Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac (2013) sparked controversy even before its stateside release during a matinee screening of Disney’s Frozen (Buck/Lee, 2013) in Tampa, Florida. The usual routine began as the projectionist prepared to screen the film: the lights of the cinema began to dim, the projection screen turned black, and the usual filler of cartoons and trailers started rolling. And then something unusual happened. According to one unsuspecting grandmother, “They put in the filler, it looked like Steamboat Willie, the old Mickey Mouse cartoon, and then all of a sudden it goes into this other scene” (Guardian, “Nymphomaniac Trailer”). This “other scene” was the red-band teaser for Nymphomaniac, described by Julie Miller of Vanity Fair as “the most graphic movie preview of all time—thanks in part to visuals of former child star Shia LaBeouf nude and engaged in multiple sexual activities” (Vanity Fair, “Explicit Sex Film”). Miller’s description of the trailer, however, is mostly incorrect. Very little do we see of LaBeouf’s character in the red-band trailer, neither “nude” nor engaged in the act of sex. Instead we catch various clips of Young Joe, performed by Stacy Martin, who is at one point seen fully nude and whose vagina is superimposed against the film’s title (stylized as NYMPH()MANIAC) at the start of the teaser. Despite his intentions in line with the Puzzy Power movement, von Trier’s male gaze complicates his presentation of female sexuality in Nymphomaniac. The logic behind the metanarrative of the film suggests that Joe’s (Charlotte Gainsbourg) salvation is ultimately afforded by male characters, most explicitly through Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård), Jerôme (Shia LaBeouf), and “K” (Jamie Bell). Although Nymphomaniac ask... ... middle of paper ... ... with the understanding that “women like watching erotic or pornographic films if the presentation turns them on rather than off” (“Puzzy Power Manifesto”). Nymphomaniac is not a porn flick, nor is it affiliated with the Puzzy Power movement, but I would argue that von Trier’s participation as the producer of all three Puzzy Power films served as inspiration for Nymphomaniac. In particular, it shares similarities with All About Anna (Nielson, 2005), a Puzzy Power film that also focuses on a woman’s coming to grips with her sexuality within a metanarrative divided into a sequence of chronological chapters. Of the three Puzzy Power films released from 1998 to 2005, Anne G. Sabo commends Pink Prison (Lynghøft, 1999) for fulfilling the guidelines of the manifesto, both with respect “to cinematic quality and to upholding a progressive sexual-political commitment” (57).
Sex and Gender was the subject of the two movies Dreamworlds 3 and Further Off The Straight & Narrow. In Dreamworlds 3 Sex is portrayed as a status of life and happiness in the media. This media displays people as objects that can be manipulated for sexual pleasure. As the media is populated with sex it tiptoes around gender, specifically that of gays or lesbians. The film Further Off The Straight & Narrow emphasized the movement through media gay and lesbian topics. This text analyzes iconic television programs and how they reflect the societal stance during that time. As a member of a generation that has had the topic of these issues prominent I believe they are important but are banal. In this reflection I will be responding to two questions, what would woman driven Dreamworlds look like? And Do you agree with the statement that if you are not on television you don’t exist?
American commercial cinema currently fuels many aspects of society. In the twenty-first century it has become available, active force in the perception of gender relations in the United States. In the earlier part of this century filmmakers, as well as the public, did not necessarily view the female“media image” as an infrastructure of sex inequality. Today, contemporary audiences and critics have become preoccupied with the role the cinema plays in shaping social values, institutions, and attitudes. American cinema has become narrowly focused on images of violent women, female sexuality, the portrayal of the “weaker sex” and subversively portraying women negatively in film. “Double Indemnity can be read in two ways. It is either a misogynist film about a terrifying, destroying woman, or it is a film that liberates the female character from the restrictive and oppressed melodramatic situation that render her helpless” (Kolker 124). There are arguably two extreme portrayals of the character of Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity; neither one is an accurate or fare portrayal.
I found “Someday My Prince Will Come” to be a very interesting and enlightening article, sometimes when watching Disney movies at face value, it is easy to miss just how heterosexually driven these movies are. Many of the Disney movi...
What are the issues of watching and voyeurism in film? The intention of this essay is to discuss both films (The Truman Show, 1998 and Rear Window, 1954) alongside established theoretical criticism (Laura Mulvey and Norman K. Denzin) in an attempt to demonstrate how the issues of watching and voyeurism, as seen in todays mainstream Hollywood cinema, both engages and entices the spectator and to look at how the definition of the voyeur has changed. Before entering into a discussion about voyeurism in Rear Window and The Truman Show, an understanding of what is meant by ‘the dynamics of voyeurism’ in film must be attempted. The dictionary definition of a voyeur is: (1) a person who gains sexual pleasure from watching others when they are naked or engage in sexual activity, and/or (2) a person who enjoys seeing pain or distress of others. Voyeurism is initially noted for the investigation of the woman, demystifying her mystery, however, I think this definition is a small interpretation of the word voyeur. So the intention of this essay is to explore further the meaning of voyeurism by looking at two films adjacent to, two critics with conflicting opinions of what voyeurism is represented by in film. But to understand what voyeurism means we need to look at the cinematic gaze and two types of looks; scopophilia and narcissism.
Throughout this paper the word 'queer ' will be used as an umbrella catch all term for any individual who is not heterosexual or cisgender, and anyone in the LGBTQ spectrum. Queer will also be used as part of the methodology, it will represent "a moment of fissure when that which is normal is thrown into question...[and] set out the notion of queer as a way of denormalizing gendered heterosexuality." ( Li-Vollmer and LaPointe 92) Using queer examination of film, this paper will discuss and explore the struggle between normalcy and deviance. Queer coding occurs when a character is given common traits associated with queer people, whether that is stereotypical or not depends on the character and the creator themselves. This paper will explore
For several years now, Disney seems to be determined not to offend anyone in order to keep its audience; indeed we are confronted with animation films full of compromises; they are not as degrading for women as Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), but they are nonetheless still filled with clichés. Films such as The Princess and The Frog (2009), Tangled (2010), Wreck-it Ralph (2012), have in common the sense of being progressive and however we can notice the resurgence of harmful gendered stereotypes on the subjects of the social scale, women’s role in society, or the status quo. Frozen comes in and turns out to be no exception. Though it includes several encouraging and gratifying elements, it contributes insidiously to spread numerous
Film scholar and gender theorist Linda Williams begins her article “Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess,” with an anecdote about a dispute between herself and her son, regarding what is considered “gross,” (727) in films. It is this anecdote that invites her readers to understand the motivations and implications of films that fall under the category of “body” genre, namely, horror films, melodramas, (henceforth referred to as “weepies”) and pornography. Williams explains that, in regards to excess, the constant attempts at “determining where to draw the line,” (727) has inspired her and other theorists alike to question the inspirations, motivations, and implications of these “body genre” films. After her own research and consideration, Williams explains that she believes there is “value in thinking about the form, function, and system of seemingly gratuitous excesses in these three genres,” (728) and she will attempt to prove that these films are excessive on purpose, in order to inspire a collective physical effect on the audience that cannot be experienced when watching other genres.
In What ways is Sexuality portrayed as central to the conflicts of the individual-v-society in Ken Kesey's One flew over the cuckoo's nest and Tennessee Williams A street car named desire? In What ways is Sexuality portrayed as central to the conflicts of the individual-v-society in Ken Kesey's 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest' and Tennessee Williams 'A street car named desire'?
For the purpose of this study, I will critically examine the representation of homosexuality in Hollywood cinema. I will specifically analyse films from the early 90’s to mid 2000’s from ‘Philadelphia’ to ‘Brokeback Mountain’. This dissertation will argue that over the space of 12 years homosexuality has become an acceptable part of cinema. I will look at early Hollywood’s representation of homosexuality depicting how aesthetically so much has changed. The current paper will predominantly focus on the two films ‘Philadelphia’ and ‘Brokeback Mountain’, by critically analysing the aesthetic differences between each film as well as their overall importance to gay culture.
...ea. "Film and Mental Illness: Fetishisation, Romanticism or Misinterpretation?"Diorama. Diorama, 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
In Laura Mulvey’s article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” she uses the concept of scopophilia, or pleasure obtained through looking at things, to discuss the portrayal of women in film as passive sexual objects, while inferring that it is the active male “gaze” that objectifies them. Mulvey’s ideas are extremely relevant to Stanley Kubrick’s final film Eyes Wide Shut, in which the themes of sexuality and voyeurism are abundant. The gender roles are very clearly defined in Eyes Wide Shut. The men control the “gaze” and obtain scopophilic pleasure by looking at women. The women, on the other hand, are all presented as highly sexualized objects, or things that exist simply to be looked at. Furthermore, when they do have
In the year A.F. 632 no pleasure is denied to the populous. Hypnopaedia is used as a device to form the moral education of children. What is taught through this method is not true ethics, but warped actions trained by words. An illustration of this is in the teaching of Elementary Sex to children. The society that Huxley created was one where having sex often and with many people was a positive course of action. Anyone who did not have multiple partners, such as Lenina or Bernard, were considered a blight to society. Society as a whole uses the act of having sex as relief from pain and emotions. A person does not have to lust for someone they merely set up a time and place for them to meet and have sex, and it is completely accepted by everyone. When sex is not enough to relieve a person from pain or loneliness they take soma, a drug that stimulates them into happiness. Unlike the drugs of present day there is no set backs from taking soma, no headaches after use, and after all “One cubic centimetre cure ten gloomy,” (60). Finally, there is the concept of feelies, movies that you can feel what the actors are doing. These feelies are nothing more than glamorized porn movies giving the participants quick orgasmic feelings without effort. All these materialistic pleasures are used to substitute an individuals basic emotional needs and to give them a false sense of happiness. Huxley used this warped view on what today’s society deems morally right and wrong to reveal how shallow the citizens of the brave new world truly are.
The peeling away of the honey-glazed aesthetic of Sirkian Melodrama to thoroughly examine the true core beneath is the task. Douglas Sirk’s films are expressive and suggestive in their examination of female sexual and emotional relationships. It must be considered what exactly a melodrama is and what type of audience the genre demands. Known worldwide to be part of a female cultural domain, the genre deals with the woman’s film from the early 30’s right up until the Sirkian territory of the 1950’s and 60’s. A central theme found in the genre is the symbolic place of a ‘woman’ and the maternal in melodrama in relation to the changing position of women in society. The term melodrama originates from the early 19th-century French word melodrama. The word is derived from Greek 'melos', referring to music, and French 'drame', referring to drama. Melodrama generally refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in an attempt to appeal to the emotions of its audience, it is for this reason that Douglas Sirk’s films are of vital importance. Constructed as a Brechtian director...
It can be said that Hitchcock had in some regard, the upmost contempt and disregard for the female character and its expression throughout the majority of his films, showing both a lack of “incontrovertible evidence” (101) and a lack of restrainment in his depiction of a highly problematic and violent incident, the rape and the “attempted” (almost subsequent) murder of a woman. Regardless of how violently depicted the aforementioned incident was, it is the female’s inevitable exclusion through sound and language that leads to her inevitable downfall, displaying both films’ attempts “to appropriate femininity and to destroy it”, alluding to Modelski’s curious comparison of “sympathy and misogyny” (110).
...f women & individuality, the sense of fashion, and the passion in a sexual act distinct it from being sexually objectifying. Similarly, this type of film also needs a higher cognitive skill that could reason and reflect upon the tricky features in the entire picture.