Post 6

The three readings about the film Artemisia were very interesting. Each article discussed how the film turned historical fact into fiction, and reasoning and problems behind director Agnes Merlet’s decision to do so.
The first reading, “My Heat Belongs to Daddy,” “…examines the dominant thematic constructs used by writers to refashion a seventeenth-century women into a contemporary celebrity.” The article discusses some gender stereotypes that Artemisia in the film displays. Artemisia shows that a woman can only be a famous artist with the help of a powerful man. In the film, her father and Tassi serve as her mentors. The article also discusses how the way the film and many novels about Artemisia represent the rape trial is inaccurate. Tassi is depicted as a noble man, who loves Artemisia when if fact, he was nothing like this.
In the article, “Artemisia’s Trial by Cinema,” the author goes more into detail about the facts of the trial of 1612. “Basic facts of the story are inverted in the film.” Apparently, in the real trial Artemisia did not protect Tassi’s name while she was being tortured. She told everyone that she had been raped. In the film, Tassi saves Artemisia from torture by admitting to rape, but in real life he did no such thing. Tassi never openly admitted to having sex with her. In fact, he accused Artemisia’s father and men in the room of sleeping with her. He was clearly not a good person, but the film makes us like him and sympathize with him. The film turns a terrible crime of rape into a romance.
The final article, “Feminist historiographies and the woman artist’s biopic: the case of Artemisia”, talks about the changing of facts into fiction and tries to pull apart the film by looking at it closely in hopes to discover how and why this was done. The author explores themes in the movie such as focus on eyes and framing. The author is disappointed at the choice of fictionalizing Artemisia’s interesting life story.
When the director of the film was asked about her decision she said that her intent was to make a feminist film that would reflect Artemisia’s inner struggles in life. I personally do not see how she has accomplished this when the main parts of the film falsify historical truths. The film cannot be accurately reflected her inner struggles. I personally do not think that fictionalizing history in a biopic film is acceptable. People are very impressionable when they watch films or television. If you have a film that is about a real life person, the audience will automatically believe everything you are putting on the screen is based on factual truth. If I had not known the film was not accurate, I would have believed that Tassi and Artemisia had a powerful romance and that Tassi was not a bad person. I was shocked to have learned that originally the film stated that it was a movie based on real life. How misleading!
Changing facts when doing a film about a real person warps and changes history.
I agree with the article “Artemisia’s Trial by Cinema,” when the author said that if they had kept to the facts during the trial they would have had a more interesting plot. Most every movie has romance in it, but what really happened between Tassi and Artemisia is more attention grabbing and out of the ordinary.
I also think the movie should have focused more on her life as an artist. We really don’t see enough of her developing into a talented artist. We mostly see the drama that ensues in the courtroom and between her and Tassi. It would have been nice to see her grow older, when her artwork really took off and began to be appreciated by many people. After all, this is what we should be remembering about Artemisia. She was an incredible painter and I am sure she inspired many women to paint and do art. The movie does not depict her as being a strong independent woman. Even though the director says that was her intention, I believe that Artemisia relies too much on men in the film. Tassi and her father are her inspirations and mentors, and it seems that without their help she would have been nothing.
Overall, I enjoyed the film but I think what the director did was dangerous and unnecessary. The real facts would have been just as interesting or even more than the fictionalized ones in the film. If the director wanted a movie about two lovers torn apart she should have just created a fictional character and not labeled the film Artemisia