Women in "THE GODFATHER"

                                           WOMEN IN THE GODFATHER

Throughout history, women have been shown in film as being docile, submissive and of a lower social ranking than men. The 1972 Academy Award winning film The Godfather (directed by Francis Ford Coppola) is a story about an Italian-American Mafia “family” from New York. Unlike some “gangster” films, this movie seems to still draw in both male and female audiences (Haskell 1997). The film follows the life of Michael Corleone and his father as they try to regain power among the other mafia families. The major themes seen in this film are balance of family/business, power transfer among the business, and the separation of male/female roles in the family. Throughout the film, men are used to represent the business side of the operation, while women are used to represent the family aspect of “family business”. The film uses cinematography techniques in order to create differences in power and respect between men and women. Light, sound, dialogue, staging and symbolism are all used in order to create these differences. All of these apparatuses of cinema can be seen throughout the roles of the women in the film, especially in Kay.

           

One of the subtlest yet most effective ways that a director/cinematographer can create character development and dynamics in film is by using light sound and staging. Lighting is one of the most fundamental aspects to cinematography and can change an entire scene depending on where the light is placed. In this film, light and dark is used to separate men (business) and women (family). The men are almost always seen in dark lighting, with strong hard shadows. The rooms are dimly lit, with rays of light cast from a slightly open window or a soft table lamp. Women are usually seen in soft bright light. Many times these scenes are outdoors, or inside a brightly lit room. Scenes with women rarely are in a dark place in The Godfather. This use of light is supposed to be symbolic of women being innocent, good, and non-involved with the dirty side of the family business. Like as seen in the Bible, light is representative of good and purity (family/women), while dark is of death and trickery (business/men).

            Examples of this usage of light and dark can be seen throughout the entire film. In the opening sequence, Don Corleone and Amerigo Bonasera are talking in the Don’s office. The room is so dimly lit that all you can see are the highlights cast on the character’s faces from the slightly open window shades. Bonasera is asking the Don to kill the two men who assaulted his daughter, since no Sicilian can deny a request on his daughter’s wedding day. This scene is full of power and conspiracy, and thus is represented by the darkness in the room. When the scene cuts to his actual wedding, he whole screen is suddenly light, colorful and cheery. Even outside however, the darkness finds those who are a part of the family business. The men stand outside under the trees and are shaded from the light, while the women dance in the courtyard fully exposed to the sun. When Michael and Kay are eating dinner at the wedding, the side of their faces that are shaded is the side that faces the Don’s office. Later in the film, the night the Don is shot, Michael walks into his family’s home and the entire place is dark. The only room that has any light in it is the room in which the woman is sitting on the couch. These slight lighting changes are not easily picked up upon by the viewer, but do enhance the viewing experience because they create subliminal messages to the audience showing them the differences between the roles of men and women in the movie.

            Another way a director may use the subliminal to enhance the scene is through sound. The use of music, dialogue, and score can all be looked at critically in any movie one watches. The soundtrack to a film is what lets the audience know how they are supposed to feel, what they should prepare themselves for, or how to react to a scene. Sound is used in the Godfather in this fashion to again separate the men and women (family/business). For example, in the opening sequence, the Don is talking to Bonasera. The room is still and quiet. The only sound the audience hears is their conversation.  This creates a more serious, business-like atmosphere for the scene. When the scene cuts to outside the office at the wedding, suddenly the audience hears joyful music, laughing, talking, and singing. This reassures the audience that it is a family environment, and that business would not take place in this setting. The women and the family in the sequence are very much one, since the role of an Italian woman is to take care of the family and children.  Another example of how music and sound is tied in with women and the family in The Godfather is when Connie’s son is being baptized. Here however, music flows over the entire montage sequence, covering both the family portions and the business portions. In a way, this is representative that although women are never to take part in business affairs, they can’t help but be involved in the family business.

           

            One of the most planned parts of cinematography is staging, symbolism, and camera angle. It is a part that has to be carefully constructed and when shot correctly, can infer many different power dynamics and relationships among characters. It can also be used to make statements about the plot without ever having to actually spell it out in script. In The Godfather, Coppola uses staging through doors and windows more than anything else symbolize separation between men and women, and the roles they both play in the family dynamic.

            In the opening sequence for example, the Don is watching his daughters wedding through his office window. This is an example of how the glass separates the two worlds, and although they can see one another, the two should never be combined. Later at the wedding when Luca is practicing his speech for the Don, a young girl is standing near the entrance to the office. Although she is close in proximity, her face is not shown; she’s wearing white (good) and standing in the lighted area (separated by the shade). This is an example of how Coppola uses these separations in the rest of the film. Later in the wedding sequence, Sonny is seen walking up the stairs in his family home. The shot is place so that Sonny is walking up the stairs on the left hand side, while the women are seen on the bottom right hand ride through a doorway, out of focus and much smaller than Sonny. This could be seen as Sonny walking “above” the women who are located in another world (through the doorway in another room). This room separation is also seen later in this scene when Johnny Fontane is having a meeting with his Godfather, the Don. After he leaves the office, the door is opened and is seen with the camera being inside the office. Outside and down the hallway through, the audience can see women hard at work in the kitchen, again out of focus, and much smaller in the frame. The door is then closed on them, symbolizing how women are shut out of the business and less important than the men.

            The next example of this staging of women to symbolize their place (or lack of one) in the business occurs when Michael realizes that his father has been shot. He and Kay are walking down a city street when she sees the headline to a newspaper reading that Don Corleone has been shot. Michael panics, because the article never says whether he is alive or dead. He immediately runs to the nearest telephone booth to call someone form the family to hear what happened. This next symbolic shot occurs when Michael gets inside the telephone booth alone, leaving Kay outside in the cold. He starts dialing as Kay peers through the window from the outside. This staging shows that Kay is left outside of Corleone family matters, and should never hear what goes on within the business. If one looks closer, a metal piece of the telephone booth is placed directly over Kay’s mouth. This is representative that she and other women in the Corleone family should be seen and not heard. These subtleties help reinforce the idea that women are beneath men and are not respected as equals. This placement would be something that Laura Mulvey would be interested to dissect because it shows the lack of a woman’s voice in comparison to a strong dominant male voice and how Kay is best suited for just something pretty to look at (1999).

            After the Don is in the hospital for quite some time, he is finally released and allowed to return home. When is arrives at his home, he is greeted by his family, many of which are women and children. The camera pans over his estate and shows the women and children all inside the gates. No women are outside of the gates, showing that they are confined to the Corleone estate.

            As the plot develops, Michael is faced with a decision about what to do about his father’s conspirator, Sollozzo. He ends up deciding to murder both him and the Police officer who was doing backdoor work for Sollozzo. Because he committed this crime, he needed to flee the country until things calmed down. He ends up settling in his father’s hometown in Sicily. Here he sets his eyes on a beautiful Sicilian woman named Apollonia. If the audience watches the scenes of her in the movie, they will see instances where she is coming in or out of doorways in conjuncture with her role in Michael’s life.

            This door symbolism usually is seen with closed doors or doorways; however later in the film there is a very active use of this symbolism in Connie’s home. When she finds out that her husband is having an affair, she loosing control. She starts throwing dishes and causing a scene. This is the first time in the film that a woman acts “out of line” thus breaking that barrier that had been set up. When Carlo begins to approach her violently, Connie tries to retreat, however it’s too late. She runs through a set of glass doors and attempts to close them on Carlo but fails. She then tries to hide in the bathroom and Carlo closes the door on the two of them before he assaults her. This symbolism shows that when women step out of place, that door cant be closed gain, and if it can, it’s violently. This reinforces the entire idea that women should remain in their submissive role and not associate themselves with the private life of their husbands.

            The final and most obvious example of this symbolism occurs in the closing sequence, when Kay confronts Michael about Carlo’s death. After Connie has again burst open the door to the men’s world, Michael and Kay are left alone with Kay very distraught. Michael becomes very aggravated when Kay continues to ask him if he had Carlo killed and finally lets her ask him that question, one time, with the promise that she will never ask about the business again. Michael lies to her, but she is thrilled to know he “didn’t” have his own brother in law killed. Kay walks out of the room and down the hallway. In this shot both Michael and Kay are in the frame, but Kay is very close up and out of focus as Michael and his associates are center frame and in focus. Contrary to what Mulvey says about women’s close ups being a way to objectify them, since Kay is blurred it leaves her completely nondescript (1999). One of Michaels collogues then literally closes the door on Kay to end the film. This is one of the most apparent representations of “shutting out” and silencing of women in the film. Molly Haskell of the New York Times comments on this scene saying it “signif(ies) as decisively as a rub-out that the wife will have no part in Michael's future business dealings, the heart of his life” (1997). This final sequence reinforces all the assumptions and innuendo about women’s role in the mafia family. Not only does Michael forbid her from ever asking him questions about the business again, he then lies to her and shits the door in her face. All of the negative themes about women are highlighted in this short sequence.

           

            All the women in this film represent a part of Michael’s life and his Sicilian heritage. His mother obviously represents traditional Sicily. She is maternal, compliant, and a perfect companion to the Don. She embraced the idea that women should remain this way and even advises her son not to get involved with another couple’s problems. Connie can be seen as a representation of and Americanized-Sicilian, more stubborn and feisty. Kay on the other hand, represents a “road not taken” by Michael (Haskell 1997). In the beginning of the film, Kay is full of life. She wears bright clothes, and carries herself confidently and pleasantly. As the film progresses and Kay becomes more entrenched in Michael’s life, the youthful spark she once had disappears. If one were to hold up pictures of the first frame Kay in seen in compared to the last frame, he/she would assume that more than just a few years had gone by at that point. By the end of the film, Kay is so confused and hurt by Michael’s business affairs that she has aged dramatically, and no longer is an outlet for a “different life” for Michael.

            As if all of these representations through cinema weren’t enough to guide the discourse of the film, there are even times where the script creates the divide between men and women. Many times, Don Corleone is found saying things such as “act like a man” or insinuating that women wouldn’t/couldn’t understand the business that the men are a part of. There are often instances where the men verbally talk down to the women, make it known that they are not equals with them, or suggest that male is the better gender. This is only the filler for the cinematography that is used to display this theme.

           

            One thing that is odd about “The Godfather” is that although women never have the same rights, respect or prestige as the men, they are extremely taken care of. The females in the family are protected by their brothers, uncles, fathers etc. and never seem to be in harms way. This however, could be seen in a way as though women are property of the men, and men don’t like other men messing with their property. Coppola uses many different techniques in order to subtly create this imbalance of power and successfully drives the audience to make these assumptions about gender. If the audience watches the film through these different filters they would be able to pick up on many more examples of this imbalance through light, sound, and symbolism and staging.

                                                           

Works Cited

Haskell, Molly. (1997). “World of 'The Godfather': No Place for Women”. The New
     York Times. Published: March 23, 1997. New York, NY.

Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Film Theory and Criticism:
     Introductory Readings. Eds. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. New York: Oxford UP,
     1999: 833-44.

The Godfather. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James
     Caan and Diane Keaton. 1972. VHS. Paramount Home Video, 1999.