Revenge and the Power of the Gaze

In the era of the Women’s March and the #MeToo Movement, Revenge (2017), directed and written by Coralie Fargeat, is a must-see, a film critical of the male gaze, hyper-masculinity, and rape culture.  It reverses the gaze and empowers its female protagonist, Jen (Matilida Anna Ingrid Lutz), who seeks retaliation against her rapist and his wealthy enablers.

The plot of the film is rather simple. Jen is the mistress of 1 percenter Richard (Kevin Janssens), who takes her to an isolated location via helicopter. He invites his rich buddies along, Dimitri (Guillaume Bouchède) and Stan (Vincent Colombe). Stan rapes Jen when Richard is not around, assuming that she wanted it because she danced with him once.

Initially, the film explicitly uses examples of the male gaze leading up to the horrific rape scene. In short, the male gaze depicts the world from a male point of view and objectifies women. The term was defined by British feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey in her 1970s essay “Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema.” Mulvey has revised the theory over the years, but the same general idea still applies.

When Jen first exits the helicopter, the camera focuses on her legs, buttocks, and breasts, reducing her to fetishized body parts. When Stan and Dimitri are introduced, they stare at Jen through sliding glass doors, and the camera zooms in on her exposed stomach and panties.

In her essay, Mulvey uses Hitchcock to further explain the gaze. She writes, “In Vertigo in particular, but also in Marnie and Rear Window, the look is central to the plot, oscillating between voyeurism and fetishistic fascination. As a twist, a further manipulation of the normal viewing process which in some sense reveals it, Hitchcock uses the process of identification normally associated with ideological correctness and the recognition of established morality and shows up its perverted side. Hitchcock has never concealed his interest in voyeurism, cinematic and non-cinematic.”

These examples of voyeurism and fetishization are evident in Revenge because of how the men look at Jen. Initially, too, the film is told from their point of view. Hitchcock’s films are even referenced. Dimitri spends part of his early screen time staring at Jen through a pair of binoculars, which calls to mind Rear Window. Stan watches Jen strip when she is alone in her bedroom, which resembles the scene of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) watching Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) disrobe at the Bates Motel.

Mulvey also says of Hitchcock’s films, “His heroes are exemplary of the symbolic order and the law – a policeman (Vertigo), a dominant male possessing money and power (Marnie) — but their erotic drives lead them into compromised situations.”

This structure is evident in Revenge. The three men are wealthy and believe they are entitled to whatever they want. At one point, Richard offers to pay off Jen and get her a job in Canada so she doesn’t talk. When she refuses and flees, the men chase her to the edge of a cliff. Richard pushes her off. Her body is impaled on a tree branch, and the men, thinking they’re above the law, believe they can and will get away with murder.

Fargeat is explicit in her critique of hyper-masculinity. The TV in Richard’s pad flashes images of pro-wrestling, car racing, and infomercials featuring young, attractive female models. When the rape occurs, Dimitri exits the room and blares the TV so he doesn’t have to hear Jen’s screams.

Even in the marketing for the film, one of the trailers features sexist comments from men about the movie. One reads, “Females are not strong or intelligent enough to bust a grape in a food fight.”

The plot and gaze shift, however, and Revenge reverses the usual tropes associated with the male gaze. This again alludes to Hitchcock because Psycho shifts from the story and point of view of Marion Crane and her money heist to the story of Norman Bates. In Revenge, though, the plot shifts to reflect the female point of view.

Jen spends the rest of the film hunting down and brutally killing Richard, Dimitri, and Stan. As she does this, she seizes their hunting rifles and binoculars, visual symbols associated with masculinity and male power early in the film.

Additionally, the effects of rape are explored. Jen has nightmares of what occurred and the men are juxtaposed with jarring images of animals and insects. The rape is never dismissed.

In the film’s final scene, she shoots Richard and spends a good 10 minutes or so tracking him through his swanky pad, where the rape occurred earlier in the film. She tracks him by following his trail of blood, which the men did to her earlier in the film. The hunted becomes the hunter.

Because of its rape/revenge theme, critics will be quick to associate Revenge with I Spit on Your Grave or, because of the high level of gore, the French films High Tension and Martyrs. However, the film also has nods to Hitchcock, especially Rear Window and Psycho. These references acknowledge the male gaze but reverse it.

Revenge is one of the most notable thriller/horror films of 2018, especially in its critique of hyper-masculinity and its awareness of film tropes that reinforce gender stereotypes.

Revenge is streaming on Shudder and Amazon:

To read more about rape and the horror film, check out our posts on The Killing Kind (1973), the episode “Sylvia” from Little House on the Prairie (1981), and Eli Roth’s controversial, Knock Knock (2015).

 

Brian Fanelli is a poet and essayist whose works has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, World Literature Today, The Paterson Literary Review, Schuylkill Valley Journal, and elsewhere. His latest collection of poems, Waiting for the Dead to Speak (NYQ Books), won the 2017 Devil’s Kitchen Poetry Prize. Brian has an M.F.A from Wilkes University and a Ph.D. from SUNY Binghamton University. He is an Assistant Professor of English at Lackawanna College. He blogs about literature and horror movies at www.brianfanelli.com.