American Beauty - Male Gaze Analysis

In the film american beauty Laura Mulveys theory of visual pleasure and the male gaze is emphasised and plays up to the typical idea of this.
The camera shots in the scenes suggest that the male has an active role without moving, the slow zoom towards the mans face suggests that we are seeing things through his eyes, we see that by doing this the female is the one that has to please the male, after the slow zoom to the males face, the get an extreme close up of the mans eyes, this allows us as an audience to get the idea of who's eyes we are seeing through whist watching the cheerleading routine, this allows the audience to feeling like they are physically seeing the routine through his eyes. After this the camera reverse and has a slow zoom towards the girl, this then allows us to engage with the man as this is what he is seeing, and all focus becomes on one person.  Once the camera is fully focused on the girl and we are seeing her through his eyes, we see a slow camera tilt and is a fragmentation of the girls body, during this part of the film, we do not see the male dancing or becoming as a sexual object, we only see his face, whereas with the girl we see the camera tilting in a slow moving way, this gives the element that the camera is caressing her body. Another camera shot used in this film is the long-shot that is used as a to show that in his eyes, he is the one the girl is dancing for and no one is there, this shows the idea of the male gaze as it suggests that the girl is aware that she is dancing in a sexual manner just to please the male. We show a strong element of the male gaze here as we see that the male is represented as the most important figure in the film.  By doing these types of camera angles it suggests that all males should feel the need to look and presume women will play up to the stereotype of the male gaze, it also makes women feel obliged to act in a sexual manner, and please males by the clothing that they wear.

The lighting in the clip once the camera has zoomed in on the girl, shows the ligthing focused becomes high key around her and everyone else around her is in low-key lighting so an unable to be seen or focused on, the use of this type of spotlight lighting shows a focus to the person that the male is staring at, the use of this lighting also separates her from the rest of the cheerleaders giving her the element that she is superior. The use of the lighten int he long shot is also created by spot-light lighting, the use of this shows that he is important as the main focus, it also gives the element that he is the only one he is dancing for, and by highlighting him with no one else around him, it shows his importance and dominance over the woman.

The characters in this film...