ABSTRACT
White Palace is concerned with issues of class and gender, Luis Mandoki’s 1990 film focuses as well on differences of religion and age. The self-imposed burdens aside, White Palace’s real uniqueness as an instance of the genre lies in the way its critique is conveyed—less through personal transformation, as in the other films so far considered, than through the vicissitudes of the unlikely relationship itself. The tense drama between the partners’ attraction to one another and the conventions that stigmatize it as unlikely exists primarily in the consciousness of White Palace’s male protagonist, Max Baron. Max is virtually submerged in a clique, the nucleus of which is composed of young men, all of whom are Jewish and professionals. In the most notorious scene in White Palace, Nora seduces the sleeping Max. White Palace goes further, asserting that in itself, Nora’s seduction of Max establishes her suitability to be his partner.
