Tried SO hard to understand what this was about, but I'm afraid no amount of Yahoo answers or Wiki terms can help me. But, I will give it the benefit of the doubt and try to explain it.
Right. So Laura Mulvey is a distinguished professor of Film and Media Studies at Wellesley College, and wrote a rather noteworthy essay in 1973 called 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'. (So far so good.)
Her first theme in this essay was "The Gaze and the Female Specter". She wrote that it is the woman's look which spurs on the actions of the hero of the film. She argues that the passive role of women in cinema provides visual pleasure through voyeurism, and identification with the male actor. She suggests that women are to be looked at in a film, displayed and her appearance is 'coded' for an erotic impact. (This is kind of true, think about the 70's, anybody watched The Spy Who Loved Me?)
She wrote that women are objectified in films, and that there are three 'looks' to a women in the film. The first look is that from the male heroin's perspective. The second is the spectators view, and the third perspective (GET THIS) allows the male audience to take the female character as his own personal sex object because he can relate himself, through looking, to the male character in the film. (WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?)
There is a lot more about her essay, which I had a go at reading, but I found it a little far fetched and to be quite honest, boring and rambling. But I have learnt something from this. I am never watching a film with a lad again if he thinks the heroine is his personal sex slave.
Monday, 20 February 2012
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Bluebeard
The tale of Bluebeard is a French folktale by Charles Perrault published in 1697.
Bluebeard had the unfortunate habit of murdering his wives. Feared by most because of his rather odd ‘blue beard’, he was an aristocrat and married several times. However nobody knew what happened to his wives, so the locals usually steered clear of him.
After visiting a local pair of sisters who were stunningly beautiful, Bluebeard asks for one of their hands in marriage. The girls are terrified by the guy, so try to pass him between them. Eventually, the younger girl pulls the short straw and goes with him to his home, where they have a gluttonous banquet and he uses his charm to persuade her into marriage.
When she goes to live with him in his chateau, he announces he must leave for a while therefore gives her keys to many doors which hide his treasures. However he gives her the key to a small room in the basement of the chateau, saying that under n circumstance must she go in that room. She swears to it, and he leaves.
Of course, curiosity gets the better of her. A visit from her sister, who warns her of the dangers of curiosity, the girl leaves her guests at a house party to have a sneaky look. Shockingly, she finds all of her husband’s ex-wives hung from hooks on the walls. She drops the key on the floor which is carpeted with blood whilst fleeing the room; but the blood stain will not wash away. She tells her sister Anne of what she has done, and they both flee the castle.
When Bluebeard returns he sees the key soaked in blood and knows his wife has broken her vow. He swears to kill her, but she begs for quarter of an hour to pray. She is locked in a tower with her sister Anne, and when Bluebeard comes a’knockin’, with his sword ready to take its fatal blow, the girls’ brother gallivants in and the three kill Bluebeard.
With no heirs to his wealth but his surviving wife, she inherits his fortune in which she makes her brother a captain, she marries off her other sister, and herself marries a fine gentleman in which they forget Blue beard and live happily ever after.
Nice little fairy tale with a happy ending, it' pretty much exactly the same as Angela Carter's story "The Bloody Chamber" which I assume is the link.
Bluebeard had the unfortunate habit of murdering his wives. Feared by most because of his rather odd ‘blue beard’, he was an aristocrat and married several times. However nobody knew what happened to his wives, so the locals usually steered clear of him.
After visiting a local pair of sisters who were stunningly beautiful, Bluebeard asks for one of their hands in marriage. The girls are terrified by the guy, so try to pass him between them. Eventually, the younger girl pulls the short straw and goes with him to his home, where they have a gluttonous banquet and he uses his charm to persuade her into marriage.
When she goes to live with him in his chateau, he announces he must leave for a while therefore gives her keys to many doors which hide his treasures. However he gives her the key to a small room in the basement of the chateau, saying that under n circumstance must she go in that room. She swears to it, and he leaves.
Of course, curiosity gets the better of her. A visit from her sister, who warns her of the dangers of curiosity, the girl leaves her guests at a house party to have a sneaky look. Shockingly, she finds all of her husband’s ex-wives hung from hooks on the walls. She drops the key on the floor which is carpeted with blood whilst fleeing the room; but the blood stain will not wash away. She tells her sister Anne of what she has done, and they both flee the castle.
When Bluebeard returns he sees the key soaked in blood and knows his wife has broken her vow. He swears to kill her, but she begs for quarter of an hour to pray. She is locked in a tower with her sister Anne, and when Bluebeard comes a’knockin’, with his sword ready to take its fatal blow, the girls’ brother gallivants in and the three kill Bluebeard.
With no heirs to his wealth but his surviving wife, she inherits his fortune in which she makes her brother a captain, she marries off her other sister, and herself marries a fine gentleman in which they forget Blue beard and live happily ever after.
Nice little fairy tale with a happy ending, it' pretty much exactly the same as Angela Carter's story "The Bloody Chamber" which I assume is the link.
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