How Mulvey's Pleasure and Narrative cinema theory is composed in Aladdin 1992.

How Mulvey's Pleasure and Narrative cinema theory is composed inAladdin 1992. 

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In Aladdin 1992 the character Jasmine has been encoded into the scene where the antagonist Jafar takes over rule through force by offering visual pleasure to the male spectator. In Laura Mulvey’s original essay on visual pleasure and narrative cinema she states that ‘In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking is split between active/male and passive/female’ which can clearly be identified between Jafar and jasmine. Straight away a mid-shot is shown of the two characters and within the mise-en-scene it can be seen that Jasmine is in handcuffs therefore connoting to the audience that she is unable to take control of what is happening within the scene. Soon after a close up is shown of Jafar raising a fist as she falls onto the floor, this allows the audience to understand that he is the active/male within the scene and that Jasmine is the passive female. The idea of the active/male and passive/female is again constantly reinforced within the scene when Jafar asks the genie within the diegetic dialogue ‘I wish for princess Jasmine to fall desperately in love with me’. By him saying this connotes to the audience that he is active in taking control over her feelings, he is directing how he wants the story to play out and that Jasmine is completely powerless to stop what is happening as she is potentially not strong enough to resist the genies spell. Laura Mulvey also states that the ‘male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure’ which Jafar most certainly is as Jasmine is powerless to stop what he wants. 

During the scene Jafar spits part of his apple on to Jasmine’s face in a mid-shot that instantly signifies disrespect to the character as though she is unworthy of being treated like a human being but instead like an object, as though her opinion is irrelevant which may be due to the fact Mulvey suggests that cinema reinforces patriarchal views. In the same mid shot Jafar also calls Jasmine a ‘Beautiful desert bloom’ which allows the audience to understand that he gains visual pleasure from her as he only perceives her as an object rather that the ability of her brain or any other talents that she may have, she is just there to be looked at and for him to indulge in scopophilia and gain visual pleasure from looking at the human form.

Visual Pleasure is also encoded into this scene with the use of the camera gaze. Laura Mulvey states that cinema allows the spectator to indulge in scopophilia as ‘cinema satisfies a primordial wish for pleasurable looking’. The camera gaze is used after Jafar asked for a wish and Jasmine stands up from the floor, in this long shot the camera zooms out in order to allow the audience to indulge in scopophilia and the camera lingers on her body. Although Jasmine is just a cartoon character, she still offers entertainment and sexual gratification by allowing the audience to gain pleasure in looking at the human form. Along with this as she stands the blue cloth falls of her revealing more of her body, plus the mise-en-scene shows the top half of her costume being just a bikini top allowing the spectators to gain more pleasure in looking as they don’t have to imagine a lot, they are able to just indulge in a childlike way of looking. 

The colours within the mise-en-scene also help to connote visual pleasure to the audience as most of the scene contains the colour red, along with Jasmines costume being completely red which has strong connotations of lust and sexual desire which could reinforce Laura Mulvey’s idea that women ‘connote to-be-looked-at-ness’. The colour red represents her a sexual object therefore it is okay for the audience to look at her. Along with this Jasmines accessories are gold and the colour gold may also connote love and passion again further reinforcing a passionate way of looking at the human form of which scopophilia is.

Bibliography / references.

1} Laura Mulvey (1999) Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Film Theory and Criticism, New York, Oxford UP
2}https://www.filminquiry.com/film-theory-basics-laura-mulvey-male-gaze-theory/