"Bad Conduct"
Director: Philippa Lothorp
Screenwriters: Gaby Chiap / Rebecca Frayn
Starring: Kayla Knightley / Jesse Barkley / Gugu Mbata-Rao / Leslie Manville / Kelly Howey
In a word: This film actually depicts the group portraits of many people involved in the protests of the 1970 beauty pageant, which explains why so many characters appear on the film's poster (but it doesn't explain why the poster is so ugly).
Group portraits of people on and off the pageant stage
——Comment on "Bad Conduct"
Text / Movie Sieve
What comes to mind when you think of beauty pageants? Rows of slender young women dressed in bikinis stood on stage, allowing the judges and audience to point fingers at their appearance. In recent years, this form has been criticized by all parties and is considered to be typical of objectifying women. But you know what? As early as 1970, a group of women rushed to the stage of the Miss World pageant to protest this competition format, and this film is based on the events of that year.
Hearing that the core story of the film is a group of women protesting the beauty contest, did you guess that this film depicts a group of angry women who are infected by feminist ideas, using the beauty pageant stage as a platform for their voice, and thus attracting widespread attention in society? It's not right either. It is right because on the surface it seems that the story outline of the film is indeed so, and it is not right because the ideas expressed by this film are much richer and deeper with the help of this story.
Sally, played by Kayla Knightley, is the protagonist of the film, a divorced woman with a young daughter who lives with her boyfriend. The creator uses her experience, especially the conflict between her and her mother's two generations, to show the huge differences in women's views on family in different eras, and more importantly, women's different experiences, mixed with different views on the issue of educating the next generation of women, Sally's daughter, such as Sally's dissatisfaction with her mother putting makeup on her younger daughter. You know, the young daughter's free and independent future as a woman is the most important driving force for Sully's fight for women's rights.
Another important role in the film is Jennifer, a Miss Grenada played by Gugu Mabata-Law, as a woman of color, Jennifer cherishes this opportunity to show the world the charm of dark-skinned women, in her opinion, this is an opportunity to give all girls of color hope in front of the TV. When you realize the importance she values beauty pageants, you get a sense of the plans of Sally and her friends to protest at beauty contests.
The film also shows the views of many British beauty contest organizers and hosts, the famous actor Bob Hope. For the organizers, the beauty contest is just business, and it is no problem to continue the business and make some adjustments, but to cancel the contest, this kind of action of smashing everyone's rice bowl will never work; For Bob Hope, women, especially young women, are just playthings, and beauty pageants are both his chance to earn money and his stall to pick up his latest playthings.
Overall, the film actually depicts group portraits of many people involved in the protests at the 1970 beauty contest, which explains why there are so many characters on the poster (but it doesn't explain why the poster is so ugly). It is touching that although some people took the first brave step 50 years ago, they are still far from the destination they want to achieve.
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