If You're a Movie Buff, Flex Your Movie Muscle

So, if critics think that James Stewart character is the equivalent to a movie audience, then as a movie buff what does that make me? I'm not sure that I like the word "voyeur," because according to most dictionaries it usually has some sort of sexual reference involved. However, to use it's second definition as "an obsessive observer," well then I'm willing to buy into the idea a little bit.

However, you can't tell me that Alfred Hitchcock made that movie without the audience in mind. In fact, what good director, producer, actor, writer, etc. makes a movie without keeping in mind the effects (positive or negative) it will have on popular culture? So I can't really believe that as a movie buff, I'm supposed to be ashamed of what I'm watching, simply because it was MADE for me to watch.

Movies are so iconic and widespread across so many different cultures that it seems nearly impossible to me to believe that I'm not supposed to feel something for the movie. For example, to me, Matthew Broderick will forever and always be Ferris Bueller, despite any other movie he's ever been in. Same thing for Judy Garland as Dorthy in the Wizard of Oz, or Marlon Brando as The Godfather. It's what makes movies what they are today, what builds up things like the Oscars, summer blockbusters, and the glory there is in having a massive DVD collection. (I would personally know.)

So here I am with a few more photographs, because I love how photography captures a moment for us, and probably will forever share photos on this blog, proving my point. If you're a movie buff, and serve as the audience member as a hobby, then flex your movie muscles and show that without the audience, the movie industry would hardly exist.

The Spectator As Art

While much of spectatorship has to do with the idea of someone looking in or on to an image or piece of artwork, I find it fascinating that the spectator itself may in fact, BECOME the artwork. I got to thinking about this in reference to Alfred Hitchcock's The Rear Window, and decided that while it is true that L.B. Jefferie is using the concept of the social gaze, it is us as the audience that is actually watching Jefferie.

Thinking about this in real world application, I got to thinking about certain photographs and real life examples I've seen where the artwork itself features a spectator. For example, the photograph featured in TIME Magazine portraying the first 3D Movie event the world had ever seen.

It is here that we are a specatator to a spectator, where not only one, but two examples of looking come into play.

Below are a few more examples, because although you can talk about looking at someone else looking, I find it much more fascinating to see how and in what context it occurs.