It was recently announced that the Sundance Institute will present actress and arts advocate Glenn Close with its Vanguard Leadership Award in recognition of her distinguished career in entertainment and advocacy of independent film. Close is probably best remembered for her role as Alex Forrest in the 1987 box office smash hit Fatal Attraction. Also featuring a youthful looking Micheal Douglas, the film coined the term 'bunny boiler' after the infamous scene which shows the family pet cooking on the stove. We take a closer look at what Fatal Attraction tells us about the 80's...
4. Single Women Are to Be Feared...
Women like Alex Forrest appear to be the image of all things wrong with society at the time, highlighting the importance of conforming. Alex's depiction as a strong career woman, who at the same time is profoundly psychotic, highlights the negative connotations associated with her appearance, life choices and behaviour. It forces audiences to question their morals and in the context of the 1980's, it asks single, working women to reassess their lifestyle. Women who endeavour to subvert the typical role of the loving mother and wife are often portrayed in film as deviant and are employed as a warning to the audience. It suggests that if this was the norm and women embodied masculine traits, such as promiscuity, violence and aggression, then society as a whole would be greatly affected in a very negative way. The film can be seen as a backlash against women's liberation movements, the active female in cinema is denoted as satanic. Some women do not conform to the expected norms of femininity, in both films both women are the binary opposition to the western representation of women as passive figures, they become obsessed with a goal. It seems that Fatal Attraction's Alex Forrest is a metaphorical warning to women that if they suppress their domestic duty and choose a career, then they will inevitably only be able to find solace in a married man. As a morality tale, it highlights that women like Alex can sample it on the weekend, but will never get their fairy tale ending, as he will return to his wife on Monday, no matter what they do to try and stop him.