“Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1973)” by British film/media studies professor, Laura Mulvey was a controversial essay which aided in incorporating psychoanalysis and feminism within the context of film theory analysis. Much of Mulvey’s assertions/theories have were greatly influenced by psychoanalytic icons, Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. Cinema/ film industry has become a very conspicuous form of mass entertainment. The extent of cinema’s unequaled popularity, influence, and proliferation has been phenomenal since the inception of the 20th century. The entire infrastructure of people’s culture (gender role and perception, political, economic, artistic, educational institutions, etc.) is interwoven with personal impressions, ideas, emotions, and prejudices. American-Armenian author, William Saroyan once stated “Does art reflect life? In movies, yes. Because more than any other art form, films have been a mirror held up to society’s porous face (Saroyan).”
Mulvey’s essay examines cinema’s phenomenal impact, this mirror into society, and in particular, societal perceptions/norms on gender role. Her overall premise is that via a psychoanalytic lens the “unconscious” patriarchal influence and control over film form comes to light (Mulvey, pg. 57). Man is the dominant/controlling spectator while the woman is only a subordinate and the object of desire.
“The magic of Hollywood style at its best (and of all the cinema which fell within its sphere of influence) arose, not exclusively, but in one important aspect, from its skilled and satisfying manipulation of visual pleasure. Unchallenged, mainstream film coded the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order (p. 58).”
In examining this predisposition Mulvey ultimate objective is to challenge and shift such orientation.
Mulvey argues that the “pleasures” are numerous with scopophilia being among them (p. 59). Scopophilia (male gaze, etc.) – sexual pleasure from looking and/or being looked at – is a theory further developed and purported by Lucan. “There are circumstances in which looking itself is a source of pleasure, just as, in the reverse formation, there is pleasure in being looked at (p. 59).” Mulvey uses a variety of films to support her thesis among them the classic Hitchcock psychological thriller, Vertigo. The immemorial film cadre by iconic British film-maker/producer/director, Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock exudes an indelible influence on the cinema/film industry – past and present. Hitchcock was a leading pioneer in suspense and psychological movies.. With his trademark cameo appearances in his films, Hitchcock’s use of other cinematic devises included suspense, ordinary person/wrong man/wrong woman paradigm, sexuality, audience as voyeur, the charming sociopath, blonde women, and the MacGuffin technique (narrative revolves around a minor detail).
Released in 1958, Vertigo stars James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Tom Helmore. It is a cross mixture of cinematic genres – Detective Mystery Thriller, Romance Melodrama and Horror with deception, obsession via scopophilia, and cruel manipulation of human frailty being the impetus for the horror. Set in San Francisco, Vertigo is a technical masterpiece – stunningly beautiful due the Vista Vision affect and Technicolor. Initially somewhat of a box office disappointment, throughout the years it has become a cult classic. The primary characters are Detective John “Scottie” Ferguson ( Stewart), Madeline Elster/Judy Barton (Novak), Midge (Bel Geddes), and Gavin Elster (Helmore).
Scottie is a retired police officer whose early retirement is sparked by acrophobia, a condition as revealed in the opening scene, which comes to light during a police chase in which he witnesses a fellow police officer fall to his death. His early retirement is interrupted when a former college acquaintance, Elster, hires him to follow his wife, Madeline, and determine the reason for her strange behavior. “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, “states Mulvey “pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly (p. 62).” This dichotomy is immediately introduced the moment Madeline enters (scene IV). The camera slowly zooms in on her, epitomizing Scotties immediate attraction/fascination with her and supporting Mulvey’s claim that “the man controls the film phantasy (p.63)”. Everything about her from the minutest detail (curled hair in the back) is tailor made for Scottie’s fantasy. “In Vertigo in particular…the look is central to plot, oscillating between voyeurism and fetishistic fascination (65).”
In following her to various locations, Scottie discovers that Madeline is overcome by her past and in particular the tragic life of her great-grandmother Carlotta Valdes. Their intimacy develops after a failed suicide attempt and which she tries to drown herself. Afterward he brings her to his apartment to recuperate. This particular scene introduces Scottie’s resolve to help Madeline conquer her fixation. He becomes the savior while she is helpless victim. Madeline is circumspect and poised while interestingly clad in a red robe. In the subsequent scenes, he and Madeline revisit the places of her fixation and end up at the Mission San Juan Batista – an apparent focal point – where Scottie feels the resolution/healing process will begin. At one point she breaks from him and runs to the church tower. His acrophobia prevents him from pursuing Madeline up the staircase. She falls to her death and it is ruled as suicide due to her obsession/possession of Carlotta.
In latter half of the movie Scottie tries to heal only to be overcome/ haunted by Madeline’s memory and his love/obsession for her. While revisiting the places he had been with Madeline, he encounters Judy Barton a women with a striking and uncanny resemblance to Madeline only she is a brunette. Scottie initiates a relationship and it is at this point that evil/horrific twist comes to fruition through Judy’s flashback. Unbeknown, Scottie, Judy is in fact Madeline. Inferred as Elster’s mistress, she was cajoled into playing his wife to fake her suicide. Elster used Scottie as a witness knowing that his acrophobia would prevent him from going up to bell tower. Judy naively wants a genuine relationship with Scottie but quickly learns that he yearns for Madeline so much so that he refashions her to look like Madeline – a typical outcome as Mulvey contends. “But as the narrative progresses she falls in love with the male protagonist and become his property (p. 64).” Only in complying with his wishes can she maintain his erotic interest. Her exhibitionist and masochist behavior ideally compliments “Scottie’s active sadistic voyeurism (p.66).”
Through a slip up (a necklace) however, Elster and Judy’s evil manipulation is revealed to Scottie. He forces Judy to return Mission San Juan Batista with him were he recounts the crime. In the process he overcomes his acrophobia and in doing becomes empowered, sadistically so. Judy’ pleas forgiveness and repentance are ignored. The movie ends tragically with Judy accidentally falling to her death. Scottie once again is tragically pummeled into a catastrophic and unresolved state as his final posture on the tower ledge suggests. Could he or Madeline in anyway have been saved? Such an opportunity is seen in Midge’s character for Scottie to avoid such a cataclysmic feat. Slightly humorous and glaringly sardonic, Midge is Scottie’s former college sweetheart and classmate. She is the voice of reason and the only true character of integrity in the film. Scottie ignores her inferred warnings. In essence he spurns and overlooks her love and fidelity for Madeline. His frailty is not just his acrophobia but his obsession beyond reason and intelligent thinking. He is the victim of patriarchal control for it was a man that initially subjected him such a plight. Madeline on the other hand, a victim but not an innocent one, seems truly trapped. “She is isolated, glamorous, on display, sexualized (p. 64).” In a March 2003 interview, Kim Novak agreed with her character’s sense of entrapment even to point of feeling trapped herself in playing Madeline/Judy.
“…my hair was short at that time in my career and Hitchcock wanted that perfect pulled-back hair. I already hated that gray suit and then having to go through putting on that wig with a false front — again made me feel so trapped inside this person who was desperately wanting to break out of it but she was so caught up in the web of deception that she couldn’t. The fear of not being loved if she didn’t have on these clothes or wore her hair in a certain way — oh, god, she had nothing left but to kill herself in the bell tower…. Absolutely. She was trapped (The MacGuffin).”
Cinematic devices such as mise en scene and framing combined with color and music enhance scopophilic nature of the movie. Technicolor uses saturated levels of color to give a hyper-realistic appearance. Through this particular use of color, the Scottie and Madeline/ Judy’s grotesque obsession permeates exceedingly. Shot in vista vision (wide screen, high resolution), the cinematography makes the effect mesmerizing as well. As in all Hitchcock thrillers music plays a vital role. A film’s score/music can be used to identify the film as a whole or particular scenes and characters within the film. The music can provide additional insight or information about the scene or character. “For Hitchcock music was not merely an accompaniment. It was a focus. But in Hitchcock’s most powerful films it is impossible to separate music from the visual fabric or plot. Music has as much a role to play as any of the character (Rothstein, 2007).”
The thoughts of a person do not go unseen for their thoughts are soon revealed in the substance of their deeds. Thoughts constitute a person’s morals – principles of conduct or a system of beliefs which they live by or are governed accordingly. A person’s morals distinguishes theirs character. The physical world is a mirror of the human mind/thought. In case of Scottie and Madeline/Judy their moral integrity was corrupted and entangled in the false perception of their roles to the point of human savagery. Hitchcock exposes this predisposition in Vertigo and Professor Mulvey in her analysis challenges the film industry to shift its orientation.
Work Cited
“Kim Novak.” The MacGuffin. Web.
Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Feminism and Film Theory. Ed. Constance Penley. Routledge: New York, 1988. pp. 57-68.
Rothstein, Edward. “Hitchcock’s films and the character of music.” The International Herald Tribune: The Global Edition of the New York Times-Culture Section. 2007. Web.
Saroyan, William. Web.