Textual Analysis - Gilda (1946)

Textual analysis: Gilda

Charles Vidor’s 1946 black and white film Gilda, starring Rita Hayworth, is a glamorous, high-octane film noir set in an Argentinean casino. The film is significant in its genre for the more polished and “Hollywood” aspect it possesses for a noir film, although many of the themes and codes it includes are the same. The opening credits and sweeping score are cinematic and powerful, with “Gilda” appearing across the entirety of the screen in huge letters, precluding the iconic and powerful nature of the starring character and the powerful orchestral music demonstrating the forthcoming dramatic elements of the film. Gilda is recounted as a flashback from an external narrative voice, Johnny Farrell, also the male protagonist in the plot, an implicit feature of noir. The serious, grave voice with which Johnny tells the audience the story lends the film a sense of introspection and melodrama, setting the dark tone for the film while establishing a clear relationship between his character and the audience.

Rita Hayworth, the Hollywood actress playing the starring role as the eponymous Gilda, is to be seen in costumes such as the above black strapless dress and revealing gowns with long arm-gloves and voluminous hair. This depiction of strong, female sensuality acknowledges feminine sexual power in the characters of the film through Gilda and is perhaps an indirect connotation of the male weakness/masculine flaw in the protagonist Johnny.