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.
Review by Tim Francis
ReplyDeletePEEPING TOM
Fifty years or more have transpired since Michael Powell shocked his way out of a professional film making career.
His decline and subsequent meagre filming life in Australia came as a direct result of both public and critical revulsion to this mass stabbing epic of voyeurism.
It’s cult status now as a movie which intentionally flaunts a lurid, shocking sleaziness is guaranteed.
In the early 1960’s in the U.K. the mood of the hostile reviewers and panicky distributors was in uproar. The disturbing enough by having a mentally ill murderer as its subject , but it very slyly becomes even more so by involving the audience in the action. The killer Mark (Carl Boehm) has a fetish-like fascination with the movie camera, and he likes to preserve the purest moment of fear by filming his victims as he murders them.
The directors influence by Freud is apparent in the entire film made in a psychological code, filled with clues and imagery.
The actual film does lag a little .after its lethally macabre and brilliant opening scenes…but if anything deserves the “dark masterpiece” tag, this does: a brilliant satirical insight into the neurotic, pornographic element in the act of filming, more relevant than ever in the age of reality television and CCTV.
The continuing use or Moira Shearer (The Red Shoes) as a dancer that also meets her end by the killer’s tripod with it’s blade like secret weapon sharpened to penetrate the most beautiful of necks….and the Germanic sounding anti-hero only served to alienate the uneducated bastion of amateur critics at the time ,that were spoon-fed by the elite control of the U.K.’s film establishment.
The voyeurism,scopophilia and visual content of “Peeping Tom” were a measured artistic development in Michael Powell’s directional aims. He craved the controversy he knew would come .
However this reviewer is left with a feeling of ‘What if ?’ ….. with his understanding of the scientific gaze in the cinema from real life, as Michel Foucault acknowledges ,is at the heart of the advancement of knowledge in Western culture…then what other masterpieces would he have conjured up for us to view and drool over for decades.
A film and repercussion review of Peeping Tom by Tim Francis.
Review of Lost In Translation by Sofia Copolla.
ReplyDeleteLost in Translation is a great modern day example of the male gaze as Scarlett Johansson's character Charlotte is constantly in close up shots of her in a vulnerable state. The most notable shot being the opening shot of the film where the camera pans down her half naked body and settles on her rear. It is covered by her underwear but you can it is see-through.
http://rocanrolero.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/scarlett_johansson_lost_in_translation_01.jpg
Bill Murray's Character Bob is constantly viewing Charlotte as a soul mate, yet with the style of the shots it is made clear that he possible sees her in a more intimate way.
Her character is made to be unsettled and 'lost' in her new environment, the shots she is seen in force the viewer to see her in this way. This links in with fetishism as people can 'watch' her in her vulnerable state (almost naked) without her knowing.
this is a really good review eliciting my imagination to pave way for a lesson in film making subjective strategies , and the realisation within the genetic restraints of my being male.
ReplyDeleteLOST IN TRANSLATION.
ReplyDelete(a film by Sophia Coppola)
Comment to Marcus Bond’s review.
This review is very good at defining an aspect of cinema that is still prevalent today.
The obvious male gaze here seems inherent in some of the characters in the film. Bob, the main male role however is not used for a typically overt depiction of voyeuristic or fetishtic tendencies; .in fact only suggested at .
This leads me to question whether the director Sophia Coppola is deliberately making the viewer aware of the traditional depiction through the ‘male gaze’ and only lets it occur when she has a reason for it…..or…she is being one of the boys in her approach to film making as a lap cat of patriarchy.
As with her other efforts (The Virgin Suicides)..the Lisbon sisters portrayed through the male gaze of the neighbours…...(Marie Antoinette)..not giving full reign to the muliebrity of the female characters……and ..(Somewhere)..using the L.A. hotel notorious for the transient nature of its guests…is she just playing safe and not fully capitalising on the insight only a woman can truly give, about how a woman is portrayed and is viewed in a totally different way .
Conversely, this could also be testament to how well entrenched the male gaze is ,not just in the cinema, but in our very own psyche and we all find it hard to break out.
Ashley ..where are your reviews posted ? so we can comment on them.....thanks mate ..timo
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