Katherine, Maria, and Luisa

Three of the films we watched in class were very similar. Jules and Jim, The Marriage of Maria Braun, and y tu mama tambien have the same basic concept. All three are about two men and one woman. Their relationships are all very complex. In Jules and Jim there is an openly accepted, but still confusing love triangle involving two best friends and one friend's wife. The Marriage of Maria Braun is about woman in a love "polygon" between her husband and several other men. What makes her affairs particularly complicated is the fact that her husband has reportedly been killed in the war. Y tu mama tambien is about two selfish, immature, and sex-obsessed teens who have a physical-love triangle with a beautiful older woman. All three women are strong and Maria and Katherine (Jules and Jim) in particular are very wild and uninhibited. The three women play with the men who generally seem to be the weaker characters. The women all lead to the destruction of the men in the end and Maria and Katherine destroy themselves in the end as well. Katherine tricks one of the two men into getting into a car with her. She then drives the car off a bridge. Maria leaves the gas on and then lights a match and blows up the whole house. Luisa lead the two boys into a threesome that ruins their friendship. These films seem to suggest two conflicting things: 1)that women are powerful and can control men, and 2) that women in positions of power destroy everything. Jules and Jim and The Marriage of Maria Braun fit with the second message best. Katherine and Maria are wreckless and impulsive. The men seem more innocent than stupid which makes the women seem controlling and menacing. Luisa seems a lot more like a woman who can do anything she wants in a position of power. We find out in the end that Luisa was dying throughout the film and that was the reason for her carefree nature. She was not just a woman who couldn't handle power; she was a woman who decided to please herself at the end of her life.