Representations of women throughout the Italian mafia movies have hardly evolved throughout time. Most of the women are background characters who do not advance the plot in any way. If anything, they serve as motivation for the main male character. However, in a few films seen in the class, the woman figure is able to transform into something different.
Characters like Kay and Connie from The Godfather stayed out of the family’s criminal organization. Connie was very loyal and complacent to her abusive husband. Kay at the beginning of the film was different from the Corleone family. By the end of the film, Kay was beginning to understand her role as Michael shut her out. Kay and Connie represent the stereotypical female mafia characters shown in these various Italian films.
In Galantuomini, the female mafia stereotypes are challenged by Lucia, a woman with a leadership role in the local criminal organization. Lucia is a mother, but her focus is on her work within the mafia. Her son is absent for most of the film and is only talked about in regards of her previous relationship with Infantino. Galantuomini gave us a rare look inside of a female character we hardly see, one who is in charge. It was interesting to have a woman as the main character for once. The movie does not go into much background detail so we do not get to see how Lucia rose into her leadership position. It makes one wonder, why was Lucia’s path so different from other female characters?
In the film Angela, Angela is also involved within the mafia because of her husband. Angela is involved within the organization but only to an extent. She makes deliveries and helps arrange the drugs inside the family store. However, she is excluded from the important meetings that the men hold. Unlike Lucia, the men in the business do not see Angela as capable enough to be inside the loop. Angela still tries to be a part of the group by secretly listening in on their conversations. Angela is different from the usual compliant women we see in these films because she makes her own choices about who she wants to be with.
The character in the Sicilian Girl, Rita Atria, was based on a real-life person. This might be why her character was developed so well. Rita was angry, vengeful, loud and did not think before she acted. She was not a typical female mafia character. Rita grew up with the mafia, but she managed to get away from them and ended up betraying them to the authorities. She turned against the mafia because of what happened to her father when she young, but her mother who also had to deal with that tragedy, stayed true to her obedient pro-mafia roots. Rita managed to break away from tradition and live her own life.
Lucia, Angela and Rita are women that managed to stand out in a male-dominated cinema world. Their actions are not typical representations of the mafia female. The movies they star in focus primarily on them instead of their male counterpart. The views of these women allow the audience to see a difference perspective.
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