Desperation, Curiosity, Liberalization and Love

Alicia Chmielewski
1-23-07


Milos Forman, Loves of a Blonde (1966)

What happens when you hope day after day for something, yet it constantly eludes you? Do you become disillusioned and hopeless or do you mature into accepting your situation and giving into fantasy in portraying it to others? Is one or the other really better or worse? These questions are at the core of Milos Forman’s Loves of a Blonde (1966) as young Andula recounts various romances and possibilities of lasting love from her bed yet is isolated from such happenings in her daily life as a factory worker.

Gender roles and the portrayal and expectations of women are particularly interesting because there are no absolutes in their representation. Young women are neither totally submissive and naïve nor are they socially or sexually liberated enough to express and assert themselves over men (though ironically they far outnumber them). Andula is represented as being innocent, fearful and naïve when it comes to understanding the nature of mature romantic and sexual relationships in several instances, yet daring and politically incorrect in others. There is something in her eyes that conveys curiosity, intrigue and an excitement to be young and full of possibility yet also a sadness and devastation in those same eyes – an understanding of what prospects life currently offers. She at once is worldly and experienced as she recounts a suicide attempt and a so-called engagement and at the same time a frightened girl as she attempts to resist giving in to her sexuality with Milda. She jumps into love, breaking traditional mores by visiting Milda at home when her fellow girlfriends are vowing to maintain their honor, yet viewed favorably, particularly by Milda’s mother, as a result of her daring spirit. I think both personas of Andula are essential to understanding her character and what Forman may be trying to say by presenting his main female protagonist in such a conflicted way.

If there is any political agenda at work here, it may be to depict government regulated desperation or to capture some fragment of the changing world being experienced as filmmakers were given more freedom after the relative liberalization of the region. Both agendas are present throughout the episodic experiences of Andula. The government run factories force many women into a routine work experience that is mentally draining during the workday. In addition, there is work done to provide some men to balance out the woman dominated society due to the war by bringing in male reservists, but to the women’s dismay their government has failed them again through this decision as well – the men are much older and often married. At the same time as women are given such limited options and taught to view their sexuality as something that honorable women are not in touch with, however, we identify most with the one female character at the very edge of her environment. Andula wants to experience a broader world. This becomes clear when she runs away to visit Milda. Yet, the only satisfaction we get as viewers that Andula is in reality working to free herself from such stiff regulation lies in her ability to construct fantasy from hopelessness and rejection.

The final bedside conversation Andula has with her girlfriend constructs Milda’s family as wonderful and accepting. If we had not seen the previous shot of her weeping outside the bedroom door listening in on Milda’s mother destroying her dignity and assuming that she is attempting to trap Milda into marriage, we may have believed she was absolutely telling the truth as she saw it, rather than in the innocent and romantic space she provides for her memory of the visit. She has been rejected but does not want to accept it. To compare this to politics, it is as if she has discovered that the system is ridiculous but continues to put faith in it because she feels nothing would remain without it.

While Loves of a Blonde has little to do with love upon a close analysis of the film, it is not hard to surmise why it was such a successful film. It is packed with the subtle humor of the human condition, the tensions between generations and ideologies and the idea of love, which is often more powerful than love itself out of the fact that it may never be exactly attained.