| presented as an “image” articulated in response tothe demands of mle
‘eology.
"The Scene which pethape mos clealyemphasies a preoeupation wih
the function oftheimagein sholdingrepresentacion ata distance” isthesee
inwhich Gerry and Claiteenacra mock love scene in roof imaginay fi
‘amerasasJoanlooks on Gerry and Clete areframedinthe dooray they
kiss, her endusiuic audience of fends applauding, We se the “scene”
{rst fom behind Joan, and watch with he the mack-ks becomes “rel”
and the mock-directors ae forced to shout “Cut!” As Gerry and Cle
become aware of Joan's presence they look towards hes andin a everse shot
we now sce Joan (from behind Gerry) framed inthe doorway in her ur,
teansformed into she “image” of an embittered, frostated woman. Ths
reversal, by implicating us in the plasurelpain aspect of our voyeuristic
‘elaonihip tothe film, nevertheless hol off identeaton by reminding =
thar we are engaged in a process of fabricating images. This iterverton
prevents fom accepting he film onan levels Realty, Mery We Go To
Hel by operating proces of montage of interventions asserts the text a3
process of dialectical play beeen image andnavatve, andy mplcatingts
Inchat processas spectators cals into question the forms of nematograpic
representation trough which ideology atemprsto fix or place for us From
‘th concer in Arzners fils withthe potential displacement effect ofthe
Friction of image and digrsis® and the montage of interventions of ionic
reverand navatveinerruptions, we cn lear much abou the posbaiy
‘of cr cwn intervention as feminist entics and film makes in patriarchal
econ
Notes
1. Paealolear fens parca la whore scan lh
rode onset Mice, Poona on Peon lc at 9
2. Hathbavs hs moe ofan he dean Ge Freon cle
tae pom ndenioned weave
SSprchsannet ieee om ashen ypc
‘ciently eGo Toles hacia tat
teas dope of wenn he our ha bed ae He
‘cal Wal” by Par Conk and Clare Johnson) =
su vere eect coma x prethaneal h
“4. "Dance, Gil Dame Karyn Ka a Gr aya Vt igh Tp 1
ration 2
4
Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
Laura Mulvey
troduction
AL A Political Use of Poychoouslss
This paper inends to use psychoanalysis to discover where and how the
fascination of film ig reinlorced by pre-existing pacers of fascination
already at work within the individual sbjece and the socal formations that
hve moulded him. cakes asstarting point the way fil rele, evels and
ven plays on the seraight, socially ertablished interpretation of seal differ
‘nce which controls images, roe ways looking and spectacle. ris ep
{oundertand what the ema hasbeen, how ts magic has worked nthe
ast, while atempying a theory and a practice which will challenge his
‘Sina of che past Pyehoanalyic theory i thus appropriated here a 2
poliical weapon, demonstrating the way the unconscious of pasarchal
Soci has structured fl form
“The paradox of phllocentris in alts manifestation isthavit depends
‘nthe image ofthe castrated woman to give order and meaning ts Worl,
An ies of woman stands as lynch pin co the systems ics er Lack that
[produces the phallus ass symbolic presence, iis hr deseo make good the
Tack hat he pale sie, Recent writing in Screen about paychoanaly
ad the cinema has not slficenly brought oat the inmportance of the
‘representation ofthe female frm ina symbolic order in which inthe last
‘eso, it speaks castration and nothing else. To summarie brie: the
function of woman informing the paviarchal unconscious is two-fold, she
‘istsymbiizes the castration cheat by her realabsence aa pens and second‘hereby raises her child into the symbolic. Once thi hs been achieve, her
‘meaning inthe process is tan end; i doesnot Ist in the wood of law and
language except asa memory which scilats between memory of maternal
plenitude and memory oflack. Both ae posted on nature (or on anatomy in
Freud’ famous phrase, Woman's dese ssubjectedeoeimageas eater of
the bleeding wound, she can exist only in relation to castration an cannot
transcend it She ras er child ino the signifier of her own desc to possess
4 penis the condition, she imagines, of entry into the sybolc. ther she
‘must gracefully give way othe word, the Name ofthe Father and he Lae
tse strugglew keep her child down withherinthehalfdightof the imaginary.
‘Woman then stand in ptriachal culture a sgnfer for the male other,
bound by a symbolic order in which man can live out his fantasies and
‘obsessions through ingustic command by imposing them onthe age
‘of woman sled ther place at bearer of meaning, nor maker of meaning,
‘Thetis an obvious interest inthis analy for feminists, 4 beay int
exact rendering ofthe frastation experienced under the phallocentric order
gets us nearer to thereat of our oppression, brings an articulation ofthe
problem closer, it faces us with the wkimate challenge: how to fight the
linconsions sutured likes language (formed rally atthe moment of
arrival of language) while sil aught within the lngusge ofthe pasar
Theres no way in which we ean produce an alternative out ofthe Bey but
sve cam begin to make a break By examining patriarchy withthe tools it
Provides, of which psychoanalysis isnot the ony but an important one, We
are sill separated by 2 great gap from important issues for the female
"unconscious which ate scacaly relevant to phallocenti theory: the sexing
‘the female infant and her elationshp tothe symbolic he sexually mate
‘womans noremother, maternity ouside the ignition ofthe phallus the
‘agin, But, at thi point, psfchoanalyie theory a it now stand cn a
least advance or understanding ofthe status quo, ofthe patriarchal orerin
Which we are caught.
B._ Destruction of Pleasure ata Radical Weapon
[As an advanced representation system, the cineina poses questions ofthe
‘nays the amuinscious (formed By the dominant order stctares ways of
and pleasure in looking. Cinema has changed over thelas few decades
tis no longer the monolithic system based on large capital investment
‘exemplified ats best by Hollywood inthe 1930s, 19408 and 1980s. Tech
nological advances (16mm, etc) have changed the economic conditions of
«inematicproduction, which can now bearsanalas well acapiaist. Tus
hasbeen posible for an alternative cinema 10 develop. However sell
conscious and ironic Hollywood managed tbe, always restricted itself toa
formal mise-en-sine telling the dominant ideological concept of the
sinema, The alternative cinema provides a space for a cinema to be born
hich is radical in both a politial and an aesthetic vense and challenges the
Basic assumprions of the mainstream film. Ths i not co reject the latter
oralistically, but highlight dhe ways in which it formal preoccupations
rele the pychial obsessions ofthe society which produced and, further,
tostresstha the alternative cinema mut tre specifically by reacting against
these obsessions and assumptions. A poltelly and aethetally avantgarde
sinema is now posible, ba ican still oly exit 38a counterpoint
“Themagicof the Hollywood tle at its best (and afl he nema which
fa within ies sphere of influence arose, not exclsivey bun one portant
aspect, frm its killed and saisying manipulation of visual please. Un