Transcript Film Theories

Film and Music
Video Theories
Media Studies lesson 3/10/12
The Three Main Theories
Feminist Theory
 Marxist Theory
 Psychoanalytic Theory
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Feminist Theory
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The Male Gaze
The function of women in particular genres
Feminist criticism in general
The Male Gaze
Film constructs a “view” for us of the
events, like looking through a keyhole
 The film-maker, the film system,
ultimately society itself, conspires to
construct that “view” or GAZE
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The Male Gaze
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Laura Mulvey,
‘Visual Pleasure
and Narrative
Cinema’ (1975)
The Male Gaze
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scopophilia - the pleasure involved in
looking at other people’s bodies as
(particularly, erotic) objects. Cf. Big Brother
“Traditional films present men as active,
controlling subjects and treat women as
passive objects of desire for men in both
the story and in the audience, and do not
allow women to be desiring sexual subjects
in their own right.” (Notes on 'The Gaze‘, Daniel
Chandler)

Cf. Hip-hop/dance videos
The Male Gaze
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‘As the spectator
identifies with the main
male protagonist, he
projects his look onto that
of his like, his screen
surrogate, so that the
power of the male
protagonist as he
controls events
coincides with the active
power of the erotic look,
both giving a satisfying
sense of omnipotence’
Cf. identification with
singer in hip-hop/RnB
videos
The Male Gaze
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1.
2.
3.
Shot Reverse Shot:
We see the face of the (male) actor
look at something.
We see the object s/he are looking
at
We go back to the face of the actor
to see his/her reaction
The Function of Women
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The villain
The donor
The helper
The Princess (or
sought-for person)
The dispatcher
The hero/victim
The false hero
Vladimir Propp, The Morphology of
the Folk Tale
The Function of
Women in music
video
•The object of desire
Or
•The embodiment of power and
control?
Roles in music video genres
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Rock
Hip-hop
R’n’B
Indie
Garage/Dance
Reality Pop
Women’s roles
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Video makers – directors,
producers
Singers/bands
Extras
http://www.musicvideowire.com/
Feminist criticism
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Looks at the film from the perspective
of women e.g. Babe
A film about a woman (the farmer’s
wife)’s attempts to break free from
male dominated industry (she tries to
have the pig killed) but is thwarted by
his sentimentality.
Marxism
Karl Marx, “Das Kapital” (1867)
 Throughout history, there has been a
struggle between a ruling class and
an oppressed class via modes of
production (machines, working
conditions)
 The proletariat should own the
means of production
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Marxist Film Theory
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The film system, in particular Hollywood,
not only promotes but reinforces the
struggle:
Film equipment
Film studios
Financing
Images
Therefore, if the makers of the music make
their own videos, that satisfies Marxist
theory
Marxist Film Theory
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Shot Reverse Shot – seen by Marxists as
promoting capitalist ideology/Hollywood
ideal (a sort of Boss Gaze)
Institutional Mode of Representation
Sergei Eisenstein – “Battleship Potempkin”
Cf The Untouchables
Marxist Film Theory
Hegelian Dialectic
1. Thesis – initial idea
2. Antithesis - opposing Idea
3. Synthesis – final
outcome based on an
understanding of both
thesis
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Marxist Film Theory
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Lev Kuleshov was an early Russian filmmaker
who believed that juxtaposing two unrelated
images could convey a separate meaning. In
his experiment he filmed Mozhukhin, a famous
Russian actor, and shots of a bowl of soup, a
girl, a teddy bear, and a child's coffin. He then
cut the shot of the actor into the other shot;
each time it was the same shot of the actor.
Viewers felt that the shots of the actor
conveyed different emotions, though each
time it was in fact the same shot.
Cf. montage in music video
Marxist Film Theory
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Remove the
protagonist
Let the images tell
the story
Marxist Theory
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Marxist literary theory:
How does the author's social and economic
class show through in the work?
Does the work support the economic and
social status quo, or does it advocate
change? (Particularly appropriate for
dystopian/utopian novels.)
What role does the class system play in the
work?
Psychoanalytic Theory
Sigmund Freud – psychoanalyst
 Much of our behaviour is
characterised by suppressed sexual
desires from our childhood
 Dreams analysis
 Symbolism e.g. phallic objects
 Cf surrealism
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Psychoanalytic Theory
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The Id
The Id (Latin, = "it" = "es"
in the original German)
represented primary
process thinking -- our
most primitive need
gratification type
thoughts. The Id, Freud
stated, constitutes part of
one's unconscious mind.
It acts on primitive
instinctual urges (sex,
hunger, anger etc).
Psychoanalytic Theory
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The Superego
The Superego represented our
conscience and counteracted the Id with
moral and ethical thoughts. The
Superego, Freud stated, is the moral
agent that links both our conscious and
unconscious minds. The Superego
stands in opposition to the desires of
the Id. The Superego is itself part of the
unconscious mind; it is the
internalization of the world view and
norms and mores a child absorbs from
parents and peers. As the conscience, it
is knowledge of right and wrong; as
world view it is knowledge of what is
real.
Psychoanalytic Theory
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The Ego
The Ego stands in between both to
balance our primitive needs and our
moral/ethical beliefs. ("Ego" means "I" in
Latin). Freud stated that the Ego resides
almost entirely in our conscious mind.
In Freud's view the Ego stands in
between both to balance our primitive
needs and our moral/ethical beliefs.
Relying on experience, a healthy Ego
provides the ability to adapt to reality
and interact with the outside world in a
way that accommodates both Id and
Superego.
Psychoanalytic Theory
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Like Levi-Strauss’
theory of binary
oppositions, a
character’s
motivation could be
the ego’s attempts
to mediate between
the id and the
super-ego
Psychoanalytic Theory
Jacques Lacan
 Laura Mulvey
 Shot Reverse Shot
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