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The Lady from Shanghai by Orson Welles (review)

2018; Volume: 48; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/flm.2018.0033

1548-9922

Georden West,

Theatre and Performance Studies

Reviewed by: The Lady from Shanghai by Orson Welles Georden West The Lady from Shanghai (1947) Produced and Directed by Orson Welles Distributed by Columbia TriStar Home Video. Sonypictures.com. 87 minutes Orson Welles’s The Lady from Shanghai (1946) adheres to the Joycean establishment of Irish mythos weaved symbolically into a cinematic framework; the use of fantastical mythology to emphasize parabolic realism parallels the modernism in Ulysses, making Elsa reflective of contemporary standards through mythic references. As the temptress, Elsa’s thematic contributions through visual allusions adhere to social archetypes that victimize and villainize, using Irish mythology and traditional portrayal of women in art. The analogous essence of the feminine and the natural world demonstrated in Shakespearean literature contributes to cinematic practice in which the representation of the external world is reflective of the characters’ psyche; the mise-en-scène of The Lady from Shanghai becomes a psychological projection of Welles’s characterizing Elsa as the “monstrous-feminine.” As the once serene settings become nightmarish, the actress’s body is filmed as a dark alluring space from which the nightmare stems. Casting both the female form and nature as origins of delight or evil creates the potential for Elsa to either demonstrate qualities of self-control and chastity or experience endless punishment for her deviance. In incorporating Irish mythology through a male point-of-view, the monstrous-feminine of The Lady from Shanghai serves an allegorical device that communicates codes of behavior and social acceptability through the trope of the odyssey. First-person narration by Michael O’Hara—like Joyce’s characters, he is of the Irish working class—is archetypical of Ulysses’ part two: “Odyssey.” Suggesting psychological odyssey through means of literary allusions, The Lady of Shanghai incorporates an actual voyage from New York to San Francisco via the Panama Canal. The association of Elsa, the filmic Calypso, with water elements delineates connection between nature and the feminine. Since antiquity, developing art forms associated powerful female images and visually extraordinary surrounding landscapes, have suggested the unity between the physical universe and the feminine. Incorporating the mystical connection between womanhood and the earth, The Lady of Shanghai demonstrates philosophy of the earth as a living changing organism, linking the fluid in Elsa’s sea voyage to the procreative powers of all living things. The unity between “lady and the world of nature she inhabits” contributes to the visual presentation of Elsa being most at ease when near or in water—it is when she is beached that strife commences. Conflict commences by removing the feminine from nature, disrupting the generative energy and transforming the feminine into the monstrous-feminine. Elsa’s female body as an agent of potential production and specific instances in which that capacity is discussed reflects the deep-seating anxiety surrounding women’s maternal power of procreation. The Lady in Shanghai vilifies Elsa’s sexual agency due to its existence as non-generative—a “lost maternal space.” Upon meeting Elsa, O’Hara parallels Cuchulainn from the Táin Bó Cúailnge, a popular work of Irish folklore: “Cuchulainn saw a young woman coming [End Page 21] towards him, with a dress of every color on, and her form very excellent” (Faraday 50). Abstraction of the female form invalidates individuality, relying on the visual presentation of female characterization—this corroborates the Shakespearean philosophy of environment to be indicative of internal sentiment. The Morrigan’s apparition in the Táin Bó Cúailnge as an eel suggests the binary placed on the early representation of the femme fatale. As the human eel, Elsa— Welles’ Morrigan—represents not just strife, but the same fertility that makes Elsa a monstrosity. The ultimate punishment for the monstrous-feminine in the form of the femme fatale is Elsa perishing without allowing her, as the heroine, to die in the arms of the rugged sailor. There is no recompense for Elsa. O’Hara reestablishes the patriarchal norm by eliminating the threat to the system—a woman who sought liberation from spousal abuse. Walking away from his dying ex-lover, establishes The Lady from Shanghai as a male fantasy in line with the myth of the strong, sexually aggressive woman that first allows...