Voyeurism and the Male Gaze

Shots and Angles used in Psycho and V for Vendetta shower scenes

Lets start off with Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock in (1960) is a horror and in this scene of the movie, the lady in it: Marion, now in this first image I have capped it shows her shutting the door behind her as she turns to discard her robe. This shows a sense of privacy, one where she doesn't want to be disturbed throughout the showering process, the way she clicks it shut and eyes the door up and down is to show the viewer that she definitely wants privacy. Now in the second image, this shows her vulnerability  she is now undressed and is getting into the shower, this links to the male gaze. Why, because it resembles the fact that men find naked women attractive and the male gaze, you can see her bare legs and back and this would attract the male gender and intrigued them to watch more closely. With us being the audience we are invading her privacy which links to the male gaze even more.

The next technique that Hitchcock has used is a racking focus now this is when we see a shadow appear behind the curtain whilst Marion is showering, the racking focus draws the audiences attention to what's behind the curtain. This is also a sense of voyeurism as the person behind the curtain opens the door quite freely, whilst she is having a personal moment and is spying on Marion and she doesn't yet no it, but that person is going to murder her as they have been watching her. The next part of the sequence straight after we see the shadow open the door and appear behind the curtain, we notice the camera cut off straight away from her face to the person with the knife who is about to murder Marion. This adds tension as it all comes to a complete stop, this also gives the shock factor because it's as if Hitchcock has directed it this way for us to have the same shock she has about it. 

Now the last the shot that I am going to talk about is the part of the sequence where Hitchcock uses juxtaposition. This is where her eye meets with the plughole. Both of these two images don't relate in anyway and although they are two different things, the public eye, us the viewer can relate the two images by the way they are directed and merge into one another and we tend to look for the differences and similarities that are evident in both. The zoom shot of the plug whole with the water going down gives us a sense of her life being washed away and there is still blood going down too, it's as if every emotion of hers in going down the drain. The technique that he uses to shoot this part of the sequence is pan, into zoom into a graphic match. This is because the pan is moving with the water, going down from her legs to the end of the bath, the zoom then goes from the plughole merging into the eye which is a graphic match. 

In addition, when it comes to the V for Vendetta: Voice of London speech it isn't as intimate as the psycho scene, one; it isn't a women and isn't what's known as the male gaze because this sequence is of a man. Although, this could still be known as voyeuristic because the fact, we the public eye have once again interrupted someone in their personal space as they are showering with absolutely no clothes on. It is also isn't as intimate as there isn't as many close ups as there were the Alfred Hitchcock movie, Lewis Prothero's body isn't on show a lot as much as Marion's either. James McTeigue uses a pan to give it more aesthetically pleasing look that draws the public in.

McTeigue has also used shallow focus to when Prothero's taking the pills, the background image behind him has been blurred out, whereas the front image of him, hasn't. 

In the next part of the scene, the director has used silhouettes of the mystery person to appear (V) to add more tension to this part, the reason that he hasn't given the full features of the person is to give the viewer more shock and it leaves them on a small cliffhanger, it builds the tension of the scene up more. This is known as Voyeurism as 'V' has without asking, walked into a very private area of Prothero's. This link to the shower scene in Psycho because the man also invaded Marion's private space, just like V has Prothero. The image on the bottom right to this paragraph is known as a over the shoulder angle, it's where the audience can see what Prothero can't at first, it's as if we are looking in V's POV into the TV screen as it is switched off, just like Prothero's life will be, once V has dealt with him. This can also give us a sense that Prothero is now powerless as the TV has switched off and V is standing up strong, bold and tall behind him.

All in all, I think that the most voyeuristic clip out of the two is the Psycho scene. The reason for me choosing this one if because it is far more intimate (male gaze) and it is more attractive for guys to watch, which will bring more attention to it, rather than the scene in V for Vendetta when Prothero is showering because he overall looks powerless.