finally a feminist James Bond?

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“Die can wait” is one of the films whose theatrical release has been postponed due to the Covid. This time, it’s the right one: “No time to die” will be in theaters on Wednesday, October 6, 2021. So, has James Bond finished with his misogynistic manias?

Six years have passed since Spectrum, the last part of James bond, went out to the cinema. To die can wait (No time to die in English) finally arrives in dark rooms. If fans of the franchise are impatient, it is also because this film marks the film of an era: it is the last time that actor Daniel Craig dons the costume of Agent 007. film, darker, shows the turn taken by the cult character. We discover a more vulnerable James Bond, less sanitized, even more than once leaving aside his super clean secret agent costume.

The bet to modernize this character not really 2021-compatible (James Bond, it is the “seducer” miso and violent in all its splendor) is it successful? Yes. Even if we regret all the same that, despite the real efforts to break the codes of male characters, that of Rami Malek, the great villain of this component, has no depth. And on the women’s side, what place do they have in this new James Bond? Have they (finally) been put forward for something other than their plastic?

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Ana de Armas in “James Bond”? We want more !

If Nomi, played by Lashana Lynch, is the first major female character to appear onscreen, the reveal of To die can wait is called Ana de Armas alias Paloma. Funny, badass and relevant, she forms a shock team with James Bond. Too bad the only scene devoted to her is so short … She skillfully handles her weapons there and has nothing to envy of Agent 007, on her way to retirement.

Appreciable also, the way in which the female characters reappropriate the codes of the franchise to gently ridicule James Bond, this former tormentor of hearts. Lashana Lynch, who plays the new agent 007, thus flows in the style of Bond. Always classy, ​​sure of herself, we can only succumb to her charm so british as well as his scathing repartee. And if it brings a breath of fresh air to the franchise, it is also because we avoid the pitfall of the toxic rivalry between the two agents.

Read also : 5 films directed by women who celebrate female gaze

In the scenario of “Die can wait”, the creator of “Fleabag”

A touch of feminism and a few sequences based on benevolence, this is what the famous saga lacked. The participation of Phœbe Waller-Bridge, creator of the series Fleabag, the writing of this opus undoubtedly has a lot to do with it. To die can wait, despite its lengths, is also an opportunity to give more depth to Madeleine, the love interest of James Bond played by Léa Seydoux, already present in Spectrum. So of course, we would have liked the female characters to have more screen time. But at least the time of James bond girls tasteless and hypersexualized now seems a long way off and so much the better.

Mélanie deciphers pop culture from a societal angle and questions the female gaze in films or even series, because everything is a question of gaze, she …

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