The Evolution of Tarzan's Female Gaze

1918: The first Tarzan of the Apes

The first and most faithful Tarzan adaptation, this silent film introduced cinema audiences to the vine-swinging hero, but was subject to the rigorous censorship of the era. Cut scenes included "woman standing over kettle showing breasts" and "first two scenes of maid on man's lap in closet." Little room for anything too risqué then, and out-of-shape Tarzan actor Elmo Lincoln was unlikely to inspire many erotic fantasies.

1932: Tarzan, the Ape Man

The most enduring and archetypal Tarzan incarnation came in 1932 with five-time Olympic medallist Johnny Weissmuller. The buff swimmer was extremely popular among female audiences, and paired with Maureen O'Sullivan for six films during the 30s and 40s, with the most memorable being the pre-code Tarzan and His Mate, which features a nude underwater dance. This controversial film marked the last Tarzan film aimed at an adult audience.

1938: Tarzan's Revenge

Two more Olympic athletes led the cast of the low-budget standalone Tarzan's Revenge, decathlete Glenn Morris and backstroker/party girl Eleanor Holm. While both were slammed for their lack of acting talent, they were praised for looking fabulous in their loincloths. Apparently with little respect for women, Morris fell in love with Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's famous propaganda film-maker, at the Berlin Olympics. After he was awarded his medal in the stadium he apparently grabbed her, tore open her blouse and kissed her breasts in front of the stadium spectators.

1984: Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes

A more inspired film than its predecessors, this clumsily titled reboot features over five minutes of full-frontal male nudity, but is largely aimed at the male action movie market. Nevertheless, the second half of the film, which tracks Tarzan as he attempts to adjust to his new civilised life, has little in the way of action, and its emotional core may appeal to women more than men.

1999: Walt Disney's Tarzan

This beloved animated film takes Tarzan's origin story and simplifies it to an uplifting tale about wilderness adventures and what it means to be different. However, beneath the Disney innocence some have recognised a lustful undercurrent that has caused the film to be labelled by Buzzfeed as the thirstiest Disney movie ever. It is true that the repressed Victorian Jane all but drools over the untamed Tarzan in several scenes. However, the film's U rating prevents anything too suggestive, and it is romance, rather than sex, that is the focus here.

2016: The Legend of Tarzan

The marketing campaign for the ape-man's latest screen outing has been dominated largely by high-res stills of star Alexander Skarsgård posing shirtless in the jungle, all the better to show off his chiselled abs. In a cinematic world in which exposure of women's bodies has become the norm, director David Yates has cleverly tapped into the movie industry's dearth of male nudity to the delight of many female cinema-goers. We as an audience join Margot Robbie's Jane in lusting after her husband, with Tarzan as the object of desire. Despite this obvious reversal of roles, however, their relationship is an equal one, with respect and power equal on both sides. Here, as it should be, female sexuality is celebrated, not condemned.

The Birth of a Nation - 1915 vs 2016

It's been the pride and shame of the film industry for over a hundred years - D. W. Griffith's epic, 3-hour long blockbuster detailing the end of the American Civil War, the death of Abraham Lincoln and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. It became legendary, not as a good film, but as a great film that was on the side of evil. Griffith's pioneering film techniques set the standard for every film since and created a powerful argument, unfortunately one that advocated white supremacy and presented African Americans, portrayed in blackface, as unclean, unintelligent and sexually aggressive. It is offered to film students as a challenge to separate style over content, and arguments remain to this day as to whether its filmic and technical importance should overshadow its racism.

This year, however, among the recurrence of whitewashed Hollywood blockbusters, most notably Alex Proyas's Gods of Egypt, has seen the emergence of a film which directly counters Griffith's unwatchably racist portrayal of freed slaves. Nate Parker helms and stars in the film of the same name which portrays the birth of a very different nation, in which a young slave preacher is taken on an inter-county preaching tour and, bearing witness to the full horror of slavery, is compelled to lead in a different way. The film is both spiritual and intellectual in its portrayal of the protagonist and his intense theological convictions.

While Griffith's film existed to inflame racial hatred and paint a comforting portrait of history for white people, Parker's answer exists to challenge our view of the past and debate the morality of violence and the ongoing struggle for justice and equality for black people in America. It has both historical and contemporary resonance, and, along with Steve McQueen's acclaimed 12 Years a Slave, signifies the continuation of an era in which we beginning to see, at last, truer representations of American slavery in all their horror.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Preview Screening

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies offers exactly what the title promises, but little more. It is the familiar Regency England of Jane Austen’s world: balls, etiquette, chivalry, but with the added issue of rotting corpses which stalk the countryside. Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel of the same name takes the famous romance of feisty Elizabeth Bennet and moody Mr Darcy and places it in a world at the mercy of an insidious zombie outbreak. Life goes on for the aristocracy with romance, marriage and gossip, but young ladies are taught to hide knives in their corsets and stockings, while gentlemen must keep a musket on hand at all times.

This admittedly bizarre concept has given rise to a similarly ridiculous film, but one which at least harbours no illusions about being a serious literary adaptation. The scenes which use the differences between the original Pride and Prejudice and the horror reimagining subtly make up the most effective, amusing parts of the film. For example, an early sequence in which the Bennet sisters chatter excitedly about an upcoming ball while polishing their weapons at the same time is subversive and slick. Another interesting aspect of the social differences of the era is also created. Those who can afford it receive zombie combat training in Japan, while those who cannot settle for lessons in China. The charming young cast includes Lily James, Bella Heathcote and Jack Huston, who elevate the production with likeable performances. The stand out role, however, goes to Matt Smith, whose bumbling and awkward Mr Collins steals every scene he is in with hilarious physical comedy and improvised one-liners which brought the house down several times.

Despite these commendable aspects, however, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is never sure what mood to create, and tonal missteps in both romantic and action scenes lose their effectiveness accordingly. The bloody fight scenes are not translated well to a period setting, and appear muddled and over the top. Fans of Grahame-Smith’s novel will be satisfied, but Austen herself will be turning in her grave - which would ironically make her a zombie.

My Ten Favourite Films of 2015

1. Ex Machina

One of only a few true science-fiction films released this year, Alex Garland's directorial debut is quiet, contemplative and chilling. Seamless special effects combine with unforgettable performances to make us question our very existence, as good sci-fi should.

2. The Look of Silence

Though perhaps less enjoyable than some of the films on this list, Joshua Oppenheimer's follow up to last year's searing The Act of Killing is no less devastating. Watching mass murderers re-enact their killings through the eyes of one victim's family was one of the hardest and most important experiences for audiences this year.

3. Mad Max: Fury Road

Everyone has raved about this film, and George Miller indeed proves that age does not necessarily prevent one from delivering a masterpiece of hand-crafted mayhem and destruction to the mainstream screen, making all other summer blockbusters look MEDIOCRE in comparison.

4. Crimson Peak

So many unforgettable images make up Guillermo Del Toro's latest film, from the young girl creeping through a corridor in her nightdress, to a great haunted mansion sinking into blood red mud. An unusual yet instantly classic gothic horror.

5. The Gift

Marking Joel Edgerton as a promising writer-director as well as an accomplished actor, The Gift is a slow burn of psychological menace and threat, with an eventual climax more horrific than you could ever have imagined.

6. It Follows

Despite an unpromising trailer, this indie horror is a chilling allegory for sex, love and death. One of the most terrifying concepts in years combines with excellent cinematography and well-timed scares to create a film far above the calibre of mainstream horror.

7. Embrace of the Serpent

Shot in lush black and white widescreen, El abrazo de la serpiente received many excellent festival reviews and delivers wisdom, elegance and gravitas in its two-hour runtime. See my full review here.

8. The Diary of a Teenage Girl

A sensitive, realistic and entertaining portrayal of young female sexuality is a rare find, so watch Marielle Heller's passion project for a frank and beautiful coming-of-age tale.

9. The Martian

Though with considerably less peril than the average space-disaster film, seasoned sci-fi great Ridley Scott delivers a well paced adventure with incredible special effects, that hopefully will not discourage future astronauts from venturing to Mars.

10. Jupiter Ascending

Panned by most critics, the latest epic from the Wachowski siblings is nonetheless what the film industry greatly needs: an original, inventive blockbuster with a female lead.

Film Review: Doctor Zhivago + BFI Love

'Turbulent were the times and fiery was the love story of Zhivago, his wife, and the passionate, tender Lara.' Thus gushes the original tagline of Doctor Zhivago, David Lean's rambling 1965 epic, which follows the difficult life of poet and physician Yuri Zhivago. Entering and exiting the story at various intervals are his long-suffering wife Tonya and his mistress Lara, who struggles under the desires of Victor Komarovsky, a rich businessman with dubious motives.

Despite a lengthy runtime of 200 minutes, this is but a fraction of the extensive narrative first published in 1957 by Russian novelist Boris Pasternak. The film misses many crucial details of the original novel, bookended by a cliché Hollywood framing device which provides the rather bleak tale with some sense of satisfying closure. Such trims cause the motivations of many of the characters to be difficult to understand. Zhivago's forgiving nature and romantic soul seem constantly at odds with the cold cynical world around him, and his wife seems impossibly accepting that he should suddenly leave her for another woman. Lara's desire for the corpulent Komarovsky is played too safe to be believable. Lean's attention to detail, however, is meticulous, and still stands up after fifty years despite the picture-postcard portrayal of a bloody revolution. Maurice Jarre's 'Lara's Theme' is iconic, if repetitive.

In the end, strangled by Production Code censorship, Lean's film rings emotionally cold compared with the charged remake from 2002. But it is nonetheless a classic, a triumph of colossal set design, daring vision and the clout of the studio budget. Its melancholy comes from the memory of the recently late Omar Sharif, his death echoing the film itself which heralded the end of the age of sweeping epics made to be seen on the big screen. I am glad I got to see it up there when I did, thanks to the BFI's Love season here.

Steve Jobs - The New Citizen Kane?

"Can a great man... be a good man?" Thus poses a tagline for Steve Jobs, the new biopic drama on the life and times of Apple founder and billionaire Steve Jobs, written and directed by the powerhouse couple Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle. Despite only being days old on the US cinema circuit and not reaching UK shores until 13th November, the film is already drawing a significant amount of attention for its similarities to another film about the life of a troubled rich man attempting to find meaning in the world. Orson Welles's 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane follows a similar trajectory of a toweringly successful individual who struggles with stunted emotion and the emptiness which comes with extreme wealth. With an excellent pedigree behind the camera and a powerful leading man in Michael Fassbender, could this new film come close to Welles's multifaceted genius creation?

It is true that both films discard regular narrative structures in favour of telling their stories in more unconventional ways. Kane is structured into different recollections from those closest to the recently deceased magnate, including his second wife, his butler, and a rare friend. Sorkin structures Steve Jobs in a similar way, centering the scenes around three pivotal Apple product launches throughout the 80s and 90s. With both directors, however, it is what happens behind the scenes of the lives of these great men that interests them. What lies at the heart of Kane and Jobs as characters is a sense of abandonment carried through from childhood. Both are insecure and crave love, but insist upon attaining it on their own terms, subsequently estranging their friends and loved ones.

Despite so many shared qualities, sadly, if we compare just based on the quality of the films, it is looking highly unlikely that Jobs could come close to matching the hypnotic deep focus and fascinating sound techniques which have had Kane ranked as the greatest film ever made for over fifty years. However, it is interesting to see that the issues Kane engages with are still relevant to people and films today. With the world, companies, and personal wealth only getting bigger for each new global success, it seems that we still have much to learn. The moral of both films is clear, however: if we do not, we will die alone, a bleak forecast which no amount of money can prevent.

Whitewashing in Pan

The lack of diversity of characters and opportunities for actors of colour is a problem Hollywood has been struggling with, or at least appearing to, for decades. Despite recent advances white, and predominately male actors still dominate in the world's biggest films, with interesting and important roles for those who do not fit into this category are few and far between. Beginning the pre-Oscars run of cinema releases, Walt Disney's beloved, if retrospectively worrying, adventure Peter Pan has become the latest literary classic to receive an overblown CGI makeover, this time at the hands of Anna Karenina director Joe Wright. The casting of Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily is the most troubling recent example of Hollywood's whitewashing. Mara is an extremely talented actress in her own right, but as a white 30-year-old woman, bears little resemblance to J. M. Barrie's pre-adolescent Native American princess. Many have already criticised the choice, the unashamed denial of a high-profile role to an actual Native American actress causing anger among audiences and critics alike. It has recently come to light that Native American actress Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs reportedly auditioned for the role, but was turned down as producers were specifically seeking a Caucasian actress.

The original Disney animation is riddled with Native American stereotypes, and is difficult to rewatch as an adult. However, Pan's director Joe Wright has attempted to placate critics by saying that his film is “very international and multi-racial, effectively challenging audiences’ preconceived notions of Neverland and reimagining the environment.” It is disappointing to see such a glaring missed opportunity for a respectful representation of Native Americans in the middle of a film which claims to be 'international.' Even Mara's make up and dress are overly colourful and exotic, reeking of far too many quasi-'Indian' costumes. The far-reaching consequences of this include young Native American girls effectively being told that, in order to be represented on the big screen, they must be tall, thin, and white. This also sets a standard in the industry for the continued whitewashing of characters of colour, and a continued reluctance to balance the enormous budgets of current blockbusters on the shoulders of less-known actors who may not guarantee a return.

Little can be done for Pan now, and this vicious cycle will continue unless the problem is fully addressed by studios and audiences alike. The growing demand for diversity on screen cannot be ignored, and Hollywood revenue may suffer if it does not reciprocate. Mara is a favourite to earn an Oscar nomination for her role in Carol. Since her breakthrough role in David Fincher's The Social Network, she has demonstrated a clear ability of making better choices, and will hopefully grow out of this episode, even if Peter Pan does not.