Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

Laura Mulvey's piece about the relationship between the audience and film identified familiar thoughts (while watching a film) as well as an explanation of the allure towards cinema. It is incredible how the dimmed, almost completely dark lights in a movie theatre allow us to zone in on the movie; we become so engrossed in the film when we can relate the characters to our people, and the stories to our own memories. While Mulvey does identify the audience's interest to voyage into the depth of the lens, she almost contradicts herself; Mulvey states how we must diffuse our scopophilia(s)? by understanding them and then finding other ways to enjoy eroticism- versus the third party/uninteracted perspective; however, much of the essay goes into to detail as to why we enjoy film they way we do. Also the cinematography of a given movie grants a particular point of view, from a character or angle, that adds to the dynamic of this voyeuristic glamour.
I found bits of this essay to be very parallel to the content in Chapter 2 of Ways of Seeing. The conclusions and explanations as to why women possess certain qualities, while men normally contrast them in art. The description of the various tones, in both photography and film, are easily transcended into real life circumstances. I enjoy reading these exerpts, which detail thoughts that occassionally surface or swim in my mind.....