Laura Mulvey: American Beauty

The scene from American Beauty being analysed takes place during a High School Basketball game in America, where a girl's (Jane) parents are on their way to watch their daughter take place in a performance at half time. Once there, Jane's father notices one of his daughter's friends, and creates a fantasy in his mind, containing her dancing provocatively.

The camera uses various techniques to intensify the scene, for example losing in from an extremely wide shot of the male character alone (without the audience who were previously there) to an extreme close up shot of just the characters eyes. Through these eyes, according to Laura Mulvey, both male and female audience members are socialised into the idea that what the male character deems attractive in a film, actually is. This is called 'the look of the character in the film' and is one of three ways of looking defined by Mulvey. When looking back at this still shot of the male character for a second time, the expression on his face is slightly dormant, difficult to read, but the most predominant and noticeable aspect is that (assuming that he is looking at the female character, which is assumed by the audience) he is looking at her as an object, a piece of meat, rather then a human. This shot is somewhere between a close up and an extreme close up and by objectifying the woman in this way, we are lead to believe that is the norm, that this is expected by men and that this look is something to strive towards by women, in order to be like the women that they see in such films as these.

The camera often fragments a females body when filming to objectify the female character, is this is no different in the scene we are analysing. The camera uses long shots of the girl, with her looking into the camera (which the audience are led to assume that this is the male character as we are watching through the look of the male character) seductively. The camera then moves on to fragment her body, filming her chest and her hands, as she undoes the zip of her dance costume. Because we are looking through the male character's eyes, female and male audience members will be lead to believe that this is an 'attractive' ideology and for females something to strive for and convince them that this is what a male wants to see in a woman.

We also see the expression on the male character's face as he dreams up the fantasy, playing it out in his mind as his daughter is dancing with her friends during the performance, however we do not get to see this as a member of the audience due to the father's fantasy. The character seems to be looking the woman up and down (as an object rather than a woman) and gaining voyeuristic pleasure from her performance.

At one point during the scene, there is a low key lighting on both characters, intensifying the fantasy and allowing the audience to view both characters at the same time, and highlighting the female character to both the male character and the member of the audience. Non-diegetic music begins ot play and adds to the highlighting of the female's role in the fantasy. As red petals fly out of her chest as she unzips her top (which may be used to indicate that this is in fact a fantasy and not reality or to maintain the female's dignity), the  colour of the petals may be considered by the audience and indication of lust (rather than love) due to the current emotions of the male character (and maybe even the female character due to her provocative dancing, however this was the male's fantasy and not hers).