I've been wondering, why did the woman's parents cut her hair and lock her up? I figured this was a custom at the time, but in English we're reading The Kite Runner and the woman who dishonors her father must do the same thing. What is the symbolism of having the haircut and being locked in?
shareYou did understand she had an affair with a German soldier, didn't you? Otherwise, I think you have to watch this movie again. ;-)
It wasn't her parents who cut off her hair; it's the town people. Women in occupied countries who had affairs with German soldiers during WW2 would have their hair cut off after the liberation; it was a way of communal punishment by marking those women as "sluts". Her parents locked her in the cellar so that she'd be out of the public eye. Later they gave her money and made her go away (to Paris) so that she would disappear altogether.
As for the symbolism, in many different cultures a woman's hair was believed to be the reservoir of her vital and sexual energy and all that; this is why women couldn't wear it loose, or else they could either waste her energy or put it to "bad use" (mostly by seducing men or even "putting spells" on them).
Hope that helps.
That's what I though, but I couldn't find much information on the internet. Thanks for helping out :)
shareWhat's shown happened mainly in France (and a few other European countries), mainly after WWII. So searches for some sort of more generic/general explanation probably won't find much.
For a much fuller discussion of what happened, see http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/jun/05/women-victims-d-da y-landings-second-world-war
(Just a few very small excerpts: "... Many French people as well as allied troops were sickened by the treatment meted out to these women ... teenagers who had associated with German soldiers ... After the humiliation of a public head-shaving, the tondues - the shorn women - were often paraded through the streets ... An extraordinary battlefield myth soon spread like wildfire. This maintained that young French women, the lovers of German soldiers, were fighting as snipers against the allies. ... ")
Perhaps she had a fetish for enemy soldiers of the Axis powers.
shareI agree with UniversalLove. Women in occupied countries who were viewed as collaborators, including those who had affairs, had their heads shorn, were often beaten and/or stripped and paraded through the villages and towns after liberation.
In terms of the film I found it interesting that there were lots of images earlier of the Japanese people and their hair and the comments about hair collected at the museum from victims of the nuclear fall out. It connected her as another type of victim to those of the Hiroshima bombing.
Fatima had a fetish for a wiggle in her scootshare
Interesting take - I hadn't thought of that, and totally agree with you. Resnais tying up loose ends ...
(this being nearly 3 years later... I've been waiting about 10 years to see Hiroshima - it was finally on TCM tonight, so I'm reading through the comments, and found yours quite good in several threads.)
@lamoza, thanks for your nice words, glad you found them helpful.
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summershare