James M. Cain's Mildred Pierce

Mildred Pierce Amy McKenzie

“Mildred Pierce”, originally a book written by James M. Cain, is based upon a strong, ambitious woman’s downfall, all from utter devotion to a money-hungry, monstrous daughter. It was then adapted into a film in 1945, directed by Michael Curtiz. He was responsible for many cinematic classics, such as The Adventures of Robin Hood and Casablanca. He thrived in the heyday of the Warner Bros. studios in the 1930’s and 40’s. His specific style helped emphasise the Film Noir genre within the film, which was extremely popular during it’s time of release. Film Noir is a cinematic term which was exceptionally popular in the 1940-50’s. It was primarily used to describe stylish Hollywood crime
This audience would be predominantly female. This is because of it's "chick-flick" nature, which added more appeal for women, because of the femme fatale, Mildred. It has an underlying message that women can come from being defenseless housewives to making a living for themselves, supporting their own families, without a man around. For the majority of the film, Mildred was not married, and these were in fact the less complicated
Especially in film noir, many factors to a scene can be polysemic, meaning to have various meanings, and we are only certain of a this meaning if there is "anchorage" to help tie-down a particular meaning. A key scene in Mildred Pierce is when Veda and Mildred begin to argue, because Veda has just gained $10,000 for lying about being pregnant. At the beginning, Mildred moves to the middle of the stairs, having a significant height over Veda. But, when Veda interjects with extremely hard-hitting and disrespectful words to her very own mother, we see Veda begins to climb the stairs; the status has changed. This pays a powerful effect, as this is the beginning of the actual deterioration of Mildred and Veda's relationship, the most important of alliances; as the two characters have extreme difference in the way they feel about society and how they feel about each other. Veda dreams of wealth and status, and this is clearly portrayed by her neat and rich appearance, with her hair in an extremely tidy updo, with wealthy clothing on. It is clear she wants nothing but the best, which can be quite demanding for Mildred, whom is very different. Mildred still pays attention to her appearance, but in reality, she is still the same open-minded, hardworking independant woman who doesn't care for