Sexual Hollywood Personae

In this post I shall attempt to review Pretty Woman using the Camille Paglia style of criticism. :-P

In Pretty Woman, Apollonian and Dionysian forces come into conflict, their battle played out in Hollywood. As you may know, Hollywood stars are the latest incarnation of Christian saints and, before them, pagan gods . Vivian, the prostitute, lives in an apartment with posters of rock stars and bare-chested Adonises on the walls. She walks Hollywood's boulevard at night, wearing her femme fatale blonde wig, selling sex. She's a woman in control of the men that visit the boulevard (she doesn't need a pimp); she knows what to give them, for the right price; she's a goddess of the underworld. She seems at first glance to epitomize the film's Dionysian element.

One day, stiff-faced and impotent Edward appears and asks her for direction. He's the rational, established, Apollonian force. From his encounter with Vivian, a relationship develops which changes both of them: Edward discovers within himself his suppressed Dionysian powers (he starts playing the piano again and decides to live a little and walk barefoot in the park), while Vivian discovers a predilection for 50s style submissive housewifey fashion. Vivian goes from avant-garde street walker/artist to a prisoner of Edward's Apollonian world of finances and bad 80s fashion. Vivian abdicates Hollywood's world of sexual freedom and imagination for a prison controlled by Edward, though freedom may still be possible if Edward decides to fully explore the growing Dionysian force within himself and let Vivian spank him once in a while.

Music is important in the film and exemplifies Vivian's betrayal of the underworld. This is best shown by her murdering Prince's "Kiss" in the bathtub with a shrill, whiny singing voice. She's subconsciously letting Edward know, as he watches her, that she's willing to give up her Prince music collection for Kenny G. Later, he seduces Vivian by flying her to San Francisco (global warming denier!) for the opera La Traviata. Opera, as a dead art form which does not compare with the vibrant power of rock & roll, crystalises Vivian's entrance into the safe, sterile Apollonian world, as it shows her that prostitutes can also dress smartly and sing on stage (or marry rich businessmen from New York). In fact, thanks to modern feminism, all women are now prostitutes.

What we need today are more prostitutes willing to say no to big money, to enjoy the sexual thrills and experimentation that comes from walking the streets, to live fully within the energetic, life-affirming Dyonisian force. With more and more prostitutes giving up their powers for the safety of the suburbs (remember Divine Brown), the staid and sterile Apollonian force gains greater strength and makes it harder for true art to reappear in our culture. The fact that Pretty Woman will never make any film critic's top 10 list speaks for itself.

While you ponder all the above, listen to Roxette's It Must Have Been Love, from the film's soundtrack.