Far From Heaven + Fanon

I appreciated the fact that this movie took place in the 1950's even though it was made in 2002. What could be the significance of this choice? This really allows the film to separate itself from the current time just enough to talk about it. Far From Heaven brings issues on race, class, and sexuality to the surface and the time separation works to show how much hasn't changed. How much we still judge each other, what people have to sacrifice just to be themselves and the way society considers certain things taboo. Raymond is a college graduate who has his own business, but still isn't able to move up socially in the world because he is black. Kathy's husband views his sexuality as wrong, as a "sickness", and Kathy and Raymond both suffer because they are friends (and want more) because they are not the same skin color. We are fooling ourselves if we don't think these issues still exist today. Fanon writes that "The black man among his own in the twentieth century does not know at what moment his infereiority comes into being through the other.....In the white world the man of color encounters difficulties in the development of his bodily schema. Consciousness of the body is solely a negating activity. It is a third-person consciousness." How could this be the case if race is not an issue? I think Far From Heaven works well to show Kathy and Raymond learning about the issues of race, in ways they didn't know existed. Raymond begins to see in his friends' reactions at the diner how biracial relationships are viewed, and at the art gallery Kathy realizes that her friends are extra critical of whatever conversation she may have with Raymond simply because he is black. Watching characters learn something about the reality of their own surroundings prods us to look at our own surroundings. When we step outside of our media-saturated world for a moment we realize our world and the world of Kathy and Raymond aren't that far apart.

Speaking of media... What is the significance of the cameras in Far From Heaven? Kathy is constantly being questioned for the magazine, gawked at by neighbors for being "Mrs. Magnatech", and there is always an event in her life to either organize or attend. She seems busy fitting into an image. An image that was created by the very cameras that are now documenting her life as a mold. The cameras seem to make statements about mass media and its effect on society. (Not that it is the sole problem but that it contributes.) I wonder if there would be any issues as far as Raymond and Kathy are concerned if it weren't for the fact that the community had bought into the messages and images portrayed through the media.