"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdbIINpktOs"
James Bond "Die another day"
The James Bond franchise is a clear example of film objectifying females and forcing the audience to view females via the male gaze. The scene within "Die another day"when bond meets the character Jinx demonstrates my previous statement by using the scripted dialogue that shows and uses the objectification.
First of all the clip opens up with a zooming in shot, making the audience perspective intwined with Bonds, the shot changes to vignette effect making it look as though we're looking through his eyes, allowing us to interpret the male gaze through Bond's view. The slow motion allows us to maintain eye contact with the subject for longer, making her an objectification by prolonging the camera watching her body. Bond's eyes scan her and the camera looks back at him showing enjoying her view, giving a sense of scopophilia.
Her entrance to the scene as she leaves the water and uses body language to attract the audience makes her seem more desirable by the way she walks, using her hips swinging adding to the male's appeal. The scripted scene first uses objectified dialogue by Bond saying 'Magnificent view', the text left open to be interpreted from the male's view (meaning her).
She shows confidence by not giving him too much eye contact but remains grinning, Bond offers her his drink and she accepts, applying the patriarchal society from the male in control. Immediately introducing herself, the two share a handshake this lets the audience know their partnership has began.
Bond says 'Too strong for you' which could be interpreted in two different views, meaning the drink or himself. The dialogue carries on with the split meanings and adding humour to the scenes for audience gratification. For e.g bond says 'I'm just here for the birds' then quickly holds up his binoculars and says 'anthropologist' but the audience know the inner humour, allowing the audience to be more connected with the character and film, gaining their approval more so.
Throughout their whole conversation bond is smoking a cigar, blowing the smoke out his mouth and what sometimes looks over towards the woman, he also takes the time inhaling whilst she's waiting for a response from him, showing that he has dominance over the dialogue, also showing her ability to wait so easily for him.
The camera angles vary from extreme close ups of the female, to dominant over the shoulder shots from Bond. The camera more than often tends to look down on the woman from bond's point of view, then looking up towards the male. This shows the camera enabling dominance towards the male with the greater height and the woman is smaller and being shown as less powerful. The use of focal blur on the women when the male is speaking again shows high authority, blocking the woman out but keeping her in the frame for visual purposes, but having the camera in focus on bond.
Scripted dialogue does not show objectification , I know what you are trying to say, I think we could change that to helps represent female characters as passive and easily influenced by male attention. I also like your camera angle point, you explain it well. To improve you need to be concise and confident with the points you make, at the moment I think your are thinking as you write rather than have a clear understanding and plan to start with.
ReplyDeleteYou have explained how the slow motion gives further chance for scopophilia, well done,