Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975)

The Gaze in Rear WindowVisual Pleasure and Narrative CinemaLaura Mulvey (1975)

Ways of SeeingDo not portray women realistically, as complex and individualistic human beings.Represent women as properties that belong to men.Transform women into objects, devoid of individual will or subjectivity.

Berger concludes that early Western paintings: This process, whether it occurs in portraiture, advertising, or cinema, is called objectification. The quattrocento style constructs a viewing position for whoever gazes at the painting, organizing the world represented for that one viewpoint (implied male).The Milkmaid (1658)Visual Pleasure and Narrative CinemaMulvey is interested in understanding how mainstream narrative cinema creates pleasure for viewers.

Narcissism is a pleasure of the self, created when narrative cinema encourages spectators to identify with characters in the film.Voyeurism is a visual pleasure that arises from looking at others in a sexualized way.

In most Hollywood films, the narcissistic pleasure usually involves identifying with the male characters.The voyeuristic pleasures created by cinema primarily involve looking at the female characters onscreen.Classical Hollywood cinema aims most of its films at a presumed male heterosexual audience member, forcing individuals outside this group to adapt to a male point of view the male gaze that objectifies women.The GazeLaura Mulveys hypothesis that the cinematic apparatus of classical Hollywood cinema inevitably put the spectator in a masculine subject position, with the figure of the woman on screen as the object of desire. In the era of classical Hollywood cinema, viewers were encouraged to identify with the protagonist of the film, who tended to be a man. Meanwhile, Hollywood female characters of the 1950s and 60s were, according to Mulvey, coded with "to-be-looked-at-ness.

Mulvey argued that the only way to annihilate the "patriarchal" Hollywood system was to radically challenge and re-shape the filmic strategies of classical Hollywood with alternative feminist methods. She called for a new feminist avant-garde filmmaking that would rupture the magic and pleasure of classical Hollywood filmmaking. Laura Mulvey in WikipediaPsychoanalysis

4Effects of The GazeGazing at someone and seeing someone gaze upon another person, say much about the relation between the observer and the observed; and about the relations, between and among, the subjects of the gaze (the people, place, thing being gazed at); and about the circumstance of the gazing. Although the gaze might be regarded merely as the action of looking at a subject, Jonathan Schroeder says: it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze an idea basic to feminist textual analysis.

The GazeAn objective shot is one that is not tied to a characters point of view, but rather a shot that most clearly conveys the action of the scene (most all shots).

A subjective shot is tied to a specific characters point of view a shot that shows the spectator exactly what a character is seeing.

POVIn Hollywood films, male characters are the ones doing the looking (subjectivity) while female characters are usually the ones being looked at (objectified).There are three gazes that comprise cinema:

The camera at the actorsThe Directors gaze

2. The characters at each otherThe Intra-diegetic gaze: in a text, a character gazes upon an object or another character in the text.

3. The spectator towards the screen

The GazeAll three are inherently male, even when the actual spectator is a woman.In all cases, women are forced either to identify with the objectified female or else inhabit the male characters point of view.

The GazeAs the object of the male gaze, a womans only power rests in her ability to use her sexual allure to arrest the narrative action.

This poses a threat to patriarchy, which Hollywood cinema attempts to contain in one of two ways:Investigation & punishment ("voyeuristic" (i.e. seeing women as 'whores') The male characters are able to diminish or negate the females power by uncovering and unveiling her mysterious allure.If she turns out to be a good woman, she is no longer a threat to patriarchy.If she is revealed as a bad woman and continues to challenge his authority, it is incumbent upon the male to re-establish his dominance by punishing her (imprisonment or death).

This poses a threat to patriarchy, which Hollywood cinema attempts to contain in one of two ways:Fetishization (i.e. seeing women as 'madonnas')Excess emotional or sexual investment in a particular object.

In Hollywood films, fetishization occurs when the female body is broken by the camera or editing patterns into a collection of smaller objectified parts: feet, legs, hair, breasts, etc.By breaking the female body down into individual parts, patriarchal culture subtly refuses to recognize women as whole and entire human beings.If women are regarded as objects and not fully capable human beings, then they can be kept in a subordinate position.

The Male Gaze and Feminist theoryIn film, the male gaze occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. A scene may linger on the curves of a woman's body, for instance. Feminists would argue that such instances are presented in the context closest relating to that of a male, hence it's referral to being the Male Gaze.The theory suggests that male gaze denies women human agency[citation needed], relegating them to the status of objects, hence, the woman reader and the woman viewer must experience the text's narrative secondarily, by identifying with a man's perspective.Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema expands on the theory, saying that sexism exist not only in the content of a text, but may also exist in how the text is presented; through its implications about its expected audience. Theorists note the degree to which people gaze at women in advertisements that "sexualizes" a woman's body even when the woman's body is unrelated to the advertised product.

Rear Window Journal QuestionsWhat is the opening sequence (the opening images/first 2-3 minutes) of the film? What do you the opening images tell us about the film?

Rear Window explores both the pleasures and dangers of watching (Jeffries smiles at his neighbors' exploits, Stella admonishes a "society of peeping Toms," Lisa calls herself and Jeffries "morbid ghouls" for being disappointed that Thorwald has not killed his wife). How does the film portray these pleasures and dangers (narrative, cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene)? Does the film's form reinforce a particular "vision" of voyeurism?

Film theorist, Laura Mulvey, suggests that in the patriarchal order, "woman" embodies a contradiction: she both represents a sexualized object and also symbolizes lack. (pg. 21). In order for the male to reconcile this he must demystify her, devaluate her, save her, overvalue her (festishize), or distance her (become a voyeur). How do you think this happens or doesn't with Jeffries and Lisa in "Rear Window"?

Examine the editing, cinematography, and mise-en-scene of the scenes that introduce Jeffries and Lisa. How do the shots of Jeffries and his apartment reveal his character? How does Lisa's sudden appearance and her "reading: from top to bottom" illuminate her character? Although Rear Window focuses on watching, sound also plays an important role. As he moves his lens from apartment to apartment, Jeffries hears a tapestry of sounds. Throughout the film, the composer struggles to write the song, "Lisa," a song that dissuades Miss Lonelyhearts from suicide. As Thorwald stalks Jeffries, we hear only the sound of his footsteps. Isolate and analyze the function of a type of sound significant to the film or analyze the function of sound in a single scene.Hitchcock often utilizes an ambiguous resolution to conclude his films. How is the conclusion of Rear Window--with Jeffries sleeping, his back to the window, while Lisa reads--ambiguous? What tensions remain unresolved at the film's closing?