The Frustration of the Ash Girl in The Barefoot Contessa: Traces of Carmen in a Hollywood Fairy Tale
Keywords:
feminist film criticism, show business drama, deconstruction, fairy tales, CarmenAbstract
The Barefoot Contessa, which tells of the personal evolution of María Vargas, is a transgressive film, since it demystifies the rise of a diva, though both the representation of sexuality and the female protagonist are as conservative as those in any other mainstream Hollywood studio film. This paper aims to complete a comparative study between the film and one of its defining inspirations, the novella Carmen. María Vargas can be understood as an intermediate figure between the passivity of many popular fairy-tale heroines and Carmen’s savageness. After all, María believes in patriarchal conventions while longing for Prince Charming; that is why she becomes the victim of her own desires. On the contrary, taking full advantage of the sexual dimension she is reduced to, Carmen uses it against men.
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