What is the significance of roles given in the movie?
In the movie Far from Heaven we get a dose of different kind of issues. Usually are main character is a male. In this film are main character is female. She assumes the male role of the film and we follow her as she discovers herself and other along the way. This goes against the concepts that everyone has a role they play in society. Cathy is displays a role change by being the strong one where her husband Frank comes off as being weak and feeble. He inherits then the role of the female. The same can be said about Raymond. These men become what women are usually in film.... just something pretty to look at. This also makes sense considering that the director Todd Haynes is gay. So you can see why these concepts would be a strong suit for him as a story teller.
What is the significance of race in the movie?
The black-white issue is prominent in the film because it is supposed to show a difference in the times. Raymond is an educated well-spoken black man. He is good looking, charming, and nothing like the stereotypes that were placed on blacks at the time. He becomes the most stand-up person in the whole film. He himself is ahead of time living in an era where racism is a hot issue. When Cathy begins to fall for Raymond, She deals with outside influences reestablishing generalizations made against black during that time. When He takes Cathy to a all black jazz club he too is also met by hostile advances from black women who don't take kindly to interaccial relationships. When she goes to Raymond, he leaves and takes his daughter with him to avoid any further attacks.
So basically it is the society built around these characters that imprisons them and doesn't allow them to be who they truly are.
So basically it is the society built around these characters that imprisons them and doesn't allow them to be who they truly are.
I didn't see Raymond in a female role in the movie, but you make a good point. He is objectified in the film like the female is in classic films (according to Mulvey). However, he also resists being placed into any one role. He is a complex character (father, business owner, etc.), which might suggest a defiance of a traditional female archetype because he resists being seen as a two-dimensional object. He also goes against social norms concerning race throughout the film, which is exemplified in his relationship with Cathy. Both he and Cathy are great characters who seem to have more layers of complexity the closer you look at them.
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