Laura

I found the 1944 noir film "Laura" by Otto Preminger to be a strange movie with a surprising twist. I found it both irritating and impossible to relate to the main character Laura due to her being unstable and indecisive as a character. To begin with, the only way you truly know of her is by what other characters (mainly her love interests) say about her. Half way through the movie she makes her introduction which truly doesn't change the scene. Laura is rather an object of lust than a real character in this movie. I feel as though she was created this way and not as a relate able character to play up her love interests personalities and rather how different they are from one another. The only true thing that connects them is their infatuation with Laura which in turn defines them. This love triangle alone makes the movie hard to follow. Laura is also hard to understand because she doesn't even have a male type to define her as a person. She attracts Lydecker, whom is a possessive and intelligent older man, Carpenter, a young charming dead beat womanizer, and Detective McPherson, a handsome man whom embodies the heroic manly man that needs saving. I feel as though this movie was filmed to expose the three different types of men in which woman fall for; and not to purely expose social satire of upper class human beings, as Nick Schager writes in his film review. With Laura not having one love type, you can assume she has multiple personalities since she cannot make up her mind and instead let's others do her deciding for her.
I see Laura as an object also because of the way she lives more in her centerpiece portrait (which consumes every camera angle when in her home) than as a person. This portrait plays a bigger part in affecting her love interests than she does in person. Her portrait is the living room centerpiece, that reveals Laura in a seductive yet beautiful pose. The painting produces a luminous glow that surrounds her body's outline and contrasts it with a dark background; making her lure in those like Detective McPherson by making her seem irresistible and goddess like. Laura is truly filmed to reflect man's desires and the female product of mans imagination. It is not Laura's personality that men love but her image.
In class discussion, we discussed the purpose of the broken clock as being the final ending scene. I feel as though no one could produce a satisfying answer to why this was chosen to end the film. My only thought would be that it symbolized the end of Lydeckers life. Throughout the movie the clock is filmed as being a "hey look at me" clue to solve the mystery. I never realized it until a student peer pointed out that in certain scenes the clock actually divides Lydecker and McPherson when they are discussing Laura's death. I feel as though the director chose to film the clock in this way to provide the viewer with little hints of who the killer is. To tell us it is right under our noses. The clock continues ticking until Lydeckers death symbolizing the mystery solved.
In reading the articles, I feel as though Laura does not fully capture the description of "The Femme Fatale." Yes, she is the object of obsession for men, however, I feel she does not defy the control of men nor the refute on traditional womanhood. In this particular film, Laura is presented as a sweet, innocent, and helpless schoolgirl with a soft spoken voice. I do not see her as being romantically unhappy but rather indecisive on what to do or who to chose in love. I view Laura not as a seductive woman but as a weak little girl needing direction. I feel as though her remaining to be an independent woman is not a choice but instead a result of her indecisiveness.