Cinematic gazes on screen play a crucial role in the act of enacting power and superiority, not only between fictional characters, but also by the spectators. There is a constant hierarchical dynamic in the experience of watching a film - whether it is the narcissistic gaze in which the viewer identifies with the actors as an aspirational figure, the fetishistic gaze of male characters exercising control on the image of a female character, or the scopophilic and voyeuristic gaze. look where female figures are reduced to a symbol of pleasure with a lack of dimension in personality. Such power struggles are often evident in the romance genre, more used in traditional and older films, while more recent texts may offer a contradiction with the effects of cinematic gazes proposed by Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze, The Complex of 'Oedipus by Sigmund Freud, etc. Such theories will result in the in-depth study of "Anomalisa", which will be compared to analyzes of "Pretty Woman" to show a difference in the social context of when a film was produced. Anomalisa demonstrates that the power of gazes occurs between the protagonist and his environment rather than between the spectators and the film. His disdain for female characters equally applies to everyone in his world, which eliminates the concept that cinema's gaze must be inclusive of gender roles. Therefore, modern cinema may share similar notions of cinematic gazes as any other film, but it also rejects the restricted limits of these theories. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Initially in Anomalisa, Michael, the protagonist demonstrates that his view of women is indeed from a position of superiority, which aligns with Mulvey's ideas. Laura Mulvey's male gaze was introduced in her essay The Visual Pleasure & Narrative Cinema in 1975 and is one of the dominant cinematic gazes in romantic films due to their primary love element. It is a collective belief that the subject of love is romanticized and idealized. Mulvey suggests that it is an “active male gaze and a passive female image.” Anomalisa shows this through Michael's first "meet cute" with Lisa, where long, continuous shots of her moving toward the center of the frame while a non-diegetic instrumental melody makes the scene picturesque. One of his first dialogues addressed to Michael was "I can't believe you're in our room!", in which there are words of adoration that automatically make Michael a more dominant character. It's also clear in this point in the film that all the characters are animated to have the same face aside from Michael and now Lisa, who has a large scar over her right eye. There is significance in Michael meeting someone who stands out when he exclaims “someone else!” - thus making Lisa more glorified. Similarly, in a classic romantic film such as Pretty Woman, Vivian, the female protagonist is shown in close-ups of fragmented parts of her naked body. Barbara Creed suggests this as a fetishization of the body "by overvaluing a part of one's body." In both the older film and the recent film, the female protagonists are presented through forms of scopophilia and voyeurism, meaning that "looking at oneself is a source of pleasure". In Anomalisa, Michael asks Lisa: " Can I kiss you there?" in reference to his facial scar which shows how his mainAttraction towards her is a physical trait. There is also a hint of perversion in Michael's character due to his sexual attraction to something traumatic for Lisa. In Pretty Woman, the character Vivian is a prostitute, which consistently characterizes her with her attractive features and overt sexuality. Mulvey's different perspectives stem in part from the psychoanalytic approaches of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan who encouraged the integration of the Oedipus complex when it came to understanding sexual dynamics. This consists of the notion according to which the male “fears that his father will punish him, or even castrate him”. Mulvey suggests a “sexual imbalance” where “the man controlled the gaze.” This claim to authority comes from the fear that allowing a woman to be in positions equal to a man would cause her to threaten to punish him in the same way that her father is capable of doing. Furthermore, the two female protagonists are not only sexualized, they are also deprived of mutual respect. Lisa and Vivian are both younger, more naive girls who are introduced to a greater excitement, that of an older, more successful man. This automatically places them in a lower position. In the aspect of Mulvey's Male Gaze, the two films from different eras proved that they still followed its effect of "aligning spectral pleasure with a hierarchical system of sexual narrative". The concept of men's subconscious need to oppress the female character is concluded by Richard Allen. in his Psychoanalytic Film Theory, “the first is to fetishize the image of women, the second is to punish women.” Thus, in addition to placing the woman in a sexualized and less assertive role, there is also an underlying masochistic motivation through this fetishistic gaze. Before meeting Lisa, Michael's character calls his ex-girlfriend, Bella. They arrange to meet and she ends the conversation with “I gained weight… so you don’t look at me panicked or anything”. With Lisa, she often says to herself: “Shut up, Lisa! ", or is filmed in close-up while her hair is constantly fixed to cover her scar to show a feeling of discomfort. It is eventually established that Michael has a history of relatives with insecurities and shyness in their behavior. This repeated preference can be explained as compensation for Michael's loneliness, as he is literally surrounded by a world where everyone looks and speaks the same, which in turn makes his social interactions with them obsolete and hostile . This includes the disconnected relationship he has with his wife and children, as shown when he tells his wife, "Donna, I don't want to..." as a reluctance to speak with his son on the phone. . With this loneliness, Mulvey describes his scopophilia as "taking others as objects." Edward in Pretty Woman, freshly wounded after a breakup, also speaks to a woman most submissive to his wants and needs because she can be paid by him; he states "I will pay you to listen to me", which shows his goal of finding the simplest source of human intimacy. Although these male characters seek a more docile companion, they also lack confidence. This raises the question of whether powerful looks in romantic films help to reinforce the charisma between the character and their love interest, or is it actually that "the woman has no meaning at all" but only what she “inspires the hero”. The female character is simply what she represents and could in turn be interchangeable with anyone who can satisfy the male character. In Anomalisa, Michael asks Bella "Have you changed..