#1 Who is watching and how? Defining the gaze
In Season 4 of Ned Wuascht – wir geh’n fisch’n, we dive deep into new film releases and diverse feminist perspectives. We introduce ourselves and our research backgrounds: Bianca tends to focus on qualitative research, particularly in the areas of archival work and film history, while Barbara takes a more quantitative and artistic approach, exploring gender representation through film and performance. Together, we bridge theory and practice, examining Austrian and international cinema through a diverse feminist lens. This season will be our first fully in English!
To kick off our English episodes, we recap fundamental concepts of feminist film theory and analysis, illustrating them with brief examples. We discuss the Bechdel-Wallace Test, the male gaze—what constitutes a gaze in the first place—and reference Barbara Albert’s Nordrand (AT/GER 1999) and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (GB/US/FR 2024). Can dramaturgical storytelling and visual staging even be separated? How can these two films help us to discuss and reflect on the meaning of a filmic gaze?
Shownotes #1:
Bechdel Test Movie List
Top 100 films directed by women: What is the ‘female gaze’?
Films #1:
Nordrand, written & directed by Barbara Albert, AT/DE 1999
The Substance, written & directed by Coralie Fargeat, GB/US/FR 2024
Literature #1:
Bechdel, A. (1985). Dykes to Watch Out For. Borders, Barnes and Noble, New York.
Doane, M.A. (2011). ‚Film and the Masquerade: Theorising the Female SpectatorÄ. In Feminist Film Theory: A Reader, Thornham, S. (Ed), 131–45. Edinburgh University Press.
Halberstam, J. (2005). In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York University Press.
Mulvey, L. (1975). ‚Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema‘. Screen, 16 (3), 6–18.
Mulvey, L. (1989). ‚Afterthoughts on ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ inspired by King Vidor’s Duel in the Sun (1946)‘. In: Visual and Other Pleasures. Language, Discourse, Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London.
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