Weblog #4- "Baby Face"

Baby Face (1933) is a film about a woman who uses her sexuality and power over men to move up in the world of business and get what she wants. It falls into the Fallen Woman category of film because of the way the main character, Lily, trades sex for power in order to remain economically and financially stable. It is somewhat similar, however, to the idea of gangster films we have viewed because it still deals with a person who will do just about anything to get ahead. Where in gangster films the main male character will often use violence to get what he wants, in this fallen woman film the main female character uses sexuality in order to control men into giving her what she desires.

Throughout the film, Lily goes from man to man using them for many different reasons. It starts out with convincing a young man who catches her and her servant, Chico, stowing away on a train to not take them to prison. With a few blinks of her eyes and the line, "why don't we go sit down and talk this over," Lily has the man mesmerized. The remaining majority of the film revolves around Lily's seduction of a variety of business men. With each one, she utters the same line and convinces them to give her what she wants solely based on her sexual nature. Also, with each man she moves higher up in the business world and becomes wealtheir and wealthier as she persuades them to give her money. While she is physically getting everything she wants, Lily is still emotionally unhappy, never finding love or true happiness with any of the men. Only when she meets and begins dating Trentholm, a man who sees through her unmoral actions but is willing to accept them, does she truly find peace and is able to finally give up all the material securities she once thought she needed. This is an aspect of the film that I found interesting. Some may view Lily's manipulation of men a form of female empowerment; however, she is not internally empowered until she meets the right man. Instead, the exchange of sex for power and money only leaves her empty and unsettled. It is interesting to me that Lily felt complete and happy only when she fell in love and found security in a man. Perhaps another theme that can be taken away from this aspect is that one cannot find solice only in the material things in life.

I really enjoyed this film. Apart from the fact that it had sound, making it slightly more enjoyable than some of the silent films we viewed, it was amusing and very fun to watch.