I found this weeks lecture very interesting and really enjoyed learning about scopophilia and voyeurism in art. Learning about the 'male gaze', and how body and gender are displayed in different art works, really opened my eyes to see how much the feminist movement, has had a significant effect on art. I have never really looked at art in this way before, or ever thought about the way that body and gender are used. It was fascinating to see how the ideas and the rules behind those ideas have slowly changed over the years, as more artists have explored different ways of looking at gender, and in some ways pushed the boundaries of what was the natural order for so long.
In the second half of the lecture we watched a few scenes from Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo". Produced in 1958, Vertigo is a psychological thriller that is a product of it's time, and is a good illustration of the 'male gaze' and how women are portrayed in film. The film is about a retired police detective, who has acrophobia, and is hired as a private investigator to follow the wife of an acquaintance to uncover the mystery of her peculiar behavior. Detective John "Scottie" Ferguson develops acrophobia (the fear of heights) after he witnesses a police officer fall to his death during a police chase across the rooftops of San Francisco. (wikipedia.org)
In Hitchcock's "Vertigo", the woman is the focus and the 'gaze' of the film, but from a distance. In the scenes that I saw, eye contact with the woman does not occur, which shows how the woman is merely the object to be gazed upon. She does not have a personality in the film, and is merely the object that appears in the detectives 'gaze'. She is the object to be acted upon by the subject, or the detective. In the beginning of the scene, when she is at the restaurant with her husband, all we see are profile shots, she never looks directly at the camera. This can be seen in a lot of the art pieces that we discussed earlier in the lecture. Although the work we saw showed progression and change over time, a lot of the earlier works we looked at did not show any eye contact and merely showed an objectified image to be gazed upon. The lack of eye contact from her in this scene confirms that, but it also has a teasing and almost frustrating element to it because, we are seeing her through the eyes of the detective. He sees her beauty, and wants to see the full image, but because he is supposed to be following her, he cannot and has to keep looking away to remain conspicuous. Gazing at a person in a piece of art work seems different than gazing at someone in film. Film is more realistic and more intimate. We are imbedded in the story, and are taken in as if we are in the film itself. Because film is more real, it feels almost wrong to gaze upon someone without seeing the full person, without knowing the person.
This movie typifies the 'male gaze', because we are seeing through the detectives eyes. We see most scenes from his perspective and point of view. The whole storyline is following him, even though the woman is the main focus.
Although we do not see much of the woman's full image, she can be observed fully by the detective and the viewers in the flower shop scene. We are again seeing through the detectives eyes as he gazes at her from behind the door. This is an interesting scene because there is one part of it where it shows a reflection of the woman in a mirror, which splits the screen so we can see both of them next to each other. This clearly shows the contrast between gender. The detective is in dark lighting, with dark shadows. It shows him wearing dark clothing and which emphasises the stereotypical harsh, hard, masculinity of the male gender. In contrast, the woman is seen in very soft and bright lighting. She is wearing light colours and is in a setting that has lots of pastel colours, lots of flowers, and is altogether light and lovely. This also emphasises the often expected way of looking at the female. Even the music comes into play and adds to the overall effect. When focused on the detective, the music is louder, harsher, and seems to have more of a dramatic sound, whereas, when focused on the woman, the music is softer, more feminine and mysterious.
The scene at the museum is interesting because it begins by playing with the viewer's perspective in a circular motion. The view starts off looking at the detective, who then takes us to look at the woman, who is looking at the painting on the wall. This painting is then looking straight back at the detective. The woman is mimicking the painting, by the way that she is sitting, she has flowers that are exactly the same type as seen in the painting and her hair is styled in a circular bun exactly like the woman in the painting. In this scene we get the feeling that the detective is uncomfortable. All this time he has been following her, he has been inconspicuous, and although the woman does not look back, the woman in the painting itself is staring directly at him in a very stern and provocative way. Because the woman herself in mimicking the lady in the painting, it is almost like she is staring at him through the painting.
Overall, it was a very fascinating lecture and has opened my eyes to look at art and films in another light. I very much enjoyed unpacking the different art works from different time periods, and enjoyed comparing them to how gender and body are seen today. It will be interesting to see where our 'gaze' and the ideals of gender and body portrayed in art, will be in another ten years.
Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_(film)
http://hitchcock.tv/essays/vertigoessay.html
Great work Bonnie! Lots of thought, and extra research. I loved the quote about the circular motifs in the music! TX
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