1 - ‘The Woman Destroyed’ in Blue Jasmine

Summary

Abstract

Pondering whether the central presence of women in Allen's films is a sign of his being sensitive to their needs and desires, Richard Feldstein (1989) refers to this position as ‘a myth’. If there is a woman Allen can be identified with, it would be Simone de Beauvoir, who, in The Woman Destroyed (1967), considers self-reflectively the myths that condition women and drive them into despair and personal disintegration. The fragmented personality of Jasmine/Janine French could be read in Allen's film Blue Jasmine as a reflection of and on her objective/subjective subordination through a first masculine/feminine point of view (Allen/ French).

Keywords: myth, feminism, de Beauvoir

how I only hear and see what I want to …

– Woody Allen

The above quote by Woody Allen relates to his reflection on women and, I would add, also represents his self-projection on women in his films, especially Jasmine in one of his major films, Blue Jasmine (2013).

In 1993, Tim Carroll published Allen's biography bearing the title Woody and his Women, which attempts to unravel Allen's obsessive attitude to women. Allen has recurrently been criticized for his complicated relationships with women in his films, above all when they play the central character. Just mentioning the title of a recent article – ‘“It's complicated really”: Women in the Films of Woody Allen’ by Joanna Rapf – suffices to highlight the overall tendency in the ongoing discussion on representations of women in Allen's work. According to Rapf, the complication finds its source in his films’ self-referentiality and self-reflexivity, which either encapsulates women in a male gaze or allows for a feminist challenge to be conceived. The eponymous heroine of one of his later films, Blue Jasmine, is a case in point, as she incarnates this ambivalence. Jasmine represents the contemporary female character in turmoil, as signified by her fragmented solitary talking on the plane in the film's opening scene. In turmoil and in transit, between New York and San Francisco, is a condition that seems to fit the description of Jasmine's identity, as she is first seen going West (to San Francisco) to start a new life.