The separation is highlighted by one particular scene in “The Godfather” when Michael kills Carlo (his sister Connie’s husband). He lies to Kay and denies having done this, and just after that there is a shot of Kay sitting in the kitchen (The woman’s place). She is in the foreground and Michael’s study is shown in the background. As soon as the men enter his study they close the door right in her face. The camera lingers on this shot to emphasise the way that they have physically shut her out of their “business”.
In the ‘’Godfather’’ part 2, Kay’s character has developed slightly. She now seems to know what is going on and wants Michael to make the family legal. She seems to have more power over Michael, and this is shown in the scene just after they are both almost killed by a machine gun. She still has a very motherly role and is holding her children protectively whilst sitting on the sofa. Her facial expression says it all. She is clearly unhappy and just by Michael’s guilty face you can tell that she has some power over him, even though it is not very much.
As the film progresses, Kay managed to get herself more respect and more power over Michael. She knows what is happening and feels deceived by Michael, so tries to take her own revenge by having an abortion. This is an incredibly serious decision to make even nowadays, and in those times abortion was incredibly rare, especially when one is living in a Catholic family! This act shows that she is trying to take a stand against the way Michael is living his life by ridding him of his heir. However, Michael only finds out this truth when she is leaving him, he was told by someone else that she simply had a miscarriage. Kay wants to get away from him but he “doesn’t allow it” and proceeds to shout at her even though she has the right to be angry with him. Michael says he will change but she won’t listen. He believes that it’s against the “family code” to be left without wife and children. He is obviously infuriated by this, but his body language is totally underplayed, which suggests tension.
Even though Kay has shown this display of new power and bravery to finally confront Michael, it is obvious by her body language and her facial expression that she is scared of him, especially when she is visiting their children behind his back. He enters just as she is leaving through the back door, and as soon as she sees him she freezes. The camera has got Kay in full frame; Michael does not utter a word, but simply closes the door in her face. The camera lingers on the closed door to emphasise the way that she is continuously shut out of Michael’s life.
By the ‘’Godfather’’ part 3, Kay has definitely become totally independent, by now she is fully aware of the business, she even points out that Michael is a murderer. Their relationship has become more equal over the years, now she can talk to him straightforwardly but does seem to still be slightly scared of him – she tells him that she ‘’dreads’’ him and to prove this the camera lingers on her frightened facial expression. Even though they are now fully separated they are still civil to each other and talk a lot; Michael even tries to justify his behaviour in the past.
Karen (in Goodfellas) is shown in much the same way at first but as well as being totally innocent, she is overwhelmed with the amount of money, prestige and right family members that Henry has. The camera highlights this by taking one long, continuous shot of them entering a restaurant through the back door. Everything happens very quickly and the camera swirls around a lot, which creates a dazzling effect. This is also shown at their wedding, when she is introduced to the whole family and they ALL give her money! Her eyes are wide and shiny and she is hugely amazed by all of this. Even though at first Karen seems glamorous, streetwise and modern, it is evident that in most ways she is still naïve and innocent, as she doesn’t even question the reason why Henry is so powerful.
The main difference between Karen and Kay is that Karen actually accepts the violence around her. This is extremely important and is shown in the scene where Henry tells her to hide the blood-covered gun. She has her own voice-over and says that having it in her hand “turned her on”. This is a key phrase in the film and to show this fully, the camera focuses on the bloody gun, holding a big close-up on it for several seconds. By accepting to hide this gun she is accepting being a part of the violence in Henry’s life.
Karen is from a muffle class Jewish family and when introduced to the other wives she looks down on their clothes and the way that they wear too much make-up. Her mother is also very orthodox and screams at Michael on Karen’s behalf when he comes home very late. Karen knows that she just has to adapt to Henry’s lifestyle like all the other wives.
Like Kay, at first she is kept separate from the “other half” of Henry’s life. In “Goodfellas” it is obvious that the family is very important, Paulie emphasises this by telling Henry he ‘’CANNOT leave Karen – they have to keep the wives happy’’) but that the gangsters also like to have the best of both worlds and so Karen is a victim of Henry’s adultery. This is shown well when the camera cuts directly from a scene of Henry with another woman to a shot of wives holding their babies. When Karen finds out about this she tries to take a stand by physically putting a gun to Michael’s head. This contrasts with Kay, who only stands up for herself behind her husband’s back, and it also makes her different from other gangster’s wives because she actually tries to stop him from seeing other women.
Unfortunately, Karen, unlike Kay, is corrupted by the Mafia, and instead of separating herself from it, she gradually becomes fully involved. She becomes Henry’s “partner in crime” and they have a more equal relationship, even though Henry still has a girlfriend who he is using to hide drugs in her house. (She is also a corrupted victim of the Mafia lifestyle.) She likes spending money, even though it’s dirty, and seems to enjoy the drugs that are freely available – every time that she is shown on screen she is drinking, smoking or snorting! She also becomes less glamorous, her clothes and make-up become less modern and she becomes less pretty.
By marrying Henry, Karen has committed herself to a life where she doesn’t know what is going to happen next. She doesn’t have a certain future and is slowly being corrupted.
Henry and Karen are in this TOGETHER, unlike Kay and Michael, and they are both at the risk of being killed. The F.B.I knows that they are practically a team and tell her not to bother pretending to be innocent.
Carmela in “The Sopranos” is similar to Karen and Kay in that she is quite innocent at first, and seems to only have a rough idea of what her husband does. She simply turns a blind eye. Like Karen, she enjoys the things that money can buy and is also a victim of Tony’s adultery. Like Kay, she is shown mostly with children or in the kitchen. She is a VERY stereotypical mother and is trying to bring her children up in a respectable way. She just wants to be a good catholic and turns to religion to try and make herself feel better about not doing anything to stop the wrong things that Tony is doing, even though she has managed to adapt herself to the Mafia lifestyle.
The women in these three texts are not only wives, but other family members too. For example, mothers – like Mama Corleone (The Godfather) and Livia (The Sopranos). Mothers, as I’ve mentioned before, are solely used for the purpose of cooking, looking after children, and keeping the family together. Mama Corleone is a typical Italian mother. She is not glamorous, in fact she is rather plump, wears old-fashioned clothes, and is always seen either with small children or in the kitchen. Livia, on the other hand is totally different. She is stubborn, rude and ungrateful. She doesn’t support her son Tony at all and spends all her time whining. This huge difference is probably influenced heavily by the time difference between the makings of both texts. “The Sopranos” is definitely more modern so it is easier to see the changes in the roles of women. In “The Sopranos” all the women seem to “break Tony’s balls,” this, of course, includes his daughter, Meadow. Meadow is a straightforward person and the only thing she wants to know is exactly what her father does. She has a rough idea, like most women in the Mafia, but she wants to hear the whole truth from her father. She doesn’t really care that her father is involved in the Mafia; in fact she says that it is “cool”, unlike her mother, who tries to ignore it.
Unlike Michael, who in reality controls Connie, Tony doesn’t seem to have any a control over the women in his life!
Connie plays a big part in “The Godfather” films. At first, she is incredibly dependant on her brother, Michael. She is married to Carlo, who beats her. There is one horrific scene where Carlo’s girlfriend calls the house and tells Connie to give Carlo a message that she will not be able to meet him until later on. Connie is obviously outraged and has just prepared dinner for Carlo, but he doesn’t appreciate it, it’s as if wives are taken for granted. Connie turns out to be a victim of Carlo’s fury – he chases her around the apartment and beats her with a belt, even though she is pregnant and she hasn’t done anything wrong – he’s the one who is seeing other women! Connie is obviously helpless to this form of abuse and the first thing she does is call her mother’s house. Once again, the woman gets all the sympathy from the audience as they are completely victimised by the men in their lives.
Michael doesn’t think about Connie or about her baby, who is now his Godson. He doesn’t care about her feelings or her sense of loss when he kills her husband, Carlo, because to Michael, business is more important. Connie has to suffer at the expense of Michael’s business and is clearly outraged by his lack of compassion for her and her child. A barge in screaming at him, completely hysterical and Kay sees her. Unlike Kay, Connie knows more about the family business at this stage in the film because she actually IS a Corleone, and so knows what the business is like. She knows that she is accusing Michael of this with reason, but Kay chooses to believe Michael, which emphasises her innocence. In the first ‘’Godfather’’ Film, Connie is definitely a victim of all the men around her, and the viewers feel sorry for her, as they can see that she is helpless. In “The Godfather 2” however, she comes home a week late and is more worried about her brother than about her own children. She is obviously more modern, she is dressed more glamorously, her hair is all done-up, she is wearing a lot of make-up and she is smoking. She seems quite rebellious and has a sulky, pouty expression on her face. She seems to have broken free of the norms of women in the Mafia by going to Vegas and having a wild time, ignoring her children, by divorcing her husband, and by bringing home yet another man! Even though Connie seems to be the rebel of the family, she feels that she has to ask Michael for permission to marry Merle, her new boyfriend. Technically she should be the one who overpowers him, after all, she is the eldest, but instead she never looks him in the eye and the camera angle shows her looking up at him. Michael frequently stands over Connie, which suggests dominance in this situation. Connie gradually becomes more involved in the business, like Karen, but not as much. She has got a tiny but more power now and is allowed to stand in the office while the men talk even though she doesn’t say much. Now that she’s older she dresses more respectably, and tries to get involved in the business by introducing Vincent (Sonny’s illegitimate son) to Michael. Her character, like Kay, develops throughout the “Godfather’’ trilogy” as she gradually becomes less of a victim of the Mafia, and more of a part of it.
Connie, however, is not the only woman who is heavily victimised by the Mafia. There are some small roles played by women in the aforementioned texts that are incredibly important in adding to the theme of violence towards women, which are conventions of the Mafia. Two innocent women die as a result of this mob; one of those is Appollonia, an innocent, submissive and rather timid Italian girl, who Michael marries after receiving consent from her father. At the wedding she is dressed in a traditional, conservative wedding dress. She just tends to guests and her body language shows that she is used to the fact that she is totally governed and controlled by her father, and also that she possibly lacks self-esteem. She is childish and innocent and is brutally murdered when she is killed by a car bomb that was meant to kill Michael.
Another relatively small part is the prostitute that is murdered even though she has absolutely nothing to do with the Mafia. She is just cruelly used as a pawn in the Mafia’s game. They want to set the senator up and so have her ruthlessly killed.
The women in these films/TV. Series are used to show the corruption or innocence by the Mafia lifestyle. This is a running theme in the three texts and is shown exclusively in the baptism sequence in “The Godfather 2”. This sequence shows men with expensive suits, gelled-back hair and gold jewellery in church in the church, there are men with expensive suits, gelled back hair and gold jewellery – these are conventional icons of gangsters. More gangsters are seen wearing black suits and hats putting guns into boxes, and delivering them in expensive cars. In this part, the camera closes up on the baby in the christening and the hitmen assembling guns and murdering people. When the murders are being carried out the baby starts to cry louder and the gunshots are very audible. The camera editing is fast, the scenes cut from close-ups of the baby straight to close-ups of guns. This shows the clear distinction between families and business and the difference between the innocence of women and children and the activities of the Mafia. This scene is effectively used to highlights the clear separation in the gangsters’ lives.
As time goes by the women have more power in the Mafia, and the roles change. This can be seen easily when you compare Connie at the beginning of the “Godfather Trilogy” and Carmela. The women that have been mentioned before all have their differences in the ways that they are involved in the Mafia, but the one thing they all have in common is that ultimately they all suffer as a result of this lifestyle.
