Girls on Film is a weekly column that tackles anything and everything pertaining to women and cinema. It can be found here every Thursday night, and be sure to follow the Girls on Film Twitter Feed for additional femme-con.
As soon as The Dark Knight Rises flooded the IMAX screen, I was convinced that nothing could eclipse the beauty of a crisp, 3D-free superhero action film. There was no blurry movement forcing your eye to one single spot on a gigantic screen. There was no jumpiness from a 3D feature flattened into 2D. It was a visual playground that made me smile with awe like a little kid discovering film for the first time. Then Anne Hathaway entered the frame. Through her skill and Christopher Nolan’s artistry, she distilled Catwoman into her perfect feline essence, employing the iconic aspects of the antiheroine while filtering out the problematic interpretations of the last 70 years.
In 1940, “The Cat” was introduced to spice up Gotham. She would be, at once, an intriguing femme fatale invoking lust in Batman’s world and in male comic fans, and a female Batman – a character women could relate to. It was a confused and problematic mix of oil and water, the male gaze clashing against female empowerment. It was a battle that reflected Batman creator Bob Kane’s own views of women (as explained in Batman and Me):
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