The Male Gaze

According to wikipedia, "the male gaze" is a concept used for 'analysing visual culture.. that deals with how an audience views the person presented". The male gaze can be traced back to Laura Mulvey & her essay on "visual pleasure & narrative cinema" which was published in 1975. This concept is the key to feminist film theory & has had a great influence since the mid 70s.

Key Points of Mulvey's original article

• Mulvey believed that most most main stream Hollywood films adopts the position of the male gaze. E.g camera shots lingering over legs, lips but do not follow the same rule when focusing on men. men are often presented as active & women as passive.
• She argued that particularly in classic Hollywood films women are merely represented to provide a visual pleasure to men & the audience is constructed in a manner where they are all expected to be men.
• She also argued that the typical key protagonist in a classic Hollywood film was a male & the audience members were typically expected to be men.

However, critics of Mulvey argue that there are popularity of patriarchal texts with both gender; many women are not bothered or even conscious of any male bias in film because most women want to be entertained, and therefore have no need to be empowered while watching a film.

As women's role changes in society, it also changes in terms of media representation. Women are still objectified but also likely to be ambitious, confident, intelligent & empowered. So, there has been some changes in the modern representation e.g in 'Kill Bill' (2003) Uma Thurman is represented as being powerful, dominant & independent. She adopts male characteristics of aggression & seen in masculine role.

Our teaser trailer is the antithesis of the male gaze. In a classic Hollywood film, it is expected to have the male as the protagonist but in our project 'Hannah' our main character is the protagonist. after losing 'Gus' the main character has desexualised herself, almost rejecting the concept of the male gaze.

Section A

The ten commandments for reflective writing:

Quotations ( deconstruct all creativity)
Understanding purpose
Institutional ( what it relates to? internet/cinema/ TV)
Theortical

Meta discourse
Culture
Deconstruct
Relate to similar texts
Evaluate ( degree of success)
Avoid generalisation
Micro/Macro element

Inglorious Bastards (2009)

Inglorious bastards is a film by Tarantino represents 2nd world war from different perspective, American perspective. The scene is set, as the audience are very much aware about the 2nd world world through representation. This allows tarantino to play with the narrative convention, character convention creating a postmodern text.

Initially, this movie started off very unpostmodern.The movie started with text 'once upon a time', almost fairytale creating a picture perfect world. But we the audience know that this film will indeed be very nasty & representing both good thus creating pastiche, mixes of the genres. Tarrantino uses comical effects such as the Gestapo officer requesting for milk, using the large pipe combined with very serious issues such as reminiscent. This comical aspect is purposely added to create parody. Music is one of the elements that make this is a postmodern text. The music use in this text is very similar to 'Kill Bill' (2003) another of tarantino's film. The Music used in Kill Bill is very similar to Sergio Leone's ' The Good, the bad & the ugly' (1960s). Also, contemporary music is used in this text rather than 40s music which also doesn't fit with the genre of the film. Another element that makes this a postmodern text is the use of 'mocumentary'. The film is stopped halfway to introduce Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz. Tarantino uses a voice over, colorful contemporary fonts to create almost a mocumentary. Again, the music used doesn't fit the genre encouraging bricolage.We can clearly see the binary opposition between Hitler's character & Brad Pitt's character. This can be seen through their clothing. Hitler is wearing a cape suggesting Hitler seeing himself as a 'hero' whereas Brad Pitt is seen wearing very plain clothes.

Tarantino has particularly aimed this text to the western audience especially Americans therefore uses Brad Pitt who is a well know American celebrity. Also, this movie revisits Amercian history, justifying their actions. America itself is a very postmodern text, creating hyperreality & accepting film world as the 'real world'. The french created the greatest cinema of the 20th century & tarantino is a huge fan of french films. This can be seen as he makes references of french film in this text.

Examples of Postmodern media

All these directors are labelled as 'Auteur's'- an Auteur is a filmmaker who has a personal style & keeps creative control over his/her works

Micheal Winterbottom

• Winterbottom's films all deliberately mess around with the boundary between suspending disbelief, reality & the obviously artificial
• tends to use a lot of handheld cameras. E.g 'In this world'(2002)
• In this world is regarded different as it is more 'serious' about Afghan refugees. The actors in the film are real refugees, so the film mixes real footage of their journey with scripted scene therefore playing with reality.

Coen Brothers

• Uses Irony constantly & existing material & ideas are remixed & played with
• Coen brothers are said to 'represent the film world rather than the real world'
• Blood Simple (1984) used shots that have been used on other films
• The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) & Barton Flink (1991) references to popular culture, intertextuality & override any sense of 'pure reality'
  

Quentin Tarantino

• In Pulp Fiction (1994) John Travalter's dance sequence is retrieved from his characters in other films such as 'Grease'(1978), 'Saturday Night Fever' (1979)

Tv Programmes

• Dixon of Dock Green (1950s-1970s) represented a modern Britain. This media text was one of the first programmes to directly talk to the audience. It clearly differentiated the high culture & the low culture
• Twin Peaks (1990s) had elements of soap operas but used music which are more likey to be hears d in films. It has big effect on the audience as they had never experienced something like this before.
• Contemporary media text such as The Mighty Boosh have an eclectic mix of conventions, influences & genres. This Media text uses parody-the humorous imitation of other media products that the audience recognizes.

Introduction to Postmodernism- Part 2

Postmodernism.....

• Rejects the idea that any media product or text is of any other value than another.
• The distinction between media & reality has collasped & we live in a 'reality' defined by images &
• Postmodernism texts are said to be 'intertextual' & 'self referential'. They break the rules of realism to explore the nature of their own status as contructed texts
• Postmodernism is typically a mixture of hign & low cultures. High cultures being things like Classical music, theatre, ballet, BBc, broadsheet etc. And low culture being Pop music, tabloids, ITV etc

• Disneyland is the best example of understanding how reality works in a postmodern world-A place which is at the same time real, physical space but also clearly a fictional representaion world.
• Due to representaion there is no longer any 'original' product
• 'Pure reality' is replaced by Hyperreal where any boundary between the real & the imaginary

Introduction to postmodernism

Elements of Postmodernism

B- Bricolage
&
H-Hyper reality
P-Playfulness
A-Aesthetic
I-Irony
N-Nihilism
P-Parody
I-Intertextuality
P-Pastiche
E-Eclectic
S-Self referential

• Bricolage: The construction of meaning through remixing a combination of elements to make a new style. E.g 'The Night at the Museum' (2006) revisits history in contemporary society
• Hyperreality: A state in which images & simulations take on a more 'reality' than the state they represent. Thus, the distinction between reality & representation is no longer sustainable
• Playfulness: A disposition to find causes for amusement
• Aesthetic: Visual appearances, according to taste. E.g Simpsons
• Irony: Incongruity between what might be expected & what actually happens
• Nihilism:Total rejection of values & established laws of institution
• Parody: A text which doesn't simply imitate the style of another pastiche but instead is transformative in that it can either mock or shift in some way the original text conventions
• Intertextuality: The chain of signification in which texts make reference to one another. when one text refers to another it is called 'intertextual'
• Pastiche: Mixing of genres
• Eclectic: selecting what seens best of various styles or ideas
• Self referential: The one who refers to itself or oneself

Origin of Postmodernism

C.Before 1500s- The Dark Ages ( no record of events)

Enlightenment

(agreement about the best way for man kind because protestant believed God was within. They believed progress in knowledge science,disiplience

Ancients

ideas are (Roman. Greek, Egyptian)

Modernism

New Knowledge beleived in knowledge through

Reasons

Modernism: considered as high culture, high culture

Manet Panting: showed clear divide in society (1851)

Postmodernism at the time is unexceptable

Post Modernism: to an extent is 'modernism', 'mockery' of modernism

mocking other texts & ideas all about individual, self concern