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Critical Approaches to Film. Film & Feminism. What’s left?. Class Test. 30% of Module Mark 11 th April Multiple choice questions 1 question on ideology (with reference to Cinema/ Ideology/ Criticism reading)
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Critical Approaches to Film Film & Feminism
Class Test • 30% of Module Mark • 11th April • Multiple choice questions • 1 question on ideology (with reference to Cinema/ Ideology/ Criticism reading) • 1 question on film and feminism (with reference to Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema reading) • 1. Question on colonialism, Racism and Representation’ (with reference to ‘Race, ethnicity & Film reading) • Link to films studied on course
Molly Haskell 1974 • Hollywood’s portrayal as women: • Mother • Girl next door • Women in film = socially inferior • Stereotypes & stock characters • Glamorous sex goddesses, femme fatales, self-sacrificing mothers • Men’s fantasies • Excluded from genres • Submissive characters • ‘Woman’s film’ invented to compensate
Girl Next Door Types They are sweet, kind, smart, simple, sometimes tough and tomboyish, but never vulgar Link to website
Feminism & Film3 concerns • Role of women in narrative of a film • Women’s physical appearance through the visual scheme of a film • How a film communicates with the ideal spectator
Psychoanalysis + Feminism Adopted by feminists as mean of understanding way women are represented on screen.
Key Text: Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (Laura Mulvey 1975)
Scopophilia = Freudian term - pleasure taken in looking. ‘The love of looking’ Scopophilicinstinct occurs when people/ images viewed as erotic objects. Spectators get a sense of power from being able to do this
Voyeurism = Pleasure is voyeuristic when it is dependent on the object of the gaze being unaware. In cinema we are voyeurs, watching people on screen who are ignorant that we are watching them. We derive pleasure from this. Camera is also voyeur.
Fetishism= An object becomes a fetish when it is the focus of sexual desire. In film the audience may notice an excessive objectification of female body, numerous shots of breasts and legs. The intense concentration on parts of the female body in the cinema is a prime example of fetishism.
Narcissism = This is erotic pleasure derived from looking at one’s own body. Both Freud and Lacan say it was a natural stage in childhood. In film: audience’s identification with the image on screen e.g. mirror stage. Narcissus – Greek God fell in love with his own reflection!
Key points: Visual Pleasure & Narrative Cinema • Concerned with relationship between film & viewer • Way classical film language constructed speaks to implied male viewer • How films appeal to spectator • Pleasure from viewing films & characters • Looked at how men & women are represented in film. • Used psychoanalytic film theory (ideas of Lacan & Freud) • Spectatorship & act of looking provided a form of sexual gratification • Used Freud’s notion of scopophilia (getting sexual pleasure from looking at others (Freud noted guilty feelings) • Cinema perfect place to get ‘scopophilic’ pleasure – film characters not aware of being watched – not made to feel guilty. • No one can see spectator getting pleasure (darkened room)
Key Points continued… • Cinema provides voyeuristic pleasure • Uses Lacan’s mirror stage: idea of seeing yourself visually reflected. • Used this to explain why people like films • Spectator identifies with what’s on screen (like in the mirror) • Most mainstream films made by male filmmakers for male spectators (according to Mulvey)
Mulvey… Active Male Characters pushing narrative forward Passive Female Characters: ‘prize’ or object of desire… don’t think or act for themselves
Mulvey What pleasures does male spectator get? • Women seen as spectacle • Women to be looked at • Narcissistic identification – sees hero & wants to be like him • Admires male characters on screen • Voyeuristic objectification – gets pleasure from women on scren
Mulvey: ‘The Male Gaze’ Audience/ viewer put into perspective of heterosexual male How an audience view women on screen Women seen as objects Not possessors of gaze Control of the camera (and thus gaze) comes from male as audience of most film genres Female is passive/ Male is active
Mulvey: 2 Roles of women in film 1. Erotic Object for characters in story 2. Erotic Object for spectators in cinema
