Lecture Eight: The Gaze in Film and Art

There are many different ways in which 'gaze' is defined, a common definition being: "to look steadily and intently, especially in admiration, surprise or thought" or "a steady intent look". In terms of film theory, "The Gaze" is a technical term which is now used by theorists to refer to the ways in which viewers look upon people or subjects within any visual medium. This has also become "something of a feminist cliché", where the 'male Gaze' refers to the way in which men look at women, and the introduction of this term can be traced back to Laura Mulvey. Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist who is best known for her essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' which outlines that in film, women are typically the objects of gaze because "the control of the camera comes from factors such as the assumption of heterosexual men as the default target audience for most film genres".

Lecture Notes

We were told that there were four key forms of the Gaze (Intra-diegetic, Direct, Look of the Camera and the Spectator's Gaze), all of which could be identified in visual arts or texts. Intra-diegetic Gaze refers to a subjective point of view shot. Direct Gaze is the gaze of a person in a film or visual piece of work, looking 'out of the frame' as if looking at the viewer. Look of the Camera Gaze is the camera itself appearing to look at the characters depicted, or less metaphorically, the gaze of the film-maker. Finally, Spectator's Gaze is the viewer looking at a person or subject within the work. Additionally, other types of gaze have been constructed but are typically less well known/mentioned (for example the gaze of a bystander), which can be used to describe different situations or in terms of different types of art. For example, James Elkins offers ten different ways of looking at figurative paintings in a gallery.

It is also outlined that viewers can derive pleasure from films in two different ways. The first is Scopophilla, which is a term that refers to take sexual pleasure derived chiefly from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity. The term was introduced to help translate Freud's theories that state that pleasure in looking is instinct in childhood. The second is Identification, whereby "the subject assimilates an aspect, property, or attribute of the other and is transformed, wholly or partially, by the model the other provides", which again, the roots of this concept can be traced back to Freud.


Personally, I don't see how the psychology side of the Gaze relates to animation and my own practice, but in terms of film theory it is definitely relevant. As animators, we can use different camera angles and shots - as well as things like field of focus - to divert our viewers attention. Not only does using a variety of different camera angles make for a more interesting animation, but careful consideration of what shot to use for certain dialogues can help aid our storytelling.

The Wind Rises

The first example I thought of that touches upon one of the key forms of the Gaze is this particular clip from The Wind Rises by Studio Ghibli. At 0:14 you see the world moving through the plane's/the character's point of view. The rest of the clip also uses a variety of different shots to help establish the setting, which is beautifully drawn might I add.