he camera loves women. It loves watching us move,
it loves watching us get dressed, get undressed,
smile, cry, fall in love, get hurt, get drunk, have sex,
be assaulted, be wronged, be distressed... But there’s one
thing it does not like us to do: it does not like us being
angry. Or does it?
I, for one, love to see anger on screen. It’s an explosive,
all-consuming emotion. White-hot rage blinds you and
makes your blood boil. On-screen anger is terrifying
because of how familiar it can be. Everyone has been
angry at least once in their life. At something or someone,
at an annoyance or an injustice, at their own foolishness
or someone else’s maliciousness. Movies just dial it up
to eleven. Jack Nicholson spit-yelling with fury in A Few
Good Men? Into it. Peter Finch screaming on live television
that he’s mad as hell in Network? More of that. Al Pacino’s
raspy outbursts in... every movie he’s been in since 1992?
One thousand times yes.
Cinema loves angry men. It loves those who are
righteous in their rage as well as those who just have
short tempers. But we’ve got a real problem with allowing
women to express that same emotion – until now. And
who’s got more reason to be angry, to be raging all day,
seething on a daily basis, than women? Right now, female
rage is in the air, and it’s finally making its way onto the
screen. And it feels revelatory.
So, what does it look like, when women are finally
allowed to rage on screen? And what should filmmakers
consider when writing and directing women who are
seething with anger?WORDS BY ANNA BOGUTSKAYA ILLUSTRATION BY ALICE CARNEGIE TYPE BY LAURÈNE BOGLIOAN OFFICIAL GUIDE TO DEPICTING FEMALE ANGER ON SCREEN.
1 — ANGER ISN’T PRETTY
Don’t waste your time picking out the right shade of lipstick
to go with a raging monologue. Anger is not a pretty
emotion, and expecting it to look pretty on women is the
same as expecting them to be more focused on their hair
when experiencing and processing pain.2 — ANGER IS POLITICAL
The world is pretty messed up in general, but particularly
for women, and even more so for women of colour, queer
women and trans women. When your very existence
is subject to constant abuse, anger can be a tool. And
whose anger we’re allowed to see on screen (mostly
white women) and, more importantly, whose rage we
take seriously as opposed to transform into a stereotype,
is vitally important.3 — ANGER IS ROUTINE
More likely than not, every woman in your life is
angry, every minute of every day. Even the character
of Marmee in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, a figure of
endless generosity and warmth, confesses to “feeling
angry nearly every day”. Anger doesn’t need a reason.
A woman doesn’t need to be abused, raped or subjected
to violence to be entitled to feel anger. Everyday, barely-
contained seething makes for powerful, relatable
performances.T
026 The Promising Young Woman Issue