- Depicts Catwoman at her apartment, having yoghurt or something from a packet and listening to messages from her answering machine
- The house and just about everything in here is faded pink in colour (pink is a feminine colour). Appears both exhausted and frustrated
- Answering machine gives advert about one of Shreck’s perfume that would make your boss want you to work late
- She flies into a rage, and ransacks her apartment, smashes just about everything including teddies. Street cats are coming through the walls. She has blood on her face
- Good lighting appears to be at night, but the apartment appears poor and full of all sorts of antique stuff. Spray painting
- Makes a Catwoman suit
- Camera zooms into her face with a blood stain above her eye, dishevelled hair, despair and anger
- Pans to reveal street cats, old house (I think) and her silhouette through a pink-lit window. Looks like a prostitute in Las Vegas
Introduction
The “So Much Yummier” scene depicts Selina in the middle of a psychotic rage. Forced into silence after she discovered Shreck’s plans to put up a power plant that would give him control over the city, and frustrated by her personal relationships were collapsing around her, she loses it. This depicts the raw emotion and the transformation of a regular working woman into a sex vixen and force of sexual power. This paper argues that this scene succeeds in depicting Catwoman as a sex symbol and the multiple other themes that cut across the whole movie.
Part I: Scene
Action/dialogue: Catwoman is at her apartment drinking milk (or something) from a family-size packet. She appears despaired, frustrated, angered and exhausted in equal measure. She walks about listening to the answering machine when she hears an advert about one of Shreck’s perfume that can make one’s boss ask you to work late on your first day of wearing it. “One whiff of this at the office and your boss will be asking you to stay after work: for candlelight staff meeting for two.” She flies into a psychotic rage, runs about the house ransacking, destroying or defacing everything in her path. She spray-paints the walls on her way to the bedroom and emerges with a material for a dress. When she is out of spay, she smacks it against a dressing table, shoves everything away and picks a box of sewing things before she finally sits on a sewing machine and makes herself a Catwoman suit to prepare for revenge against Shreck. When she finishes, she suits up.
Cinematography: Zooms in to show things down the sink and other thinks that she smashes. Camera switches between the street cats spilling into the apartment and her ransacking and smashing everything in her part. It also shows close ups of her face (with a bloodstain above her eye) and the thinks that she smashes. It pans while sewing the costume to reveal her dimly lit house, decrepit walls and a clowder of street cats. It then settles on her pensive face, bleeding fingers and sewing machine up until she puts on her gloves. It then pans once more to show the window and the street cats, before Catwoman’s silhouette emerges in the pink-lit window. Her silhouette emerges fully suited and peers out the window, before she says in says in a sex voice “I do not know about you, Miss Kitty, but I feel so much yummier.”
Mise en Scene: Catwoman’s entire apartment is pinkish and either falling apart or old. The furniture and everything in the apartment is old and basic. The lighting shows that it's after dark and suggests. The pink theme shows even more boldly when she emerges from her bedroom with her dress. The house is full of pink and antique stuff. She finally suits up in a Catwoman suit.
Part II: Scene Analysis
The cinematography and mise en scene in this scene depict a broken and angry woman with her back against the wall. The despair, anger, frustration and exhaustion are evident, so much so that she barely had time to answer her mother’s call. The poverty of her apartment is clear too and is painted against the wealth and power that the Shrecks are looking to consolidate. The camera zooms into the things that she smashes, defaces or destroys as well as her face to show the raw anger and the sheer poverty within which she lives. On the other hand, the clowder of street cats and a pink colour theme reinforce the Catwoman and feminine power. The Catwoman symbolism is also carefully made to fit the ideal independent and empowered woman, who also takes pleasure in the fact that she is a sex object. It is difficult to argue against the fact that Catwoman is a sex symbol and depicted as such, including by the use of bright red lipstick, sadistic whip and skin-tight catsuit and a sex voice. The scene ends with her appearance at the window and a betrayal of her “sex object” symbolism, saying that she felt so much yummier than the kitty.
This scene represents a contradiction of two different identities that Selina assumes in Batman Returns. The first identity is that of a struggling, working class woman, who is powerless. She is struggling to keep street cats out of her house, make it at work and in her personal relationship with both her boyfriend and her family. This identified is reinforced using cinematography and mise en scene by using poor and battered apartment in which she lives, the collection of cheap and old decorations in the house (like teddy bears among others). The second identity is that of an empowered woman who knows that her sexuality is power. She is an object of desire and the ultimate female avenger for the ills that women have suffered from men.
This transformation occurs right in this scene. The scene begins with a despairing and exhausted woman drinking from a packet, but transforms to a furious and sexy women. This is reinforced by the constant presence of cats and her defiant sexy lady in a cat suit. The camera’s panning to show to transform her window into a Red Light district window, in which she does a brief and defiant jig, cinematographically reinforces this identity. Further, the answering machine also betrays this identity. The machine is advertising a perfume that it alleges that if a woman uses it, her boss will certainly ask her to work late for a romantic dinner. This sales pitch reveals the fact that women are encouraged, or do use their sexuality as a source of power and control over men.
Conclusion
This scene shows the movie’s meticulous use of cinematography and mise en scene to depict Catwoman’s anger as well as her role as a sex symbol and a feminist. The feminist theme runs throughout this movie. For instance, even though Catwoman is in love with Batman, she still does not want a relationship, in order to show the independence and sexual power that women hold. It is impossible to ignore Selina’s range in this scene. She, of course, angered by her discovery of Shreck’s proposed power plant, and the fact that it will suck power out of Gotham, effectively allowing his family to gain control over the city. When she hears the perfume advert, she reminded of the greed of the Shrecks, which is contrasted against the poverty of her apartment.
Works Cited
Knight, Gladys L. Female Action Heroes: A Guide to Women in Comics, Video Games, Film, and Television. London: ABC-CLIO, 2010.
Moviewclips. Batman Returns: So Much Yummier. 1992. 16 Oct 2014. <http://movieclips.com/ADKj-batman-returns-movie-so-much-yummier/>.
