Ahhh Technicolor!

Far From Heaven offers a modern take on a traditionally based story of the upper-middle class problem of keeping up appearances. When placed side by side with the 1950s movie “All that Heaven Allows,” FFH does not just tackle the issue of class, but also the issue of race, homosexuality, homophobia, and divorce. Lampl-De Groot offers some insight into the roles of the characters within FFH and how they differ from the traditional mainstream movie. Groot presents the idea of an active male and passive female; however, FFH gives the viewer a backwards perspective where the active male role (the one the audience identifies with) is Kathy, the female. The passive female roles are portrayed by Frank and Raymond as characters that are objectified by the audience through Mulvey’s “scopophilic action.”

Fanon, on the other hand, feels that the way we see ourselves is entirely based on the viewpoint of the society around us. This is so completely evident in the way that Kathy and Frank are in a society built on keeping up an appearance to suit the people around them. “It is a third person consciousness.” What, then, is the significance of these theories when applied to race in the film? Race becomes a result of a proposed differentiation from the world around you. This is not to say that we do not see the difference before the proposal, but we do not think of it as a difference or a separation. Is this similarly experienced when applied to gender in life or in film? One’s full realization of things like race or gender is done so through one’s relationships. Through one’s experience of others, one realizes one’s self. In FFH, Frank realizes his own sexuality through relationships with other men. Kathy realizes her own brute whiteness through her relationship with Raymond.