Basic Instinct

Basic instinct is a great example of a ‘Male Gaze’ film as well as a great example of a strong female lead in a film. Sharon Stone dominates the screen whenever she is on and captivates the audience. She plays an author who is dragged into a murder mystery. Throughout the film she always comes across as though she is the killer, even in the eyes of Michael Douglas’ character. His character is interestingly influenced by Sharon Stone’s, He had given up drinking, drugs and promiscuous sex for 6 months but as soon as he meets Sharon Stone, he immediately falls for her and her influential ways.

Paul Verhoeven did a great job at directing the film, especially the famous interrogation scene. Throughout the scene the camera gets closer and closer to Sharon Stone’s face every time she has to answer a question, which she does with ease. In one part of the scene she has everyone in the room staring at her and getting distracted by her beauty and flirtation. When she answers a particular question, there is an extreme close up of her talking to the police but straight at the camera. This is a strong shot as it puts the audience in the place of the police, who no doubt were feeling similar.

In a later scene we Michael Douglas go to Sharon Stone’s house to find her undressing herself and walking off naked. He had followed her all day as she is a suspect of a murder but is obvious that he followed her at his own interests. Twice in the film we see him watching her get undressed and becoming more and more obsessed with her despite the accusation of murder.

Even though there is a ‘Male Gaze’ subject to the film, it is clear that Sharon Stone is in charge and isn’t vulnerable in the slightest. She owns the film and very easily captivates the audience, which worked exceptionally well thanks to the way it was shot and the way she acted.

The 'Scream' films..

Wes Craven’s Scream films always had one thing in common other than then ghost faced killer. They all have a scene where a girl ( or two) is alone in a house and getting ready to watch a horror film when they get a phone call from the famous killer. Each film includes this scene but tries to make it superior each time.

In ‘Scream’, Drew Barrymore’s character endures this scene and ends up being stabbed in the stomach and dies. But the process of her not knowing where the killer is is far more interesting.

When she receives the phone call she starts to play with the killer, obviously thinking it’s just a prank call. The camera work throughout this scene is smooth and suggests that the killer is watching her. 
After we find the killer in the house and she’s trying to escape, we get many shots of Drew close up, taking half of the screen with her terrified face, while we can see ghostface walking around trying to find her.

This girl is completely vulnerable to the killer and has a very small chance of surviving. This is a interesting casting choice as Drew Barrymore is a big actor and would be expected to have a larger role than just the first 5 minutes, this is a clear homage to Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’, doing the same thing with Vera Miles.

The most interesting take on this scene is the one featured in ‘Scream 2’. Sarah Michelle Gellar goes through a similar scene but it was worth taking note that at the time of this film’s release, she was starring in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ where she would play a super hero, saving the world each week. It was as though the film was suggesting that nobody is safe from ghostface, not even super humans.

The quadrilogy’s main character is Sydney played by Neve Campbell, who goes through each film trying to survive and capture the murderer. In the first film her character is vulnerable and scared, yet as each sequel comes along, she gets more confident and cares less about the killers. She knows how to deal with them and becomes emotionally stronger from these situations. Her character is very likable in this respect and comes across and a very strong woman who is constantly denying the killers her bloody corpse. She has become a member of the list of strong women in cinema along with ‘The Terminator’s Sarah Connor’ and ‘Aliens’ Ellen Ripley’.  She has proven much harder to kill than the smaller characters played by Drew Barrymore and Sarrah Michelle Geller who herself has played a character that belongs on this list.

Film review of Rear Window ...by Tim Francis

FILM  REVIEW  for…..REAR  WINDOW



Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 Rear Window is a voyeuristic film acquiring four Academy Award nominations. This suspense laden movie develops easily from beginning to end. The storyline is about a wheelchair bound photographer who spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced  that a murder has been committed by one of the tenants.

The film was shot entirely at paramount studios which included a gigantic set on one of the soundstages. Hitchcock carefully uses diegetic natural sounds and the drifting of music across the courtyard between apartments. Shot entirely in Technicolor and using Edith Head for costume designer ,as he did on all Paramount pictures.

One of the characters in the film, Stella(Thelma Ritter) comments to Jeff  (James Stewart)”We’ve become a race of Peeping Toms “…this equates equally to the cinema as to real life. Stella signifies the specifically sexual pleasures of looking that is aligned with classical Hollywood depictions. Most of the film is seen through Jeff’s visual aspect and his thought processes and perspective. Hitchcock implicates us all as spectators as we view through the rear window, along with Jeff, to draw us in as Peeping Toms. We are watching him and the people he watches.

 The elegant Lisa (Grace Kelly)  causes Jeff’s passive attitude to romance to change when she metaphorically crosses over from the spectator side. The feminist approach in interpreting Freud within the cinema allude that women spectators of this film (and others) become ‘masculinised’. Poignantly, when Jeff is pushed through the window(the screen), he has been forced to become part of the show.

The way that  one of the character’s composed music in the film is heard gradually and eventually in full at the end ,is climatically brilliant.

The subsequent movies released paying homage to Rear Window :- Body Double(84)… Clubhouse Detectives(96)… What Lies Beneath (2000)…Head Over Heels(2001)…Disturbia(2007) ....and Rear Window remake in 1998  are testament to the power of  Alfred Hitchcock in being the master of suspense on the silver screen.



 A FILM REVIEW OF ..REAR WINDOW… by Tim Francis April 2011

Film Noir

Film Noir is a world of seduction and desire, the women plays to her strengths.
There are many subgenres attached with Film Noir these include the detective crime genre, fetithism films and the gangster crime genre.
In the next few weeks I will be carrying out a study of film fetithism and the role that the male gaze plays in films. My research will include several posts where I be writing reviews on film examples in the genres of Film Noir, Horror/Slasher and the femme fetale.