Woman of the Hour
One whole year since I first gazed my eyes on the film “Woman of the Hour,” the World Premiere of which took place during the Toronto International Film Festival 2023, directed by Anna Kendrick. A fascinating movie directed by Ian McDonald that is based on true events where a serial kidnapper, rapist, and killer named Rodney Alcala was cast on the show ‘The Dating Game’ in the year 1978. Kendrick doesn’t simply provide an ordinary, intelligent and spunky performance of an aspiring actress Sheryl, who happens to be the contestant who matched with Alcala that day, instead as a director, she actively investigates the themes of both the camera lens and gaze, and people and gaze.
“Alcala appears to admire the beauty of all his female victims, many of whom were social outcasts. He was a photographer. He knew the strength of his body, of his eye, of his camera.” Kendrick begins her film with a victim who was murdered in 1977. “The mutilated head is another particularly effective detail that is intentionally kept off-screen”. The first picture showing her is literally shot like a deer in the headlights, trapped in the alfalfa’s lens: “Don’t forget that the camera is here.”
Kendrick then zooms into the face of Alcala who is supposedly portrayed by Daniel Zovatto, the man with the disarming look that he uses to convince his victims into feeling secure. But when he gets into the predator mode, his whole being is one of absolute cruelty. Kendrick decides to zoom in on his impersonated face which is quite revealing to that of his prey and narrates her work as if she is one of them.
Meanwhile, Alcala and Sheryl are in the film out for drinks together. The two seem to be on a date that is not particularly pleasant. Sheryl’s laughter has transformed the nice, easy-to redeem bachelor into someone else. In a slightly amusing try to be polite, she tells him that she does not date much. She remarks about the contradiction of dating shows. ‘My agent said it could make me visible’, she says. ‘Did you feel seen’ he queries again. Close ups were employed that presented the two in a ‘shot air’ tense positions. ‘I felt looked at’, she admits. ‘How do you feel right now,’ he continues to antagonize her. ‘Fine’, she states though she looked distressed. ‘Fine,’ he notes, but something sinister lingers behind them. ‘You know, most people are not fans of being seen. There is anxiety around it. Because you have to be one with yourself. Stop acting.’
In each and every woman of Kendrick’s film, there is a motherly kindness that she brings in occasionally in order to pull off a situation.
Sheryl Lee Ralph has to endure such performance several times over throughout the film. One such example is when game show host Ed Burke played by Tony Hale masterfully observes Sheryl’s permeation into the Mess without telling her to go somewhere with their (barely thinly veiled) sexism and affectionately warns her about her having to appear dumb to land a sweater Yalta style agenda. He goes on to add that all she needs to do is laugh according to the previous seeing that two casting call boys were literally arguing over whether she should’ve shown up or not with two men saying so in front of her. Like she does when she drinks with her neighbor and fellow dreamer Terry Pete Holmes and Pysche decides to reject Terry’s advances. As Amy, the teenage runaway that Alcala escaped and her prison sent her back to, ignores reality by smiling and laughing at a horrific nightmare.
When Barbara Walters brings down the curtain on the game show, Sheryl Lee Ralph questions herself if she crossed the line when she transformed the questions, effectively taking the whole misogynistic business and reversing it around 360 degrees. Her makeup lady begs to differ. “In spite of the words they use, what lies beneath the actual question always remains the question,” she says. “No, thank you,” Sheryl says. “Which one of you will make me the most miserable?” the woman responds.
This question remains at the heart of Kendrick’s film, as it does most women in the course of their lives in a world that so often fails to shield them against men’s onslaught. As one of the victims says: “I knew he was risky, but fuck it, everybody is risky. This speaks to Alcala, who is taking her photos only minutes before she is killed by him.”
Three instances during the film highlight the effectiveness of seeing and being seen and being understood through the sheer act of seeing. A participant in the show, Laura (Nicolette Robinson, who plays it rather raw), has a strong reaction when she sees Alcala among the bachelors. She says she is sure he is the one who stabbed her friend in Malibu the previous summer. As she storms out, she punches a monitor. At this time, the women catch sight of each other, but the lights are so bright that Sheryl can’t understand what Laura’s looking at. Then, while on a date with Alcala, he asks for a second drink. Sheryl looks at the cocktail waitress and shakes her head, helplessly. The woman turns around and says they’ve just stopped serving. Towards the end of the film, Amy is in Alcala’s car when she sees a man in a truck and they both stop at a traffic light. She seems to be saying, ‘Help me,’ with her eyes, but the truck driver doesn’t seem to be bothered.
It is a silent communication between two women that carries a message, especially in circumstances where there is a threatening male figure.
I do not know a single woman who did not undergo a similar situation, although, these situations are not always resolved in getting rescued. While watching the movie, a memory flashed back, one of my twenties when a professional acquaintance turned out to be an elderly man whom I planned to take out for dinner. There was something odd about him always but I was very ambitious and young. I thought having friends at the dinner would help me stay safe. However, one by one my friends, ditched me. They missed the message that I was trying to send them with my eyes. I escaped the situation before it became too dark but there were lines crossed as soon as I was alone with the man. I have never felt so threatened in my life. Kendrick knows that feeling far too well. She captures it and then some with each and every tool at her disposal.
It is only natural that we would see some comparisons with David Fincher’s Zodiac, that at least makes some sense on the surface. Kendrick has directed a remarkably well done Killer Movie where the killer ruled her reign for a decade with terror.
Fincher’s film tackles the men whose lives became consumed by the pursuit of determining a potential identity for the Zodiac and the consequences this fixation had on their lives. Kendrick’s film however uses Alcala to condemn the society around him. It is one that shows how through moderate sexist and misogynistic behaviors, a culture of violence against women becomes acceptable and prepares the ground for severe violence. The aesthetic os also critical, one could even say, more critical of “Zodiac” and many other true crime films it spawned that seem borderline addicted to the violence that they imitate.
While we do see how Alcala savagely attacks his victims, Kendrick dials in and out, making it hard to focus on the violence and gore which is very much the winning formula for most true crime content. Finally in tight close shots she destroys the meaning. She cannot hear him in her head so she focuses the viewer’s attention on the ambient noise and incorporates it into the film. Just as things are about to get nasty, Kendrick cuts and allows the viewer to realize that what met them were other people’s and not solely their own, fantasies. She instead subverts it, and focuses instead on the more banal but equally disturbing vantage point. The numerous instances of men touching Sheryl’s neck or her hair, all without her consent.
In the way her boyfriend instantly does not believe her when she says something about bones. In the manner in which the police laugh with Alcala and release him.
While she is filming and about to finish her episode of “The Dating Game,” Sheryl most importantly, the makeup artist without thinking tells her. “You must be living the good life. That is the purpose of it all. Do not hold back.” How convenient it would be if life was that easy and so carefree.
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