Escapism What is escapism? What connection might films have to escapism?

Turner on Escapism “The charge of escapism which is often leveled at film is probably based on the sense of separation from reality, which is highlighted as we leave the cinema, as much as on a close analysis of the content of the majority of films” (128). If film removes us from reality, what does it replace that reality with?

Film and Dreaming “According to Baudry, cinema, like dreaming, is regressive in that it calls up the unconscious processes of the mind and favours what Freud calls the pleasure principle over the reality principle. …, this implies a slip back into the childish, immature version of the self where our wants and desires…dominate our personalities at the expense of contextual, ethical, and social considerations” (129).

Identification and Point of View What do the words identity and identify with mean? What does it mean to identify with a character? Why does the way the camera works create identification with a character? What are point of view (POV) shots?

Identification and POV How does point of view encourage identification? What problems might result from this identification?

Types of Identification mimetic identification functional identification technical identification

Mimetic Identification To lose clear identity boundaries in the relation to the character Relation of equality or sameness (Cinerama) concrete or physical basis abstract or emotional/intellectual basis Turner rejects imitative (mimetic) idea of identity in film-viewing

Functional Identification We follow the actions of characters and images and mentally identify with them. This relation is narcissistic, and problematic in that the image is always a construction.

Technical Identification The basis of identification is the camera (or projection device), rather than the character. The camera might manipulate us to share POV with unsympathetic characters or “others” (gender, race, and function)

Technical Identification, con’t. “As we see the film as our perception, rather than someone else’s representation, we collapse the distinction between our eyes and the projection apparatus” (133). “[W]e ‘identify’ with the mechanisms of the cinema because they become…extensions of ourselves” (133).

Literalization In Sherlock, Jr. how does Keaton’s character literally show us escapism and identification in film viewing? What relation between film-viewing and dreaming is suggested? Since the film is comic (and subverts itself), can we take this idea seriously?

Voyeurism What is voyeurism? What is the relationship (similarity and difference) between film-viewing and voyeurism? How is voyeurism linked to gender?

Power and Looking “[A]s agents for understanding the film, and as observers who can see but not be seen, [audiences] are in a position of considerable power. Freudian theory describes such a position as that of the voyeur, who ‘makes an object of’ those caught unwittingly in the power of his gaze” (Turner 131).

Gender The construction of sexual identity in a social context Related not only to the body, but also to socialization in a given time and place Resists comprehensive definition; necessarily contextual Includes a range of identities

Gender Roles and Expectations Gender roles: the status, types of work, and types of behavior given to and expected from individuals in a society based upon their gender status and identity Gender expectations: the demands a society places upon its members based upon gender

POV and Gender How is point of view in movies often related to gender relations?

Voyeurism in the Context of Gender “Cinema constructs the audience as voyeur—offering the pleasure of using another as the object of stimulation through sight—and it also constructs the audience as narcissistic—identifying with the object seen. The first construction explains…the development of the spectacle of the female body in films for the voyeuristic male audience. The second, however, would appear to contradict the first” (135).

Argument, con’t. “Presumably, the male does not identify narcissistically with the female object of his voyeuristic look. Similarly, a female spectator is unlikely to identify with the object of the voyeuristic look. Mulvey argues that the narrative film solves this contradiction by representing the female as the object of desire on the one hand, and as the passive object of the film’s action on the other” (135-6).

Argument, con’t. “The audience identify with the male hero’s desire for the female, voyeuristically, and with his active resolution of the narrative, narcissistically. Consequently, women are rarely essential to film plots [only to spectacle], or represented as able to resolve narrative dilemmas unaided. There is no place for the female character actively to drive the movie’s narrative and thus compete for the audience’s narcissistic identification” (136).

Characters (Sherlock, Jr.) The movie theater manager “The Sheik” The girl The girl’s father Note how all characters are doubled

Content 1. What is Keaton’s character’s job? 3. What does Keaton’s character want to become? What is he reading in the theater? 4. What does Keaton’s character want to buy and why? 8. What does the villain steal from the girl’s father? 13. Who solves the mystery in the real world?

Two Worlds What are the two worlds of the film? How are they linked together? In what ways do they differ from each other?

Character Roles What is the girl’s role in the “real” world? What is her role in the “film” world? Do these roles differ much? How do other characters’ film world roles change? Why does this support the fantasy argument?

Segments (gender) 08.20-8.55 (active) 13.00-13.35 (passive) 42.00-onwards (passive)

Film as Education (mimesis) How is looking and watching part of an educational process for the hero? (42.00 onwards) Do you think that films play an educational role? If films teach lessons, how are those lessons conveyed?

Rear Window Director: Alfred Hitchcock Release date: 1954

Characters L.B. Jeffries (“Jeff”) Lisa Freemont Stella Detective Tom Doyle Lars Thorwald

Content 1. List as many different types of people as you can in the different apartments. How do they differ from each other (jobs, relations with others, age, personality, etc.)? 2. What clues do we get at the start about Jeffries’ job and life? 3. How long has Jeffries been in the cast? 4. How long will it be until he can get out of the cast? 5. What is Stella’s job? Who does she work for? 6. What objections does Jeffries have to marrying Lisa?

Content 7. What does Lisa do? What is her life like? How does it differ from Jeffries’ life? 8. Why do Lisa and Jeffries argue? What differences of opinion about life do they have? 9. What happens at night while Jeffries’ is trying to sleep? 10. How does Tom react to Jeffries’ and Lisa’s ideas? 11. Why does Jeffries call Thorwald? 12. How does Jeffries defend himself against Thorwald?

Segments 0.15-1.30 2.10-3.05 5.45-6.40 14.10-15.00 21.15-23.00

The Neighbors Characterize the different scenes represented by the different windows in the apartment complex. What different stories are we exposed to? What does each represent for Jeffries? What is their arrangement suggestive of? Consider Jeffries’ immobility—what does it suggest?

Character Types Bachelor apartment (man shaving) Middle-aged married couple (sleeping outside) Young single woman 1 Bickering couple (Thorwald and wife) [Single woman: sculptor] The newlyweds Young single woman 2

Neighbors as Projections How do the events and lives of people in other apartments parallel or match the events and problems in Jeffries’ life? Think especially of his relationship with Lisa. How are men’s lives shown as different from women’s?

Segments on Viewership Consider also our discussion of gendered looking. 38.45-42.45 1:28.10-1:29.25 1:37.10-1:41.50

Dramatic Parallels The “drama” in the Thorwald apartment develops at the same time as the problems in Jeffries’ and Lisa’s relationship. How do these stories parallel each other? What is disturbing about this parallel?

Tom’s Role What does Jeffries’ friend Tom represent? What is his structural or narrative role in the plot? Or, whom does he represent?—think about this in relation to his occupation.

Gender Roles How is Lisa put on display for Jeffries, and again, how does this “function” relate to her occupation (reflect on advertising)? When does she “break” out of her so-called feminine role? In what way do she and Jeffries “switch” gender roles?

Jeffries’ Purpose At the climax of the film, Thorwald asks Jeffries: “What do you want from me?” What does Jeffries want from Thorwald? Does it really matter to Jeffries what Thorwald does or whether he killed his wife? Why would Thorwald’s actions be so important that Jeffries takes the risks he does (certainly not for the wife, whom he never knew and whom he ridicules earlier in the film)?

Peeping Tom Director: Michael Powell Release date: 1960

Due Dates Response #1: March 23 Response #2: April 27 Response #3: June 8 MLA: June 8

For Next Time Watch: The Wizard of Oz. Background reading: Bordwell 41-62 (中)/54-71 (E) Supplemental viewing: Citizen Kane [S01]