Changing Baby – Dir. Kristi Israel

While a detective searches for an important file his assistant/girlfriend impatiently waits for him to attend to her. Finally dissatisfied the assistant takes control in a surprising way.

In the first half of Changing Baby director Israel replicates two of film noir’s most recognizable archetypes. The confident male detective intent on his mission–so confident in his abilities, that even a pretty woman who wants to sleep with him can’t distract him. And the much younger woman who craves the affections of the hyper-masculine detective (by the detective’s standards—he dismisses her when she says she already looked for the file—the woman is seen as more a hindrance than a help).

Israel also duplicates several defining shots that not only characterized noir, but many films of the 30s and 40s. Among those shots are two that are most representative of the male gaze: An overheard shot of the assistant as she looks up at the detective, her eyes pleading for him to take her; and the corresponding shot as the detective looks down from up above, his face nearly void of sexual longing–he’s in control of his urges, the woman is not. It’s a dominant/submissive juxtaposition that exists in hundreds of films.

After this initial setup, Israel changes the rules of the game empowering the assistant with control over her very identity. Till the close of the film the assistant morphs into a series of women of differing ages, ethnicities and time periods.

How does the detective respond?

From the first change to the last, the detective is disoriented, remaining clueless to his assistant’s many transformations and their effect on him. In a role reversal the detective becomes more and more helpless as his assistant becomes stronger and more confident.

Using women of various ages and ethnicities, as well as using only numbers for each woman, is a clever commentary on the interchangeability of female roles in film noir and the women that played them–a vestige of old Hollywood that continues today and is arguably more pronounced.

In most films, either the age or the physical appearance of the women is inconsequential to the story, giving producers and directors free reign to cast anyone. Yet time and again, directors and producers cast to type, preferring young starlets and women who fit a certain beauty aesthetic.

The use of the various ages also highlights Hollywood’s reliance on pairing young actresses with actors who are old enough to be their father, a sometimes not so subtle reinforcement of the Electra complex, a psychoanalytical concept that in which women are sexually attracted to their fathers.

Ironically, some believe that the Electra complex is not a view that actually exists in society at large, but due to Freud’s (and Jung who coined the name itself) strong effect on artists in the early 20th century, it’s an that idea that has arguably become apart of our film language through repetition and imitation. The concept has become part of our film vocabulary by the virtue of time and not choice. Which only further illustrates the power themes and mores, good or bad, can have, unconsciously creeping into the very framework of the creative process without forethought or awareness from the creators involved. Making those themes and mores difficult to identify, question and when needed to remove.

The strongest moment of the short though is the assistant achieving self awareness. It’s through self awareness that she gains agency and with that agency the ability to influence the story.

Some may find Changing Baby a little too film 101, maybe even naive. However, once writers and directors begin creating more films in which actresses play true protagonists with as much awareness and power to dictate a story’s progression, its message is much needed.