Å@

Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" in Philip Rosen, ed., Narrative Apparatus, Ideology: A Film Theory Reader. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986. pp. 198 - 209

In "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", Mulvey, a leading feminist film theory author, attempts to use Freud's psychoanalytic theory to determine the female role in cinema. She notes films are, for the most part, constructed from the male viewpoint. This male centered universe causes the female to become an object of visual pleasure for the male characters in the film as well as the male audience members. Mulvey also notes the role of Freudian concepts such as scopophilic instinct and ego libido in film. In the universe of film, the woman who is pleasure to view is also threatening. Due to her lack of a phallus she represents fears of castration among the male viewers. There is no bibliography listed, however, some of Mulvey's sources are obvious. Freud is her single most important source in this work, but she also quotes Sternberg, Haskell, and Boetticher. Mulvey's purpose in writing this work was to "use psychoanalysis to discover where and how the fascination of films is reinforced by preexisting patterns of fascination already at work within the individual subject and the social formations that have molded him." This work was intended for film students, feminists, and apparently French students according to a footnote at the bottom of the work.

There are several negative aspects to this work. If the reader has doubts about psychoanalytical theory the argument loses validity. Mulvey falls victim to a definite feminist agenda and becomes too personally attached to the piece. She also expects the readers have a knowledge of the plot and characters of various movie she mentions, and without this knowledge the points she makes fail to connect with the reader. While many good points are made, the work is extremely dense and difficult to read. Perhaps less technical phrases and a better explanation of difficult concepts would make the work less intimidating.

George McElroy