Film & History (2011) - "She Makes Love for the Papers": Love, Sex, and Exploitation in Hitchcock's Mata Hari Films
Details
- article: "She Makes Love for the Papers": Love, Sex, and Exploitation in Hitchcock's Mata Hari Films
- author(s): Nora Gilbert
- journal: Film & History (2011)
- issue: volume 41, issue 2, pages 6-18
- journal ISSN: 0360-3695
- publisher: Center for the Study of Film and History
- keywords: "Hitchcock's Romantic Irony" - by Richard Allen, "Notorious: Perversion par Excellence" - by Richard Abel, "The Hanging Figure: On Suspense and the Films of Alfred Hitchcock" - by Christopher D. Morris, "The Women Who Knew Too Much" - by Tania Modleski, Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, Chicago, Illinois, Christopher D. Morris, Claude Rains, Espionage, Eva Marie Saint, Eve Kendall, François Truffaut, Historians, Ingrid Bergman, James Mason, John Beebe, Michael Renov, Motion picture criticism, Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, New York City, New York, Nora Gilbert, North by Northwest (1959), Notorious (1946), Phillip Vandamm, Politics, Raymond Bellour, Richard Abel, Richard Allen, Robert J. Corber, Slavoj Žižek, Tania Modleski, The 39 Steps (1935), Thomas Doherty, World War I
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Abstract
The article presents criticism of the films "North by Northwest" and "Notorious" directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Particular focus is given to the female spies depicted in the films and their relationship to legends surrounding the exotic dancer and accused spy Mata Hari. It is suggested that despite the films' heteronormativity, they encouraged audiences to question assumptions about obedience to government and the exploitation of women's bodies.