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A feminist analysis of image and narrative in the mainstream film The Neon Demon (2016, N. W. Refn) Introduction In this essay I will use second-wave feminist film theory and elements of psychoanalysis to understand the representation of patriarchal codes in The Neon Demon through the examination of the film’s images and narrative, as well as the way they function within the film’s greater scheme. The Unconscious and cinema can be studied in relation to each other because they both employ structures of looking and being looked at (1994). Two of these structures are relevant to our analysis. Narcissism, originated during the mirror phase, is the self-centred pleasure of looking at the subject’s own body. Exhibitionism is the pleasure deriving from being the object of the look from another subject. The Oedipal phase, the moment of formation of one’s sexual identity, has two major consequences on the infant. First, the mother’s lack of penis starts signifying the castration threat and powerlessness, giving birth to phallocentrism (1994). Second, the father represents something that cannot be assimilated within the individual’s subjectivity, marking the separation between subject and object in the process of looking and being looked at (2002). Therefore, the gaze becomes scopophilia, namely the pleasure drawn from looking at another object or person. As a consequence, women in films are portrayed as objects of the male gaze, and therefore fetishized to prevent the castration threat (1975). According to Laura Mulvey, this fetishization is articulated through various techniques like the space-enclosing frame, close- ups that fragments women’s bodies, shallow focus that reduces women’s three- dimensionality and editing that freezes time (1975). At the narrative level, scopophilia can lead to voyeurism (the pleasure of looking without being looked at) and consequently the sadistic investigation, in which the male protagonist asserts control by investigating the woman and eventually sadistically punishing her (1975).
Analysis Narrative The plot follows Jesse, an aspiring model in Los Angeles whose beauty and youth generate intense fascination and jealousy in the fashion industry. The presence of patriarchal elements at the narrative level can be spotted in the division of labour between male and female characters within the film. All the main female characters work within the fashion industry and are concerned with beauty or with the process of transforming women’s body into a more fascinating and erotic version. Jesse, the female protagonist, is aware of her otherworldly beauty, and tries to exploit it to make a living. Although being naïve and pure for most of the film, the fashion industry completely changes her into a detached and superb version. Ruby, the make-up artist, despite appearing like Jesse’s friend, has the ultimate goal of sexually taking advantage of her. Gigi and Sarah are two fellow models extremely obsessed with beauty. Gigi even undertook several surgical operations in order to look prettier. After understanding that they cannot compete with Jesse, they start envying her and getting in her way. On the other hand, the four main male characters (Dean, Jack, Hank and Robert) represent different personas within the patriarchal system, but not all of them work in the fashion industry or are as intrinsically connected with beauty as female characters. Dean is friends with Jesse and has feelings for her. One evening, he drives off with her to a stunning place where they admire the stars and the cityscape in a highly romantic atmosphere. This scene hints at the formation of the stable heterosexual couple within the patriarchal system. But the film overturns our expectations and this kind of resolution never occurs. Hank is the owner of the motel where Jesse lives. He is the male character that better portrays the patriarchal ideology, treating women as objects, verbally and physically abusing them and exercising a form of domination over Jesse and the other girls that come to live in his motel by managing their accommodation. He is the sadistic investigator who relentlessly controls women’s private life and sadistically punishes them. The two characters
Images First shot of the film after opening credits. Jesse apparently dead on a sofa. The filmic techniques and mise én scene of The Neon Demon reinforce the representation of women as spectacle for the male gaze as well as unveiling themes like narcissism, voyeurism and exhibitionism. After the opening credits, the film welcomes us with an image of Jesse, fully framed, laying on a sofa covered in blood and apparently dead (later on we discover that she was just modelling). She wears a tight blue dress that exposes her legs. Then, the film cuts to a close-up of her face, painted with glamorous and complex make-up. The camera indulges in her close-up, while the bloody mise én scene and Jesse’s lifeless expression hint at more gruesome moments later on in the film. Then, there’s a cut to a close-up of Dean, who is voyeuristically staring at her and investigating her from a secretive position. While Jesse is very well lit to highlight her strong visual appearance, Dean’s face appears in a low-key lighting condition. As the film cuts back to Jesse, a tracking shot shows the space surrounding her, revealing that she is on a photo shoot, with Dean taking photos of her. In this way, the film shifts the focus from Jesse and her body, to the point of view of a spectator who is gazing at her from a distance. In the next scene, we are in a dressing room where Jesse and Ruby meet for the first time. But their conversation doesn’t happen with the two characters facing each other, but they are both staring at their images in the mirror, while also gazing at the image of the other person in the mirror. Here, the mise én scene portrays the narcissism inherent in the minds and souls of the two characters. Mirrors will be
extensively used throughout the film, symbolically representing narcissism as the greatest form of pleasure within the film’s diegesis. Editing is another element that enhances the fascination and visual pleasure deriving from the presence of women’s bodies, and Jesse’s body in particular. When she enters the room of her first photo shoot, time freezes as the camera indulges in showing her, as well as Ruby’s reaction to her appearance. The film slows down in terms of cutting rate and uses a slow-motion technique for the enjoyment of spectators and characters. Editing that freezes time and slow-motion are techniques used many times throughout the film to indulge Jesse's body as a form of visual pleasure. In addition, while editing slows down many times when Jesse is framed, it is equally slowed down when the bearer of the look, the character observing her, is framed on screen and stuck in an ecstatic moment of marvel that portrays the observer’s reaction to visual pleasure. During the audition for the photo shoot, Robert is minding his own business, until Jesse arrives. He gazes at her while the camera indulges on his face. Shallow focus is used here both on Robert’s close-up and on the reverse shot close-up of Jesse, while Robert’s pupils are dilated in pleasure. This is just one example, but The Neon Demon often portrays both women’s image and the bearer of the look together in the same temporal continuum, which is often slower than real-time continuum due to the ecstatic moment derived from Jesse’s appearance. If Mulvey considered the downplay of the male character’s look as one form of control, The Neon Demon is doing the exact opposite by highlighting both the object and the bearer of the look.
this context, the gaze doesn’t become a form of control of the subject to the object, but of the object to the subject, overturning and deconstructing the feminist theory of the male gaze. The supreme control that Jesse exercises through her beauty is noticed by the other female characters whose Ego is devalued in comparison with Jesse, triggering unconscious traumas that come out when the narcissistic reinforcement of Ego is lacking. These unconscious problems unleash destructive forces that are visually represented in the film by the exploitation of themes considered taboos, like rape, cannibalism and necrophilia. In fact, the ultimate resolution for Ruby, Gigi and Sarah to deal with their psychological traumas is to physically internalize the source of the immense beauty that everyone admires and therefore consume parts of Jesse’s body and bathe in her blood. What makes Refn’s work highly interesting and unique is the way in which it portrays patriarchal codes through images and narrative and puts them in a situation in which men and women are both subjected to a symbolically outsider and dominant being. In this context, strong Unconscious forces are released, making the characters act in an insane way that cathartically devalue the patriarchal ideology and the obsession with physical beauty, themes that are still highly present in films as well as in our society. Works cited Elsaesser, T. and Buckland, W. (2002) Studying contemporary American film. London: Arnold. Kuhn, A. (1994) Women's pictures : feminism and cinema. 2nd edn. London: Verso. Mulvey, L. (1975) “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Screen , 16(3), pp. 6–18. doi: 10.1093/screen/16.3.6.
