Death 24 x a Second

Laura Mulvey 2005

Laura Mulvey a professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London. Author of Visual and other pleasures (1989), Citizen Kane (1992) and Fetishism and Curiosity (1996) 

Synopsis: Mulvey discusses questions referring to film theory, spectatorship and narrative, in terms of new technologies (DVD and Video) although we are already experiencing much further advancements here have transformed the way in which film is experienced. We are now able to hold onto the image and story by given access to repetition, slow down, speed up, freeze frame; further by doing so Mulvey claims we are able to find other pleasures likened to 'fetishistic' rather than voyeuristic. Mulvey states; 'the tension between still frame and moving image coincides cinema capacity to capture the appearance of of life and preserve after death' in this way films hidden stillness is allowed to come forth and open up by anyone who has access (a button)  
    



Chapter: Pensive Spectator
(p 181) 

Mulvey addresses how new technologies at the end the 20th century has widened perceptions in terms of inviting new and innovative ways of seeing the internal world of cinema. Further, Mulvey (2005 p 181)  describes that 'new technologies work on the body of the film as mechanisms of delay'....its desire to transform perception of cinema just the camera had transformed the human eye's perception of the world'. Moreover the act of cinemas delay, (of repetition and of forward, backward) means that the oscillation between movement and stillness, the point of freeze frame alerts cinema's changeable temporality to be revealed.

Further on (p 184 ) Mulvey draws attention to its effect on spectatorship, that is, how the spectator comes into play by taking pleasure in having the ability to control the story by shifting it from an extended duration to something that is more fragmented, that is, to be paused, caught for thought and reflection and pleasure (I add) quoting the above thoughts to fetishism, perhaps repeat the scene again and finally continue....      

to present an example, Mulveys offers up Raymond Bellour and his description the aesthetic implications of a sequence in Max Ophuls's letter from an Unknown women (1948), in which Stephen looks at the photographs that Lisa has enclosed (Note: I need to watch to fully understand Bellour's meaning of spectatorship within this film)

  
Bellour says; what happens when the spectator of a film is confronted with a photograph? The photo becomes first one of object among many; like all other elements of a film, the photograph is caught up in the film's unfolding. Yet the presence of a photo on the screen gives rise to very particular trouble. Without ceasing to advance its own rhythm, the film seems to freeze, to suspend itself, inspiring in the spectator a recoil from the image that goes hand in hand with a growing fascination...creating another distance, another time, the photo permits me to reflect on the cinema...

Still: Letter from an Unknown Women Ophuls (1948)

Furthermore he continues, as soon as you stop the film, you begin to find time to add to the image. You start to reflect differently on film, on cinema. You are led towards the photogram (or frozen film) which is itself a step further in the direction of the photograph...this presence burst forth, while other means exploited by the mise-en-scene (''visual theme" or "telling a story'') to work against time tend to vanish. The photo thus becomes a stop within a stop, a freeze frame within a freeze frame; between it and the film from which emerges, two kinds of time blend together, always inextricable (impossible to untangle or separate) but without becoming confused.In this photograph enjoys a privilege over all other effects that makes the spectator, this hurried spectator, a pensive one as well. 

(The Pensive Spectator pp 6/7 Wide Angle / Mulvey 2005 p 185)  

Mulvey (2005 p186) adds to this by saying, 'this pause for the spectator, usually hurried by the movement of both film and narrative, opens up a space for consciousness (perception) of the still frame within the moving image' to add, 'the transformation of 'now' into 'thens' as the screen image (Mulvey p189) moves forward'. she continues by suggesting that the 'still frame' brought upon the pensive spectator (I add, the eager or impatient spectator) is an association with death* (discusses the index...? still after reading about the indexical sign, what it means??) (i add, is this the 'full stop' the part in the reflective cycle where the individual requires to come out of the cycle in order to give deeper thought, to problem solve in order to return, to move on? Hitchcocks does this when editing...when a scene has ended, the cameras focus, for example on the back of the piano (object) as seen in Rope 1948...Some transitions between reels were hidden by having a dark object fill the entire screen for a moment) * usually concealed by the films movement...

Particular interest to Mulvey (p191) is the effect of new technologies on cinema that has now aged. She (p192) says; ...'there is, perhaps is a different kind of voyeurism at stake when the future looks back with greedy fascination at the past'..that is, she notes, the compulsive notions of repetition formed within the spectators urge to return to same old films...a dimension of play, (Hanson: Room for Play, Benjamin's gamble with Cinema 2003, Mulvey 2005 p192) ....'that are (Hanson 2003) are traced back to children's imaginative relation to toys, with curiosity...the urge to do something over and over, Repetition, (Michaelson 1990 Mulvey 2005 p192 ) acceleration, deceleration, arrest, in freeze frame, release and reversal of movement',  in search for as Mulvey puts it, for fetishistic pleasure, (i add) in the search for new interpretations, missing gaps not found before and by only experiencing that film or book for a second of a third time, is renew.