The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Spanish Apartment – The Ugly

It’s a shame that The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is set up to descend in quality, because each review gets further from the film’s good qualities.  Still, we’re finishing up today with my last post on The Spanish Apartment, and it’s the grimmest of the lot:  the ugly.  (Note:  some spoilers for this film and its sequel, Russian Dolls.)  The good news is that it’s not overwhelming.  I didn’t pick up on it the first few viewings, and even then, you see similar issues in (far too) many films, but it’s disappointing to see in a film that has so much to love.  Isn’t that always the way?  In this case, the issue is how it handles female characters.  Virtually every major woman in the film is written mostly in service of Xavier.  Now, it’s his story, and he’s obviously the focal point and the most fleshed-out character, but the women, more so than the men, are characterized in problematic gender ways.  This is especially true with Martine, Anne-Sophie, and Isabelle.

To start, I’ll point out that all three have shading outside their relationships with Xavier.  Anne-Sophie is a repressed newlywed afraid to venture out into her new country.  Isabelle has a girlfriend, pride in her Walloon identity, and strong opinions.  Even Martine, the thinnest of the three, has her own thoughts and emotions.  However, all three serve a much larger, less nuanced purpose in Xavier’s story.  Anne-Sophie is taken with Xavier almost from the get-go.  She appears lingerie-clad in Xavier’s subconscious and otherwise, her weak rebuff of his advances crumbles at his romantic prowess, and when they begin an affair, her recent marriage is so far from her thoughts that she keeps trying to paw at Xavier even when her husband is home.  Similarly, though Isabelle is gay and, as such, out of the running as a bedmate, the film continually goes to the “hot lesbian” well with her, always for Xavier’s benefit.  He’s the only one to hear her story of being hit on at a dance class, and she gives him a how-to in seducing women, first demonstrating on him and later enlisted her girlfriend for an exhibition.  Furthermore, her lingering glances and comments that it’s “a shame” he’s not a girl feed into het-male fantasies of “turning” a lesbian.  Finally, Martine is Xavier’s girlfriend, but she only plays a part in the film when it’s convenient.  When he needs a push into another woman’s arms, she’s judgmental of his new friends and nags him over the phone, and when he needs an emotional struggle, she obligingly pops up to break his heart with news that she’s been seeing someone.

I should note that Xavier never feels the least bit bad about cheating on Martine or cuckolding Anne-Sophie’s husband, but when he hears that Martine has stepped out on him, it’s all sad music, wallowing, and tearful stares at a photograph of them.  It’s all about his pain and her betrayal, no sense of regret or understanding.  Worse, the film never really acknowledges this as a problem.  No one points out that Xavier was in fact cheating on her and helping another woman cheat on someone else, and maybe he doesn’t have much license to throw a pity party.

It’s interesting, because almost all the female characters are more detailed than the non-Xavier males, but their storylines tend to hinge on their romantic entanglement with/ability to titillate him.  It’s a bit of a camouflage – because they’re rounder, you might not notice it at first, but once you do, it’s unmistakable.  Wendy, who mostly escapes this gendered focus, is admittedly pretty well fleshed-out; however, while she’s not really on Xavier’s romantic or sexual radar in this movie, she becomes a major contender in Russian Dolls.  It’s also noteworthy, I think, that Soledad, the one woman with a solid boyfriend she remains faithful to, is definitely the one with the least shading.  Is it because we know nothing will happen between her and Xavier?