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Literature Review

 

Make-up for Media and Performance

Level 5

Dixie Crouch

1300600

 

 

In my dissertation I plan to focus on the negative representation of other cultures in film, through characters and stereotyping. This is similar to the theory of projection, which is a psychoanalytic theory to describe the “relocations of elements of the psyche onto the external world”, (Macey, 2001, pg no. 176). The main creator of the projection theory was Giambattista Vico, (Caponigri, 2003,) however Sigmund Freud later conceptualized the theory. (Freud, 1914,) Freud explained the theory as a normal feature of the human psyche rather than a pathological phenomenon. This enforces the idea that projection is a daily occurrence for the human psyche, and that everyday we project our own insecurities, fears and internal traits onto other people. Commonly within our culture when the media wants to portray certain individuals in a negative way it will exaggerate an undesirable trait of that individual that exist within the human psyche. Often these traits include disablement, other nationality, insanity and sexuality, they are used as scapegoats for negativity.

“Aliens are used as surrogates for other races, religions and nationalities. They become controversial and morally questionable” (Morawetz, 2001, pg no. 55) for example, the Aliens in ‘The Phantom Menace’ (Lucas, 1977).

 

Within the characterization of evil in film a viewer may defend themself against unpleasant impulses by denying the existence of these traits within themselves, while attributing them to the character on screen. In turn this creates a notion of otherness, where a viewer can detach him or herself from the evil character on screen and envisage the villain as something other than himself or herself.

 

Aristotle’s writes about evil, being an absence of good. He wrote about the creator of everything meaning God, as supremely good, and that all he created in nature was good. It is only when the nature is deformed does it become evil. This concept suggests that everything man made is villainous, especially when man interferes with nature. It is interesting that Aristotle believes man as nature so therefore can not be evil, but only what man creates can be.

 

On the contrary Immanuel Kant is a philosopher from the 18th Century, he writes about evil in a more secular way than Aristotle; his main ideas about the topic are that humans are radically free and that although we are inclined to be good we have the ability to choose to be evil. This comment of the human psyche was developed by the physchologist Philip Zimbardo known for his works on ‘The Lucifer effect’; he obtained his results from ‘The Stanford Prison Experiment’ that took place in 1971, which describes how good people turn villainous. His description of evil is described as follows; “Evil is the exercise of power to intentionally harm people psychologically, hurt people physically or commit crimes against humanity.” (Zimbardo, 2011, Pg no. 5) This suggests that man can defy his nature become evil when power is introduced to the situation. Several figures in popular culture that embody this theory include Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars (Lucas, 1977-).

 

Women and Evil is written by Nel Noddings, its primary objective is to give a woman’s point of view on the subject of evil.  In the introduction we see the author’s first complaint that moral philosophy has been written unconsciously from a male standpoint, she states

 “This result could hardly have been avoided in a sexist culture. One suspects that descriptions of evil and so-called problem of evil have been thoroughly suffused with male interests and conditioned my masculine experience.” (Noddings, 1991, pg no. 1). Male filmmakers dominate the industry, almost all of the over-sexualized female villains are created by men.

 

One particular chapter that is thought provoking, is the ‘Devil’s gateway’, (Noddings, 2001, pg no. 35) this chapter focuses on women as sinful. It states how the woman has been portrayed as bad or evil from as far back as biblical script, with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam was created in God’s image, and if we take Aristotle’s view of the creator as exclusively good, Eve was created different to God’s image, and therefore brought with her malice and evil. In genesis, she is the one who bites the apple and brings sin to the human race. This has influenced the representation of women for thousands of years, with women usually being the character who gets everyone in trouble or acts hysterically, whilst the hero is a man who comes and saves the day, this is especially evident in films such as the James Bond series and films where there depicts a damsel in distress who needs rescuing. 

 

The topic of women has been primarially discussed and written about by men in psychology, mostly the comments are derogatory and damaging, for example the Madonna-whore complex, identified by Freud in 1912, which states that men only see women as saintly madonnas or ebased prostitutes, another theory is from aristotle, it is labelled as his most damaging charge against female nature “the female being has fundamental weakness in morality”. (Noddings, 1991, pg no. 36) philosphy has even attacked female sexuality calling the amorous act the ‘castration of men’. (Sartre, 1938).  It seems that men branded women as other than themselves, felt threatened by their presence and charged them as evil for existing.  Their charges seem to come from the woman’s body as taboo, over sexualisation and fear of overpowering is one of these accusations, another is the function of the woman’s body, it was deemed that menstruation was a defilement of the body, and during this period it was believed that the woman’s body can be entered by a demon. Biblical references are abundant in old philosophy and these are represented in present day through archetypes.

 

Archetype is a central term in Jung’s analytical psychology that was introduced in 1919; they are described as “spontaneous products of the psyche that are presented within the individual psyche from birth onwards.”(Macey 2001, pg 22) Many of the different archetypes can be pinpointed to a specific character and are often conditional to different stages of life; the virginal girl, the wise old man and the mother goddess.

 

Archetypes relate to the theory of projection, as it is always how one person views another, the main examples of this are the animus/anima figure. “The animus is a woman’s archetypal image of a man; the anima is a man’s archetypal image of the woman.” In film there are many tropes and characterizations that fit the notion of Evil; the obsessive avenger, the psychopath, the woman scorn and the monster are all examples of characters that are often portrayed as villains.

 

Freud wrote his essay on the theory of the uncanny in 1919, the main idea behind the theory is that something that is somewhat familiar to us but has been made unfamiliar, create a sense of uneasiness within the human psyche. 

“There is no doubt that the ‘uncanny’ belongs to the realm of the frightening, of what evokes fear and dread.” (Freud, 2003, pg 94)

This relates to the theory of projection within film, as the characters within the film can be based upon this theory. The creator of the character can project what he perceives as fearsome onto the design of the character. Many characters that fit this theory include classic monsters who’s intended purpose is to differ slightly from humans and provoke fear into the audience.

 

Word Count: 1070

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

Augustine, S. (2012). Enchiridion. Start Publishing LLC.

 

Caponigri, A, R. (2003) Time and idea: the theory of history in Giambattista Vico. USA: Transaction Publishers.

 

Freud, S. (1914) Psychopathology of Everyday Life. Translated by A. A. Brill. New York: The Macmillan Company.

 

Freud, S. (1912) A Note on the Unconscious in Psycho-Analysis.

 

Freud, S. (2003) The uncanny. New York, NY: Penguin Books. (Penguin classics).

 

Lucas, G. (1977 -). Star Wars Franchise. USA: 20th Century Fox.

 

Macey, D. (2001) The Penguin dictionary of critical theory. London: Penguin.

 

Morawetz, T. (2001) Making faces, playing God: identity and the art of transformational makeup. Austin: University of Texas Press.

 

Noddings, N. (1991), Women and Evil, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, USA. Available from: ProQuest ebrary. [29 January 2015].

 

Zimbardo, P. (2007) The Lucifer Effect. UK: Ebury Publishing.

 

Sartre, J.P. (1938) Nausea. France: Éditions Gallimard

 

 

Appraisal

Dixie Crouch

Make-up for Media and Performance

Level 5

How the theory of projection is used to represent evil through villainous characters in film.

 

Amanda Stephenson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONTENTS

List of Contents

Introduction

Men as Evil

Women as Evil

Non-human as Evil

Conclusion

Bibliography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In film evil is represented through characters and their motives. Often when creating these characters the director will use the theory of projection to make them become other to the audience, the viewer recognizes qualities of man, considered undesirable, that it refuses to recognize within him or herself and make them fear the character. The techniques in film that help portray this include casting, acting and make-up however camera shots and sound also play a part. There are some certain characteristics that each villain shares as a group, but depending on the gender, species and motive of the villain there can be distinctive differences to create otherness and fear within a character.

 

Man as Evil : James Bond Series. You only live Twice (Gilbert, 1967), Casino Royale (Campbell, 2006) and Skyfall, (Mendes, 2012)

 

When discussing male villains in film, the antagonists in the James Bond series cannot be avoided. One particular trait that the majority of them have in common is a physical deformity. In an article entitled 50 years of James Bond: Nationalism, violence and sex, Ian Norden states that “The obsessive avenger, he is almost always an adult male who in the name of revenge relentlessly pursues those he holds responsible for his disablement.” (Norden, 2007) the writer used the backstory of the character to create a physical characteristic that would be considered fearsome by the audience. Then in turn the make-up department and special FX teams help create these disablements on screen

 

According to philosophy there is a deeper meaning for the link of the portrayal of disablement and evil. The source of Freud’s ‘The uncanny’ theory is tied to the idea of being robbed of one's eyes. The idea behind this is that the fear of losing a boy’s eyes is equal to fear of castration. Villains from the James bond series such as Ernst ‘Stavros Blofeld’, as portrayed by Donald Pleasence in You Only Live Twice (Gilbert, 1967)

 and ‘Le Chiffre,’ as portrayed by Mads Mikkelsen in Casino Royale (Campbell, 2006), both have physical scars on their eyes and therefore when they are viewed on screen the idea is that the audience is like the boy and when they see the deformities in the eyes of the villain they become unconsciously uncomfortable. The design of the characters brings together both Aristotle’s and Kant’s theories on evil. The concept that man can choose to be villainous when put in a position of power is shown through the acting and writing, and the idea that the deformation of nature, through physical disablement of the body, represents evil is portrayed using make-up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the climax in Casino Royale (Campbell, 2006), the antagonist Le Chiffre plays poker against James Bond, both players go ‘all in’ in the game, and it is the tensest moment of the film. During this scene we see Le Chiffre become increasingly more uncomfortable, as this happens, his left eye starts to bleed. The theory of abjection was identified by Julia Kristeva it is defined as “an object that disturbs social reason being cast out”(Macey, 2001), blood is a great example of the abject, when it leaves the body it becomes other to us, something unfamiliar out of its place. this gives a feeling of uneasiness within the audience. Within this scene the feeling is heightened because of the location of the blood, and the abnormality of a bleeding eye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the film Skyfall, (Mendes, 2012) Javier Bardem plays Raoul Silva, the main antagonist who wants to enact revenge on M and James Bond, the protagonists of the series. Throughout the duration of the film he has an uncanny look to his character, in his daily life Javier Bardem has dark hair and skin, so when he appears in the film with blonde hair and blonde eyebrows, it relates back to colour theory and ethnicity.  This gives the audience a sense of otherness, as this is someone they do not recognize and cannot sympathize with. In addition to this the actor is wearing dentures that push out his mouth and change the shape of his face. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using a similar tactic as seen in Casino Royale (Campbell, 2006), during the pivotal scene in the film where Silva reveals his motive for revenge the character his full deformity is revealed to the audience. However because of the extent of the deformity, it becomes fearsome, monstrous and more than just unnerving. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woman as Evil: Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Meyer, 1965)

 

The characterization of women as evil is often represented through the exploitation of the body. “The fear of Women as physical bodies is older than Judeo-Christian tradition.” (Noddings, 1991). This is portrayed clearly in the Film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Meyer, 1965), the three main villains, Billie, Rosie and Varla are thrill-seeking go-go dancers who spend their time racing cars, scheming to steal from an old millionaire and murdering innocent citizens that cross their path. The leader of the group is Varla is the most villainous in her behaviour, taking control of the hostage situation, controlling the other girls’ behaviour and killing people with her bare hands, Varla is portrayed as the epitome of female sexuality. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Casting is the primary key to representing female sexuality, the character Varla is portrayed by Tura Satana, before acting in Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! She was a gogo-dancer herself and during the film shows off her breast enlargements. The director Russ Meyer stated that she was just as much a part of the film making process as he was, improvising lines and adding in martial arts.

 

Moreover the costume in the film aids the representation of the theory; the girls are immodestly dressed seemingly boasting her feminine physique. Even in the script one of the characters discusses the costume. “You girls a bunch of nudists or are you just short of clothes?” The appearance of feminine flesh especially to the male audience can be intimidating because of the idea of female dominance and self-esteem castrating men.

 

Sartre’s theory about the female sexuality being the castration of men is perfectly represented in the film through quotes, for example a male character tells Varla “You’re a beautiful animal… and I’m weak, and I want you.” The opening sequence of the film openly admits the link between violence, evil and the provocative, the opening lines read “While violence cloaks itself in a plethora of disguises, its favourite mantle still remains sex.” Sex is used in the film in two ways, it lures in the audience and it also intimidates them.

 

In the scene where the girls murder their first male victim Varla and him wrestle in the dusty ground for some time before she eventually kills him. During this scene the two actors roll around on top of each other, grabbing each other by the hair and throat. This action is reminiscent of sexual behaviour, which is a direct representation of the theoretical concept. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nel Noddings in her book writes “Woman has been regarded, in Tertullian’s words, as the ‘Devil’s Gateway.’”(Noddings, 1991 Pg, 35), It gives the impression that all women are evil in some way, just through the fact they are women. This is represented in the film by the last female character, Linda, who is written as one of the victims of the go-go girl gang. Although she is not an antagonist in the film, it is because of her actions that the gang kills her boyfriend.

It seems that none of the female characters in the film have any redeeming qualities, they either are murderous villainesses or weak. These link to Carl Jung’s archetypes of women, and the decency of the female characters in the film reflect what Noddings writes in her book Women and Evil which is that Aristotle’s most damaging charge against female nature is a fundamental weakness in morality. (Nodding, 1991, Pg 11).

 

 

 

Non-Human as Evil: Creature from the Black Lagoon (Arnold, 1954). 

 

 

Non-human characters often in film also portray evil; classic monster films from the 1930s to the 1960s ranging from Frankenstein (Whale, 1931), Dracula (Browning, 1931) and The Wolf-Man (Waggner, 1941) are examples of where non-human creatures are the villains in the story. The term ‘monster’ in itself gives an impression of a villain. One of the greatest monsters created for film is the Gill-man in Creature from the Black Lagoon (Arnold, 1954). The secret to a successful evil monster is to create a sense of familiarity in them, and many of the aforementioned creatures have human like qualities in their design. A reason these designs are so successful at provoking fear into an audience is the relation to Freud’s theory of the uncanny. That something unknown and unfamiliar is not always the most frightening, but what strikes fear into us is something familiar yet other to us. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The design of the Gill-man monster suit in ‘Creature from the black lagoon’ is a perfect example of how special effects and makeup in film parallel psychology. The creature can walk on two legs like a man and has recognizable limbs, however his hands are webbed, and the suit is covered in scales. The design of the monster is based on a sea-bishop a mythical creature that is half man, half fish. The deformation of both creatures’ anatomy creates unfamiliarity and therefore uneasiness within the audience. 

 

 

 

 

Literature Review and Appraisal

Further to physical characteristics, there is something deeper within the storyline that makes the gill-man such a fantastic evil monster. It is the actions of the monster that make him uncanny.

“There has to be something recognizably human about a great monster. And the greatest thing about the creature is, of course, that he lusts after Julie Adams.” (Joe Dante).

The fact that the monster pursues the beautiful, young woman in the film shows two sides of humanity. The first being that his wants reflect mans desires, that he lusts after the same thing as the viewer would, and secondly the desires is unwanted yet pursued nonetheless which reminds viewers of a malicious act against innocence, which in society we prosecute and know in ourselves is wrong. This action and characterisation alone makes him a villain even without the suit on.  

 

The way the director reveals the monster is a clever way to bring fear to the audience. Arnold exposes the creature in parts at a time. The fist few times the gill-man is on screen we only see his hand reaching out of the water, and almost grasping at the other characters’ legs. This plays off the idea that we fear the unknown, and what we cannot identify is mysterious and fearsome. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Henry Mancini was responsible for the music in the film, whenever the monster is on screen there is chilling music to accompany him. The score is loud, chaotic and intense; it takes the audience by surprise and enacts a response similar to the classical conditioning explored by Pavlov in his experimentations with his dog. The audience hear the music and then expect to see something fearsome.

 

As an underlining rule we fear what threatens our existence, which is why these villains are so successful in scaring an audience. As a general rule, misshapen individuals who don’t fit into society make good villains, because they have nothing to lose and everything to gain from threatening, intentionally harming people psychologically, hurting people physically or commit crimes against humanity. Their deformities range from physical characteristics such as disablement, over sexuality and monstrous body changes, to the characters actions and behaviour. Ultimately the director uses projection of the human psyche to create fearsome characters in order to evoke a reaction from the audience.

 

 

Word Count: 1929

 

Bibliography

 

Arnold, J. (1954). Creature from the Black Lagoon [Film] USA: Universal-International

 

Campbell, M. (2006). Casino Royale [Film] UK: Colombia Pictures

 

Gilbert, L. (1967). You Only Live Twice [Film} UK: Eon Productions

 

Macey, D. (2001) The Penguin dictionary of critical theory. London: Penguin.

 

Mendes, S. (2012). Skyfall [Film] UK: Colombia Pictures

 

Meyers, R. (1965). Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! [Film] USA: EVE productions

 

Whale, J. (1931). Frankenstein [Film] USA: Universal Pictures.

Still from You Only Live Twice (1967)                                            Still from Casino Royale (Campbell, 2006)

Still from Casino Royale (Campbell, 2006)

Still from Creature for the Black Lagoon (Arnold, 1954)

Promotional Image for Creature for the Black Lagoon (Arnold, 1954)

Still from Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Meyers, 1965)

Promotional image for Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Meyers, 1965)

Still from Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Meyers, 1965)

Still from Skyfall, (Mendes, 2012)

Still from Skyfall, (Mendes, 2012)

Promotional image for Skyfall, (Mendes, 2012)

Promotional Image for Creature for the Black Lagoon (Arnold, 1954)

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