Film Being John Malkovich Sexuality

Film Being John Malkovich

Sexuality must not be thought of as a kind of a natural given power which tries to hold in check, or as an obscure domain which knowledge tries gradually to uncover. It is the name that can be given to a historical construct." (Foucault 1979:105 in Weeks: 16). Foucault's historical approach to sexuality gave rise to a series of questions regarding this notion, such as the connection between sexuality and power, its role in Western society, as well as how it is socially constructed (Ibid). These are precisely the questions that lie at the core of the 1999 film Being John Malkovich which tries to investigate how sexuality and gender roles determine identity, as well as how the former are shaped in modern society. Foucault explores the social role of sexuality in one of his famous books, the History of Sexuality. In this book he argues against the point-of-view that had been largely embraced in society, i.e. that sex was a freely-expressed part of life which raised no questions and posed no problems. Instead, he traces the history of discourses about sex, and argues that sex "was brought into the spotlight by Christianity in the seventeenth century" (Gauntlett: 124) when the Christian dogma decreed that all desires had to be expressed solely in the form of Christian confession. This moment in history has strong consequences, as the idea of desire became much stronger and gained importance. It is interesting to note here the existence of a link between the theory of Foucault regarding desire, and its connection to religion, and the way in which desire is incorporated in the movie Being John Malkovich.

Desire is central to understanding both the plot itself, as well as its symbolism. The movie tackles the issue of displaced desire. Craig Schwartz and his wife Lotte are both smitten with Maxine, a beautiful and mysterious woman. Maxine is actually the one who comes up with the idea of using the portal into the mind of John Malkovich for financial gain. For Lotte and her husband, the portal is the realm where their attraction to Maxine can be concretized. By inhabiting Malkovich, each of them can be with Maxine while Maxine is engaged in amorous activity with Malkovich himself. Craig is the only one who openly questions the implications of the portal: "It raises all sorts of philosophical questions about the nature of self, about the existence of the soul. Am I me? Is Malkovich, Malkovich? Was the Buddha right, is duality an illusion? Do you see what a can of worms this portal is? I don't think I can go on living my life as I have lived it. There's only one thing to do. Let's get married right away." Craig sees the emergence of the portal in his life as an opportunity to marry Maxine, and thus escape marital monotony and issues. However, Craig refuses to examine the causes of his misery, and looks for a "quick fix."

The central theme of the movie Being John Malkovich is that of personal dissatisfaction. Similarly to the case of a central theme in a book, personal dissatisfaction becomes the motivation for all the actions of the characters. The lack of fulfillment - be it professional, in the case of Craig, or emotional in the case of his wife - as well as low self-esteem are what drive these characters towards extreme situations. Most people would say they find themselves dissatisfied with their lives. Although their reasons and degree of discontent may vary tremendously, it is safe to say that most people who are unhappy with their lives and selves would trade places with people they consider to be better off. In fact, there are many who would trade places with anyone just for the sake of change, and the hope that by being someone else for a period of time, they could discover their real self and even be able to embrace it. This is precisely what Being John Malkovich is all about: changing identities means not only changing jobs, spouses, or physical appearance, it can mean changing your inner self, your gender and sexual orientation. All these changes are directed towards finding an inner balance which the characters severely lack.

Thesis: This paper explores the ways in which the portal inside John Malkovich changes the three main characters as well as the consequences of these changes. This paper will argue that these changes ultimately allow the characters to reveal their true selves.

The roles that these characters assume are very flexible in the sense that the subject can be either subject or object, and can even place him/herself outside the scene which enables him/her to have the point-of-view of a mere spectator. In many ways, one can argue that Being John Malkovich is a modern version of "Alice in Wonderland" because it offers the same rabbit holes that the characters can crawl down and enter a world of interchangeable and extremely flexible gender roles and sexual identities. The portal through which the characters are able to experience the life of John Malkovich has a dual role. On the one hand, the portal has the capacity to bend traditional notions of gender and sex identity; on the other, it allows the characters not only to escape their own condition, but to embrace another which is, in the end, their only real attempt at happiness and personal fulfillment. Nonetheless, the experience of being John Malkovich is very profound, and thus does more than offer a mere escape for the characters; it changes their sexual identities and gender roles, and ultimately changes their 'real' lives, i.e. their lives outside the portal.

In order to understand the implications that the portal has on the three main characters - Craig, Lotte and Maxine - it is important to look at how the power relations between them evolve throughout the film as a result of having discovered the portal into Malkovich. The issue of cross-gendered people is also tackled here. In the beginning of the film, Lotte appears to be a rather traditional wife. The fact that she cares for the traumatized chimp is symbolic of her maternal instincts which are present even though the couple does not have any children. In this sense, Lotte does not present any of the criteria which has been traditionally associated with cross-gendered people. However, upon discovering the inner world of Malkovich, she finds herself in the position of identifying with a man; this is a subtle reference to the fact that "a rigid interpretation of the norms on which a cross-gendered person would be diagnosed" (Butler: 95), simply leads to an incapacity of the spectator to grasp what is happening on screen. One explanation as to Lotte's sexual attraction to Maxine could be the denial of her own femininity which she needs to find in someone else. In fact, when she learns about the secret portal into Malkovich, she says: "I think it's kinda sexy that John Malkovich has a portal, y'know, sort of like, it's like, like he has a vagina. it's sort of vaginal, y'know, like he has a, he has a penis and a vagina. I mean, it's sort of like... Malkovich's... feminine side. I like that." Her dysfunctional marriage is what prompts her to wish for a reversal of gender roles; while inside Malkovich, she becomes the male element in the actor whereas the latter becomes the female part. Rejected as a woman in real life, Lotte finds consolation as a man while being with Maxine inside of Malkovich.

Craig feels he is not given the chance to exhibit his skills; his case is the classical example of complete professional dissatisfaction: "Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate." In many ways, Craig represents the misunderstood artist who more often than not, is not appreciated by society. The myth of the artist is very well constructed in Being John Malkovich: Craig's inner struggle is generated by the others' incapacity to appreciate his art. Moreover, Craig feels rejected because his art does not fit in today's society: "You don't know how lucky you are being a monkey. Because consciousness is a terrible curse. I think. I feel. I suffer. And all I ask in return is the opportunity to do my work. And they won't allow it... because I raise issues." However, he does not question his own value, on the contrary, he blames society and feels the latter cannot appreciate his skills. Not once does he question his skills. Craig is neither conceited nor arrogant because an attitude of self-importance requires certain features that he lacks, such as strength and the ability to relate to others. Instead, his stance is one of self-victimization; Craig feels wronged, isolated, rejected; these feelings are the cause of his constant pain and inner turmoil. His art is the most important thing to Craig, but it is also what makes him unhappy. He addresses the chimp and complains about having a consciousness which he sees as the source of his problems. His stance is also one of superiority as he presents himself as the victim of his own vision and artistic expression. In this context, the generic pronoun "they" symbolizes Craig's detachment from the world around him as he feels superior which he believes, is what causes his isolation.

Craig's wife, Lotte, is perhaps the most radically changed as a result of traveling through the portal. She becomes convinced that she is a transsexual, and consequently, feels the only way she can be true to herself is to assume a new sexual identity, i.e. that of a man. However Lotte abandons her desire of sexual reassignment when she becomes aware that by starting a relationship with Maxine, she can in fact assume a different gender role simply by falling in love with Maxine. Maxine, on the other hand, embarks on a sexual relationship with Malkovich so she can be with Lotte. Through the masculine John Malkovich body, Lotte experiences a kind of reverse sexuality in which John Malkovich becomes the female part and Lotte functions as the male part. Rejected as a woman, Lotte instead experiences sex with Maxine through John Malkovich's body but while Maxine professes her love for Lotte, she rejects her in person, only accepting her in John Malkovich's body. The fact that Maxine only accepts Lotte as her lover when the latter inhabits Malkovich signifies that the former needs a masculine validation of the affair in the sense she is unable to fully accept a lesbian relationship, so she turns to a male figure i.e. Malkovich that can legitimize the affair to some extent. Lotte becomes gradually addicted to being someone else. She provides an extremely dramatic response to the experience of switching sex and gender roles which determines her husband to remind her that the is only experiencing the "thrill of seeing through the eyes of someone else," a thrill which he thinks will pass. Here, the addition caused by seeing through the eyes of John Malkovich is suggested to resemble that experiences by the film audience who is also allowed to be someone else, and see through someone else's eyes during films.

The motif of the beautiful woman is also explored in the movie using the character Maxine. This motif is one of the most utilized throughout the history of literature; the beautiful woman is unreachable and often causes misfortune and heartache for those around her. Maxine appears as a sort of temptress, the object of everyone's desire, and the reason which triggers Craig and Lotte's private war. They embark on a sort of competition whose prize is Maxine; however no one can possess her completely.

Maxine is also manipulative; in fact, one of the strongest themes in Being John Malkovich is manipulation. Malkovich becomes a puppet in the hands of those who control him; his identity as well as free will are compromised completely by the portal. Malkovich, Craig and Lotte are all manipulated by Maxine who uses sexual attraction in order to get what she wants i.e. money. Manipulation is given a double meaning; firstly one can consider manipulation as the handling of objects, in this case, puppets, and more specifically, Malkovich - the main puppet. Secondly, manipulation refers to the fact that the characters seem to lose their free will, and find themselves at the command of either other characters, or their own thirst for fulfillment. The issue of manipulation raises an important question i.e. who controls Malkovich? Who is the true puppeteer? In this sense, Maxine can be viewed as the true puppeteer in the movie because she is never controlled by anyone or anything, and her free will is never compromised. Maxine is never interested in the portal itself; she is not concerned with the implications and consequences of its existence. Unlike Craig and his wife, Maxine sees the portal as a solid business opportunity; as the plot progresses, the portal also becomes an opportunity for sexual gratification which Maxine seeks either with Craig or with Lotte depending on which of them happens to inhabit Malkovich at any given time. In this sense, Maxine is the only one who does not expect the portal to change her identity in any way; unlike Craig, Maxine does not wish for fame - she wishes for wealth. Unlike Lotte, she is not interested in experiencing what it is like to be the opposite gender. In the beginning, Maxine is not attracted to either one of the two. Maxine admits to her attraction to Lotte only when the latter inhabits Malkovich; she says she is attracted to the "feminine longing" in the actor's eyes while Lotte is inside of him, but the attraction vanishes as soon as Lotte returns to her own body. However, this might be Maxine's way of denying her sexual orientation, because when Craig inhabits Malkovich and pretends to be Lotte inhabiting the actor, Maxine is unaware of the lie. This could mean that Maxine justifies her attraction to Lotte through Malkovich's body because she is unable to accept her sexual orientation. Moreover, her thirst for wealth could be a mask that Maxine wears in order to hide her longing for something deeper and more fundamental, but at the same time, harder to admit to and obtain. Although in the beginning Maxine rejects Craig and tells him she could never be attracted to a man who plays with dolls, she soon realizes that she needs his help to set up "JM Inc.," a company that would actually sell time inside John Malkovich. Craig openly expresses his fear related to the portal, and the implications of starting a business which relied on taking people on a fifteen-minute trip inside John Malkovich, but Maxine promises to protect him. Thanks to his puppet handling skills, Craig manages to get permanent control over the portal thus becoming one with Malkovich. This is the moment the very pragmatic Maxine realizes that she needs to abandon her love affair with Lotte, and marry Craig. Their next move is to direct Malkovich's career to puppet representations which bring the couple affluence and fame. The power relations are altered once again, because although Craig is the mastermind behind Malkovich's successful career, he does not benefit from a position of absolute power. On the contrary, he is being manipulated by Maxine. What's more, he has to accept the fact that his spectacular skills as far as puppeteering are not acknowledged as his own, but as Malkovich's. He is thus unable to receive the public recognition he has longed for all his life. At this point, Craig's position suffers a subtle change: he has the opportunity that he has longed for i.e. To prove himself, and even manages to do so, but he does not receive public acknowledgement and cannot thus validate himself. Such a position is very interesting from a historical perspective; in this sense, Craig's gender role is that historically associated with women, who were not publicly recognized and appreciated despite their skills and accomplishments. Sexual life is altered by the unintended consequences of social life sometimes more than through the intention of the authors (Weeks: 25). The three main characters explore being inside Malkovich in different ways according to who they are in the beginning. Craig is immediately attracted to Maxine whom he perceives as the opposite of his wife, Lotte: "Craig Schwartz: Can I buy you a drink, Maxine? / Maxine: Are you married? / Craig Schwartz: Yes, but enough about me." However, from this point-of-view, Lotte is the only one who evolves as a result of having been inside John Malkovich. She enters the tunnel inside Malkovich as a heterosexual stuck in a marriage that does not bring her any happiness. Lotte becomes attracted to Maxine and starts identifying with a male character with the audience perceiving her as a transgender, only to emerge as a lesbian from the experience. In this sense, it is equally hard for Maxine to acknowledge that she has feelings for Lotte simply because from the standpoint of society, she is the beautiful woman whom everybody wants but no one seems to have. She is the one who accepts - out of vanity, at first - to be part of a love triangle with Lotte and her husband, and acts as a prize that both spouses seem to compete for. The forces which shape sexuality vary from one society to another (Weeks:18). The Western perspective on sexuality presents a dichotomy between the spirit and the flesh, the body and the mind. This dualism is tackled in a very subtle manner in Being John Malkovich; the film is full of sexual symbolism, ranging from the portal which leads into Malkovich to the visual depictions of the sexual encounters, they all have the same purpose i.e. To outline the sexual identity crisis which affects all of the characters, including Malkovich himself. As far as the deep symbolism of the film, it is interesting to note here that the tunnel that takes them inside Malkovich is long and narrow resembling a vagina. In the case of Maxine, she only admits to her feelings for Lotte in the end of the film. Throughout the ups and down, Lotte and Maxine lose each other only to find each other in the end when they are ready to accept who they are. On the contrary, Craig loses everything; his fate comes as a sort of punishment for the fact that he could accept who he was; in the end, he is powerless and alone with his dreams of success shattered once more. The ending provides the audience with one last challenge of psychoanalysis and cinematic narrative techniques. "During the film's climactic moment, Maxine and Lotte unite for the first time without a phallic intermediary," (Dragunoiu: 6); in the penultimate scene of the movie, Lotte and Maxine are shown several years later in a blissful familial relationship with their young daughter Emily" (Ibid.) Maxine explains that Emily was conceived while Lotte was inside Malkovich, so although Malkovich was the one who physically inseminated Maxine, it is in fact Lotte who is considered to be the child's father. Maxine and Lotte are now a happy couple which seems to have left the symbolic order of society behind them. Instead, they settled "peaceably into an 'unlawful' social arrangement" (Dragunoiu: 7). However, their happiness does not comes at a cost; the two women abandon their social identity. This abandonment suggests that personal and intimate fulfillment and satisfaction are oftentimes incompatible with the role forced upon the individual by society.