Ordinary Lady in Stereo (where available)

 I know I introduced last week's film as The Last Ordinary Lady (and those of you who saw the film will understand why) but we have time to squeeze one more "bonus" lady into the series before we move on to other topics.


Those of you who know me at all will be aware of my love for all things stereoscopic, and I try to include at least one 3D film in each series. In this instance, the choices were surprisingly limited; something that tells you a lot about mainstream cinema's attitudes toward female characters.

In fact, I was able to come up with exactly one film that fit the Ordinary Lady criteria, so, unsurprisingly, that is the film I will be showing next week!

(Presumably that means there was actually no choice, since you can't really choose between a single option. But I digress...)

Fortunately, the film in question happens to be a lot of fun:


Monsters Vs Aliens was released in 2009, at the very beginning of Hollywood's modern 3D era. Hollywood has actually dipped its toe into the stereoscopic waters on three separate occasions: first in the 1950s and again in the 1980s. The most recent era (which mostly came to an end when COVID closed all the movie theatres) was prompted in part by advances in digital film production that made stereoscopic film-making much more doable than it had been in the past.

From a narrative point of view, Monster Vs. Aliens is a love letter to monster movies of the mid-Twentieth Century. Each of the main "monster" characters can be traced back to a specific "vintage" cinematic monster of the 1950s (with just enough tweaking to avoid any copyright issues):


But it is the 50-Foot Woman (or "Susan" as she is known to the fleeing hoards of terrified citizens) who forms the backbone of the story. Struck by a radioactive meteorite on her wedding day (there's always something) Susan is an ordinary suburban housewife (or is about to be) when her world is upended rather violently. Initially, Susan is only concerned with restoring herself to her familiar life. Only after she single-handedly repels an attempted alien invasion does she begin to realise that she can be more than an accessory to her weatherman-fiancé. 


Okay, so this may not quite be the kind of consciousness-raising moment that Betty Friedan had in mind, but the film still manages to be immensely enjoyable. 

It's also a great show-reel for 3D film-making. This was the first stereoscopic film to be released by DreamWorks Animation Studios, and the animators were keen to show what the format could do. The result is an entertaining film that manages to look good while telling an uplifting story of female empowerment without taking itself too seriously.

Susan may not be the last Ordinary Lady, but she's probably the biggest.

And of course her character has great depth.


We will be screening Monsters Vs. Aliens at 7.30pm on Thursday, the 10th of November at the Victoria Park Baptist Church.


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