Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

Though the idea of looking at Narrative Cinema through psychoanalysis seems a bit peculiar, it is actually a very interesting and logical way to try to break down cinematic expressions-- whether that be a big budget movie such as Spider-Man (the first one is personally my favorite) or a low budget documentary like Sicko.

Looking at our media consumption patterns or the way in which we identify with media can be related to our psyches. Since our psyches have been in the works since we were born there are things in them, as well as events which make them up, which are unknown to us. For example seeing advertisements for McDonald's on television commercials during Barney-- the purple dinosaur-- may give reason to why we enjoy McDonald's today.

In the introduction of the article I was reminded of the term penis envy. Mulvey makes a strong case saying that men, in media, are portrayed as the dominant sex, and women are left behind to raise the children. In raising the children, Mulvey says that women do so in the significance of her desire. One can take this to mean that some women raise their children in spite or that some women raise their children to believe that they can do anything-- since they were, themselves, unable to do so--. Either way, there is some form of bias.

Then there is scopophilia (which does not seem to be a real word to dictionary dot com). Scopophilia is one, if not the, main points in the article. Though the initial definition is suffice the one mentioned in the Summary of the article is better: pleasure in looking at another person as an erotic object.

The points brought about by Mulvey of the enjoyment of looking and being looked at are two vital points when speaking of films-- that is because one of the reasons why people enjoy going to the movies so much, and why romantic comedies are one of the most popular genres of film, is because people want to watch something with which they can identify with, a movie in which they can relate to in one or more ways. And as Mulvey mentions, the way in which a movie theater is set up is so that people can see the movie perfectly, but not one another-- the darkness allows people to be alone together.

Also, to expand and question one of the initial statements of psychoanalysis, the act of psychoanalyzing can aid in Hall's four-stage theory of communication (production, circulation, use and reproduction). Our mind's work in certain ways, not to say in a four-stage process, but our minds do employ some sort procedure (the intake of information, the processing of the information, and the remembering of said information).