Reflection paper based on two questions due on Sunday (1.31.2021) 20:00pm Chicago time

ppt/slides/slide21.xml

Laura Mulvey on gender and film form Visual media (re)produces the male gaze on multiple registers: Scopophilia : women in film are presented as objects,“simultaneously looked at and displayed, [...they] connote to-be-looked-at-ness ” (346). This often takes the form of fragmented shots of women’s bodies. Narcissism : men control the look of the camera; we identify with and see the world of the film (and the women in it) from the point of view of the male protagonist(s). “The man controls the film phantasy and also emerges as the representative of power in a further sense: as the bearer of the look of the spectator” (347). In Classical Hollywood Cinema , the viewer is assumed to be a (heterosexual) male. Women’s images reinforce male desire and power: “in a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female” (346). It is important to note that Mulvey’s analysis is based on popular American filmmaking of the 1930s through 1950s (and newer media influenced by its conventions) Classical Hollywood Cinema relies upon invisible/ continuity editing: this set of formal “rules” emphasizes verisimilitude, spatial and temporal continuity within scenes, and often uses eyelines to dictate shot progressions Viewing largely takes place in dark movie theater settings Mulvey: “Conditions of screening and narrative conventions give the spectator the illusion of looking in on a private world.” (345) Other types of media (popular and alternative) may operate differently