I've only seen the trailer... it wasn't clear to me, she is only dressing as a man for work or is she also gay and has something wth Mia's character?
Paul Avery: Someone should write a *beep* book, that's for sure.
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it doesn't look like she falls for any guy in the trailer
Paul Avery: Someone should write a *beep* book, that's for sure.
MINOR SPOILERS
As Rodrigo Garcia explained at a discussion after a screening, Albert Nobbs doesn't really have a sexual identity. When she decided to start posing as a man, her sexuality had in some sense been taken away from her. And from then on she never really developed a sexual preference. What she saw in Mia's character was someone who perhaps needed companionship and could benefit being in a relationship with him (Albert).
SPOILERS...thanks for you response. i just saw the movie with a friend and he said it was about lesbians and i said albert nobbs wasn't really a lesbian, just a strange sad little asexual woman looking for a life and you confirmed what i saw.
shareLOL omg I wanna be like that I'm so jealous
Paul Avery: Someone should write a *beep* book, that's for sure.
exactly. because she has been on her own since the age of fourteen, her sexual maturation essentially stopped at that time. she didn't understand that hubert and her wife were actually lesbians who were in love. she didn't understand that helen would be shocked if not horrified to find out that albert was a woman, especially if albert were to tell her, in his mind, after they were married.
shareMany years ago, I read an article in National Geographic about a woman in a female-oppressed society (don't remember if it was Iran or Iraq), who had no male relatives so essentially had to look and function as a man to function.
It's a sad state of affairs when a woman has to "pretend" to be a man in order to find employment and make decisions like a man.
i believe i read that article as well, but that it was referring to albanian women.
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/places/culture-places /beliefs-and-traditions/albania_swornvirgins.html
I've seen the film and I think 'Albert' is a lesbian. Both the women are (the ones posing as men).
They try wearing the dresses in that scene on the beach but for both of them it doesn't feel right. It's not simply about the wearing of the dresses, it goes deeper than that, but in those days lesbianism wasn't defined as it is now.
It's plain to see, that 'Albert' actually fell in love with Helen. 'Albert' simply didn't just want the cover, 'he' actually enjoyed being a man and he wanted to be with a women.
That equates to lesbianism...
I'm surprised that the topic of transgenderism hasn't come up on a film about a woman living as a man. Certainly, for the period they were in, living life as a man was far more beneficial and easier than to live and be seen as a women... but they could also have some level of discomfort in their own female bodies as well.
There are many examples of women living as men in history, for as many reasons. Being gay is just one of those.
wow, i got a totally different reading of that scene. it seemed very obvious, to me and those i watched it with anyways, that albert felt liberated and free from the imprisonment of her male persona while running on the beach in the dress. yes, she felt initially awkward, but only because it had been such a long time. but clearly the scene on the beach shows us that she was much more comfortable in female dress. remember, she didn't exactly "chose" to dress as a man. she did it out of survival. this is in stark contrast to hubert, who clearly feels more comfortable in men's clothes and is comfortable living as such.
that being said, all this has no bearing on albert's sexuality. she could be more comfortable in men's or women's clothes and still have affections for either or women. what the movie clearly shows is that albert's development was stunted at the age of fourteen. she clearly doesn't understand what love is, whether that love is for a man or a woman. we know she was raped by men, and developed an understandable fear of them. but the movie shows us that albert understood hubert's relationship with her wife to be platonic, and one of convenience. this is why she doesn't understand why she can't fill in for her now dead wife. this is why she doesn't think to question how helen would feel upon discovery of her true gender after marriage.
albert was looking for life long companionship with someone she felt safe with. she took that to mean "love" with helen. but it's clear from albert's "weirdness", as helen describes it, that albert doesn't understand love, courtship or relationships in general. remember, this is a person who has spend the better part of her life hidding from everyone, lest her secret be revealed, meaning she didn't even form friendships with others.
"It's a sad state of affairs when a woman has to "pretend" to be a man in order to find employment and make decisions like a man."
True. I bet it is worse for a woman who lives as a woman and gets stuck with a man who makes all the choices. If you are a woman trying to pass as a man, then don't you have more freedoms than other women?
I think my take on it would be similar to yours. I think Albert was asexual, unlike Hubert, who was clearly a lesbian. But Albert was also somewhat extremely naive. How did he expect Helen to react if they were to get married then found out he was a woman? I also found it puzzling that he seemingly had no desire, or passion of any sort. May be some people are like that. But I could not relate to it.
I suppose he did desire some kind of companionship, with Helen. But he was so practically minded, which made me think he must be emotionally extremely stunted to say the least.
It wasn't a bad movie, but it didn't really touch me as I expected it to.
Really? What movie were you watching?
Albert seemed perfectly fine with being in that dress, and unbelievably uncomfortable at the thought of sex or even kissing a woman.
I dunno spotlightne...I think Albert just wanted the companionship and/or wanted to protect Helen from having the same kinda past s/he did. That's not necessarily love--after all, Albert really has no frame of reference for what "love" is. Recall that when Albert learned Kathleen died, he suggested that he and Mr. Page live together merely for financial convenience--Albert wasn't in love with Mr. Page.
shareI thought that scene made it quite clear that Albert wanted to open the tobacco shop so he could live as a woman again. Albert only had to try to take a bride when the doctor assumed he had his eye on someone in the hotel.
share
I don't know much about this movie-- am trying to decide whether I want to see it-- but what did Albert think was going to happen if he/she married a woman who I suspect would be expecting a penis on the marriage night?
Flanagan
I was a bit confused too but leaned more towards the idea of her not being a lesbian. Like with her tobacco shop business, she obviously wasn't a smoker she seemed like she just wanted to be independent and successful but back in those days women were very limited to what they could do. and to make her seem more successful shed have to marry as well... That's my thought.
... it's a beetroot!
I agree with this. I don't think she was a lesbian. I think she was an extremely lonely character who was more or less dead inside after losing her guardian, being gang-raped, and then posing as a man for decades to survive. I think she was desperate for companionship, and it only dawned on her that she could take a woman as a companion after she met the Janet McTeer character.
sharei read this post BEFORE seeing the movie, and i am SHOCKED someone actually said Nobbs isnt a lesbian. of course she's a lesbian, she falls head over heels for a young beautiful vulnerable woman and wants to marry her!!!
Albert was a woman living as a man who did want to marry a woman. Because she was so confused by her own sexuality or really, oblivious to it, she is not presented as a lesbian.
She was not adverse to being a lesbian, she just didn't understand it.
I feel she was asexual.
"the only way through it is through it " -Jackson Browne
I thought after her attack, Albert had shut down her sexuality. She dressed and behaved like a man and therefore she felt that she should be married since that is what men do.
shareAsexual means lack of sexual attraction to others or the lack of interest in sex, so yes, Albert did shut down her sexuality.
shareI think she actually still wanted to be a woman and was not a lesbian.
In the beach scene, Albert looks like she's liberated when she runs in the sand with her arms open in the dress. She got her womanhood back again for only a moment. Hubert was the one who didn't look or feel comfortable in the dress, she embraced being a man and preferred it over being a woman. As for Albert, I think if given the choice that she would be safe and secure to go back as a woman, she would.
I think Albert only wanted to help Helen and herself have a better situation in life than being a maid and waiter. Albert dreamed of a shop where she could be the boss, have an apartment of her own, and have a non-sexual companion. If she were really attracted to Helen, she wouldn't mind kissing her in the park that time. If you recall, Albert was horrified at seeing Hubert's breasts and equally horrified being kissed by Helen. Albert thought nothing of Hubert's actual affection for Kathleen, only how strange the sleeping arrangements would be.
The real question should be, what's going to happen to Helen when Hubert asks her to marry "him"? Will Hubert love Helen the same way or will it turn out to be more of Albert's dream?