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.