The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

• Directed by Niels Arden Oplev 
• 2009 
• Swedish, will use this as our foreign film to compare to 
• A journalist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing, or dead, for forty years by a young female hacker. 
• Mikael 
  

• Lisbeth 
• Harriet Vanger disappeared forty years ago from a family gathering on the island. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own dysfunctional family. He employs journalist Mikael and the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth to investigate. When the pair link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. The Vanger's are very secretive and Mikael and Lisbeth are about to find out how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves. 

The Male Gaze

The male gaze in the film can be picked up on when Lisbeth's new guardian questions her sexuality, asking her if she has a boyfriend, how many men she has slept with, her favourite positions etc. The screenshot below presents this scene and how audiences are forced to look at Lisbeth. The camera keeps switching between Lisbeth and her new guardian which forces audiences to keep returning to her face and noticing her reactions to the questions in which he is asking. The use of close up's on her face also force audiences to align with her as they are feeling very close to her and feeling the intensity of the conversation between the two characters.

Female Gaze

Lisbeth is presented as a powerful woman from the beginning of the film and can be seen as a role model to spectator's. She appears as a hardened character who doesn't take anything to heart and is seen as knowing exactly what she is doing around computers from the very first scene. She is the main character within the film which shows her power and control of the film. She is presented as a very smart woman, seen when she can find everything that she wants on the internet; a real strength for this character. 

The scene in the underground where Lisbeth has a fight with the tough, male characters can also be seen from a female gaze. These male characters pick on her with little reason and start acted very roughly towards the female character, however Lisbeth puts up a tough fight and lets them get away with little damage. From a female gaze she is presented as a very strong character who won't put up with this. Although they cause some damage to herself, she is more bothered about her laptop which shows the idea that her job is more important than other things to her and perhaps also that she feels no harm has been done to herself and shows her strength again. 

 

Homosexual Gaze

Emotional, visceral and intellectual pleasures 

Lisbeth is presented as a hardened, technologically savvy woman who lives life as a bisexual hacker. She provides an "uncommon commentary about femininity and sexuality that rivals modern social constructions". She appears to have a character flaw that is linked to her gender, "even as empowered women, they are not immune to love and ultimately are misguided by their emotions". Rather than praising the achievement of this woman, the camera seems to objectify the character. Within the film there are multiple scenes that present Lisbeth in various states of undress as on multiple occasions she seduces Mikael, prompting full-length nude body shots of Lisbeth while only displaying Mikael from the waist up. When Lisbeth spends the night with another woman, both are portrayed in full body nude shots showing every angle of the female form, this shows how these women's bodies are supposed to give pleasure to the spectator. In these sex scenes Lisbeth is gazed at from the character's within the film, the camera and the audience. 

Salander finds herself in a similar situation when her new guardian takes brutal advantage of her to fulfill his own sadistic fetish. Her unusual and fetishized appearance somehow makes it justifiable for a contemptible person like Bjurman to rape his ward as a form of payment.

In all of the sex scenes, Salander is the instigator and dominant person in the relationship, clearly demonstrating that it is an individualistic choice of empowerment and desire rather than a submissive act. While the rape scene is unjustifiable and her being fetishized is equally irrefutable, it is important to understand Salander’s intentions; she returned to Burjman with the intent to illicit blackmail worthy material. Although she momentarily and detrimentally lost control, she not only achieved her goal, but also returned once more for revenge as an act of pleasing herself—and only herself. 

Male Gaze in Clockwork Orange

As seen from the image to the left, taken from the opening shot of the film, women are subjected by being seen as a decoration rather than a functioning character. Due to the Male Gaze, women are reduced to objects to be looked at and used.

The first real woman we see within the film, is the woman who is used as a sex object to be sexually assaulted, as seen in the images to the left. In this scene Alex is wearing a strange mask with a long nose, a phallic image to accompany the violent act. Through this mask, many people see this as though he is hiding his own identity during this scene.






Throughout the above scene, we are aligned with Alex through the use of the cinematography using close up's of Alex's face and Alex speaking directly to the camera. Because of this, we give him our allegiance and see his point of view so are unlikely to change this throughout the film. 

Django - The Black Gaze

Active vs Passive Spectatorship

Active spectatorship theory suggests each viewer is different and many people in the audience will question the film and react to it in different ways to others, not just blindly accepting the messages. Active spectators do not just consume what they are told to watch by marketing that is aimed at them but instead choose different films to watch for different reasons. The passive spectator theory on the other hand suggests we are all the same and our intelligence, life experiences and everything else that makes us individuals does not affect our reception of the film.

Diversion is probably the most common reason people choose to watch films. Quite simply many viewers will watch a film just to get away from the problems and reality of their own lives. This is why most big Hollywood blockbusters offer pure escapism. They tell easy to understand stories where good usually triumphs over evil and people can go home feeling good. They can provide us with emotions we may not always feel in the mundane routine of our everyday lives, making us laugh, cry or scream. Many films even take us to fantasy lands like Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings or far off planets like in Star Wars, allowing us to completely escape the reality of our lives.
Some people may use films as a substitute for personal relationships. A classic example of this is a viewer choosing to go and see a romantic comedy because they are single. The idea of a relationship or finding a happy relationship is played out in the film. Similarly films that are about groups of friends may help a person to feel like part of a group. In films like the American Pie series or The Inbetweeners, viewers might find characters that they would like to be friends with and watching a film is like being in their company. I’m not sure I fully agree with this one and think it may apply more to TV shows like soap operas rather than films.
On a perhaps more concerning note, many people may watch a film for reasons of personal identity. This is where a viewer watches a film because they see themselves reflected in it, whether it be one specific character or a certain subculture of lifestyle. Stoner comedies are a perfect example of this. People who smoke certain substances are much more likely to relate to the stoner comedies of Jay and Silent Bob, Cheech and Chong or Pineapple Express. Similarly some people chose to watch violent films about football hooliganism such as Green Street and The Football Factory because it is a lifestyle that they can relate to. The viewer may even learn some of their values from the text. 

Factors that would affect viewing experience.

Things that may affect your viewing experience may include:

• Location
• Gender 
• Class
• Religion 
• Age
• Interests 
• Education 
• Personal Experiences 

Alignment

• The process of adjusting parts so that they are in relation position. Alignment is the process of identification with something/someone. 
• Spectators are encouraged to relate to characters emotions as well as adapt their points of view, through aspects of micro and macro. 
• The emotional impact of a film commonly depends on spectators alignment with central characters. 
• The filmmaker can align spectators to characters through: Cinematography - a close up positions the spectator closer to a character and alternatively a wide shot would put a distance to the spectator and character, Sound - certain sounds or music are used to highlight and guide our responses, Themes/Content - depending on the subject matter of the film we can be manipulated if the issues portrayed affect us on a personal level.
• Film makers often use existing genre conventions, the 'under dog' story, sympathetic characters and situations, place characters in realistic scenarios, use realistic emotions and play on audiences fears to affect the spectators emotional response. 

Audience - a group experience who share the same or similar meanings. 

Spectator - an individual experience characterised by certain personal connections to the text. 

Reception Theory and Key Terms

• Studying audiences concentrating more on those who consume a text. 
• The audience decodes the message in multiple ways and this is dependant on the cultural background of the person. 
• States that an audience may respond in one of three ways; Preferred Reading (taking an intended reading of the film and agreeing with all the messages encoded in the text), Negotiated Reading (the viewer identifies most of the meanings encoded within the text but doesn't agree with or take the full meaning), Oppositional Reading (the viewer does not identify the meanings encoded into the text and their own personal experiences form an alternative within the text). 
• Dictates that a film doesn't have any meaning without the spectator and meaning is only generated when the spectator views the text and 'decodes' it. 

Most films are constructed in a way that enable us to suspend our disbelief and emerge ourselves within the narrative through the use of slick cinematography and invisible editing and audiences buy into the 'reality' of the film, forgetting the film is a 'film'. However other films draw attention to the film as a 'textual construct', for example Wayne's World which frequently reminds audiences that they are watching a constructed reality. 

 

Aesthetic - Concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty

Cognitive - The mental processes of perception, memory, judgment, and reasoning, as contrasted with emotional processes 

Coherence - Overall sense and understandability 

Disparity - Inequality and difference 

Allegiance - pertains to the moral evaluation of the characters by the spectator 

Allegiance is another form of identification with a character based on your attitudes towards class, race, nationality, age, ethnicity, gender and experiences.