Stars

According to Richard Dyer, the appeal of stars cannot be explored by the charisma of one individual but is produced by the meanings that the star signifies.

The semiotic approach to analysing stars allows us to examine the differences between them through analysing the signs in their star image. It shows that the appeal of stars comes from how they relate to issues like class, gender or race.

Audience responses are presented as being a product of certain ideological processes, as opposed to individual tastes. He argues that the appeal of stars lies in the way their image can resolve ideological contradictions for the audience. “Star's image was a construct, not a pure expression of their 'real' personality.” (McDonald, 1995, p.81)

Intertexuality looks at the overall meaning of the star within the context of a broader network. The historical meaning of Marilyn Monroe's image in relation to issues of sexuality and ethnicity are examined. Her star image served to redefine female sexuality, encouraging women to attain the quality of desirability. “Monroes blondeness and vulnerability offered a construction of female sexuality which is unthreatening and willing.” (McDonald, 1995, p.85)

Star images sought to create a sense of individual identity by juxtaposing the public image of their on-screen appearances (performer) with the private image of their off-screen life (the real person.) “The marketing of stars is one of the ways in which the industry attempts to ensure the stability of box-office returns.” (McDonald, 1995, p. 80)

Dyer discusses how the manufactured appearance is thought to be more real than the actual appearance. In this culture, manufacture is thought as more real than appearance. Stars are, obviously, a case of appearance, as all we know about them is what we see and hear. A big part of our view of stars is the wide media construction of them.

Star image is not just their films, “but the promotion of those films and of the star through pin-ups, public appearances, studio hand-outs and so on.” (Dyer, 1986, p. 3) Stars images have histories that long outlive the star's career (Monroe has continued to be a sex symbol 50 years after her death.)

The audiences ideas of a star (from fan magazines and clubs, box office receipts and audience research) can have an effect on the producers of the stars image. The presence of a star promises a certain quality you'll see if you go to the film.

Stars have tended to be a more important category than directors, both to the industry and to the audience. The first two focus on the star as text while the others look at how the audiences relate to stars.

Psychoanalysis may offer us an explanation as to why we like stars but fails to account for why certain social groups like and dislike particular stars.

The spectator gets pleasure from stars presented as an object for the spectator to view voyeuristically. This pleasure comes from a position of control over the star as “The stars image exists for the spectators pleasure and cannot respond to the spectator who surveys it.” (McDonald, 1995, p.87)

Today, we looked at a number of interesting questions such as: Which stars are paid the most and why? This allowed for some interesting discussion on the subject and we decided that actors who get paid the most have usually recently starred in a high-grossing movie, has recently won an award (Academy Award or Golden Globe) or because they are part of a large franchise (Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean)

The main task of Star studies has been to explain the appeal of stars, which can be done through four main approaches: Semiotics, intertexuality, psychoanalysis and audience studies.

Tom Cruise, once a teen heart throb, is now usually known as a little guy with crazy religious beliefs. The death of any actors career is usually when his personal life becomes more famous than his work. He found stardom in the ’80s, with box office smash “Top Gun.” He married Mimi Rogers, who introduced him to Scientology.

The marriage ended in divorce and he went on to make huge blockbusters: “Days of Thunder,” “Interview with the Vampire,” “Mission Impossible” and “Jerry Maguire.” He became an international superstar, but things soon declined. Cruise’s second marriage ended in divorce and there were questions about the role Scientology played in it.

Two events made his career decline. Firstly, his infamous appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Cruise hopped onto a couch, fell to one knee and repeatedly proclaimed his love for Katie Holmes. The moment was uploaded to YouTube and ridiculed. It was enough to tarnish his reputation.

The second was when he verbally attacked Matt Lauer on “The Today Show,” claiming he knew the history of psychiatry better than Lauer and questioning him about prescription drugs.

Cruise fired his long-time publicist Pat Kingsley, who had effectively controlled access to him keeping tabloid rumours at bay. Next, Cruise's production deal with Paramount wasn't renewed. “He was embarrassing the studio. And he was costing us a lot of money...Women everywhere, had come to hate him.” (Bonawitz, 2009)

Cruise's Q score (a measure of the popularity of celebrities) at this time had fallen 40 percent. Also, it was revealed that Cruise is the celebrity people would least like as their best friend. This is a far cry from his multiple “Most Beautiful People in the World” and “Most Popular Celebrity” nominations. 

Reference List

McDonald, P., 1995. Star Studies in Joanne Hollows and Mark Jancovich, eds., Approaches to Popular Film. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Dyer, R., 1986. Heavenly Bodies: Film Stars and Society. London: Macmillan.

Bonawitz, A., 2009. Tom Cruise turned off all women. Available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-207_162-2139116.html. Accessed on 22/11/2012.

The Male Gaze

"The Male Gaze" deals with how an audience views the people presented. The concept of the gaze was introduced by Laura Mulvey and was an important turn in film studies.

Gaze types are typically categorised by who is doing the looking. There are three key areas, look of camera at action, look of audience/look of spectators at the screen and look of actors at each other.

Mulvey's essay ("Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema") proved highly interesting and informative in relation to "The Male Gaze." She discusses how the subconscious of our patriarchal society has shaped our film watching experience. "Unchallenged, mainstream film coded the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order." (Mulvey, 1975, p.8)

She argues that the plot of Hollywood films manipulates women in order to provide a pleasurable experience for men. Films create identification with the male character by structuring their gaze as masculine, with women typically the object of the gaze.

Mulvey distinguishes two manners in which cinema produces pleasure, both representing the psychological desire of the male subject. The first relates to scopophilia, pleasure derived from subjecting someone to one's gaze whilst the second involves identification with the character.

Women are given two basic character types: sexually active or powerless female.  Important female characters were more likely to show fear and were still objectified sexually. "Women in any fully human form have almost completely been left out of film." (Smith, 1972, p.13)

However, I feel Mulvey does not take into account female protagonists, although admittedly they were less prevalent then than they are now. Movies with a female protagonist are now commonplace (Alien, Terminator.) (pictured)

The female figure combines attraction with deep fears of castration "Woman symbolises the castration threat by a real absence of a penis." (Mulvey, 1975, p.6) The male subconscious deals with this fear by dismantling the female mysteries (punishing or saving her) or through fetishisation of her (as the unobtainable star.) Films resolve the tension by providing the masculine term of desire.

As it is a hetero-patriarchal society, the male body cannot explicitly be the object of another male look, it must be repressed. Today, men’s bodies are regularly portrayed as objects of the gaze, particularly in advertising.

In Mary Ann Doane’s book (Film and Masquerade) Masquerade is described as a type of representation, unravelling male systems of viewing, effectively manufacturing a distance from the image to make it decipherable to women. She refers to it as "realignment of femininity", the simulation of the missing gap or distance. "To masquerade is to manufacture a lack in the form of a certain distance between oneself and one's image." (Doane, 1982, p.82)

Female spectatorship theories are rare and usually confront problems in conceptualisation. What is there to stop the female from reversing the gaze for her own pleasure? The woman becomes a man in order to attain the necessary distance from the image whilst men have a much harder time doing this.

 I find it interesting that, whilst most men look at women, women in turn watch themselves being looked at.  I've always viewed looking, as well as being looked at, as a source of pleasure. We have a conscious awareness of what we look like and this consequently influences our behaviour.

I have often wondered why women are objectified in movies, which I've now realised is due to the assumption that heterosexual males are the default target audience. From personal viewing experience, I know that this still applies today.

Cinema can be viewed as a liberating experience, providing the spectator freedom from the surveillance of others whilst focusing on the movie.  The darkness isolates spectators and serves as a great contrast to the bright screen, promoting 'voyeuristic separation.'

One movie we examined was "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" which showed great examples of “The Male Gaze” through Jessica Rabbit. She is designed to be the stereotype of a man’s perfect woman. Her features show this clearly with her long hair, perfect body and beautiful appearance. Whilst Jessica speaks, Eddie looks over her like he is yearning to know her sexually showing her as nothing more than a sexual object. She speaks to Eddie over her shoulder, whilst pouting her lips using sexuality as a weapon which she exploits in order to get her way.

This week I studied Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" in relation to the "Male Gaze." The movie is very extraordinary in its examination of the obsession and desire associated with the subject. The look is central to the plot and alternates between voyeurism and fetishistic fascination.

"In Vertigo, erotic involvement with the look is disorientating: the spectators fascination is turned against him as the narrative carries him through and entwines him with the processes that he is himself exercising," (Coates, 1991, p.185)

Scottie's erotic drive leads him into compromised situations, his vertiginous, and hopeless longing is expressed through the desire for the ideal fantasised woman. This particular woman (Madeleine) is both mysterious and troubled.

The movie has a very subjective camera, which dominates the film and shares Scotties uneasy gaze. His voyeurism is blatant, as he falls for a woman who he then spies on, without ever speaking with her.

When Scottie first actually sees Madeleine, there's a long, slow pan as she comes into the restaurant and passes him. As he sits and stares, it seems to represent the fascinated stare of all men throughout history who have watched a beautiful woman. It is very primal and hints at the mystery of females. Hitchcock seems to have knowledge of woman's un-knowability, un-reachability and enormous beauty.

His gaze, desire and indeed his obsession, is for something that cannot be attained because it does not exist. Madeleine isn’t real, she is designed only to seduce and use him.

Reference List

Mulvey, L., 1975. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Screen 16, no. 3: Oxford University Press.

Smith, S., 1972. The Image of Women in Film: Some Suggestions for Future Research in Women & Film, no.1:

Doane, M A., Film and the Masquerade: Theorising the Female Spectator, Screen 23, no. 3-4: Oxford University Press.

Coates, P., 1991. The Gorgons Gaze: German Cinema, Expressionism and the Image of Horror, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Genre

Through studying the topic of Genre, I have acquired a further wealth of knowledge on the subject and its overall stance within modern day cinema. Genre is the general term for any category of literature or other forms of art or entertainment. Genres are formed by conventions that usually change over time as new genres are created replacing the old ones. "They (genres) offer a means by which the industry can seek to repeat and capitalize upon previous box-office successes." (Hutchings, 1995, p.61)

Peter Hutchings "Genre Theory and Criticism" examines the positive achievements of 1970s genre study as well as the influential early work on film genres by key genre theorists. This is a highly interesting chapter of the book and gives a real insight into the early study of the genre theory, which seemed to anticipate developments that were made by theorists in the 70's. "an awareness in all three writers of what might be termed here the 'liveliness' and changeability of genres."(Hutchings, 1995, p.65)

Each of the early key genre theorists were of importance to its development, though each had their own individual outlook. "Andre Bazin, Robert Warshow and Lawrence Alloway. All shared the belief that genres carried an intrinsic meaning or significance, but each adopted a different way of thinking about this." (Hutchings, 1995, p.61)

Bazin, the most well-known of the early theorists, had particular difficulty determining why certain cultures were interested in movies historically significant to other countries: "What can there possibly be to interest Arabs, Hindus, Latins, Germans, or Anglo-Saxons, among whom the western has had an uninterrupted success, about evocations of the birth of the United States of America, the struggle between Buffalo Bill and the Indians, the laying down of the railroad, or the Civil War!" (Hutchings, 1995, p.62)

Bazin knew that the success of these movies was attributed to more than the typical formal qualities of setting, objects and scenarios. The formal attributes of a western are “simply signs or symbols of its profound reality, namely the myth.” (Hutchings, 1995, p.61) Myths can be a universal and timeless story of good vs evil, with good almost always triumphing over evil.

Genre was a very interesting topic to study and one that I have prior knowledge of. We were posed with the opening question: "what constitutes a film genre?" There are (usually) certain similarities between movies that help to define which genre they belong to.

Genre films are able to attract audiences and become financially successful because they temporarily relieve the fears aroused by recognition of social and political conflict.

One question that was raised was: "is animation a genre?" I have always felt very passionate about this and feel animation is better described as a medium or an art-form.

We examined several movie clips during todays session. In "The Searchers" we discussed the main character as being an outsider, who comes along to save the day. He carries the girl into her house, like a child, in classic hero fashion. In "Annie Hall" we watched as two characters broke the fourth wall and directly addressed the audience. This is uncommon in movies, particularly in 1977, the year it was released. In "Singing in the Rain, a character starts to sing in the rain, very happy despite the unpleasant circumstances. As an audience we apply a suspension of disbelief towards this behavior which is accepted because we have different expectations for a musical than a film.

I also learned about iconography, where icons are second-order symbols and their symbolic meaning is not necessarily a connection established within the individual text. It is already symbolic because of its use in previous movies.

This week I watched Scream and Halloween. These movies are Horror - Slasher films with many similarities. Halloween is considered to be the first "true" slasher movie, whilst Scream arrived at a time when the slasher concept was becoming tired and completely rejuvenated it.

Scream essentially parodies all the cliché moments of horror movies, like Halloween, and so it was interesting to watch and compare them. Craven uses sound, camera shots, and mise en scène in a clever way to scare the viewer and keep them guessing as to who the murderer is. Halloween, very similarly uses music to instill fear, using the "Michael theme" to give indication that something bad is going to happen.

A number of occurences in the movies were already long established in the horror genre such as a long silence followed by a loud startling noise. This is an example of the use of iconography, as it is already symbolic because of its use in previous movies. Additionally, most of the horror scenes take place at night, tapping into our natural fear and helplessness in the dark.

Scream takes long established horror conventions established in previous movies and plays with them. In one scene, the character backs away from the camera, usually she would back right into the killer but in this case she doesn't. Craven messes with the audiences subconscious, misleading them into thinking something is about to happen.

Scream comes to an effective conclusion, the killers are killed and the survivors taken to hospital. However, Halloween leaves the story wide open when Michael Myers seemingly dead body vanishes. Generally genre films are well tied up at the end and Horror is one of the only exceptions to the rule.

Reference list
Hutchings, P., 1995. Genre Theory and Criticism in Joanne Hollows and Mark Jancovich, eds., Approaches to Popular Film. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

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Editing

I have learnt a great deal about editing and its general function and overall usefulness within the world of cinema. Film editing is a pretty important part of the creative process of film-making. "The editing process can be divided into three stages, the selection of takes and their length; the arrangement and timing of shots, scenes and sequences and their combination with the soundtrack." (Orpen, 2003, p.1)

Valerie Orpen's "Film Editing: The Art of the Expressive" is a highly interesting read on the subject. It presents the idea, originating from Soviet filmmakers like Sergei Eisenstein, that editing is the creative force of film and the foundation of film art. The process of editing links back to auteurism as mentioned by Orpen "the director is expected to exert some influence over the editing stage even if s/he does not physically take part in it." (Orpen, 2003, p.2)

Editing can be thought of as collective or expressive. Collective can be the predominant way of editing, or may just appear to be, whilst being subtly expressive. Editing can be expressive, though it is quite hard to explain both why and how.

I was interested to learn that films shot on 35 mm film that are over ten minutes HAVE to contain cuts since a roll of film can only last ten minutes. I was also intrigued by the idea of a cut "saving" a movie or limited choice forcing the editor to use a scene. Viewers have limited knowledge as they don't know what material was discarded. It would seem that editing is a hard topic to study without spending more time looking at the actual shots instead of the cuts.

An interesting point made in "Film Art: An Introduction" is that editing is only effective when it is memorable. We can remember lines, but not a decent cut or a fade. Generally we only remember the overall editing style of a movie.

Editing was much easier to follow than auteurism, particularly as it is more relatable to film. I am highly familiar with editing and know the different shot types as well as the 180-degree rule (an imaginary line called the axis connecting the characters with the camera being kept on one side of this axis for every shot.)

Bridges (dissolves, wipes and fades) were discussed this week, which are basically transitions between scenes, normally placed in scenes where there's a change of location or to signify the passing of time. Cross-cutting, a technique most often used in films to establish action occurring at the same time in different locations, was also discussed. In a cross-cut, the camera cuts away from one action to another, suggesting the simultaneity of both actions.

"Cross cutting is the kind of narrative cinema with which we are most familiar tends to occur between characters or locations whose relationship is already clear (or will shortly be so). By indicating simultaneity, cross cutting also functions to stabilize rather than problematize a film's representation of time.". - (Dix, 2008, p.54)

The "Kuleshov Effect" in filming suggests that each shot is a chunk of information, almost like a building block. When each of these are placed together, they form a specific film layout. Each of these blocks has an effect on blocks around it, if one single block is moved or changed it could affect the entire film as a whole.

I learnt about contemporary uses of editing, continuity editing, formalism, realism and their relationships with editing. Continuity editing is a type of editing not intended to be noticed, it should appear 'invisible' and 'seamless.' This can be done by obeying the 180-degree rule which helps to avoid disorientation. The purpose of continuity editing is to tell a story cohertly, in a way that is not distracting to the audience. Editing generally follows a rigid set of rules and Hollywood's editing codes remained consistent over the years, unaffected by changes in technology.

This week I chose to look at the opening five minutes of "The Godfather" as part of the audio visual analysis task. The movie opens with a close-up of a man. Asides from the speech between the characters, the office is dead quiet. He describes a series of events to an off-screen character as the camera slowly zooms out in one continuous shot. He stands, walks off-screen and reappears in the foreground, the shot changes, 3 minutes 29 seconds into the movie. The next shot is a mid-shot, allowing us to see the other character's face. There is eye matching as we see Corleone's eyes move across the screen whilst the man is returning to his first position.

A wide-shot reveals two other characters in the room, we hear only soft meowing from a cat that the Don is holding. Another mid-shot of Corleone, as the first character blocks half of the frame. The shot changes to behind Corleone, and were it not for the dialogue, which shows the Dons power, you would assume that the other man is in more power, seeming larger and powerful in the shot. I found this interesting and wondered if it was to show how at ease the Don is. The scene ends with a cut to a loud bustling party happening a few feet away outside, showing stark contrast similar to the kind in Eisensteins tonal montage theory.

Reference list

Orpen, V., 2003. Film Editing: The Art of the Expressive. London: Wallflower

Dix, A., 2008. Beginning of Film Studies. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

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Auteurism

In my study of the "auteur theory" I have learnt much more about the nature of auteurism within film criticism. The auteur theory suggests that a director's film reflects his/her personal creative vision, as if they were the primary author or "auteur." "Culture is tyrannically centerd on the author, his person, his life, his tastes, his passions." (Barthes, 1977, p.143)

My mind has been opened significantly by what I have read and has made me consider, among other things, the identity loss of an author and/or their character(s). When a character speaks his mind, how can we know with any great certainty that this is what the character thinks personally and is not simply the reflections and beliefs of the author.

Michel Foucault discusses our own personal view of authors and how we perceive them as being outside the realms of history and presents the notion that they are each simply a product of their times. He mentions the process of searching for a piece of work by author name as opposed to the subject matter or the year published. I believe this to be the way in which a majority of individuals search for a title, and it certainly feels more natural to me personally to search by author. "a (authors) name permits one to group together a number of texts, define them, differentiate them from and contrast them to others." (Foucault, 1984, p.105)

I agree particularly with Foultcault's view on the use of an authors name and how certain changes can affect how their name functions. "If we proved that Shakespeare did not write those sonnets which pass for his that would constitute a significant change and affect the manner in which the authors name functions." (Foucault, 1984, p.105) If we discovered someone else wrote a famous piece, the work would remain the unchanged, although the way in which we perceive the supposed author is likely to change.

"Author function" is basically what makes us more interested in the author of a book or poem than a commercial. I found that author function translates beautifully to cinema, and kept this in mind. It made me consider the different factors that make a “Tarantino” movie identifiable as his, and how I would be able to tell, without prior knowledge, that it was his movie. This is a consideration I will return to in greater detail later.

At first I found the auteurism topic quite overwhelming as I didn't have a great deal of experience in film theory and had never even heard of an "auteur." I gradually eased into the subject as the day progressed and soon found myself totally engrossed in it. I found out that authorship was "primarily a critical device for recording the history of American cinema, the only cinema in the world worth exploring in depth beneath the frosting of a few great directors at the top." (Wantenberg & Curran, 2005, p.103)

We watched clips from a number of David Lynch movies (Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire) then discussed the similarities between each movie and what made them identifiable as Lynch movies. We found that his movies could portray quite a degree of both creepiness and confusion by focusing on images that can make the audience feel quite uncomfortable or sick.

We discussed whether or not we follow the careers of particular directors and their past work. I would say I most definitely do, and the reason I choose to is that I have thoroughly enjoyed their past successes and naturally would like to experience similar enjoyment with a new set of characters. I would happily go to a cinema in order to watch a movie directed by Steven Spielberg because of his past successes though I would definitely have high expectations based on those previous efforts.

I watched two movies directed by someone I consider to be an auteur (Quentin Tarantino) and looked for qualities that highlight these movies as his. The two movies were “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction.”

I noticed that the dialogue in both movies is extremely trivial (large discussions dedicated to fast food or on tipping etiquette.) I noticed that the conversations did really well to develop strong personalities for each character, showing their flaws and making them real people for the audience. It seems fairly evident that Tarantino is more interested in dialogue than actual plot, which in retrospect is fairly thin. I realised that there isn't much to the storyline, but instead a cast of really interesting characters helped to strengthen each movie. This shows an emphasis on style over substance, which describes Tarantino’s work well, and shows that he is a more post-modern director than, for example, Hitchcock.

What stands out most about these movies is the order in which they are both shown. This is more apparent in Pulp Fiction where the story(s) is shown completely out of sequence, the end is at the start and the middle is switched around. In Reservoir Dogs the biggest event, the robbery, is not actually shown but instead we are told what happened through character dialogue and the chase through flashbacks. Most of the story is set in a warehouse where dialogue is of critical importance.

My belief that Tarantino is an auteur has strengthened after re-watching these movies and discovering their similarities. I was interested to find articles during my research that were against calling him an auteur in comparison to legendary directors such as Hitchcock and Welles.

Reference list

Barthes, R., 1977. The Death of the Author in Barthes' Image, Music, Text. Glasgow: Fontana.

Foucault. M., 1984. What is an Author? in Paul Rabinow (ed.) The Foucault Reader. New York: Pantheon Books.

Wantenberg, T., & Curran, A., 2005. The Philosophy of Film: Introducing Text and Readings. London: Blackwell.

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