THE VISUAL PLEASURE – LAURA MULVEY
In Laura Mulvey’s ‘Visual pleasure and narrative Cinema’ she explores the theory of psychoanalysis and how it can be used as a ‘political weapon’ to show how the patriachic subconscious of society shapes our cinema itself as well as the audience’s film watching experience. According to Mulvey the cinematic text is organized along lines that are corresponding to the cultural subconscious with is essentially patriarchic. Mulvey argues that the popularity of Hollywood films is determined and reinforced by preexisting social patterns which have shaped the fascinated subject. And this is why i was drawn to this piece of work to enriched my understanding of why Cindy Sherman may have created her Film stills in the way that she did. Mulvey explores the methodology of cinematic means of expression of how the female and the male are represented as well as looking into how the formation of subjectivity is created. Mulvey helps us to understand how films produce the meaning that they did in the 1970’s. Mulvey’s main argument in “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” is that Hollywood narrative films use women in order to provide a pleasurable visual experience for men. The narrative film structures its gaze as masculine. The woman is always the object of the reifying gaze, not the bearer of it.
The way that she deciphers the role of the female as the surrogate, highlights the role of women in the 1970’s. She discusses how women are in films purely for the sexual pleasure of the male on the screen with them as well as the audience. Men are portrayed as the hero through the cameras movement and the angles which are presented on the screens. The main subject of the first half of her essay is the theme of ‘scopophilia’ which is the sexual pleasure from watching others when they are naked. Mulvey states that this is the importance of the female in cinema. In her essay she states that ‘Freud isolated Scopophilia as one of the component instincts of sexuality which exists as drives quite independently of the erotogenic zones.’ This highlights the use of people as objects in films. Males, who play the role of the protagonist, tell the narrative of the film whilst women are simplified to objects of erotica. She further states that ‘The cinema satisfies a primordial wish for pleasurable looking’ – stating that the purpose of films were to provide satisfaction and for this to be provided women were used. The role of women in Hollywood an be seen as sexual objects where the ‘female figures is styled accordingly’. Women in cinema in the 1970’s were dehumanised and feminized compositional features to the narrative. Often, it’s women’s bodies as sexualized objects, women as problems to conquer not people to interact with. For example, Mulvey notes that many “classic” Hollywood films show women’s body parts for example a leg, but not women as whole beings–the camera literally butchers women into their most tasty, delectable cuts. Cutting up women, objectifying them, that’s what we like, aesthetically, in classic Hollywood cinema.
After reading and analysing this article, picking out key aspects which are relevant to my project, i thought that it would be useful to actually watch from films which were produced in the 1970’s to see for myself how they have been portrayed and if i can highlight key points in the film where women are shown as objects and that there role in the film has been sexualized. I have decided to pick movies which have beautiful women who at the time where huge film stars in Hollywood and were very popular with the male gender.
Still grieving over the accidental death of their daughter, Christine (Sharon Williams), John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura Baxter (Julie Christie) head to Venice, Italy, where John’s been commissioned to restore a church. There Laura meets two sisters (Hilary Mason, Clelia Matania) who claim to be in touch with the spirit of the Baxters’ daughter. Laura takes them seriously, but John scoffs until he himself catches a glimpse of what looks like Christine running through the streets of Venice. – Wikipedia
Throughout the movie, it is hard to decipher who is the protagonist of the film as both have n equal role in the movie. However it is evident who is the stronger role in the relationship. This is the male actor played by Donald Sutherland who plays the dad of the young girl that unfortunately dies right at the beginning of the film. John seems to be slightly in control of his wife, making her seem crazy when she is fascinated by the two sisters who say that they are in touch with her daughters spirit. One scene definitely catches the eye of the audience and does seem to be slightly out of place with the narrative of the film and this is were i believe that Laura Mulveys theme for her essay can be noted in this film. Around half way through there is a nude scene where John and Laura begin to role around on the bed which turn into an erotic sex scene. Her role in the film seem to immediately change and she is now playing the role of the sexualized object that Mulvey describes. Through fast movie camera angles the audience is drawn in through the ‘graze’ of this scene, and as many cinematic presentations did during the 1970’s it provides scopophila for those watching.
Furthermore, the analysis of film theory and watching an actual film has enriched my knowledge and understanding of the way females where portrayed in the seventies and eighties and provides an understanding for the need of the second wave of feminism. In my photography i am going to try and portray how women were presented during this time, through my stills which will create the sense that women are feminine and sexual however i will try to do this without exploiting them and simplifying them to sexulaized objects.