‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ (1975) – Laura Mulvey

A brief summary of this essay by Laura Mulvey and feminist film theorist.

Film: 'Rear Window' by Hitchcock

I. Introduction :

A. Political Use of Psychoanalysis

• ·Use of psychoanalytic theory as a political weapon to understand patriarchial influence on Cinema.

• The woman is tied to the place of “bearer of meaning” instead of “maker of meaning”.

B. Destruction of Pleasure as a Radical Weapon

• Pleasure in looking-manipulation of visual and challenging

• Breaking the coding of erotic language in cinema

• A new language of desire needs to be constructed

II. Pleasure in Looking/Fascination with the human form

• Scopophilia

• Taking other people as subjects and subjecting them to controlling and curious gaze

• The ego is such that this is its instinct and basis for erotic pleasure

• Voyeuristic separation: A sense of separation from others in the dark auditorium provides voyeuristic position

• Repression of exhibitionism and desire are projected on to the performer.

• Fascination with likeness and recognition

• The ideal ego is represented and that leads to misrecognition.

• The love and despair between image and self-image

• Recognition/misrecognition and identification- subjectivity takes form; “I”

• Cinema creates temporary loss of ego and at the same time reinforces the ego

• Two structures of looking: active scopophilia (separation of erotic identity of subject from the object on screen)-function of sexual instincts- and identification of the ego with the object- function of ego libido.

III. Woman as image and Man as the bearer of the look

• Pleasure of looking split into : active/male and passive/female

• Woman as an erotic object –male fantasy projected on female body

• The visual presence of woman is used to ignite erotic contemplation but has no part to play in the storyline per se

• Erotic object for characters within the scene and for spectators.

• Its representative of power- his body cannot be sexually objectified- man’s role as active - controls the film- and thus the films fantasy is controlled by him.

• The spectator equals the male movie star (perfect/ideal/complete)with their ideal ego (just like how they confront their ideal ego in the mirror stage).

• The male protagonist articulates the look and creates the action.

• Camera techniques, camera movements, editing (realism) all aid in creating the male gaze

• The woman is represented in isolation, sexualised and on display-in relation to the male he possess her/ exclusive to his control or power only- she then loses her glamour; “show girl”.

• Films- ‘Only angels have wings’ ‘To have and not to have’

• Sternberg- pictorial is more important than the narrative. Thus, image and what gets represented via that image becomes very crucial in terms of this critique.

• Hitchcock-plots oscillating between voyeurism, fetishistic fascination and scopophilic eroticism. Film- Rear Window. The Hitchcock hero is the symbol of patriarchal super-ego. Thus the spectator identify with this figure acts as an influence causing a moral ambiguity of looking.

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