Gender Roles In Pulp Fiction

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The use of food in film often provides a medium to define the stereotype of gender role. According to Epstein’s ‘Appetite for Destruction’, food in the movie ‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994) was used to “code masculinity” and “femininity and femaleness” (Epstein, 198-199) with consumption of beef and the use of pie to define female genitalia on different scenes. However, in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’ (2009), food became medium to distant two characters of different gender of their position in the society through a scene in the restaurant involving apple strudels -an Austrian dessert of baked puff pastry with cooked apple filling and custard. Set in France during World War II, the film tells a story about a plan to assassinate Nazi leader, Colonel Hans Landa (Christopher Waltz) who killed the family of Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent), when she was little. Shosanna was able to run away and build a new life as Emmanuelle Mimieux -a French theater owner.…show more content…
She met with Hans Landa -the man who murdered her family, the two then had an intimate conversation over apple strudels that Hans claims to be “not so terrible”. The scene proceeds with exchanges of still shots between the two as Hans tried to dig out information on how Shosanna came to own the theater. The scene clearly intrudes the bustling scene of the cafe to focus on the conversation between Hans and Shosanna through the occasional close-up on Shosanna that projects her cautious choice of words as to not reveal her true identity. It clearly shows that the purpose of this conversation is for Hans to intimidate Shosanna and reveal her identity. The strudel here was placed as an object of Hans’ superiority over Shosanna. The scene started off with Hans ordering the food on behalf of Shosanna to traject his power and dominance in this

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