Vagina Dentata

With TEETH, veteran character actor Mitchell Lichtenstein has become a filmmaker in his own right after acting in supporting roles for directors such as Robert Altman and Ang Lee. His film, a romantic coming-of-age black comedy, provides a fresh, new, and even sensitive, perspective on the myth of "vagina dentata", which is Latin for toothed vagina, unlike in the many Japanese films which have portrayed it as a horrific deformity.

The film centers its story around Dawn, an insecure high-school girl, who discovered early in her childhood that the organ that exists in her nether region has the ability to bite when intruded. Now in her teenage years, despite her deformity she seems genuine in her Christian obsession with celibacy. However, that obsession no longer applies when she begins to lust for a male classmate.

In various ancient folklores, a woman afflicted with "vagina dentata" is a warrior who waits for a male to conquer her and as a result cure her of her affliction. The structure of these folk tales is somewhat of the classical "quest" sort and the film follows this structure though at the same time altering it in a way that makes it more profound and more humorous. At first, Dawn cannot accept the fact that she possesses a toothed vagina, but as the film moves on, she begins to realize how it can be a blessing as well a weapon.

Though the film is directed by a male director, it is nothing if not a sensitive, even almost feminist, play on the vulnerabilities of both the male and female sex without being too exploitive with the type of story it is working with. The myth of the "vagina dentata" was sprung from the fear of men being over-powered by women. The first half of the film shows Dawn as a sexually insecure girl who has the displeasure of being sexually assaulted various times during the film. These sexual assaults have been the result of her placement of trust on men unworthy of it. The vulnerabilities of her sex, generally considered in society to be the weaker, is emphasized in the earlier scenes in the film as she is raped. But let’s not forget that even in these scenes, as her innocence and her virginity are taken away from her, she too takes something very important to the sexuality of these men – their manhood. By the end of the film, Dawn even emerges as something of a warrior queen against the overpowering of the female sex.

TEETH can also be seen as a demystification of sex. Sex in this film is no longer the act of love or lustful, erotic pleasure ride that has frequently been portrayed in cinema as. Instead, sex is seen here as a form of selfishness and betrayal. Dawn’s romantic notions of sexual fulfillment were stymied by her lover’s betrayal of her trust as when she changes her mind and no longer wants to have sex, he forces himself upon her. Another example of how sex is portrayed in such a manner is when Dawn finds out that it was her stepbrother’s ignorance which caused her mother to become critically ill, Dawn seduces him so as to take revenge on him by removing him from his penis. What exemplifies the betrayal in this scene is that her stepbrother actually loves Dawn. The selfishness of sex can be seen in that while her mother was having a seizure, Dawn’s brother was having sex with his girlfriend. Furthermore, the very act of rape is both a form of selfish fulfillment and betrayal.

The film is made even more interesting by it’s creative mise-en-scène, with various visual elements constantly reminding both the viewer and Dawn of the presence of her toothed vagina e.g. there are teeth-like structures at the mouth of the cave where Dawn is raped by her lover, and images from 1950s creature-feature films are also employed. A nuclear plant also serves as the background of Dawn’s house, allowing the audience to question if Dawn’s deformity was the effect of nuclear radiation. After all, the government has censored the school science textbooks by placing a giant sticker on top of the anatomy of a vagina...

The touching and comedic performance of Jess Weixler as Dawn is also to be commended. Her character could have very easily been reduced to an unfocused mess due to the demands of the genre of the film, but Weixler handles the character with both a sense of humor and also a sensitivity towards the character’s predicaments. Director Lichtenstein proves himself to be not only a talented actor, but also a witty and supremely entertaining filmmaker with wicked ideas. One only hopes to see what else he comes up with next.

Lim Ling Chieh

© Berlinale Talent Campus 2007