Men, A Question: What Are Your Favorite Leading Female Archetypes?

Riffing off of Jazz’ forum question, I thought it would only be fair to toss the same back to the men in the house.

I’m not going to categorize them, but allow this thread to be a free-for-all in terms of what categories you think leading ladies tend to fall into (e.g. the innocent, the femme fatale, the crazy girl, etc. etc.). Please refrain from mentioning Mom Jeans, if you can.

The hot little puppyslut that got kicked by God to a Hollywood curb.

Niiice…

I gravitate toward the mentally-unbalanced ‘innocent’ and the doomed self-destructive …

Repulsion
Christiane F.
Opening Night
Vivre sa Vie

Favorite Leading Lady Archetype? The gorgeous girl done wrong by the world around her who has to pick herself up and work five times as hard to prove she can do it on her own and that she’s equal to any dude while simultaneously (and in a hilariously contradictory fashion) probably making herself completely subservient in a romantic relationship . . .

OR

The gorgeous girl done wrong by the world around her who resigns herself to the crushing circumstances dictating her life.

Definitely not into the “hot mess,” though.

But what about the Olivia Newton John in Grease type — who goes from virgin to (seeming) slut? I hate those makeover archetypes, personally, but hey, maybe someone else’s cup of tea…

^ Not a huge fan of that archetype either I must say.

But what about the Olivia Newton John in Grease type — who goes from virgin to (seeming) slut?

Nope, that’s not for me, either.

The first one that came to mind: the really tough, smart, but still feminine and beautiful lead. (There’s gotta be a more elegant term for this.) I’m thinking of Ripley in the Alien films or even Julia Ormond’s Smilla, in Smilla’s Sense of Snow (not a great film, but I liked her character). I would also count Jean Arthur’s Clarissa in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington or Rosalind Russell’s character in His Girl Friday.

loud, full of vitality, carnality and wit as in Mariangela Melato in Wertmuller’s films.

intelligent and reserved Peggy Proper types, as in Claude Jade in the Doinel series.

and mystical and unapproachable as in Madhapi Mukherjee in Ray’s films, and Leonor Silveira in Oliveira’s.

Love the film His Girl Friday! Ms. Russell was indeed wonderful in that, as was Mr. Grant. They don’t do snappy dialogues like that anymore…

Claude Jade — I can’t believe what happened to her eyes later in life…

The best performances by women in film include Hepburn in “The Lion in Winter”, Masina in “Nights of Cabiria”, Falconette in “The Passion of Joan of Arc”, Arletty in “Children of Paradise”, Rowlands in “A Woman under the Influence”, and Kinuyo Tinaka in “Life of Oharu”.

I don’t have a type of woman that I like to see in film, I just like to see strong performances, like Tilda Swinton in “Michael Clayton”.

The problem is that when you boil away all of the crap-horror movies, comedies, action flicks, romcoms, etc; you still are left with drama crap. Back when movies were good, women had lesser roles, now that movies suck, women still don’t get a lot of roles.

I love women.

Just check my list here for some examples….

Give Me Women, Wine and Snuff…

Come to think of it, it might need an update…

Back when movies were good, women had lesser roles, now that movies suck, women still don’t get a lot of roles.

Major discriminatory comment. Please explain yourself.

Women SHOULD and COULD have more leading roles. Enough with fucking men.

I dig Laura Palmer, Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction and The Moderns, Grace from Dogville, Maria from Metropolis, Liv Ullman in Scenes From a Marriage and Persona, Katherine Hepburn in… everything, Paz de la Huerta and the lovely body she seems so keen on baring, Betty in Mulholland Dr., Mia Wasikowska for her excellent performance on In Treatment, Adrienne Shelly as Hartley’s wistful woman, Jane Wyman’s Sirk performances, Lisa from Letter From an Unknown Woman… and probably a few more…

ooh , interesting topic ………

I got two archetypes in my head that I really Love ,

the first are the sort of femme fatales in some films or just wild and dangerous in some other films like Anne Bancroft in “the Graduate” or Zhang Ziyi in “Crouching Tiger , Hidden Dragon” or Faye Wong in “Chungking Express” or to some extent Famke Janssen in “goldeneye” ……etc

also the other type are the Loyal suppoting females specially when suffering like Elizabeth Shue in “Leaving Las Vegas” or Jennifer Connelly in “A Beautiful Mind” or even Nathalie Delon in " Le Samourai" ………

Moderated

Moderated

Most of my favourite films are centred on women and/or strongly appeal to me in large part due to women. I’m not sure about archetypal favourites, i like sexy femmes fatales as well as kind sensitive souls.

Sansho the Bailiff: i adore Anju’s noble, sweet but strong self-sacrificing nature
Mirror: intangible, somehow airy, yet so real. Margarita Terekhova holds the film together and we hardly notice
The Green Ray: Delphine’s sensitive idealism
Alice in the City: unspoilt perkiness
Abraham Valley: mysterious elegance
Spirit of the Beehive: wide eyed wonder and charm
Celine and Julie go Boating: sprightly vitality
Pierrot le Fou: ditto

i’m very taken too with Zhang Ziyi’s feisty spirit in Crouching Tiger; Gilbert Adair gave up his column in The Independent when he fell in love with her for it. Emilie Dequenne is tremendous in Rosetta: indomitable resilience. I feel for Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater just as she is an unforgettable Mrs Robinson. Terry Wogan treated her shamefully over his talk show. What sort of a man could condemn or mock a woman’s nerves? All ego, no compassion. Marlene Dietrich: a sort of vivacious voracity. Naomi Watts in Mulholland Dr.

So many…

I dealt with this slightly in my list Characters I Would, or Would Have Wanted to, Date

I kinda like the outcast girl and the smart girl, and there needs to be some independence on her part.

Gong Li was very good as a modern Chinese woman in Zhou Yu’s Train, and besides the fact I love Li, I was attracted to how her character went after what she wanted, but was completely feminine in her ways. I think sometimes with so many males dominating filmdom that women get skewed by the male brain and become caricatures instead of being true women.

i think my favorite archetype is women who aren’t played by ellen page.

That crazy Girl with the Dragon Tattoo type that can be turned; and yeah, she can bring her girlfriend.

Betty Blue.

@Roland — Wow!

Good to see Dim’s Nazi censorship remains alive and well and that MUBI mods are biased in his favour.

MUBI mods: so you wiped my post but not Dim’s?

Dim’s post is totally sexist (the fact he is a man means nothing and it has never been proven that Dim is who he says he is). he’s always harping on about how evil men are. I simply provided him with a quick and easy solution to his self-hatred. Now we know why Dim picks on others so much: He hates being a man, and a lousy one at that.

Funny how Dim is always correct when he comments about you without having met you, but do the same to him and you’ve merely “misinterpreted” him (her?). Yep, right, gotcha.

There’s just something about her that I can’t put my finger on.

I couldn’t pick just one…but I have a fondness for sweet-natured hippy girls (Kay Lenz in “Breezy” and Laurie Heineman in “Save The Tiger”). Some “hippy” chicks are just big fat phonies, but when you meet the real deal, they give the sweetest hugs. Oh yeah, she’s not an actress, but I fancy Melanie Safka, too.

I have a liking for hippy women who use the term “ball” as another way of saying “screw”, like that young woman in “Woodstock”. It just sounds like so much fun to say “ball”. It’s a pity said term has evaporated from the modern vernacular. Well, not mine, at least. Wanna ball?

Wanna ball?

i’m good, dude.

Confession:

I like the beautiful-woman-who -oves-the-nerd

Examples: Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane in Spider-Man; Virginia Madsen’s character in Sideways. These women are beautiful and they appreciate smart, decent guys. The thing is the character has to be believable. For example, I never bought Kathryn Heigel’s character falling for Seth Rogen’s in Knocked-Up (plus, he didn’t seem like that great of a guy).