Audiences and Audience Theory

We will now go on to consider:
-Suture
-Feminist Film Theory and Audience

Suture

Classical Hollywood narrative and editing "sutures" or positions the audience in certain ways making only one "preferred" reading possible, however unconscious the audience is of that position.
(This links with the reception theory- Dominant)

We looked at the film "Crash" to illustrate this theory. In particular a scene which would definately have an emotional impact and draw us all in on this.

Embedding has been disabled so find the clip on here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6PQgJ-Qcg8


Feminist Film Theory and Audiences

-Created by Laura Mulvey
-Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975)

Her argument:

-Cinema reflects society
-Therefore cinema reflects a patriarchal society (society ruled by and in the interest of men)
-How does a patriarchal society manifest itself in cinema?

An example:

-Patriarchy and Phallocentrism are linked.
-The phallus is the symbol of power.
-Note how guns are used in films
-Guns = Phallus = Power












The Gaze
-The "gaze" of the camera is the male "gaze"
-The male gaze is active, the female passive
-Within the narrative, male characters direct their gaze towards female characters.

-The spectator is made to identify with the male look because the camera films from the optical, as well as libidinal, point of view of the male character.
-This three levels of the cinematic gaze- Camera, Character and the Spectator- that objectify the female character (the triple gaze).

-Therefore the audience is constructed as though everyone was male.
-Women are forced to look as though they were a male audience member.

Example: James Bond


Agency
-In the classical Hollywood cinema, the male protagonist has agency- he is active and powerful.
-He is the agent around whom the dramatic action unfolds.
-The female character is passive and powerless- she is the object of desire for protagonist and audience.

Erotic Desire
-Mulvey argue that women have two roles in a film;
1) As an object of erotic desire for the characters.
2) As an object of erotic desire for the audience.