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Vive la vie de garçon (1908)
Precursor of modern sitcoms
This is a hysterically funny film, if somewhat misandrist. Our hero is trying to read his newspaper after dinner. His wife insists that he put down the newspaper and pay attention to her. He ignores her. Finally, she angrily and violently snatches the newspaper out of his hands. Many male victims of domestic violence could readily recognize this scenario, which often escalates into her striking him. But, this is a light comedy. He demands she hand back the paper. She reluctantly does so. She starts crying and fed up with her behaviour he puts his fingers in his ears. This upsets her to the point that she leaves in a huff.
Overjoyed at his male independence, he does a little dance to celebrate it. This is one of the funniest scenes in the movie.
But his joy is short-lived. He attempts to manage the household by himself and ends up turning it into a chaotic mess. In the midst of this his wife returns accompanied by her mother.
The idea that men are helpless without women is the bit of misandry in the film. Many modern television sitcoms revisit this tiresome and bigoted theme over and over again. This alone, to me, makes the feminists' claims that women have overwhelmingly been portrayed in the mass media as the weaker gender completely without substantiation. On the contrary, it is men, who have a long way to go before shedding our stereotyped image of weakness and dependence on females.
Viewing this film, it is easy to see why Max Linder and Charlie Chaplin had mutual admiration for each other's work. Both were absolute comic geniuses.
Making an American Citizen (1912)
Early feminist propaganda
This is an early attempt at a Marxist feminist propaganda film. Like most feminist claims the scenario is not credible to the point of the ridiculous. "The Man" is seen in the opening using his wife, the oppressed woman as an actual pack animal to draw his cart. In various other scenes he beats her and uses her as a slave to do all the hard work while he takes it easy.
But in America (the land of opportunity for feminists), the tables are turned on him. His wife (like women throughout our history) doesn't have to use force or violence herself to attain her goal (domination of the man). She enlists the aid of other men to do violence on him and force him in the end to submit to her will and to comply and be the obedient one - "the model husband".
The attempt is to paint feminism as a liberating force for "oppressed" women. However, the ultimate message is that women don't have to commit acts of violence themselves. They will always have dutiful men to do their dirty work for them. In addition, whether they are acting on her behalf or acting against her, all men are depicted as violent by the feminists. A bigoted view of men no matter how one looks at it.