Feminist Film Theorist Laura Mulvey and Classicism

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Feminist film theorist, Laura Mulvey, refuses to use classicism. She structures her film, Riddles of the Sphinx, through modernism. Mulvey believes that classicism is built for the male’s pleasure. This attraction can be explained through the term scopophilia, the pleasure of looking. Society has limits, but films can explore these desires according to Mulvey. She also expresses the desire of narcissism, being in love with yourself. Narcissistic visual pleasure can be derived from self-identification, someone’s ideal self ego. Mulvey integrates the structures of scopophilia and narcissism into the story as well as the image of her film, Riddles of The Sphinx.
Laura Mulvey used psychoanalysis to understand the fascination of Hollywood cinema. The two desires in us, scopophilia and narcissism, are suited in cinema, but both desires aren’t from the same person. Mulvey states that if scopophilia is only on film, it will trigger the fear of loss and powerlessness. Mulvey has evaluated scopophilia in classical cinema. The structure of traditional cinema establishes the male character as active and powerful. The female character is passive and powerless.
Classical film narratives can present the constructed images of a woman as natural, realistic and attractive. This is the illusionism of classic cinema. Mulvey solves the ways in which narrative and visual techniques in cinema make scopophilia into an exclusively male privilege. Within the narrative of the film, male characters direct their gaze towards female characters. The audience is made to identify with the male actor in the film. The targeting audience for this type of film are heterosexual males.
Mulvey focuses on visual pleasure in the cinema with the concept of the mirro...

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...uise’s different voices such as her friends and fellow workers, brings an uncertainty of meanings to the film in contrast to the descriptive control associated with the traditional voice-over. The slow and constant rotation of the camera is followed by a mangled voice-over which sometimes expresses Louise's thoughts. It also presents other voices, such as her new friend Maxine.
Mulvey’s psychoanalysis of cinema and feminism was interpreted through various scenes in Riddles of the Sphinx. She attempted to use these different types of modernism filming techniques to communicate her messages to the audience. Mulvey wasn’t worried about selling tickets for her film “Riddles of the Sphinx.” She wasn’t trying to please everyone when making her movie. Mulvey only cared about including what she wanted to communicate in her film and getting her point across to the audience.

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