How could you use an analysis of the pattern of looks or the identity of the gaze to develop a critical reading of contemporary mainstream film?“The concept of gaze is how an audience views the people presented.” The types of gaze are categorized by who is involved and who is looking. “The male gaze” which is a term whom Laura Mulvey introduced in this piece of writing, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”. Mulvey suggests that women are typically presented as just ‘objects’ in film, serving a sexual purpose for men, she states “Women displayed as sexual object is the leit-motif of erotic spectacle.” (Laura Mulvey, 1975, 11)This essay will be an analysis of the identity of the gaze in mainstream film with a brief insight to the pattern of looks.
The film I have chosen to focus on is Pretty Woman (1990, Director Garry Marshall, Produced by Silver Screen Partners, USA). The plot evolves around a young girl (Vivian) in Los Angeles, who makes her way through prostitution. A chance encounter with a businessman, leads her to fall in love and change her lifestyle. The film brings forth ideas of societal perceptions, attitudes and responses to particular woman, and this essay will highlight these and show how the director has responded and displayed this in his work. I feel “Pretty Woman” (1990) is an appropriate film choice, as I feel observation through other contemporary mainstream films would not be as significant or effective. This film has enabled me to get my point across much clearer with this example.
I strongly feel that it displays and explores a strong understanding of the way women can be represented in mainstream film, and how they can be viewed as a source of pleasure or as little as only an ‘object’ through the male eye.But what effect does the gaze have on film? We might consider the point Jonathan Schroeder makes, “Gazing signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze." (http://gaze.askdefine.
com/). Different gazes are used in contemporary mainstream film; characters look at each other and by ‘looking’ it suggests a relationship, whether good or bad, gazing can display a relationship between the subjects, just by looking. It can have great effect in film; Gazing can reflect different emotions without any speech, the gaze does all the talking, even though a gaze is just to look at something it does still denote power between the ‘object’ and the gaze. “Gazing provides us with a lot of information about our relationship with the subject or the relationship between the subjects upon whom we gaze or the situation in which the subjects are doing the gazing”.I will use two contrasting aspects of the gaze, which I feel is a strong feature in the film. Character, Vivian played by actress Julia Roberts, has her identity obtainable, set and then re-established.
Vivian is firstly introduced as a Prostitute (An individual who performs sexual activity for payment) whom walks the streets every night in very seductive, knee-high tight leather boots and a tight fitted skirt in the hope to please men to earn enough money to pay her rent.The film indicates and highlights that Pretty Woman is a clear example that contemporary cinema satisfies and serves ‘pleasurable looking’ for its viewers. Mulvey states “Curiosity and the wish to look intermingle with a fascination with likeness and recognition: the human face, the human body, the relationship between the human form and its surroundings, the visible presence of the person in the world.” (Laura Mulvey, 1975, 9) In juxtapose to this provocative character, she is then later presented in a vastly contrasting way, becoming, an upper class, and beautiful lady in complete comparison to how she was presented prior to this.
The personality and character in Vivian is drastically transformed during the film. The characters identity is re-constructed and changed and the dominant male gaze is also affected. I am going to use two scenes, which highlight this contrast of the male gaze; the first scene is at the beginning of the film, it clearly foregrounds the authority of the male gaze. The particular scene involves Vivian in a hotel room with a rich man named Edward Lewis, whom she met by accident that night.
The scene focuses on Vivian laying on the floor, wearing very little, whilst laughing continuously at the television, and drinking white wine. Edward leaves his seat where he is doing business work, and moves to sit closer to Vivian. He begins staring at her and she looks directly back; and within the pattern of looks, the camera uses a close up shot, which is a point-of-view shot from Vivian’s perspective, seeing Edward staring into her eyes. This isn’t just the male gaze; this could also be treated as an Intra-diegetic gaze (A gaze of one depicted person at another or at an animal or an object) within the world of the text (typically depicted in filmic and televisual media by a subjective ‘point-of-view shot’) as within the pattern of looks (sequence of camera shots) as the camera continuously acts as each characters point-of-view.A high angle camera shot is used from Edwards point-of-view looking down at Vivian; this makes him look powerful and superior, in comparison to Vivian whom looks powerless. This shot highlights the automatic interest Edward has in Vivian, he watches her carefully and it is almost like he was inviting her over to him with just by looking, knowing that she will know what to do.
Vivian begins crawling towards him, without a word. This suggests she is used to this behavior and doesn’t question it in the slightest. This is a negative male gaze, her being his ‘object’. When she gets to Edward, she lifts up his trouser leg and touches his leg in a carnal style; she then commences to undress herself, and takes off the very little clothes she was already wearing.
She pulls the clothes off her slim-frame within seconds; the camera focuses on Edwards face, emphasizing his eyes staring at her naked body. Edward appreciates her body, and enjoys what he sees; this scene displays Scorophilia, as Edward gets a deriving sexual pleasure from looking at her skin, others suggests it is the irregular of gazing at.” (Sutherland 2003, p.59).
This could not only be a male gaze, but it could also be looked upon as a curious gaze (Observing). Mulvey stated, “Scorophilia was associated with taking other people as objects, subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze.” (Laura Mulvey, 1975, 8) Not only is Scorophilia shown in this scene, but Fetishistic Scorophilia (“This is when the female figure is represented simply as a beautiful object of display (her objectification shows how voyeurism and this kind of fetishism can overlap” (Gillian Rose, Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials,161) is also exposed as Vivian’s body is represented as an ‘object of display’.Her body is often pictured with close-ups capturing her flesh; this could be to make her look ‘perfect’ in the male gaze. However from how Vivian’s character has been portrayed and depicted in the film, the gaze naturally appears as some form of a negative male gaze, because she appears cheap and vulgar.
Vivian takes control and asks Edward, “What do you want?” with his response, “What do you do?” This suggests at this point, she is an object to him serving a sexual purpose. The way Vivian dresses and acts, invites men, and gets their attention and she becomes their ‘object’ and ‘sexual desire’. Mulvey states, “Women displayed as sexual object is the leit-motif of erotic spectacle.” (Laura Mulvey, 1975, 11).
Vivian responds bluntly with, “Everything. But I don’t kiss on the mouth.” This response tells the viewers a lot about Vivian’s character. She will not kiss her customers on the mouth, this might imply that it is too personal for her, and she will not let herself become emotionally involved.The second scene in which I will discuss, involves Vivian shown in very different representation.
Edward asks Vivian to stay with him for a week in his luxury hotel suite whilst he is away on business, Vivian acts as his Personal Assistant and in the process she comes a beautiful, classy, elegant woman. This scene involves Vivian walking down Rodeo Drive in Beverley Hills; This is the first time Vivian is captured in this brand new character, as she walks, dressed very sophisticatedly, heads are turning in every direction. There are mid-shots of Vivian and her surroundings in the background, capturing men’s eyes appreciating and admiring her beauty. This part of scene still captures the male gaze, however the gaze is in much more of a positive manner.Vivian is dressed well respected, with very little skin showing and she gets positive attention rather than just negative, where she’s just looked at as an ‘object’. It could be argued that this gaze is still only, men ‘looking’ at her beauty for their own sexual pleasure.
However Vivian appears a lot more blissful and content in this scene, she is smiling and enjoying the attention she is receiving from the Men; Mulvey states, “There are circumstances in which looking itself is a source of pleasure, just as, in the reverse formation, there is pleasure in being looked at.” (Laura Mulvey, 1975, 8) This could be the case for Vivian, as she seems to be enjoying ‘being looked at’, and getting a form of pleasure from it. Mulvey makes a point which strongly relates to this stating “There are circumstances in which looking itself is a source of pleasure, just as, in the reverse formation, there is pleasure in being looked at.” (Laura Mulvey, 1975, 8) When Vivian gracefully walks down Rodeo Drive, women do not take any notice of her passing by, but the men cannot take their eyes away from her, which does suggest that, she is there for their own sense of pleasure.
This could then be a form of Fetishistic Scorophilia, as Vivian could be represented as beautiful and only that, for male display and pleasure.Vivian walks and acts like a ‘lady’ in this scene, for the first time in the film. She is being the “Pretty Woman”, from being presented as a ‘prostitute’ and then being represented as this elegant, beauty it becomes a vast contrast in her as a character, and in the film itself. The title of the film “Pretty Woman”, is not a ‘real’ woman, it goes for Vivian similarly. She is not a real character, she has been changed into this beautiful, feminine character and her changing, follows a change in the film itself. The male gaze is contrasted dramatically, she is now perceived in a more respected manner, she is no longer a ‘prostitute’, nor viewed as ‘easy’.
In the second part of this scene Vivian approaches a very up-market stylish clothing store, in which Vivian visited the previous day whilst wearing very little clothing and knee-high leather boots, where by staff declined her from the shop because of how she represented herself. However when Vivian went in there as her new character, the staff approached her instantly. The next shot captures a long shot of Vivian walking through the hotel lobby, when Vivian catches the manager of the Hotel’s eye and he takes great notice of her, and he almost looked proud. A close up shot of his face captures the big smile on his face, whilst admiring Vivian walking through the lobby. The music playing in this scene is “Roy Orbison – Pretty Woman”, which relates to Vivian being, the “Pretty Woman”.
Women are absolutely essential in film, the visual element they bring to film is vital, they create a sense of tension and excitement, and without women there would be no male gaze. Laura Mulvey backs up this point by stating “The presence of women is an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her visual presence tends to work against the development of a story line, to freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation. This alien presence then has to be integrated into cohesion with the narrative” (Laura Mulvey, 1975, 11). Budd Boetticher also states “What counts is what the heroine provokes, or rather what she represents. She is the one, or rather the love or fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern he feels for her, who makes him act the way he does.
In herself the woman has not the slightest.” (Budd Boetticher cited in Mulvey 1975:11) This shows that women have a great impact in film and on the male gaze; women can be displayed to provoke men.The purpose of the essay was to analyse the identity of gaze, and how it is shown in film. I examined how the male gaze can influence film, with particular reference to “Pretty Woman”; whom isn’t a contemporary film, however I feel this was a virtuous example to analyse, as there are two contrasting representations of the male gaze.
It is shown in my essay that gaze can have an effect in film, as the concept of gazing can reflect different emotions and feelings, it creates a sense of tension between characters. I have also drawn upon the notion of the different pattern of looks used between the scenes in which I analysed. It is shown that the camera shots can have great effect when considering the gaze as it captures the act of ‘looking’. With a higher word count I would wish to explore the identity of gaze in a more in depth way. I feel my essay analyses and explains the identity of the gaze throughout “Pretty Woman”.
