«The Stepford Wives» enjoyed a revival for a while when Ira Levin's novel was remade. However, it has been a cult movie since its release. As Gregory J. Paris writes, the act of losing one's personality while adjusting to conformity is an important issue in this film. In addition, it deals with man's obsession with "creating", until the day he realizes that the act of procreating is perhaps humanity's greatest gift for creation. It also reminds us of the cult to the mother figure, of the dangers of modern technocracies, of phallocracy...
All these concepts are expressed in a peculiar way in «The Stepford Wives,» a movie that is among the best of Hollywood's second golden era, the 1970's. Director Bryan Forbes, producer Edgar J. Scherick, and, among the performers, actress Paula Prentiss, recognized comedy as an intelligent genre to make social comments, with Stepford as a metaphor. With moving dolls bestowed with graceful movements, dressed in long dresses, wearing pamela hats, and carrying parasols, the tone of the sophisticated American comedy seemed appropriate to tell this horror story.
The connection with dolls is established since the first sequence, when the Eberhart family is moving to Stepford following father Walter's unilateral decision, and the kids call mother Joanna's attention to someone carrying an undressed mannequin across the street in New York City: this similitude is used again, most notably when Joanna hosts the Stepford husbands, dressed in a flesh-colored suit.
Once in Stepford, the suburb is described as a liberal place with good schools, low taxes, pure air, and businesses dedicated to electronics. In Stepford you can sleep with your doors open. Wives are all dressed up, they have no interest in women's rights, and except for Bobbie Markowe and Charmaine Wimpiris, the rest --when not cooking or ironing-- complain of not being able to bake every day or would promote a brand of starch spray for free, just because it is such a good product. The husbands are as boring and robot-like as their wives. They're all successful professionals, who obediently have joined the men's association, which turns into Joanna's nightmare and builds the tension of the film.
There is little suspense in «The Stepford Wives,» as we know it in other movies: from the beginning we know that something is wrong, but the filmmakers make us watch the anomalous situation with music that is far from horror or suspense. What Forbes and company do is to tease us because we know that Joanna will become "Playmate of the Year", according to sketches made by an ex-illustrator from Playboy magazine, and technical specifications of a former Disney executive. When Joanna understands why Carol Van Sant acts like a zombie, why Charmaine hangs her tennis outfit for good, and why Bobbie turns into a painstaking housekeeper, Joanna is confronted with her own replica. Why? Because the men can. As if saying "Me Tarzan, you second person, you stick to the loser position in a game that I always win".
«The Stepford Wives» reminds me of another movie, L. G. Berlanga's «Grandeur nature» (Life-Size), in which Michel Piccoli buys himself a plastic doll to replace his wife. Berlanga and scriptwriters Rafael Azcona and Jean-Claude Carrière emphasized psychological aspects. On «Stepford,» while many of its comments add spice to the story (someone affirms that blackmail is what makes America great, another male has been sent to Panama to arrange a new revolution), they point to social and political reasons instead to explain this state of things, of this dehumanized community that money and know-how can buy. The technological paranoia enters the main bedroom. The male, confronted with the agony of some of his gender's privileges, his false attributes and wrong values, hits against the female. This may seem pessimistic, but it is also quite realistic.
The points «The Stepford Wives» made, created a controversy when it was released in 1975. Since then, science has advanced. Maybe now they can make better Stepford wives, that cannot be altered by liquor or a stab, but many things related to the human heart remain the same. The problem will persist as long as our egotistic approach to our fellow human beings of any gender remains the same, making the film actual still today.
All these concepts are expressed in a peculiar way in «The Stepford Wives,» a movie that is among the best of Hollywood's second golden era, the 1970's. Director Bryan Forbes, producer Edgar J. Scherick, and, among the performers, actress Paula Prentiss, recognized comedy as an intelligent genre to make social comments, with Stepford as a metaphor. With moving dolls bestowed with graceful movements, dressed in long dresses, wearing pamela hats, and carrying parasols, the tone of the sophisticated American comedy seemed appropriate to tell this horror story.
The connection with dolls is established since the first sequence, when the Eberhart family is moving to Stepford following father Walter's unilateral decision, and the kids call mother Joanna's attention to someone carrying an undressed mannequin across the street in New York City: this similitude is used again, most notably when Joanna hosts the Stepford husbands, dressed in a flesh-colored suit.
Once in Stepford, the suburb is described as a liberal place with good schools, low taxes, pure air, and businesses dedicated to electronics. In Stepford you can sleep with your doors open. Wives are all dressed up, they have no interest in women's rights, and except for Bobbie Markowe and Charmaine Wimpiris, the rest --when not cooking or ironing-- complain of not being able to bake every day or would promote a brand of starch spray for free, just because it is such a good product. The husbands are as boring and robot-like as their wives. They're all successful professionals, who obediently have joined the men's association, which turns into Joanna's nightmare and builds the tension of the film.
There is little suspense in «The Stepford Wives,» as we know it in other movies: from the beginning we know that something is wrong, but the filmmakers make us watch the anomalous situation with music that is far from horror or suspense. What Forbes and company do is to tease us because we know that Joanna will become "Playmate of the Year", according to sketches made by an ex-illustrator from Playboy magazine, and technical specifications of a former Disney executive. When Joanna understands why Carol Van Sant acts like a zombie, why Charmaine hangs her tennis outfit for good, and why Bobbie turns into a painstaking housekeeper, Joanna is confronted with her own replica. Why? Because the men can. As if saying "Me Tarzan, you second person, you stick to the loser position in a game that I always win".
«The Stepford Wives» reminds me of another movie, L. G. Berlanga's «Grandeur nature» (Life-Size), in which Michel Piccoli buys himself a plastic doll to replace his wife. Berlanga and scriptwriters Rafael Azcona and Jean-Claude Carrière emphasized psychological aspects. On «Stepford,» while many of its comments add spice to the story (someone affirms that blackmail is what makes America great, another male has been sent to Panama to arrange a new revolution), they point to social and political reasons instead to explain this state of things, of this dehumanized community that money and know-how can buy. The technological paranoia enters the main bedroom. The male, confronted with the agony of some of his gender's privileges, his false attributes and wrong values, hits against the female. This may seem pessimistic, but it is also quite realistic.
The points «The Stepford Wives» made, created a controversy when it was released in 1975. Since then, science has advanced. Maybe now they can make better Stepford wives, that cannot be altered by liquor or a stab, but many things related to the human heart remain the same. The problem will persist as long as our egotistic approach to our fellow human beings of any gender remains the same, making the film actual still today.