Roman Polanski's Hollywood film Chinatown, directed in 1974, tells the story of Jake Gittes, a private investigator. The film focuses in on the dark reality of corruption behind power hungry men, making this a true neo-noir film. Chinatown reveals a depth narrative allowing the viewer to follow Gittes and uncover the secrets around the water dispute in California. I chose to bring focus to the significance of the male gaze and how this form of power can change and affect our views. The prominent female character in the film, Evelyn Mulwray, is a wealthy white woman. With her character comes active male attention and desire. Laura Mulvey's Theory of "The Gaze" supports this argument by studying the power and influence of a patriarchal …show more content…
Like anything we can take this too far where the gaze becomes an obsession, particularly towards the female turning it into a sexual gaze. Therefore the male is the viewer and holds the power, he is what Mulvey states as being the active male while the female is then passive (1975). If the female becomes a passive character is she then needed for the development of the story? I do not think so, if we give her this position in the film she is not a valuable part of the narrative. The other way to view this gaze would be with cruelty towards the female character. The man is still in a position of control but in a victorious way. This may mean he treats her poorly. In the first scene I had mentioned earlier Evelyn is just meeting Jake for the first time. He is in his office with his male associates, which I may point out are all white men. Jake is telling a dirty joke about a man "screwing" his wife like the Chinese. When Jake turns to see Evelyn standing behind him all along both him and his co-workers stop with all seriousness in her presence. They have changed their demeanour completely because there is a woman in the room. This seemed to put a freeze in time as what was just happening in the office came to an abrupt stop as she enters the room. Mulvey (1975) states in her essay, "her visual presence tends to work against the development of a story-line" (p. 19). This means the men are holding the story line together with the added image
Roman Polanski's 1974 film, 'Chinatown', revolutionized the film noir genre. Aside from the absense of voice-over, the film shares all the same characteristics with earlier noirs. That is, of course, except for the fact that ?Chinatown? is
Chinatown is based on Roman Polanski’s lifeworks. Polanski’s goal is to emphasizes the meaning of how cinematography is made, and how it inspires by understanding the concept of setting, lighting, and how the image is captured. This film was released in 1974 by director of Roman Polanski to focus on private investigator J.J. Gittes, played by Jack Nicholson to investigate the elements behind the truth. Polanski’s goal is to emphasize the audience to give an ominous feeling of the main character, J.J. Gittes and his point of view by showing in color instead of black and white pictures. Due to these reasons, Polanski wanted to use Panavision to give a flawed vision about the past, which the story is set in the years of 1937. Polanski states, “a traditional detective story with a new, modern shape” for Paramount picture. (1) This paper focuses on the film Chinatown which is neo-noir, not only because of the setting, but the concept of cinematography that connects duplicates occurrences together that describe three categories: background of the cinematographer, point of view of the main character, and the interpretation of the ending scenes.
This whole idea of female dominance directly challenges the Chain of Beings and as a result, exemplified Lady Macbeth’s importance as Shakespeare’s device to cause fascination amongst audiences. It also shows explicitly her influence on the main character Macbeth and hence the state of the entire play.
In Margo Hendricks critical article "A Painter 's Eye: Gender and Middleton and Dekker 's The Roaring Girl," she stated that Moll, “is perceived as a woman
The film represents the main protagonist Nola all the way down to her three lovers, with each representing a different personality trait that is not necessarily race identifiable. Lee develops a new form of cinema by creating a new aesthetic. Lee details the double standard that exists for Nola by showing her deviating from social norms. She refuses to live by anyone else’s rules and resists conventional ideals such as marriage and monogamy. This film portrays a possible explanation of racial dynamics within gender and sexuality. If roles were shifted for men and women through various aspects focusing on mise-en-scene, editing and narrative conventions.
The feminist school has various goals when being used to scrutinize a piece of literature. As Gillespie points out, historically texts were written by males with primarily male protagonists, and thus, the male sentiment is most dominantly expressed in many works of literature. The lessened representation of women in literature is usually confined to typical stereotypes of the historical period. This can be seen in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, and this will be further explored and discussed. Through the feminist lens, women’s presence and portrayal in the play, as well as the common stereotypes about women in Shakespearean society, can be studied carefully, despite the centuries that have passed between the play’s conception and the present. Additionally, as stated in Literary Theories: A Sampling of Critical Lenses,
In the story the reader gets a feel for what Mollie is experiencing during her day as her husband Gerald. Charlotte Perkins Gilman does an amazing job getting her point across using the third-person limited omniscient point of view. At the end of the story Gerald is now conscious of new views and feelings about women that he never had before. Without Gilman’s use of the third-person limited omniscient point of view the reader wouldn’t have gotten that much out of the
By the end of the play, it is notable how hyper masculinity deteriorates the main characters of the play. The characters of Macbeth inhabit a world of darkness and uncertainty as hyper-masculine ideologies are introduced to them. As one reads throughout the play, it’s easy to pick up on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's excellent job at portraying the personification of humanity’s identity crisis with gender. Without proper gender roles, humanity begins to deteriorate, so the struggle that takes place in this play is of significant concern. With the creation of the Macbeths, Shakespeare diminishes everything that what was considered to be human nature. Macbeth becomes unstable because he cannot please such an unsatisfied woman, so he feels the need to take on an artificial hyper-masculine role but because of this is too torn to
Male and female relationships have different aspects to them. The male in most male and female relationships reflect how dependent the female will be in everyday life. Depending on how dependent the female is on the male in her life, may cause her to not be able to think for herself. The more dominant the male is, the more dependent the female will be. This statement can be proved in Fin’s “The Bridegroom,” in Gilb’s “Love in L.A.,” and in Boyle’s “The Love of My Life.”
Films are seen as an escape from pre-established reality. Films based upon actual events, however—dramatized or adapted for the screen—infringe on the relationship between viewer subjectivity and their continuously engaged reality. The result is subtle yet engrossing; a subjective visualization of the past reborn for the present. Polanski’s Chinatown echoes the sensibilities of 20th century American film movements while also being historically accurate. Through the use of a limited point-of-view, symbolism, and theme, Chinatown creates dynamic characters while restricting audience perspective.
benefits of this Act. The first time the prisoners went to their cells, they were to be naked and holding their clothes. This nudity allowed the prisoners to be vulnerable to other inmates. This continues when the inmates take a shower. There is no privacy walls in the showers, and this can promote sexual abuse. Andy had an unpleasant encounter with Bogs Diamond, the leader of “the sisters.” This gang was known to sexually abuse inmates. Bogs first words to Andy were “did anyone get to you yet,” implying sexual assault. Sexual assault in prisons is relativity common and Shawshank Redemption depicted the issue well. The Shawshank State Penitentiary staff needed to recognize the signs of victimization and prevent it from happening. However, the guards did know about the abuse and looked the other way for two years. Prison rape is unlawful and needs to be monitored closely. Another situation that needs to be vanquished from the prison is the nefarious corruption.
It is inevitable that society has made a stereotype for the definition on what it means to be a man or a woman, it was stated and believed a long time ago and has just moved through life, generation after generation. Society believes that men are the workers and providers and essentially the strength of the family, and women take more of a nurturing and caring role. From this, a man’s physical strength is portrayed as being strong and brave at superior and horrific times, yet through literature like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, it shows that they can end up weak. There are many times in William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, where the acts of “reverse-gender roles” are being detected in terms of what
From the minute one is born the division between genders is placed. The phrases “act like a lady” or “be a man” become everyday practices and lifelong slogans. Fairy tales are always focused on women who play the beautiful damsel in distress persona and on men who play the handsome knight coming in to save them. Whether you are female or male, it is important to remember that these fixed characteristics placed on genders are never to be reinforced. In a world full of gender stereotypes, the Disney movie Mulan challenges the societal construct of masculinity and femininity by proving that gender roles are not fixed traits, but socially constructed views that can be changed.
Chinatown is a drama/thriller starring Jack Nicholson who played the character of Jake Gittes. The plot of the story develops around Gittes job as a private investigator, and Gittes researches the background information of the water system for Los Angeles. Through Gittes investigation, the sudden death of Mr. Mulwray becomes the main plot line of the story. Ms. Mulwray, the wife hires Jake Gittes to investigate her husband for infidelity, but through his inspecting, he starts to uncover the truths within the Los Angeles water system. The characters of the film have a strange connection with each other, which makes the story rich in depth. This is powerful for the viewer because the potential of the plot can be expanded with extraordinary plot twists and character development. Personally, I thought the Roman Polanski constructed a phenomenal movie, because of the drama aspect. The conflict was clear thirty minutes into the film, and the direction of the film perfectly kept the audience glued to the plot of the movie. Chinatown provides effective elements of drama through intensive detail, and a strong plot; which makes the movie highly entertaining.
The male gaze was introduced by Laura Mulvey in her 1975 essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" and is “a feature of gender power asymmetry in film”. Mulvey explained, “Women were objectified in film because heterosexual men were in control of the camera”. The male gaze is when the audience views the scene of object –in this case the woman- from the prospective of a man. This may occur if the camera lingers over a woman’s curves for a while displaying her as an erotic object rather than a human being, making her a victim of sexualisation. The woman is usually unaware of this gaze, which brings patriarchy to the situation. Her essay also explains that the ‘female gaze’ is similar except it is like women looking at themselves through a male’s eyes. This can have a negative effect on real life women because they are being told what they should look like in order to be noticed by men and what men want to see. Feminists