Feminist Film Theory

Feminism can be described as a movement or a revolution that includes women and men who wish the world to be equal without boundaries. Feminists can be anyone in the population, men, women, girls or boys.

Feminist film theory is where women are being presented in films in a stereotypical roll. It reflects society’s view of women. Feminist film theorists can argue that cinema still only shows women for the gaze of the male audience.  
Female Stereotypes
Dumb
Bitch
Leader
Clueless
Damsel
Queen Bee
Evil
Sexual object
Mother
Housewife
Crazy Old Lady
In love
Scophilia
Scophilia is pleasure taken from looking. The male gaze is when women are presented as an image, whilst the man is the bearer of the look.
Femme Fatale
Femme Fatale characters are women who use their sexual power to trap male characters.
Female Character (Mary Shaw – Dead Silence)
Mary Shaw is the typical old lady witch character. She was a famous ventriloquist whose ambition was to make the perfect puppet. After one performance a boy in the audience shouted out that he could see Mary Shaw’s lips move. She then proved him wrong by making her and her puppet (Billy) talk at the same time. However the boy went missing the same night and Shaw was to blame. The villagers murdered her and cut out her tongue. Her final wish was to turn her body into a ventriloquist's puppet and to be buried with her 101 puppets. She then lived through her puppets. Mary Shaw is the stereotypical old lady who lives down the street that children are afraid to pass.

 

We can tell by the lighting and camera techniques how Mary Shaw is meant to be portrayed. The minimum lighting around her face creates a sense of mystery as we can’t see many of her features. There is also a spot light which follows her around the stage, this means that she is focus of the attention for us as the viewer and she is the one that the audience in the scene wants to see. The way the light is sitting in front of her creating a silhouette makes a black outline. The darkness that is the shape of Mary Shaw reflects the darkness that is in her and the puppets. A camera angle that is used is a very high shot with Mary Shaw looking down on her audience and the audience looking up at her. This shows that she is more superior as everyone else.