MULVEY THEORY

Film fascinates us through images and spectacle. Mulvey uses psychoanalysis to discover where and how the fascination of film is reinforced by pre-existing patterns of fascinating already at work within the individual subject. = spectator. She says she is using psychoanalytic theory as a political weapon. Suggests that women's bodies are fragmented by the camera for the pleasure of the male. Hollywood; codes the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order.


Scopophilia; pleasure in looking

-examples of the private and curious gaze, children's voyeurism, cinematic looking
-looking at the human form and the face and breaking it down.

'women as the image, men as the bearer of the look'
-pleasure in looking split between active/male and passive female
-women connote – 'to-be-looked-at-ness'
-the visual presence of women 'works against the development of a storyline, freezes the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation'

The woman functions as both erotic object for the characters within the screen story and erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium (object of fantasy). The spectator is led to identify with the main male protagonist. 'the power of the male protagonist as he controls events coincides with the active power of the erotic look'. The male gaze and fetishistic scopophilia in le mepris/vivre sa vie
scopophilia is the force driving the movements and positioning of the camera the gaze is male,




and the spectator is led to identify with this male gaze the cinematic apparatus is not gender-neutral (in later readings, camera can also register differences of sexuality)

MULVEY ANALYSIS

the first clip here shows the scene in 'Mean girls' where they do a 'sexy' dance for the christmas concert. Scopophilia and fragmentation is demonstrated here through the use of fast cuts and rhythmic editing to accentuate certain actions, for instance; whenever the girls slap a body part, or pull a provocative pose to the rhythm of the music, the camera cuts to a closer shot, to get a better look, or they simply change to a reaction shot. When you see how her parents react when they slap their legs, you feel more vouyeuristic seeing as you have access to viewpoints beyond the reaches of the audience in the film. When the girls move their butts in a sexual way, the camera also cuts to a shot from behind.

By using dolly panning shots, we are also subconsciously objectifying the women. These shots are associated with adverts and the presentation of products, such as cars turning on a stage on a quiz show, or a slow pan of a product on tv. The lights around them and the spotlights especially which provide backlighting, create an angelic look, almost putting them on an unattainable pedestal, which is emphasised by the fact they're on a stage.

The sound in this scene also emphasises the scopophilia. Every time they slap something the sound is heard very clearly, whereas if some other dance was presented in a film, they would usually edit it out and increase the volume of the music. This is done to create an awkward effect, it encourages the viewers to come to terms with the brutal awkwardness of the overtly sexual 17 year olds doing a stripper-esque dance in front of their parents.