Subject: gender: More than meets the eye
From: Peter Debruge (peterd@mail.utexas.edu)
Date: Fri Oct 22 1999 - 01:15:50 CDT
It's hard to imagine that the film was directed by a woman because it
adopts the male gaze so effectively. It's certainly not typical to find
a film project overseen by a woman whom we see dominated in the course
of the film. That the cameraman works as an extension of male sexual
curiosity is what makes the film hit so close to home with me. Of
course, the cameraman character's judgment goes far beyond what we've
learned to consider acceptable in male-gaze cinema. At first, there
doesn't seem to be anything particularly "wrong" about his spying on her
giving a blow job, for instance, with decades of media exposure telling
male viewers that they have a "right" to see what is going on.
>From the female responses on the list, I gather that the film strikes a
deep exploitative curve among women. Though I can't quite identify with
the victimization some of you seem to feel, I can't get over the fact
that I (as a man who doesn't object to the content until it is too late)
am somehow implicated in the crime.
"What does the film teach us?" you ask. In my opinion, the film teaches
us about ourselves, about how we overlook/abuse/consume the privacy of
others. If the cameras were removed and we were attending this party,
how long would we stand in the doorway watching the blowjob spectacle?
Would we appologize and immediately close the door? Would we stay longer
than the cameraman did? Would we move into the room and close the door
behind us?
If we buy the film as cinema verité and if we're not grossly
uncomfortable by the time we see one of the guys trying to make a move
on a semi-conscious girl in the living room, I think we definitely have
something to learn about ourselves. While watching the film, I felt
sickened by the disturbing things I was seeing. Afterwards, I felt sick
realizing the things that hadn't disturbed me.
And that's all there is to say about that ... (hardly, but the Sandman
calls)
Peter
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PETER DEBRUGE http://go.to/themovies
Entertainment Editor THE DAILY TEXAN
4330 Bull Creek #113 peterd@mail.utexas.edu
Austin, TX 78731 (512) 589-8721
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