After a devastating WWI came Modernism in full force, and with it the modern woman who bobbed her hair, danced to jazz, and expected the same independence as men. Along with the new “wild” woman known as flappers came a new cultural trope, the vamp, the dangerous woman, later to be called femme fatale. These women were usually pared with women of traditional simple virtues for contrast. Vamps dressed in the latest modern clothes, casted spells on men, and sometimes tempted them to commit murder. The man who was “bewitched” was forgiven, and the blame went to the modern woman.
Made of footage from Night of the Hunter, Metropolis, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, and Orphans of the Storm.
The Flapper
2020
4:00
