Mulvey Theroy

Mulvey Film Theroy

Laura Mulvey is a British film theorist and avant garde film maker, her work explored a feminist approach towards film, often analysing and scrutinising film with psychoanalysis.

Laura Mulvey identified that Film fascinates its audience, it engages our emotions emotionally, intellectually and sometimes spiritually, Mulvey used psychoanalysis to discover where and ho the fascination of film is reinforced by pre existing patterns of fascination already at work within the individual subject (essentially the spectator). As a prominont feminist she believed that Film can and should be used as a political weapon.

Mulberry hypothesised that the Hollywood/mainstream/narrative cinema manipulates visual pleasure to directly influence the audience, according to her theory it "codes the erotic into the language of the  dominant patriarchal order" A key aspect of her theory is the presence of scopophilia, which means pleasure in looking (this was first created by Sigmund Freud in "three essays" in 1905). In freud original piece he explains how scopophilia is when we or the individual gets sexual pleasure from looking at other people, however mulvey also noted that in Freuds three essays, he said that people feel guilty when getting pleasure in this way. From here Mulvey suggested that cinema was the ideal place to get scopophilic pleasure because;

. The people in the film aren't aware that the spectator or individual is watching (therefore removing the guilt associated when receiving sexual pleasure from looking at other people)

.No-one else can see the spectator getting pleasure from viewing others as traditionally, a Cinema or theatre is dark, and that all others will be watching the screen

Mulvey argued that cinema essentially provides voyeuristic pleasure (pleasure from watching others who dont know there being watched).

Mulvey and Lacan

Mulvey expanded on Lacans concept of The Mirror stage and the childs development of self and other by explaing the importance of seeing yourself visually reflected in film. This means that when we see a character on the screen that either looks, reminds, or acts like us, we identify with it, and seeing such a representation reinforces our sense of self and worth.

Mulveys conclusions

According to Mulvey, most mainstream hollywood films are made by male filmmakers for a male audience, and that female filmmakers were often shunned, left only to create in the avaunt Guarde scenes. This results in active male characters (protagonists of the film which use the narrative forward, so that the audience are encouraged to identify with them), whereas female characters are usually passive (prizes for the male characters, objects of desire that men fight for, characters that dont act or think for themselves)

Male Gaze

In Mulveys 1975 'Visual pleasure and Narrative cinema", she coined the term the male gaze, which is when the audience regardless of gender or sexuality is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male, for example, in a shot the camera might trace alongside the curves of a woman body, putting the viewer in the eyes of a heterosexual male.
However, it may only be classified as a male gaze if it uses certain camera techniques, editing techniques or audio cues. Such as:

.slow motion when viewing the curves of a woman
.deliberate camera moments
.cut aways

This theory suggests that the male gaze denies women human identity,relegating them to the status of objects to be admired for physical pleasure and nothing more. the theory also suggests that women can only watch a film from a secondary perspective and only view themselves from a mans perspective. Regardless of this, the presence of a woman in mainstream film texts is vital, often a female character in a film has no real importance herself, it is how she makes the male characters within the text fact or feel that is of importance, essentially, the female only exists in relation to the male.

Visual pleasures

Lacan theory within a film

Enemy (2013)

At its core Enemy is a film about fear, the story follows a man named Adam, who discovers he has an exact doppelgänger, who lives a complete opposite life to him. Whilst Adam is mild mannered and essentially timid, his doppelgänger is the opposite, aggressive and confident. The film explores the relationship between the two, there opposing lives and the relationships they are involved in.




Within a few minutes of watching it becomes clear that the film is an exploration of Adam subconscious, whilst were never explicitly told that this is the case we can se it clearly through the mise en scene, camera techniques and even the narrative itself.

One scene that perfectly represents the lacan theory is the initial meeting between adam and his doppelgänger. Up to this point in the film Adam knows what he wants, he wants to meet his doppelgänger, this is the desire that he believes will fill his lack, as he walks to the motel door he is in centre frame, he is in control of the situation. A prostitute passes him clutching onto a room key, the camera suddenly cuts to a wide shot focussed on the top of her suspenders, we see in the background that Adam is still there, walking past her, however this time rather than being in focus and centre framed, he is to the left, the camera blurs him so we can only vaguely make out that this indeed adam. We can view this as an extension of our protagonists conscious, Upon seeing the prostitute and her Stockings, Adam is suddenly conflicted, is meeting his doppolganger truly what he wants?, or is he simply chasing his primal urge for sex?, If one was to watch the film in its entirety than this would easily be compatible with the Lacanian lack throughout the film, but as we are only analysing one scene, we shall ignore this.

The next key scene following this is the initial meeting between Adam and his doppelgänger. the two stand opposite each other, the camera remains completely still, simply observing the two, in an almost clinical manner. the camera for this scene can perhaps mimic the audiences perception and spectatorship of the film, simply an observer into this individuals mind, powerless to have any interaction within it.

The two show each other there hands, they comment on how similar they are. the doppelgänger than asks Adam if he has a scar on his chest from when he was a child, this freaks Adam out and he hurriedly leaves the room. We can perceive this as Adam realising that perhaps the doppelgänger is exactly what he has been lacking, the doppelgänger is a confident, assertive and bold figure, everything that Adam is not (Adam being obedient, withdrawn and almost afraid). The same goes in reverse, Even though the doppelgänger has a seemingly comfy home life, with a pregnant wife and a relatively wealthy standard of living, his fear of commitment means that he is always seeking a way out of this comfy home life, ( numerous references to his affair throughout the film).

Film Studies- Final piece + synopsis

Lack- Film Studies final piece

Lack is a Avent Guarde short inspired by the unique aesthetics and visual narrative of 1962's La Jetee. The story explores lacan's theory of intrinsic lack within the individual through still images and use of abstract audio, resulting in a short that challenges the physical form of film itself and simultaneously, representing the Lack within us all.

Lacan Theory

Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a french psychoanalyst and psychologist who expanded upon the works created by his predecessor Sigmund Freud. Lacan's work influenced many of the top intellectuals of his time and continue to do so. His works covered a wide variety of topics, but its his hypothesis about our intrinsic lack that i will focus on. 

The theory revolves around the idea that we, as humans, are never complete. We are born with a void within us that will never be truly filled. Every action we take in our lives is an unconscious attempt to fill this void. As Lacan puts it 
"Desire is a relation to being to lack. The lack is the lack of being properly speaking. It is not the lack of this or that, but lack of being whereby the being exists.“

We can clearly see Freuds influence in this theory, the ego drives the actions of the self, usually from a position of want, a need for something rather than random actions. the lack within lacans theory is 
essentially the ego with Freuds theory.

Lacan recognises three different kinds of lack within us all, According to the nature of the object which is lacking. The first is Symbolic Castration, the second is Imaginary Frustration and the third kind of lack is Real Privation. The three corresponding agents are the Real Father, the Symbolic Mother, and the Imaginary Father. Of these three forms of lack, castration is the most important from the perspective of the cure.  Lacan viewed castration as a fantasy of the mutilation of the penis, linking it with a series of fantasies of bodily mutilations which begin with the image of the fragmented body, possibly an unconscious fantasy to punish oneself for never being truly whole. 


The mirror stage is also key in discussing how we are intrinsically born with a lack, an infant less than 15 months old cannot physically recognise there own reflections, they see however an almost objective perfection in there reflection. Subconsciously we always try to become this perfect reflection, by never can do due to our intrinsic self punishment. this is essentially why we all suffer from lack, we spend our lives trying to fill the void that we think will complete us, however no matter what we do we can never live up to the image we saw as children.

As show in Lacans “lack” and “Mirror Phrase” theories, Freud has excessive amount of effect on Lacan.
In most of Lacan’s theories, we can effortlessly see Freud's influence in them. Lacan's "return to Freud" emphasised a renewed attention to the original texts of Freud, including radical critiques of Freuds work. 

Lacan- 4 our film challenge

A freudian theme within a film

If i were to create a film that incorporated it within itself it would be as followed.

the film would essentially be an avert guard piece. the film would cut between a subject involved in various situations that conflict him morally and  subjectively. the idea is very lose but her are some examples of scenes that i would incorporate the theory.

an individual comes across a corpse of a girl at a house party that he himself hosts, the camera would cut to his hands against the camera, covered and dripping with blood, the expression upon his face is one of obvious guilt, almost for the corpses perspective, he himself would not say anything, rather the shot cuts to the ID and the SuperEgo shouting to each other within a tight two shot within a location that has no connection to the action stated previous, possibly against a black background.

The ID would argue that the subject should run, never associate himself with the crime that he has so obviously committed, whereas the SuperEgo would argue back, saying that he should surrender, surrender himself to the higher authority.
All the while this scene would cut rapidly between the shots of the Super Ego and ID arguing, to the id crying into his hands, blood dripping from his hands, and his face

Another scene that i think would be interesting within this film would be if a subject happened across a car crash. the audience would never see the car crash, but would rather hear the screams, the tears and pain of the car crash, all for off screen. The camera would again be focussed on the subjects face, never moving or panning or racing according to his movements. The audience would simply be an observer of the subject, nothing more.

The camera would again cut rapidly to a static shot of the Id and the SuperEgo against a background, the two arguing against a black background. dissimilarly to the previous scene, the Id and the SuperEgo would portray themselves more violently this time. there words becoming more violent than the previous time. the difference between the two would become almost indifferent.

the camera will fade to black upon the subject witnessing the car crash. his face staring, with horror, upon the hour he is watching.

the final shot of the film would consist of an extremely slow zoom of our subject stirring on a sofa, with him whipping his head back in agony, his hands gripping against his hair. just as we did for our previous scenes, the scene would cut, this time almost rapidly against the subjects playing the Id and the SuperEgo, screaming at each other, unaligably. almost suddenly the subject would pull handgun out of know where, point it to his temple. the camera wold cut the ID,The SuperEgo, standing there motionless, speechless. the subject would slowly pull a gun to his temple, all the while cut a staticframe shots of the two aspects of the conscious arguing.. the scene would cut end to sound of gunshot, we would cut to the two aspects of the brain falling ti the ground. we would end at a static shot of wide shot of the individual, blood seeping from his nose.

ID,SuperEgo, and the Ego within film.

ID,SuperEgo, and the Ego within film.



This is a shot from david finchers 1999 film Fight Clubl, in which an individual wrestles with his alter ego for control over his physical identity.

This short synopsis does nothing to elaborate how crucial the Id, Super Ego and Ego theory is to this film. for the sake of connivance i will explain who the characters are and how they relate to the theory.

Marla singer (The Woman) is representative if the Super Ego,
Tyler Durden (The Man in the basement) Is representative of the ID
and, The narrator (The Man in the suit) Is representative of the Ego

Marla Singer is easily a representative of the super ego, the aspect of the mind that controls and shuns individual thought, in this scene she is essentially begging the narrator for an explanation for the mark on his hand, she isn't compassionate, she isn't emotional, she simply wants the empirical, objective answer to the question. She is not concerned with the subjective, emotional answer (essentially provided by the ID), she wants the facts, the truth.

Tyler Durden is quite obviously the ID, not only is he physically situated within the basement of the setting, (not dissimilarly to the deep, repressed recesses of the mind and the ID) but he is also not apart of the conversation between the Ego and the SuperEgo. As i mentioned in my previous post (Freud Theroy) the id does not concern itself with the social restraints of the Ego and the Super ego, he is quite literally and physically on a completley separate plain of existence to the other aspects of the conscious. Deep from within the shadows, he expresses his primal and physical desires, rather than discuss and contemplate his feelings on a physical and intellectual level, just as the SuperEgo and the Ego do.

The Man in the suit (by purpose of elimination, the man in the suit) is the Ego, the portion of the mind that moderates between the Id and the SuperEgo. In this particular scene the Ego essentially follows the Id, the primal urge of avoiding confrontation by essentially shutting the Super ego out. the fact that he resides in the basement of the house could possibly be a representation of how the Id dwells within the deep recesses of us all, lurking deep within us, covertly watching, listening, and influencing the Ego. we can conform this by the fact that Marla (The Super Ego) never listens to Tyler Durden, she is fixated on the Ego (the narrator) .