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Transcript of Audio-Visual Research Proposal
Spectatorship and Identification in Frank Miller’s Sin City.
Christopher J. Wheeler 920402233
Date of Submission
22 May 2007
Lecturer:
Prof. Gideon De Wet
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree BA (Honours) Audio-Visual
Production Management in the Department of Communication at the University of Johannesburg.
Content page p.
1. INTRODUCTION 1
2. RESEARCH PROBLEM 1
3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1
4. RESEARCH AIMS 2
5. THEORECTICAL STATEMENTS 2
6.METHODOLOGY 2
6.1. Literature overview 2
6.1.1. Film Noir as a Genre 3
6.1.2. Filmic Apparatus and The "Imaginary Signifier" 3
6.1.3. Spectatorship and Identification 4
6.1.4. Psychoanalysis and Laura Mulvey 5
6.1.5. Nexus search 6
6.2. Methodological orientation 6
6.3. Research design and Rationale 7
6.3.1. Data Collection 8
6.3.2. Data Analysis 8
7. CONCLUSION 9
8. SOURCE LIST 10
1. INTRODUCTION
Classical film theory brought ideas of how films are formally constructed and they focused on the
significance of film as an iconic sign. Contemporary film theory, however, is concern with film as an
exchange of meaning between the spectator and a set of signifiers (Fourie, 2002: 223). This newly
placed emphasis on the viewer's experience and has given rise to new disciplines in modern film
theorizing none more intrigue, and controversial, than the application of Sigmund Freud's
psychoanalytical principles of the unconscious.
According to Metz (in Fourie, 2002:229) one of the reasons viewers identify with their action of
perception is that "film corresponds to people's 'perception' and experience of their own dreams", it for
this reason that psychoanalysis is interested in the positioning of the viewer as a spectator who is
actively involved while at the same time passively guided through any given feature. It is therefore in
the interest of psychoanalytical film theorist to actively theories about the object/subject (i.e. object
being the film and the spectator relationship and its connection to unconscious psychological structures
that operate within the viewer.
This paper will propose the research of the role of the spectator and filmic identification, in accordance
to psychoanalytical film theory, in Frank Miller’s Sin City (Rodriguez, R. & Miller, F. 2005). The
filmic conventions of the Film Noir genre will be examined, as well as the influence these conventions
have on the spectator’s identification within the film.
2. RESEARCH PROBLEM
How do the filmic conventions of Frank Miller’s Sin City, as a contemporary Film Noir, influence the spectator’s identification with the text?
3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What filmic conventions of Film Noir can be identified in Frank Miller’s Sin City?
How does the psychoanalytical principle of cinematic-apparatus explain the spectator’s identification with filmic texts?
How do Film Noir conventions, operating in Frank Miller’s Sin City, influence male/female spectatorship in the film?
4. RESEARCH AIMS
To identify what filmic conventions of Film Noir which can be found in Frank Miller’s Sin City.
To describe how the psychoanalytical principle of cinematic-apparatus explains the spectator’s identification with filmic texts.
To investigate how filmic Noir conventions, operating in Frank Miller’s Sin City, influence male/female spectatorship?
5. THEORECTICAL STATEMENTS
Genre theory examines the structural, thematic, and visual systems integral to the whole series
of film (Root in Cook & Bernink, 1999:184), in this vein genres act as paradigms, and as
properties of signification (Fourie, 2001:67).
The ‘cinematic-apparatus theory’ (or ‘filmic apparatus’), states that the spectator’s
identification is based on the viewer’s enjoyment of film. This enjoyment is explained through
their identification with the action of perception and imagined emotions; the film-dream
experience; voyeurism and fetishism (Fourie, 2002:228). Furthermore, the theory is based on
the semiotic assumptions that, firstly, meaning is influenced by the nature of sensual stimuli
(such as the content and construction of a visual image); and secondly, that viewers/spectators
have the ability to assign complex meaning to such images (Fourie, 2002:9).
Laura Mulvey (in Cook & Bernink, 1999:349) argues that cinematic apparatus favors masculine
spectatorship, and therefore patriarchal ideology. Theories of spectatorship, therefore, support
the assumption that Film Noir conventions will influence male/female viewers in different
ways.
6.METHODOLOGY
The following section will discuss the theoretical scope of this proposal through a detailed literature overview followed by a proposed methodological orientation and research design.
6.1. Literature overviewMetz’s theory of theory of ‘Filmic Apparatus’ will be outlined as well as spectatorship and
identification in psychoanalytical film theory. The Film Noir will also be discussed within genre theory
and its significance to this study.
6.1.4. Film Noir as a Genre
There has been debate over whether Film Noir should be classified as a genre or a style. This divide
offers an interesting definitional problem in that the Noir film requires a system of classification that
encompasses it’s generic markers and investigates its structural, thematic and visual systems integral to
the Noir ‘spirit’ (Root in Cook & Bernik, 1999: 184).
Ewing (1988:61) argues that “…[a film] has to reflect every aspect of the Film Noir spirit or it is
something other than Noir”. However, the rise of contemporary films such as Blade Runner (1982) and
Sin City (2005) have presented postmodern extension of the Noir. Furthermore, the stylistic elements
found in classic Noirs are still present in their contemporary counterparts (e.g. claustrophobic urban
settings, distinct oblique indexical depth perception cues, high contrast, compositional tension, etc.).
Therefore, style of Noir cannot be characterised by the classical era alone instead, like all other genres,
there must be an accepted pastiche that recognises that the development of the Noir structure and its
form is defined as a form of Noir, rather than being Noir. Many film scholars and theorist have tended
for the term ‘neo-Noir’, this is an attempt to encapsulate both the style and structure of classic Noir
narratives when catagorising contemporary Noirish films. Subsequently, the classification of Noir has
also been affected by the social-historical context in which the genre was established.
The conceptualisation of the thematic elements in Noir emerged during the 1940’s in France, when
French critics noticed a new mood of cynicism, pessimism and darkness in American cinema (Schrader
in Simpson, Utterson & Shepherdson, 2004:149). Film historians account the conventions of Noir to be
a result of post-war social depression that mimics the disruption of social order and patriarchal
ideology, subsequently this disruption of order was transferred over into film as a medium of social
commentary and ideological criticism (Fourie, 2002:224). The cycle of film genres allows theorist to
localise the ideological intent of the latter extensions of genres through ongoing retrospective
classification. Hence, genre theory allows for a revisionist movement that is able to encapsulate the
thematic and filmic conventions of the original films that constitute the movement (Giannetti,
2005:379). This offers film theorist a genre paradigm through which contemporary filmic texts can be
analysed and understood.
6.1.2. Filmic Apparatus and The "Imaginary Signifier"
The film viewing experience has long been associated with a suspension of disbelief, while at the same
time involving the viewer in an identification process with the filmic text. Metz ( in Cook & Bernik,
1998:348) argues that "...to watch a film in a cinema is to be seduced, encouraged to regress furtively
to a childhood state where fantasy is permitted free rein". In other words film acts a means to engage
viewers in a dream-like state whereby the images on screen are reminiscent of the sensations and
manifest content caused by the unconscious identification with the latent content. This is a result of
what is know as the 'Apparatus' theory. The concept is that the cinematic process involves a number of
tangible and intangible elements that lead to an object/subject relationship that allows this 'filmic
apparatus' to imitate the processes of the human unconscious (Fourie, 2002:227). By understanding the
relationship between the nature of signs and codes in filmic texts, psychoanalysis offers an approach to
semiotics that incorporates unconscious mental processes of the mind outline by Sigmund Freud.
This study will look at how Metz’s cinematic ‘apparatus’ approach to film, specifically Noir, can yield
psychological processes provoked and exploited in the experience of the spectator. Filmic apparatus
involves the technical nature of film communication (i.e. the effects of camera, lighting, sound,
projection, etc.); the physical environment the viewer finds themselves in (the dark theatre, size of the
screen, the projector); the image in itself and its inherent quality (i.e. film as a mimicial device and as a
iconic representation of a projected reality) and, most importantly, the mental process of the viewer
(Fourie, 2002:227-228). Although the physical environment in which films are viewed may differ (i.e.
one might watch on a smaller home television), the principles remain the same, as the gestaltic film
experience is still relevant and ultimately cohesive, in other words the Apparatus theory would still
apply.
The result of the Apparatus theory is that the image seen by the viewer is essentially absent. The visual
array of information the viewer experiences (characters, settings, dialogue, etc.) is projected as an
intangible spectacle, it is only on the film's celluloid that the concreteness of any variable information
can be located and measured. In other words "the actors, the events, that depict the content are
physically absent and exists merely as light and sound on celluloid; that exists only in and through the
camera and projector signals, which are themselves empty forms that have no existence outside the
total filmic apparatus." (Fourie, 2002:227). Thus film is recognized as an 'imaginary signifier' that
serves purely as a means through which the viewer can 'engage' in the process of identification and
spectatorship.
6.1.3. Spectatorship and Identification
Metz argues that although the viewer “identifies with the fictional character(s), and although such
identification is part of the enjoyment of the film, it is a secondary identification" and that before this
secondary identification occurs the viewer goes through primary identification that is a result of the
viewer identifying with their sense of perception or, in other words, with the projected images on
screen (Metz in Fourie, 2002). The viewer is aware that the images they are watching are not
happening in 'real' time and that they are, in fact, absent. This results in a viewer being in a position of
'all-seeing mastery', this reinforces the viewer’s identification with the camera and the resultant
perspective it produces. It is this identification with the camera that resembles the dream-like
experience described earlier. The viewer's engagement with filmic language and with media reaches
deep into the very process of identity formation (Flitterman-Lewis, 2002).
The reason the perceptions of film relate so strongly to self-identification can be describe through
Jacques Lacan's 'mirror stage'. In this stage in childhood development (around the age of six months)
the child catches his/her reflection in a reflective surface (mirror or even his mother's face) and sees the
reflection as gestaltic image of their otherwise unconnected being. This is the beginning of the
identification of one's self through the 'wholeness' perceived in others, and henceforth the child forms a
sense of self through the perceptions of others. Therefore, the process of identification in film is a
direct result of the original identification with the image the child viewed in the 'mirror', this nostalgic
experience is one of the factors influencing spectator enjoyment describe by psychoanalytical film
theorists. Furthermore in psychoanalytical film theory, this activates various unconscious processes that
correlate with the viewers ‘positioning’ within the text. Hence, if genre analysis involves categorizing
films according to specific filmic conventions (e.g. thematic repetitions, stylistic consistencies, etc.),
then psychoanalysis should account for these conventions in a manner that suggest the reason for such
reoccurrence are a result of ideologically aligning the spectator with the conscious and unconscious
processes.
3.1.4. Psychoanalysis and Laura Mulvey
In 1975, Laura Mulvey presented her explanation of pleasure and fascination of film, offering a unique
approach to feminist film theory that drew on the works of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan.
Through applying psychoanalytical principles, Mulvey shows that a literary or cultural work is always
structured by complex and often contradictory human desires. In 1989, Laura Mulvey’s comments on
the use of psychoanalysis were published by Screen:
“There is no way in which we can produce an alternative [to ‘the phallocentric order’] out of the blue, but we can begin to make a break by examining patriarchy with the tools it provides…Psychoanalytic theory as it now stands can at least advance our understanding of the status quo, of the patriarchal order in which we are caught” (Mulvey in Cook & Bernink, 1999: 242)
In Mulvey’s groundbreaking article ‘Visual pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ (Mulvey in Fourie,
2004:397), she proposes that film offers the viewer a sense of voyeuristic pleasure through witnessing
the imaginary signifier that is film; a notion she described through scopophila, meaning the desire to
see (Mulvey in Cook & Bernink, 1999: 242). Furthermore, her criticism of traditional Hollywood
cinema suggested that scopophila was an active and passive process that is gendered. In other words,
the agency constructed through visual narratives in Hollywood cinema is patriarchally biased towards
the objectification of the female form, hence male characters’ actions are viewed as active and
powerful, whilst female characters are objectified as a source of male pleasure.
This approach has interesting implications for film Noir, because although patriarchal narrative
paradigms still exist in Noir, the viewer is presented with a heightened sense of division between the
sign system in which the male and female characters exist and the characters themselves. This
distortion was a result of male authority and agency being under threat during the war years (Cook &
Bernink, 1999: 186), resulting in the polarising of gender presentation.
6.1.5. Nexus search
The Nexus search revealed that the relationship between psychoanalysis and Film Noir filmic
conventions has not been addressed (NFR, 2007).
6.2. Methodological orientation
The methodological orientation of this research will be qualitative in its approach and positioning. The
meta-theoretical understanding of current literature discussed is qualitative by nature, this approach is
seen as more flexible as it views processes as interactive and adopts a more open structure towards
research (Du Plooy, 2002:84). Qualitative research is committed to examining the “properties, values,
needs or characteristics that distinguish individuals, groups, communities, organizations, events,
settings or messages” (Du Plooy: 2002:83). From this it can be deduced that within this type of study
reality will be subjective because the main provider of information and the source of meaning is
gathered mainly from the perspective of the unit of analysis being studied. The objectives of a
qualitative design is to explore certain areas where limited or no prior information exists, therefore an
inductive method of reasoning will be used. Therefore, this study is based on assumptions that will
begin with observations and end with descriptions of what was observed through the psychoanalytical
principles of spectatorship.
6.3. Research design and Rationale
This study will identify filmic conventions of Film Noir through a genre analysis of how meaning may
be constructed through the repetition of conventions found in the content and form of Noir filmic texts.
These filmic conventions of Noir will then be examined through a textual analysis of the t two sub-
stories within the film, “The Hard Goodbye” and “The Big Fat Kill”; therefore the unit of analysis.
This particular approach will allow for the thematic elements in Film Noir to be addressed from a
‘metapsychological’ perspective as the form and content, from which the filmic conventions arise,
influence the spectator identification.
In order to answer the research questions posed, the researcher must engage in a ‘dialogue’ with the
literature, this interaction in embedded in the theoretical context of the theoretical statements proposed.
There must also be an interaction between the researcher and the texts itself, namely the two sub-stories
identified above. This interaction will take place in the form of a textual and genre analysis.
This analysis will be in turn be informed by the literature, as well as the findings rendered from the
researchers interaction with the theoretical framework. The literature and the text cannot interaction
with one another directly, therefore it is in the interest of the study that the researcher ensures, as far as
possible, that the textual analysis is conducted accurately and is consistent in addressing the core
constructs and assumptions presented by the theoretical framework. By using such an approach, the
research process becomes circular, dynamic and flexible. This meta-triangulation between researcher,
literature and text can be represented graphically (in Da Silva, A. 2004) as follows:
The validity of the literature study is derived from triangulation in which multiple sources will be
consulted. It is acknowledged that reliability is limited due to the subjective way in which each
researcher may extract relevant information from sources. However, it is assumed that should another
researcher consulted the sources to be used in the research, they should come to similar conclusions
about the proposed research questions.
The issue of reliability and validity is further compounded because one of the most unresolved
criticisms of psychoanalysis is that it lacks falsifiablilty. "Freudian theory could account for anything a
person did, nothing that a person could do would be contrary to what the theory predicted"
(Hergenhahn, 2005:500). Another is that there is a seemingly overemphasis on sex, many other
psychological disciplines (such as cognitive, behaviorist and factionist’s theories) have produced
personality theories which have yielded non-sexual conclusion based on empirical evidence rather than
the unscientific methods of collection data that psychoanalysis entails (Hergenhahn, 2005:499).
6.3.1. Data Collection
The data-collection methods used for the literature study to identify the filmic conventions of Film
Noir, as well as how psychoanalysis explains spectatorship, includes reading and analyzing relevant
material from numerous books, journals and internet articles.
For the textual analysis of Frank Miller’s Sin City, data will be collected from the film by means of
observations and descriptions of the selected sub-stories.
6.3.2. Data Analysis
The descriptions of the selected sequences will be subjected to psychoanalytical criticism, according to
the defining features of Film Noir. The analysis will be informed by the works of theorists Metz
(1982), Mulvey (1989), Kaplan (1990), Fourie (2002), as well as other key theorists how have
contributed towards the psychoanalytical film theory. The main goal of psychoanalysis, as described by
Fourie (2002:227), is:
“In the first place, this approach makes a meaningful shift from the formalistic study of film as a discrete entity on the screen to a deep contemplation on the relationship between the film (object) and the viewer (subject)…[secondly] the psychoanalytic perspective initiates inspection…into the unconscious processes at play during the perception of a film, and upon which the filmic apparatus focuses.” The psychoanalytical approach described above will be contextualised within Noir genre. This will be
achieved by acknowledging, not only the filmic conventions of Noir, but also examining the origins of
the genre as it act as a cultural text within the system of culture in which it was produced. In other
words “the system of production often determines what sort of artifacts will be produced…and what
sort of effects the text may generate” (Kellner, 2004). In this vein, the data analysis will approach genre
as it represent systems of orientations; this assumption refers to the “orientations that circulate between
a particular media industry [e.g. film], the text [genre films] and the audience [referred to as
‘spectators’ in psychoanalytical film theory]” (Fourie, 2002: 60). It is these three areas that will form
the base of the genre analysis as it pertains to the textual analysis of the selected sub-stories. In
addition, the historical influence of the Noir genre will also be examined as it contributes towards an
intertextuality of meaning created through filmic means in supporting thematic consistencies with the
Noir genre.
7. CONCLUSION
The proposed study revolves around understanding that filmic devices operate in creating meaning
within a text, as well as influencing the spectator’s identification with the text. The research will
examine the Film Noir genre and identifying the filmic conventions that operate in Frank Miller’s Sin
City. These conventions, as well as they manner in which they are used, will be analyzed from a
psychoanalytical perspective in order to gain an understanding of how this contemporary Film Noir
uses the filmic conventions of Noir to influence the spectators identification, as well as their
enjoyment, in the film.
The following is a proposed structure of the chapters that will be in the research paper:
Chapter 2: Film Noir genre and its filmic conventions.
Chapter 3: Psychoanalytical film principles of spectatorship and viewer enjoyment of film.
Chapter 4: Psychoanalysis, Film Noir and Frank Miller’s Sin City.
8. SOURCE LIST
COOK, P. & BERNINK, M. 1999. The Cinema Book. 2nd ed. British Film Institute: London. 406 p.
DA SILVA, A. 2004. Bowling for Columbine: An ideological analysis of Third world cinema from the first world. Johannesburg: UJ. (Dissertion – BA Honours). 49 p.
DU PLOOY, G.M. 2002. Communication Research: techniques, methods and applications. Juta & Co. Ltd 2002.
FLITTERMAN-LEWIS, S. 2002. Psychoanalysis, Film and Television. http://www.jcomm.uoregon.edu. [Date of access: 17 Aug. 2006].
FOURIE, P. 2002. Media Studies Vol. 2: Content, Audiences and Production. Lansdowne: Juta Education. 588 p.
GIANNETTI, L. 2004. Understanding Movies. 10th ed. Pearson Education: New Jersey. 579 p.
HERGENHAHN, B.R. 2005. An Introduction to the History of Psychology. 5th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. 678 p.
KELLNER, D. 1995. Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture. www.sagepub.com/upm-data/9375_016783Ch1.pdf. [Date of access: 21 May 2007].
NFR. [2007]. Nexus Database System. http://stardata.nfr.ac.za [Date of access: 18 May. 2007].
PRINCE, S. 1996. Psychoanalytic Film Theory and the Problem of the Missing Spectator.( In Bordwell, D. & Carroll, N. Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies. London: The University of Wisconsin Press. p. 71 - 87.)
RODRIGUEZ, R. & MILLER, F. 2005. directors. Frank Miller’s Sin City. Produced by Miramax International and Dimension films and released by Ster-Kinekor entertainment. Wendtwood, South Africa. [DVD].
SIMPSON, P. UTTERSON, A. & SHEPHERDSON, K.J. 2004. Film Theory Vol. 2: Critical concepts in media and cultural studies. Routledge: London. 360 p.
6.3.1. Genre Analysis
A genre analysis of Film Noir will be used to evaluate what filmic conventions found in the content and
form of the Noir genre. Genres represent systems of orientations; this assumption refers to the
“orientations that circulate between a particular media industry [e.g. film], the text [genre films] and the
audience [referred to as ‘spectators’ in psychoanalytical film theory]” (Fourie, 2002: 60). It is these
three areas that will form the base of the genre analysis. In addition, the historical influence of the Noir
genre will also be examined as it contributes towards an intertextuality of meaning created through
filmic means in supporting thematic consistencies with the Noir genre.
Specifically, the construction of meaning through the form and content in Noir will be examined. This
study will address the thematic orientation of Noir and visually perceptual objects and actions within
the Noir genre. The perceptual objects and actions can be divided into two areas: overt and covert
(Fourie, 2002:69-79). The overt level of analysis the iconography of what appears in front of the film
camera (e.g. locations, settings, buildings, etc), as well as the iconography created by camera shots,
camera angles and different types of editing techniques. The covert level analysis how “sociocultural
meanings are expressed, reflected, unified, contradicted or created by these visualizations” (Fourie,
2002:79). It is in this vein that the cinematic-apparatus theory will be applied in order to examine the
influence of these filmic devices in spectator identification. Then a textual analysis will be conducted
on Frank Miller’s Sin City, as a contemporary Film Noir, and, hence we can identify the conventions of
Film Noir present in the film in order to understand the ideological identification associated with the
spectator.
6.3.2. Textual Analysis
The textual analysis will be orientated around Frank Miller’s Sin City as the unit of analysis. After the
genre analysis of Film Noir has yield its findings, the filmic conventions will be analysed in terms of
how they are presented in the film. As well as how this influences the spectator’s identification and
positioning, through the meaning create through the use of signs and codes present in the film. This
goes beyond merely an aesthetic evaluation, because the filmic codes used in the film will be explained
through the psychoanalytical film principles already outlined.
In order to obtain a structured understanding of the filmic elements in the film, the textual analysis will
cover visual signs (iconic, indexical, and symbolic) and their significant meaning within the Noir
genre. Furthermore, visual communication enables the combining of signs to produce visual codes that
communicate complicated and abstract ideas (Fourie, 2002:11). These ‘complicated and abstract’
significations will be explained by applying psychoanalysis as a means of producing an understanding
of the texts codes within Film Noir. Metonymic and analogic codes will be identified and discussed in
this textual analysis. Metonymic codes are a “collection of signs that prompt the reader to interpret
meanings on the basis of their association/assumptions”, whilst analogic codes are a collection of signs
that make use of visual metaphors (Fourie, 2002:12).
6.3.3. Validity and Reliable
Here you need to show that you will still be using triangulation : the theory will be supported by
your analysis of the text, and you as researcher are a third point of the triangle.