Unpicking the monstrous: A Psychoanalytic and Marxist analysis of Alien.

Contents Title Page: Page 2 Analysis: Pages 3-12 Conclusion: Pages 12-13 Bibliography: Page 14 Name: Liam Stott English and Film & Media Studies Level Two Unit Title: FS299 - Critical Approaches to Media Research Unit Tutor: Marc O' Day Course Leaders: Marc O' Day/Melanie Selfe Assignment 2: Negotiated Essay 'Unpicking the monstrous: A Psychoanalytic and Marxist analysis of Alien.' Barbara Creed states that the convergence of psychoanalysis and cinema studies initiated at the end of the nineteenth century. Since the 1900s, psychoanalysis has endured a complicated history because of its elusive concepts and theoretical influences, particularly in post-1970s psychoanalytic film theory. Throughout the 1970s, psychoanalysis informed and contributed to other cinematic critical approaches such as post-colonial theory, queer theory, feminist film theory and body theory (Creed in Hill and Gibson, 2000: 75-77). Alien (dir. Ridley Scott, 1979) is a significantly psychoanalytic film, symbolically underpinned by a range of psychoanalytic notions such as sexuality, the unconscious, phallicised, primal phantasies (Lebeau, 2001: 7), the woman as an actively sadistic monster and the cinematic voyeuristic male gaze at the expense of female sexual objectification (Taylor in Jancovich and Hollows, 1995: 151). However, Alien cannot only be interpreted through the critical approach

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Still Frame Analysis : American Gangster. The dominant in this frame is Denzel Washington. The eye is attracted to his character first as he is centered on the screen and is in sharper focus

Still Frame Analysis: . Dominant: The dominant in this frame is Denzel Washington. The eye is attracted to his character first as he is centered on the screen and is in sharper focus than the other characters and objects on screen. Lighting also makes Washington the dominant as a shaft of light highlights him while causing the other characters in the shot to be darkened by shadow. 2. Lighting Key: Low key lighting. There is detail within the shadows. 3. Shot and camera proxemics: Medium Shot. The camera is close to the nearest characters within the shot, but the focus of the shot is on Washington, who is further away. 4. Angle: Eye-level shot. The subjects are all seated, and the camera is placed as though the audience was seated in the same room, eyes at the same level as the characters. It is not highly dramatic from an Angle sense. From the angle alone, no power relationship is being suggested. 5. Color values: The scene is set in a lounge of some sort. Color is not really used for symbolism here. All four characters are Black Americans. The two males closest to the camera are not illuminated enough to see the color of their outfits. Washington is dressed in dull colours (black, brown, grey). The set is also very dull. The female character has red hair, and red and purple clothing, which, is the the only colour contrast. Perhaps this is just to symbolize her

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