They took their films to audiences all around the world and brought the entire world to each audience. They were inventors, they left conema when they thought it would not make money.
Cinema of attraction:
Gunning 1990.
Early Cinema was not literary but spectacular – more in common with fairgrounds than the theatre.
Sandow (1894)
It was about showing off, performings.
The four troublesome heads (1898)
Kinetoscope – Edison
The idea that this is a domestic thing, in which we can watch films indivually but it did not take off.
Kinet0=movement
Scope= look into/examine
Cinematograph
Did not require electricity
Cinema= movement
graph= write/record
The boxing cats (1894)
The Invention of cinema:
is the ‘idea of technology’ the same now as in 1895 (Punt,2000)
Commercial imperatives
cultural tourism
user agency
Silent Hollywood:
Standardised Techniques and forms emerged:
Continuity Editing
Parallel editing – cutting between two locations but it makes sense for the story.
Close-, Mid-, Long- shots
Movie stars – eg charlie chaplin
Steamboat Bill Jr (1928)
Its hedigmonic.
Mgm, universal and were known for genres such as universal was known for horror. – Invisible style. – cinema as an escape.
Standardisation = assembly production = big business
the invisible style wasnt the only way
Un Chien Andalou (1929)
Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Hollywood even through was dominant WASN’T the only style of cinema!
The Arrival of a Train (1934)
Remaking – creating within 3D however the concept of 3D didnt take of til around the 1950s
Digital Cinema: Evolution or Revolution?
Ganz & khatib 2006
Celluloid
One viewfinder, one eye on the image.
Time delay between shooting and viewing.
Primacy of cinematographer and camera operator
Digital
Infinitely reproducible on screens
No delay between shooting and watching
primacy of postproduction
a screen on camera- the difference between the too were very separate compared today’s camera.
A video assist changes how films are made – be able to watch it immediately – Jerry Lewis. This has implications on how cinema was made.
The physical limitations of the medium, which defined many of the practices of traditional cinema, have become more or less irrelevant.
Ganz and Khatib ; 24
MCM set of THE NEXT VOICE YOU HEAR (1950) – props, director, etc around 50 people
Ten (2002) – two people in a car using a dash board on the car.
“In the digital film the immediacy of the image becomes the aesthetic” (Ganz & Khatib: 28)
Look of reality – through shots of a film.
Laura Dern – Inland Empire(2006) – show on digital – reality compared to Blue velvet which she is looks like a movie star due to how it is shot.
Greater Convergence – does the difference matter?
35mm Celluloid – Detective Pikachu (2019)
Digital – The Irishman (2019)
audience typically can’t tell the difference.
All the tools necessary for a complete industrial film practice are arriving in places that did not have the infrastructure to support an indigenous cinema. The technology not only has the potential to revive the ossified Hollywood cinema, but also to enable storytelling from different cultures and from people who were previously unheard. The technology is therefore transforming relationships of power between different cinemas: it is not only the west that is the bearer of the gaze
(Ganz and Khatib: 34)
Nollywood – Worlds most prolific film Industry.
Iran: new ways to evade censorship – often shot in a car.
Jafar – Got banned from making film within Iraq but he still continued to make films. – well regarded internationally – got screened in france.
New Digital Cinema
Isuma– production company making films embedded in Inuit culture and society- A digital film culture specific to the company.
Atanarjuat (2001) – could only be made by the people within the community
Aesthetics determined by location – frozen camera, low sun, igloo shots etc- creates a new film language.
Is digital technology an advantage or obstacle for political filmmakers?
more documentaries than ever… but digital programming is determined by algorithms and profit.
Do algorithms, filters, and customization make digital media ultimately insular?
Accessible and adaptable technology means filmmakers can escape meddling.
Crises are captured in real time with greater ease than ever.
Xianchang – style in china – an aesthetic of immediacy and reality. observation and communication of lived experiences – even as it contrasts the state.
Forsama
digital camera is ‘always on’.
Constant remix and adaption – Not just ‘telling stories’ – but showing off, jokes, memes, shared experiences, displaying the common and the unusual. Eg. Tiktok, Instagram, etc. ‘This is a cinema that displays its visibility, willing to rupture a self-enclosed fictional world for a chance to solicit the attraction of the spectator’ (gunning 1986: 64)
Avantgard. the creators and the artists that experiment and doing thing that haven’t been done before.
Cinema of attraction:
Point of view in cinema-
How it feels to be run over (1900)
Film (1965) – Rene Magritte,Not to be Reproduced (1937) – person trying to avoid the camera.
Luara Mulvey : Visual Pleasure and narrative cinema (1975). According to Mulvey’s argument, cinema operates as an embodiment of the experience for the spectator as male subject of the mirror stage and the perpetuation of phallocentric
The male spectator as male subject thus identify with the active male protagonist
women are threatening to men and need to be put in there place and symbolically or literally get married or die – Mulvey
Cinema does not reflect reality but an ideological view of it.
3 looks that happen at the exact same time: camera (2nd), the character (3rd) and the spectator.(1st) – very different- the typology of looks in film. Using phscoanalyical approaches of how we view reality – the psyche ( according to sigman froude and jack laican) – the imaginary.
Lacanian systems as the symbolic order and the phallic function into a psychoanalytic approach to to the cinema – learns the power of men.
‘the phallus is the signifier of this desire brought forward through language where
Hollywood as an institution – in order to fill the gap created by this desire – signified by the phallus in order to draw the attention and recognition from the other.
other = women
Mulvey states – Muscular men on screen are designed for male desire eg Chris Evens in passenger- male power- male leading characters are surrounding the male phallocentric are made for men.
Mulvey – ego ideals are provided for male spectator on screen (representing the mirror) via a male hero – men wanting to see other men as their ideas
the protagonist is situated as the ego ideal
the men have to be the center of attention for any female character e.g James Bond – desirable for women and men – through how he looks and holds himself.
phallocentric symbols in James Bond such as cars, gadgets, guns, etc
The imaginary the symbolic and the real.
The imaginary situates the screen image as that which is internalised as an ideal within the spectator – constructed image representing desire. – we start to create in our head, when we can run through sernarios and create a version of yourself in your head.
The symbolic, in this case, are the various representation and codes that structure film apparatus. – when mother starts saying no, teach children shame. Lacan (2-5/6) points out that this time is the most traumatic time due to us not being aware.
The real may be considered as the very internal unconscious of the subject/spectator as she/he interacts with the imaginary and the symbolic. – eg a baby.
what happens when theres an absent of a mother or father or both?
Mulveys looks connecting with these structures:
the 1st look = the real
2nd look = the symbolic
3rd look = the imaginary
Cinema is structured similar to our minds. We don’t see the difference between these in our everyday life. Only time we are aware of this is when one part of this isn’t working correctly.
Everything you see on screen such as lighting and such is symbolic.
= Male Gaze
Is there a 4th look? Can we break down these looks when looking into film?
Carrie (1976) – Opening scene
socially its taboo – women having period – turning women into ‘monsters’.
camera (symbolic) starts high and slowly moves in. – active women without sexualising them. and moves into focusing on Carrie – mid shot. immediately off guard.
it gives you the male gaze- vouyristic camera drifting through the womens changing room – going into a slow motion of this male fantasy of women walking around naked – camera moving in – mist – no realtion to reality – audio cue into carries shower scene. – soft feminine music
phellious is above her – shower – cutting the women into pieces eg shots of her chest, legs, etc – unrealistic – cut her into pieces again – meant to be unrealistic but postions the audience as the male spectator.
drops soap – music goes – no longer in slow motion – can hear the shower – goes to her reaction of her period.
mist is gone cuts to women in changing room, no long gliding the camera literally walks behind her, women being aggressive and unsupportive rarely seen in film. who are you within this scene? This protagonist is aware, its manipulation,
confronts the audience. different for different people, deliberately provotes you, makes you uncomfortable.
THE 4TH look – discomfort, that feeling when watching this film. pulled the rug from under you, it tricks you. characters look at you… demands you engage and interact with it. makes you reflect on your position as an audience. (willemen)
The most watched form of film, pornography, but nobody watches it. although it uses IMR. nobody looks at it or analysis it due to the 4th look – it requires the forth look for it to be effective. For you to get visual pleasure out of it, porn completely relies on this. Due to shame.
makes the audience to need to engage. dependant on the audience. When the 4th look happens the first look is highly important. its not about breaking the 4th wall.
Little Women (2019’s version) Proposal for Film and Screen cultures:
For this proposal of analysing a two-tiered film I chose to write about ‘Little Women’ which is set within the 19th century centring around four sisters and their stories. This film has a heavy portrayal of men and women and how they are viewed and present themselves within this time period. Women within this are represented as elegant and feminine through the women’s attitude towards men and the way they dress, this can indicate the class of the women and the men.
When I analysis this film in full I will look further into moments in the film that involve intertextuality and blank parody within this film. The film could be reference and compare to both the book and other version of the film which demonstrates similar aspects but has many differences however still manages to create a similar effect to each other.
The March Family (sony/columbia picture) – https://images.app.goo.gl/pmXVG3EiqFhK58Np8
The film as several aspects of intertextuality and relies on nostalgia, the imperfect memory of humans and postmodern feminism.
Within this I would look further into how Gerwig decided to structure the film and uses tone when jumping back and forth between the different presents and parts and how she cleverly uses parallels or transitions throughout the film to do this smoothly. Along with this I would look into how the choice of actresses effect the performance and could contribute to the theory of Mulvey such as the four different sisters presenting themselves as four different archetypes of femininity by each presenting different aspects of how people view women such as Meg gets married and has children whereas Beth is fragile and weak, this follows Mulvey’s ‘bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning’ (Mulvey, 1975) and is suggested by several theorists that due to the absence of the father and their relationship with their mother could’ve had an effect on each of the women. The women are represented in different ways using men and society as a way to demonstrate how women are treated as a means of nurture, this is especially shown through the mother’s character and these aspects of the film fall into Mulvey’s narrative theory of the ‘Male Gaze’ and how women in film and for the audience are put within film for the viewing pleasure of men.
Amy and Laurie (Belonging to Sony/Columbia Pictures) -Demonstrate the concept of Mulvey’s theory within their relationship well.
Sony/Columbia pictures – the idea of a fragile and gentle women Beth and Joe scene.
There are different points where using some IMR rules to enhance Mulvey’s theory. Examples of this is when the camera is on Joe, the lighting is warm, and the camera follows Joe. Throughout the film the lighting switches to indicate the idea of the present and the past as it’s been written through the perspective of Joe (which carries throughout the film and shows a lot of her emotions and experiences), the idea that this is written is shown more towards the end of the film where Joe’s character experiences loss and grief and ends up writing down her life for her sister. This is a clever way of ending the film as though it were written, which is suggested that it is fiction through the use of the lighting and how the last couple scenes are presented, that she gives the audience this romantic ideology of her falling in love with a guy to please the reader which ends up falling under the notion that Mulvey puts across of Women having to end up with a man in the end (or die) so that the men have this view of control.
With analysing this film, I will talk about how this film can be classed as both a 1st tier film and a 2nd tier film depending on how the audience is viewing it and I will look into the IMR and how the film follows a lot of the classical Hollywood style of film. Analysing this will also allow me to see what kind of elements the film could lack and how the author and film uses the common ideologies of how people view women/feminine presenting people (especially in this time period) to create this idea of a perfect ending.
Watching this film from a two-tier perspective allowed me to analysis how the plot line and the way it is produced and uses the rules of IMR and the idea of scopophilia is used both for the audience and with the male characters when it comes to their perspective of the women. The women are often shown as beautiful/graceful however we do see a side to the women’s personality which doesn’t specifically fall into Murvey’s theory and could fall under William’s theory, however at the end it still has a lot of moments where the characters are evolved around men.
I noticed how the film uses the idea of the 4th look (surrounding Mulvey) at the end as it grabs the audience’s attention and makes them very aware of their surroundings due to how the ending sequence took place and how cleverly it was designed to make the audience question whether this was reality or not which really enhances the 1st look due to how the audience watches the film.
So, when I go into writing a full analysis of this film, I will look more in-depth at these different theory concepts and representation within the film Little Women, I can approach each of these different theories in detail with different aspects of the film.
This book is written by Laura Mulvey who did a feminist’s perspective of film narrative and IMR. She theorises about how cinema is shown through the ‘male gaze’. Mulvey believes that within cinema women are often shown within the perspective of a heterosexual man. Within normal old cinema there is a patriarchal ideology where women are viewed as objects for men visual pleasure, this is shown within Hollywood style of film.
Mulvey believes there are 3 gazes: the spectator, camera and the character which can be represented as the real, the symbolic and the imaginary. As this is presented through the eyes of male power it is often viewed in three ways: scopophilia, voyeurism and narcissistic. ‘Women as image, men as barer of the look’ shows that Mulvey believes that within cinema women are represented through a way that a man would want to see, which in this case-study demonstrates that in a range of different ways such as the sister’s personalities showing through with the way they dress such as the character Amy who dresses in big, elegant dresses to show try to show of class compared to her sister Joe who dresses more casually and comfortable. Mulvey suggests that women are either shown as passive and men are more active when it comes to the gaze of women in narrative cinema.
Noel Burch wrote about the making of cinema, and how by the 1940s the cultural ascendancy of narrative cinema was complete. This book goes into how Vertov and Eisenstein developed two different forms of cinema and only one was popular due to the demographic of people who had access to watching film, which then will develop into the Classic Hollywood Narrative that we see in cinema today.
Noel Burch talked about how camera shots were developed and made, as well as lighting, montage and editing put together this Hollywood industry style of film making. How a lot of these elements are meant to be invisible and almost natural to the audience watching, this was part of the development of IMR roles that Noel talks about within the book. Which within this case-study demonstrates a range of the rules of classic Hollywood cinema and how they want to keep this idea of a veil on the production such as the camera movements with Joes character and the subtle switches in lighting to enhance the plotline.
This book covers how the language of sixties films is constructed and how there have been changes of the nature of Hollywood symbol systems. This book goes into depth about what allusions are and how they are involved within different films. The book mainly goes into the old vs new on the language of film and the elements that make up film such as genres as symbols.
Carroll also goes into how the two-tier model was constructed and what the two-tier model can involve within Hollywood illusionism. Carroll talked about within two-tier film are successful due to being able to create a mass audience and but still manages to communicate different messages to select groups who would understand subtleties and Carroll goes into depth on this and how it applies to older films from the 60s/70s.
For my assignment within my second year of university, Film and screen cultures module we had to pick out a particular film that would be classed as a two tier film and that we can analysis using film theories and also write a proposal on for this assignment. I looked into several different films that I could write about that include different elements that would relate back to different aspects that I could go into depth about.
There were a lot of potential films that I could have look further into and I will eventually analyse however when it came to this particular proposal I wanted to narrow down the selection to films I both enjoy and would be able to analyse using aspects from the lectures in my course.
One of the films I was going to write about before I picked out the final film was an animated film called ‘Over the Moon’ directed by Glen Keane. This film has a range of representation from (found) family to grieving and loss to Chinese and Asian representation which is shown with unique codes and conventions as well as the use of colour/lighting to create specific moods. However, it was not the type of film that I thought I could go far into depth with when it came to the theories and aspects that we have currently been studying.
One of the films I was going to write about before I picked out the final film was an animated film called ‘Over the Moon’ directed by Glen Keane. This film has a range of representation from (found) family to grieving and loss to Chinese and Asian representation which is shown with unique codes and conventions as well as the use of colour/lighting to create specific moods. However, it was not the type of film that I thought I could go far into depth with when it came to the theories and aspects that we have currently been studying.
Even though this has strong representation and visual elements I thought that I could find a film that would have more elements that involve theories such as Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory and Noel Burch IMR.
Over the Moon Trailer.
This film however did a beautiful job capturing the beauty of love and family and how devastating grieve can be especially for a child, which would be an interesting aspect to look into when I analyse this film in the future for a different project that I am most likely going to do in my time out of university.
The scene about grief – https://images.app.goo.gl/H82ULyGMagV6ipJY9
The Trailer for Hidden Figures
This films has a lot of aspects that could make it a two tier film and follows a lot of IMR rules. These aspects were some of the reasons as to why I was close to choosing this film to analyse however when it came down to the final decision of which film I chose I decided on one that would allow me to expand more on the Mulvey theory of cinema. However, I do plan to analyse and critically review this film in the future, possibly in my own time.
As this film has a lot of race representation I think it is best to try and approach this film with an open perspective as I have personally haven’t gone through these very real life experiences and I would have to learn, respectfully, more about how this has effected black people, especially as this is a deep rooted issue within society back then and today.
The second film that I considered writing about was a film called ‘Hidden Figures’ directed by Theodore Melfi. This film has strong representation of both race and women and how people view others based on both their sex and their skin colour. Which within this film we are a little bit brought away from the narrative of women being purely on screen for the benefit of the ‘Male Gaze’ and we are shown more of how women can be intelligent and beautiful but still shows off the ideology of women being shown as wives and mothers, especially during this time period it was set in.
Hidden Figures also has subtle demonstrations of how men treat women in this time period and more specifically how people treat black women as racism, specifically towards the main characters, is a very present aspect of this film.
The main three actresses: Taraji P. Henson; Octavia Spencer; Janelle Monáe, receiving an award for their performance – https://images.app.goo.gl/RNvZvKabfenDcoxc6
As these two films had a lot of elements that are fascinating and would allow the films to be classed as a two tier film and involves a range of different representation and aspects of industrial modes of representation I would love to try and analyse these both more in depth in the future.
My other and future analyses that I do during my time at university I will poster her:
The film I decided to go with at the end was 2019’s version of Little Women directed by Greta Gerwig. A Sony and Columbia Pictures film set in 1860s telling the story of family, love and loss.
I decided on creating this proposal on Little Women as the film as it’s a film that captures a beautiful and tragic story with breathtaking cinematography, realistic character developments and an interesting ending. The actresses within the film also demonstrate their characters spectacularly and bring out the characters relatability.
The March Family (In SONY and Columbia Pictures Little Women) – https://images.app.goo.gl/m1Sbq6ViSqRADKMn9
Little Women trailer – (By Columbia Pictures/Sony)
This film centres around the concept of seeing these sisters both in the past and the present using lighting and tone to indicate joy and warm of the sisters past and using the cooler tones within the present setting, it’s a subtle detail that is not highly seen by an audience and captures the scenes with subtle details such as camera shots, angles and motions. This film does a really good job of using Noel’s Burch’s IMR (institutional modes of representation).
The film does a wonderful job for following this stories narrative and presenting these characters in a could even relate to how people act and treat women in modern day society. With the idea that women need to rely on men.
The film even demonstrates how women view themselves during this time in society, this is shown more within the present setting in the film when the character of Amy interacts with the character Theodore and she explains how she has to marry rich to survive but it would result in her basically being the property of the man. So, when I fully analyse this film I will look further into these types of moments and see how her character and society link to different film theories.
Theodore ‘Laurie’ Laurence and Amy March (Sony/Columbia Pictures) – https://images.app.goo.gl/dhfLpygBo2tDT5p39
My First proposal draft for Film and Screen cultures:
For my proposal of analysing a 2 tiered film, I chose to write about 2019’s version of ‘Little Women’, which is set in 19th century centres around 4 sisters and their stories. This has a heavy portrayal of representation of women and men within this time period and how women are viewed and present themselves. Women within this are represented as elegant through their clothing and each of the sisters personality shows within the different aspects of the film, especially through how they dress an example of this would be the character Amy who dresses in big elegant dresses to show try to show of class compared to her sister Joe who dresses more casually and comfortable.
The women are represented in different ways within the film using the men and society as a way to demonstrate how women are treated as a means of nurture, this is especially shown through the mothers character and these aspects of the film fall into Mulvey’s narrative theory of the ‘Male Gaze’ and how women in film and for the audience are put within film for the viewing pleasure of men. The film demonstrated this idea at different point using some IMR rules to enhance this. An example of this is when the camera is on Joe and the lighting is warm and the camera follows Joe. Throughout the film the lighting clearly switches to indicate the idea of the present and the past as its been written through the perspective of Joe the idea that this is written is shown more towards the end of the film where Joe’s character experiences loss and grief and ends up writing down her life for her sister. This is a clever way ending the film as though it were written, which is suggested that it is fiction through the use of the lighting and how the last couple scenes are presented, that she gives the audience this romantic falls in love with a guy ending to please the view which ends up falling under the notion that Mulvey puts across of Women having to end up with a man in the end (or die) so that the men have this view of control.
With analysing this film I will talk about how this film can be classed as both a 1st tier film and a 2nd tier film depending on how the audience is viewing it and along with this I will look into the IMR and how the film follows a lot of the classical Hollywood style of film. Analysing this will also allow me to see what kind of elements the film could lack and how the author and film uses the common ideology’s of how people view women/feminine presenting people (especially in this time period) to create this idea of a perfect ending.
Watching this film from a two tier perspective allowed me to analysis how the plot line and the way it is produced and uses the rules of IMR and the idea of scopophilia is used both for the audience and with the male characters when it comes to their perspective of the women within the film.
Amy and Laurie (Belonging to Sony/Columbia Pictures) – Demonstrate the concept of Mulvey’s theory within their relationship well.
Within the film the women are often shown a beautiful and graceful, especially within the dance scenes, however we do see a side to the women of more personality which doesn’t specifically fall into Murvey’s theory however at the end it still has a lot of moments where the characters are evolved around men. So when I go into a more in-depth look at these different theory concepts and representation within the film Little Women I can approach each of these different theories and aspects in detail with different aspects of the film.
My Annotated bibliography:
Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema PDF. https://files.coventry.aula.education/e091c215d45b33f6eddf7e8d1a4d717dlaura_mulvey_visual_pleasure_and_narrative_cinema.pdf
This book is written by Laura Mulvey who did a feminists perspective of film narrative and IMR. She theorises about how cinema is shown through the ‘male gaze’. Mulvey believes that within cinema women are often shown within the perspective of a heterosexual man.
Within normal old cinema there is a patriarchal ideology where women are viewed as objects for men visual pleasure, this is shown within Hollywood style of film. Mulvey believes there are 3 gazes: scopophilia, voyeurism and narcissistic. ‘Women as image, men as barer of the look’ shows that Mulvey believes that within cinema women are represented through a way that a man would want to see. Murvel suggests that women are either shown as passive and men are more active when it comes to the gaze of women in narrative cinema.
Burch, N. (1979). Film’s Institutional Mode of Representation and the Soviet Response. The MIT Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/778236
Noel Burch wrote about the making of cinema, and how by the 1940s the cultural ascendancy of narrative cinema was complete. This book goes into how Vertov and Eisenstein developed two different forms of cinema and only one was hugely popular due to the demographic of people who had access to watching film, which then will develop into the Classic Hollywood Narrative that we see in cinema today.
Noel Burch talked about how camera shots were developed and made, as well as lighting, montage and editing put together this Hollywood industry style of film making. How a lot of these elements are meant to be invisible and almost natural to the audience watching, this was part of the development of IMR roles that Noel talks about within the book.
Carroll, N. (1982).The Future of Allusion: Hollywood in the Seventies (And beyond). The MIT Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/778606
This book covers how the language of sixties films is constructed and how there have been changes of the nature of Hollywood symbol systems. This book goes into depth about what allusions are and how they are involved within different films.The book mainly goes into the old vs new on the language of film and the elements that make up film such as genres as symbols. Carroll also goes into how the two-tier model was constructed and what the two-tier model can involve within Hollywood illusionism. Carroll talked about within two-tier film are successful due to being able to create a mass audience and still manages to communicate different messages to select groups who would understand subtleties and Carroll goes into depth on this and how it applies to older films from the 60s/70s.
A Word Doc Version of the first draft: (For my Lecturer only, editing allowed)
Finalising my proposal draft for Film and Screen cultures:
For this proposal of analysing a two-tiered film I chose to write about ‘Little Women’ which is set within the 19th century centring around four sisters and their stories. This film has a heavy portrayal of men and women and how they are viewed and present themselves within this time period. Women within this are represented as elegant and feminine through the women’s attitude towards men and the way they dress, this can indicate the class of the women and the men.
When I analysis this film in full I will look further into moments in the film that involve intertextuality and blank parody within this film. The film could be reference and compare to both the book and other version of the film which demonstrates similar aspects but has many differences however still manages to create a similar effect to each other. The film as several aspects of intertextuality and relies on nostalgia, the imperfect memory of humans and postmodern feminism.
Within this I would look further into how Gerwig decided to structure the film and uses tone when jumping back and forth between the different presents and parts and how she cleverly uses parallels or transitions throughout the film to do this smoothly. Along with this I would look into how the choice of actresses effect the performance and could contribute to the theory of Mulvey such as the four different sisters presenting themselves as four different archetypes of femininity by each presenting different aspects of how people view women such as Meg gets married and has children whereas Beth is fragile and weak, this follows Mulvey’s ‘bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning’ (Mulvey, 1975) and is suggested by several theorists that due to the absence of the father and their relationship with their mother could’ve had an effect on each of the women. The women are represented in different ways using men and society as a way to demonstrate how women are treated as a means of nurture, this is especially shown through the mother’s character and these aspects of the film fall into Mulvey’s narrative theory of the ‘Male Gaze’ and how women in film and for the audience are put within film for the viewing pleasure of men.
There are different points where using some IMR rules to enhance Mulvey’s theory. Examples of this is when the camera is on Joe, the lighting is warm, and the camera follows Joe. Throughout the film the lighting switches to indicate the idea of the present and the past as it’s been written through the perspective of Joe (which carries throughout the film and shows a lot of her emotions and experiences), the idea that this is written is shown more towards the end of the film where Joe’s character experiences loss and grief and ends up writing down her life for her sister. This is a clever way of ending the film as though it were written, which is suggested that it is fiction through the use of the lighting and how the last couple scenes are presented, that she gives the audience this romantic ideology of her falling in love with a guy to please the reader which ends up falling under the notion that Mulvey puts across of Women having to end up with a man in the end (or die) so that the men have this view of control.
With analysing this film, I will talk about how this film can be classed as both a 1st tier film and a 2nd tier film depending on how the audience is viewing it and I will look into the IMR and how the film follows a lot of the classical Hollywood style of film. Analysing this will also allow me to see what kind of elements the film could lack and how the author and film uses the common ideologies of how people view women/feminine presenting people (especially in this time period) to create this idea of a perfect ending.
Watching this film from a two-tier perspective allowed me to analysis how the plot line and the way it is produced and uses the rules of IMR and the idea of scopophilia is used both for the audience and with the male characters when it comes to their perspective of the women. The women are often shown as beautiful/graceful however we do see a side to the women’s personality which doesn’t specifically fall into Murvey’s theory and could fall under William’s theory, however at the end it still has a lot of moments where the characters are evolved around men.
I noticed how the film uses the idea of the 4th look (surrounding Mulvey) at the end as it grabs the audience’s attention and makes them very aware of their surroundings due to how the ending sequence took place and how cleverly it was designed to make the audience question whether this was reality or not which really enhances the 1st look due to how the audience watches the film.
So, when I go into writing a full analysis of this film, I will look more in-depth at these different theory concepts and representation within the film Little Women, I can approach each of these different theories in detail with different aspects of the film.
Bradshaw, P. (2021, June 3). Little Women (Sony/Columbia Pictures) Review. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/25/little-women-review-greta-gerwig-saoirse-ronan-emma-watson
Burch, N. (1979). Film’s Institutional Mode of Representation and the Soviet Response. The MIT Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/778236
Carroll, N. (1982). The Future of Allusion: Hollywood in the Seventies (And beyond). The MIT Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/778606
Hooks, B. (1992). The Oppositional Gaze. Oppositional Gaze. https://files.coventry.aula.education/21beb43df1ef379f2ce1e816de928bbbhooks_oppositional_gaze.pdf
Jameson, Willemen, & Dixon, W. W. (1995). It looks at You: The return gaze of cinema/video reception. State University of New York Press. https://files.coventry.aula.education/94d1c2662db86a8a9bc477acf247c7abit_looks_at_you_chapter_one_.pdf
le Saux AFC, Y. (2021, June 1). Yorick Le Saux AFC / Little Women. British Cinematographer, Yorick Le Saux AFC. https://britishcinematographer.co.uk/yorick-le-saux-afc-little-women/
Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema PDF. https://files.coventry.aula.education/e091c215d45b33f6eddf7e8d1a4d717dlaura_mulvey_visual_pleasure_and_narrative_cinema.pdf
Williams, L. (2001). When the woman looks. Routledge. https://files.coventry.aula.education/d19c1904f5571d02b1bcaf1e02cb484fwilliams_womanlooks.pdf
Willemen, P., & Goldsmith, B. (1998). To Be Outside and In-Between, Essay On Looks and Frictions: Essays in Cultural Studies and Film Theory. Film-Philosophy 2.1. https://files.coventry.aula.education/0f4de2ecf2d1c34f0d587d8cb8fee2b2essay_on_willemen.pdf
Film Notes:
Sony/Comubia Pictures 2019’s Little Women Opening sequence
When watching the film I thought about how this film plays into the theory of Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ due to the fact that this film centres around the portrayal of women and often demonstrates the idea of women having to be married or dead to have successful life which is something that Mulvey stated when it came to film as it ends with men in control of the women, even if the film portrays each women as intelligent with bold personalities.
Typically within film men tend to subtly either objectify, belittle or sexualise women in some form either as control or to be the main protagonist, an example of this is when the main male character, Theodore, confesses his love to Joe (the scene below) he try’s to convince her to love him and get married to him despite it not being what she wants and he talks about how it’s expected of them as though she wouldn’t have a say in the matter even though in this situation she did and rejected him this mentality continues throughout the storyline of women having to marry to have some form of success.
Saoirse Ronan ( As Jo March) and Timothée Chalamet ( As Theodore ‘Laurie’ Laurence) in Columbia Pictures’ LITTLE WOMEN. – https://images.app.goo.gl/cSZtLTJdGvv58KuZ7
I have watched this screen-life film called ‘Open Windows’ and ‘Searching’. I think ‘Open Windows’ showed a unique way of presenting film through the use of a computer camera, in this screen life fashion, using the different tabs to present different shots which is a fascinating use of editing switching between the windows to the shots and then eventually to the antagonists POV shot still whilst keeping the concept of being on a computer right to the end where the main female character closes her computer. This experimental type of film created an interesting creative approach to a style of film that is not often seen within mainstream media which made the film stand out slightly to other films however i believe that the way that it is structured made the film slightly contradict what we have learnt about IMR as the the film lacked the continuity of editing but does use some elements that creates the classic Hollywood cinema such as the point of view shot near the end and some of the other “camera” computer shots throughout but it does not really demonstrate IMR rules well within the film.
The film is innovative and creative for trying to use this idea of showing the audience all of this happening through a computer as though they are trying to create a sense of paranoia or connect with the audience with the realism of seeing through the computer as if they are part of the experience by seeing similarly to what the main character does but the overall narrative and structure lacked slightly when it came to keeping the audience engaged.
trailer of open windows
There are a few films and shows that come to mind when I was watching ‘Open Windows’ as well as ‘Searching’ that use similar concepts of the screen life elements in them. The main two that i first thought of when i saw this style of film was ‘staged’ which basically centres around David Tennant and Micheal Sheen who uses a platform in the style of zoom to create an entire sitcom series. This is similar to the effect that ‘open windows’ has when showing the main characters through the idea of a face-time type element. However, ‘Staged’ does not overwhelm the audience with the many windows and creative elements.
A snip-it of Staged
One of the other films that came to mind when watching this was the horror/mystery film ‘Host’ which uses similar ways to create paranoia and tension however is similar to ‘staged’ where it takes place using a zoom like structure which is done effectively and does not overwhelm the audience with too much going on at once. I believe that the screen life style of film is difficult to create within the IMR rules as it doesn’t use the same traditional camera and narrative ideas that normal film uses to attract an audience. But ‘Host’ still manages to create an effective narrative and characters that todays audience could relate to due to the current situation of the pandemic. This film uses a lot of similar elements to ‘open windows’ with the concept of only seeing these characters mainly through the zoom call (instead of windows) and gives the audience the sense as through they are in the call as well and doing this it allows the audience to feel the tension and eeriness that happens within the film.
Host Trailer
Some Examples of films similar can be seen in the image below:
Film in general has so many aspects that I would find fascinating to look at especially when it comes to genres and the codes, conventions and tropes of the genres such as looking into films in different genres such as ‘on the basis of sex’ to films such as ‘the conjuring’ (thrillers and horror genres to Sci-fi or comedy to others), this aspect would be interesting to delve into more and look at some classic or famous films, or maybe even series, within specific genres and see what makes them attract an audience or aspects makes them successful and how well the film is at storytelling.
I think some of the aspects of film that would be interesting to look at would be international films, such as the Korean film Parasite, as international films often have different unique ways of creating films or portraying storys, characters and environments. This would be beneficial to look at due to international films having these interesting qualities and more of a range of diversity as films are made all around the world.
(https://images.app.goo.gl/zDj7ayJsoabvAfh59)
Another interesting topic to learn about would the evolution of a famous film company (such as Disney, Pixar, Netflix and so on) and how that specific company has changed and developed their films from old to new (such as analysing old films such as ‘Snow White’ to newer films like ‘Encanto’) an example of this would be ‘Cruella’ which is based around the character from ‘101 Dalmatians’. I believe that this would be a great chance to learn more about different types of film, along with how different cinema from different countries have different styles and impacts on a consumer.
(https://images.app.goo.gl/veSszok7P7N14fpGA)
The 4 main films from these suggestions that could be watched are: The Conjuring, On the Basis of Sex, Parasite and Cruella.
Going into watching the film Blue Velvet I was intrigued as to what this film was going to be about and how the director would portray the plot, as older films can sometimes have really bizarre plots or camera-work/effects within them depending on the different styles and genre of film that is being portrayed. As I did not know much about this film going into it I was interested in seeing what this cast and director had to offer.
During watching this film there were moments that I thought were fairly laid back or mundane and had very little interest in them, plot wise, however the camera work and editing was done well within the film. I do think there were moments in the film that were too mundane and I felt like the director did this to balance out the more graphic elements of the film. However, I thought they did an interesting job building suspension and uneasy feelings in some scenes with the lighting and music. But for the most part I felt disturbed with the graphic elements and sexual assault within the film. The disturbing elements built up more and made me feel slightly uncomfortable within certain scenes.
However, I do admire that the film had some unique qualities to it such as the the mise-en-scene and camerawork, as the now considered ‘old fashioned style film’ made the film have some interesting visual elements to it. Such as the impactful scene of the women singing ‘Blue Velvet’ which added to the plot slightly and highlights why the film title is Blue Velvet, along with the robe that the women wears. Along with this the music within the film sometimes came off as eerie and sinister to build tension and create atmosphere and would fade or cut off to add to this which I thought was really well done within the film. So, despite there being a few hard scenes to watch I don’t regret the experience of watching the film purely based on a media stand point, I think that this film had some unique visual representation, such as the candle shots, that would be interesting to analysis and see why the creator made specific elements and scenes the way they did.
I believe that this film is a Crime and thriller mystery due to having a range of the typical tropes and conventions that are within the genre, although it had a hint of romance due to Jeffery (main character/protagonist) and Sandy’s relationship at points in the film.
As for whether I would recommend this film, the answer is no I would not due to its graphic nature and sensitive topics within the film, especially as it has graphic scenes and can be triggering for some people particularly those who have been through/are sensitive too: sexual assault, abuse or violence/gore. Although this film does have some interesting elements I personally think you have to have a particular taste to watch this film more than once and it wasn’t something I personally enjoyed or would want to see again.
I personally found the task of picking out my favourite film and the best film I have ever watched challenging as I adore so many films and have so many films that come close to being my favourite, from films that have stunning cinematography such as ‘The Aeronauts’ to other films that are beautifully nostalgic like ‘My Neighbour Totoro’, ‘Wall-e’ and ‘Up’ or even a more recent film that has stuck with me such as ‘Encanto’ which is gorgeously animated, has high quality musical elements and has great representation.
(⚠️Tw: This film covers mentions of suicide and mental health) So, picking just one was a difficult thing, however one of my favourite movies as of right now is a spectacularly gorgeous animated film called ‘The Silent Voice’ which follows the life of two main characters one who was picked and discriminated on for being deaf and her dealing with mental health as well as her bully who struggles with social anxiety and depression and we, as an audience, get to see how he views the world and people in it. This is one of my favourites as it was a film that stuck with me and I would often go back to. The way the style and characters are portrayed are striking and the storyline is emotional and moving in a way that allows an audience to connect to the characters. The film also is animated in such a beautiful style and this really makes an impact as I grew up with, and still enjoy, animated films and I admire the work that goes into them. The film also really connects to the viewer on personal level as we get to see this characters struggle and be vulnerable with their trauma and mental health.
The best movie I have ever watched as of right now is torn between a film called ‘Hidden figures’ which is a film based on true events that has a impactful plot and the film also has strong cinematography as well as high representation of strong, black, intelligent women as the main characters within the film. Along with this the film covers important topics and issues that are still needing to be to be talked about today such as racism and feminism. Along with a film called ‘Over the Moon’ which is based around a Chinese family, that uses strong music and visual elements, such as the use of colour and style, to demonstrate how this main character deals with the loss and grief of a loved one, her mother, and how she deals with change and new family. These two films are two of the best films I’ve seen due to their high representation, mise-en-scene, sound and cinematography/visual elements. Along with this the characters are relatable and will allow the audience to create a connection with them. From my media perspective these are two films are ones that keep me interested in analysing and developing my ever growing interest in the film industry.
Hidden Figures – https://images.app.goo.gl/z3Gv3khBBfdpxPDA9(Over the moon) – https://images.app.goo.gl/7u9DMAYcLUetYTdp9
The main difference between my favourite film and the best film would be that my favourite films are typically ones that I go back to, that tend to be emotional or nostalgic, that I connect too and would watch multiple times. However, my best film are ones I more appreciate for the technical and creative way it was done and are often films that I would want to look at in further detail and I don’t have to particularly like the film to know that it is a good film, however in this case both of these films were enjoyable and amazingly done.
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