Wider Film Theories

Task 1.
Wider Film Theories
Megan McClean
Wider Film Theories

By Megan Mc Clean
For this assignment I am going to give you a brief history and introduction into
the movement and waves of feminism that caused great changes to how women
fought for their artistic rights. I also plan to give examples of how the film
industry has changed to let women through but even in the present day women
are pushed to the side-line. I will then give brief descriptions of a couple of other
film theories that can be related back to the feminist film theory.
Feminism is a collaboration of movements and ideologies aimed at defining
equal rights for women [fn.1]. There are three waves of feminism throughout
history. The first wave of feminism was formed in the late 1800s, also known as
the Suffragette movement. In the beginning of feminism these women stood up
for womens vote, as they wanted to be equal with men and have the same
rights to voting [fn.2].
The second wave of feminism came in the 1960s. In this movement women
wanted equality through their, sexuality, family, workplace, reproductive rights,
de facto inequalities and office legal inequalities [fn.3]. This second wave of
feminism moved right through the 80s into the early 90s.
Task 1.1
Wider Film Theories
Megan McClean
The third wave of feminism was born in the early 90s through to today. This wave
involves ideologies focusing on equality for gay and non-white women [fn.4].
Women in this wave want to abolish the typical stereotypes for women but also,
gender role expectations and the queer theory [fn.5].
Task 1.1
Wider Film Theories
Megan McClean
Feminism film theory was seen to have begun in the second wave of feminism in
the 1960s. This was after the radical movement crashed in 1968 women began
to look in more detail of the female history [fn.6]. In the beginning of the
movement women began to move away from the idea that capitalism is the
reason for women not being equal with men. This is when the male gaze was
born.
The Male Gaze occurs when we as an audience are being put in the perspective
of the heterosexual man [fn.7] gazing at the women on screen as we stare at
their curves- as camera movement, lighting and slow motion are used to
emphasise this. In Mulveys theory she talks of how women are placed on screen
for the visual pleasure of men [fn.8] - putting women in the position of being sex
symbols or objects instead of human beings. We as women then can only see
ourselves as visual pleasure for men, putting us in position of having to focus on
what the heterosexual man wants us to look like.
Task 1.1
Wider Film Theories
Megan McClean
In mainstream films women were seen as the passive characters and the men
were active characters. This is when the women were used as inspiration to the
man in the film and caused the man to act on this, moving the storyline forward.
Women were seen to almost only exist because of the male [fn.9] this can be
found in such films as 007. The dominance of male gaze at the time comes from
the Hegemonic ideologies that exist in our society [fn.10]- this was an era
where white heterosexual men were in power and set to oppress the underdogs
such as women, gay people and black people.
Throughout
history women
have been battling
for
equality to men. The
first female director was a
woman named Alice
Guy-Blach (1873-1968).
She was a well-known
French director that never came to great light as Hollywood had never credited
her and this was a time that women didnt even have equal vote. Even in the
present day some women are still being oppressed by male domination and
religious power.
Saudi Arabia is country known for its women to be covered head to toe and
stand in the shadows of the men as they have higher power. Haifaa al-Mansour
grew up in this society of oppression for women and completely understands how
the lives of women dont mean a lot compared to the men.
Task 1.1
Wider Film Theories
Megan McClean
In 2012 Haifaa al-Mansour made an uplifting film about a young rebellious girl in
Saudi Arabia who enters and Koran reading competition to get the money to buy
herself a bike.
The director of this film has a subtle but powerful way to express how women in
Saudi Arabia are oppressed and they may not even realise it themselves. Haifaa
al Mansour talks in an interview of how she tries to tell an intimate story and
change peoples perspective on film when they see a human person, it puts a
face on a culture rather than expose it [fn.11]. This is a perfect film that comes
into contact with women of different ages from Wadjda herself to her mother- as
her mother is too distracted by trying to make her husband happy by getting him
a second wife; where is the mothers happiness?
Task 1.1
Wider Film Theories
Megan McClean
What I find so
special about
this
film is that the director does not try to sexualise women or give them false hope
of how they should look. She presents them in a realistic manner, so that the
point that she is trying to get across becomes more real for the women and also
men watching. Unlike the 1950s women- like in this film- have got more realistic
styles and ways of life; even though Haifaa al Mansour talks of how she tries to
be respectful of the culture [fn.12] she still makes a powerful point of putting
women in power and changing the direction of womens rights in Saudi Arabia.
Overall Feminism in film has powered a movement throughout the past 60 years
and shall continue. Women have come from being a mans sexualised imagery
on screen; to becoming their own empowerment and moving the great voice of
women forward. Even though we still have so far to go for women to become
seen as an equal sex to men, we as women are slowly changing the perception
that women are second to men.
Psychoanalytical Film Theory

Psychoanalytical film theory sets out to analyse the perspective of psychopaths
[fn13]. This theory starts off in the unconsciousness of a persons mind as we
repress various desires, fears, memories and fantasies[fn.14]- this is where film
comes in as we take our fantasies and live them out through watching what is
happening to the characters on screen. This theory discusses the talking cure
which is about bringing the unconsciousness to the surface [fn.15]. Film through
this theory can also be seen as analogues to dreams and manifestations of the
unconsciousness of the filmmaker and spectator [fn.16].
Sigmund Freud had a theory that there are three levels to the ego of the mind,
which are:
ID- this part of the consciousness drives for acts of pleasure
Task 1.1
Wider Film Theories
Megan McClean
Superego- this part of the mind strives to act in a society appropriate manner
[fn.17], but also controls right, wrong and guilt.
Ego- the ego separates what is real and seeks to please the ID in realistic ways
[fn.18]. The ego is also a defence mechanism.
Famous psychologist, Jacques Lacan created a film theory that helps describe in
detail the psychoanalytical side of film and the mind; known as the 3 registers of
human reality.
The imaginary register starts off with the mirror phase (mimicry)- the child
identifies with an image outside of themselves, this can be a mirror reflection of
themselves or even an image [fn.19]. In this theory it is seen that the ego is
created by alienating identification [fn.20], with lack of completion in the body
and nervous system. The symbolic side of the register discusses 3 things; first of
all the demand for love, secondly desire, which becomes distorted at the level of
need and thirdly the wish, which is what the mind wants consciously. The real
register represents what is excluded from reality [fn.21]. This register can be
used to connect how the audience become involved with characters on screen
and how they can be moved away from their own reality for a moment in time.
Slavoj Zizek a well-known psychologist examines the idea of fantasy and
symptom in psychoanalytical film theory. Symptom is a mechanism of gender
imbalance. This can be seen in classic Hollywood as the women are seen as
objects traded by men, possessed by the look [fn.22]. This is where feminist film
theory comes into play as women are consciously and sub consciously sexualised
on screen to become a man or womans fantasy- taking them away from reality
of their own relationships for a moment in time.
Zizek also talks of what would usually drive a character to do what they do when
they are confronted. The first idea is the regime of the brothers- this idea comes
from the death of death of totemic father social power reconstitutes around
Task 1.1
Wider Film Theories
Megan McClean
regime of the brother [fn.23], which then leads to mutual crime, violence and
sustained by rituals of humiliation. These characters are known as desire
creatures that go on regardless becoming unstoppable. With this type of
character on screen we understand how the audience can become engulfed by
their own superego and ID as they unconsciously become the character for the
time that the film is being shown.
Over all psychoanalytical film theory helps the audience to get inside the minds
of the characters or film makers, so that we can truly understand why they have
shaped the film in such a way that makes the storyline stronger. Feminist film
theory and psychoanalytical theory blend well together to let women and men
see how women are being sexualised on screen. 50 year ago people did not
conform to the idea that film is an art form that will get inside your mind and
could change you sub consciously without you knowing. These two theories are
perfect examples of how film has got a lot more layers than first seen.
Marxist film Theory

Marxism is political and economic philosophy [fn.24] created by Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels in which the concept of class struggle plays a central role in
understanding society's allegedly inevitable development from bourgeois
oppression under capitalism to a socialist and ultimately classless society
[fn.25].
Marxist film theory is known as one of the oldest film theories that there is
created from the ideologies of Marxism. Karl Marx and his followers were wary of
how cinema supports dominant ideology [fn.26]. From this idea, Karl Marx set
out to create ideologies of film, which consisted of:
Individual matters and can make a difference in the world [fn.27]

A person can improve themselves
Good will triumph
Effort will be rewarded
Financial and marital stability is the best reward [fn.28]
Criminal will return to the scene of the crime
Evil will be exposed
Corruption exists in isolated cases [fn.29]
Dont have sex, do drugs, drink or meddle with things you dont
understand
Task 1.1
Wider Film Theories
A film that can

The Hunger
film that
Marxist
pushing
up
to
Megan McClean
be related to Marxism film theory is

Games. The Hunger Games is
can be seen as representing the
theories with its forward ideas of
a power to the ground as people stand
for their freedom, for all classes of society
be equals and treated like equals.
Marxism is an idea that doesnt believe in

classes
of society, that there is a higher power of
money
and a lower. The ideologies of the Marxism ides, set out as it seems
to make an equal society an that through film these ideas can be told and shown
to the public and make them change their views.
Formalist film theory

Formalist film theory focuses on the formal, or technical elements [fn.30] to
film, such as lighting, camera, set design, color, shot composition and editing.
This type of theory helps people studying film separate the different types of
styles and movements in film. This film theory stands by the idea that film is
indeed art and not reproduction of reality [fn.31]. Filmmakers in this theory are
seen as artists that shape and mold images we see on screen the way a
sculpture molds clay [fn.32].
Because formalism sees film as an art form it has multiple views under its skin,
such as neo-realism, anti-realism, realism and Avant-garde. Formalist film theory
focuses on ideologies on how socio-economic pressures create particular style
[fn.33]. The ideologies in this theory bring together themes, emotions and art to
create films that move the audience through a story or the beauty of the film.
Two examples related to formalism:
Classical Hollywood cinema

Film noir [fn.34]
Filmmakers wanted to create a new way of experiencing a film in such a pleasant

way that audience would sit back and be taken into a new world for a moment in
time- involving he audience into the film.
Task 1.1
Wider Film Theories
Megan McClean
A film that can be seen as formalist is the

shoot-out that ends Sergio Leone's Spaghetti
Western "Dollars" trilogy- this film is a good
example of how the editor has quickly cut
the scene from a wide shot to a close up of
the gun; making the audience have an
experience of a jump film that keeps them on
the edge of their seats.
Overall each film theory was created with the great intention of making film
theory better and for us the audience to understand the artistic endeavour of the
director. Each film theory in many ways are linked together to make the
understanding of what is happening on screen better.
Task 1.1
Wider Film Theories
Megan McClean
Bibliography
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-wave_feminism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-wave_feminism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-wave_feminism
http://www.slideshare.net/nepaliain/feminist-film-theory
http://www.slideshare.net/christimothy12/laura-mulvey-the-male-gaze26381318?qid=afdc0cb7-f338-47d6-b14d43146c774651&v=qf1&b=&from_search=1
8. http://www.slideshare.net/christimothy12/laura-mulvey-the-male-gaze26381318?qid=afdc0cb7-f338-47d6-b14d43146c774651&v=qf1&b=&from_search=1
9. http://www.slideshare.net/christimothy12/laura-mulvey-the-male-gaze26381318?qid=afdc0cb7-f338-47d6-b14d43146c774651&v=qf1&b=&from_search=1
10.http://www.slideshare.net/christimothy12/laura-mulvey-the-male-gaze26381318?qid=afdc0cb7-f338-47d6-b14d43146c774651&v=qf1&b=&from_search=1
11.http://www.theguardian.com/film/video/2013/jul/16/wadjda-saudi-arabiafemale-director-video
12.http://www.theguardian.com/film/video/2013/jul/16/wadjda-saudi-arabiafemale-director-video
13.http://www.slideshare.net/rolandagona/psychoanalysis-of-movies
Task 1.1
Wider Film Theories
Megan McClean
21.http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Marxism
22.http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Marxism
23.http://www.slideshare.net/pturner1010/marxist-film-theory
27.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formalist_film_theory
28.http://www.slideshare.net/danwargo/formalist-film-theory-presentation
33.http://www.slideshare.net/staceyhall/auteur-theory-5416329?
next_slideshow=1
34.http://www.slideshare.net/dmax06/auteur-theory-5591722?related=1
35.http://www.slideshare.net/staceyhall/auteur-theory-5416329?
next_slideshow=1

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Task 1.