At this restaurant, her date leaves her alone for a brief moment with the money used to pay the check, in which she steals said money and flees the scene before he can return. The story follows her return home, where it can be seen that she has an eviction notice, which can be assumed to be due to a lack of finances. Her room is extremely messy, and while she contemplates her actions, she takes off her ring (her commitment to the man whom she stole from), changes attire, and then leaves to continue her thievery. From here, she steals her former date/significant other’s car, and drives off. However, her significant other has realized her deception, thus confronting her. During this confrontation, he realizes that she does not have the finances to purchase the new attire she is sporting, alongside the absence of her ring that binds their relationship. He takes back his keys, leaving her alone with no mode of transportation other than her feet. Despite this moral revelation, the woman continues her travels, and repeats the same process of financial theft. In the end, despite any moral consequences, the woman prevails as she is never apprehended and conclusively able to pay her rent, thus nullifying her impending eviction.
UNIT 2 ARCHETYPICAL QUALITIES:
- Divided Identity: The woman’s divided identity is especially portrayed by her moral consciousness that is evident in scenes where she is alone. She is tired and stressed, and her actual socio-economic status definitely does not match her physical disposition. On one hand, she may be viewed as a viable romantic interest, but on the other, she is a seductress using her abilities for her own survival.
- Fake, Alluring Smile: The woman’s fake smile is persistent throughout her interactions with her implied significant other. She attempts to put on a bubbly persona, especially through the means of her vibrant smile. This is the one quality that she maintains throughout her interactions with others, being her strongest artificial mean of deception.
- Overdressing: The gangster of the consumer era was prone to exposition through their apparent overdressing. This concept remained true for the woman in Maneater, as her new bright pink attire is put into question by her spouse.
- Loss of Morality: The woman demonstrates a loss of morality as she is willing to go as far as to commit vehicular theft on her own significant other.
- Recklessness due to Overconfidence: While not directly touched on in Unit 2, the concept was evident throughout some of the readings. The gangster would notoriously believe his own false image, and then act recklessly due to such belief of high standards. In Maneater, the woman does exactly the same, forgetting her ring at her residence, allowing her significant other to catch her without it.
FILMIC SYMBOLISM:
- Dress Colors: White, the color of the woman’s first dress, is symbolic of innocence and purity. Additionally, the color represents Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby, who is arguably aligned with the femme fatale archetype herself. Pink, the color of the woman’s second dress, is symbolic of a lack of self-worth and an unwillingness to take matters seriously. While she is taking her own financial situation seriously, she does not account for her immorality towards society, and especially her significant other.
- Musicality and Rhythm: While wearing the white dress, the woman evidently is precisely matching the beats and hits of the score with her actions. In this sense, the woman in white represents a woman of pristine intention and perfection. When the woman sports the pink dress, she loses her rhythmic precision except for one moment: when she is alone driving the stolen car. The woman’s head-bobbing to the beat of the song is indicative of her knowledge of her own actions, as one could say that she now knows exactly what she is doing.
- The Mirror: When reentering her residence, the woman has a few shots of herself in front of a mirror. While her reflection is still evident, the light is relatively blinding, blurring some of her features. This is representative of her own immorality beginning to blind her to impending consequences, especially as she begins to believe her own methods of deception. She is infatuated with her own beauty, but her complex reactions to herself are indicative of her envelopment with her own facade.
- Facial Recognition: For the first forty seconds of the film, the woman is only observed through her features. Her face is never identified straight-on by the camera. This changes when she is face-to-face with her implied significant other at the restaurant, as once she puts the menu down, the audience receives a full-front angle of her face. This is symbolic of her masking her own identity, as we see her only in portions or unconventional reflective angles before she officially begins to act on her ploys of thievery. In the same sense, it demonstrates how the audience can also be prone to falling under the fallacious spell of beauty, as the woman could easily be objectified by the portions seen of her in these same seconds.
- Fourth-Wall Break: After the woman steals the car, while she is driving, she can be observed to be swaying to some form of musicality. In this sense, she is swaying to the beat of the score (“Maneater”), which is indicative of her knowing exactly what she is doing. She aligns with her immorality, and in a twisted sense, finds enjoyment in her knowledge and actions.
- Stationary Canted Angle: In film, a canted angle is where the camera is angularly displaced. This displacement is representative of disorientation of what is being captured, and this angle is specifically and intentionally used only once–during the confrontation scene. In this scene, the woman is fully exposed to her significant other, thus eliciting disorientation on her end as she had fallaciously believed she would be able to act in the ways she has been without any repercussions. This disorientation represents her reaction to her unforeseen consequences (the implied abrasiveness of her significant other upon her exposition), but also represents her disorientation in morality, as even after this confrontation, she continues to act immorally in her ways of deception and thievery.