Visual pleasure, derived from images on film, is dominated by sexual imbalance. The pleasure in looking is split between active/male and passive/female. In her essay"Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" Laura Mulvey asserts the fact that in mainstream films, women are simultaneously looked at and displayed. That is to say,the woman is both an object of desire and a spectacle for the male voyeuristic gaze. The male's function is active; he advances the story and controls the gaze ontothe women. Interestingly, the spectator identifies with the male through camera technique and style. In an effort to reproduce the so-called natural conditions ofhuman perception, male point-of-view shots are often used along with deep focus. In addition, camera movements are usually determined by the actions of the maleprotagonist. Consequently, the gaze is dominated by the active male while the passive female exists to support desire within the film. In an attempt to change thisstructure, Mulvey stresses the importance of challenging the "look." One way this is accomplished, is in the film Reassemblage, where the look of the camera is freefrom male perspective and dominated more by passionate detachment. In doing this, the filmmaker, Trinh Minh-Ha attempts to destroy the satisfaction and pleasurederived from images of women in film, by highlighting the ways Hollywood depends on voyeuristic and fetishist mechanisms. Thus, it can be argued that the filmReassemblage asks the spectator to challenge the relationship between women and visual pleasure. First, female perspective dominates subject-positioning in Reassemblage. The male is not the possessor of knowledge and he lacks omnipotence. The shortage ofmale images in the film attests this point. Consequently, the spectator does not identify with him. Instead, Minh-Ha herself reads the voice-over narration on thesoundtrack. She, as a female, is the possessor of knowledge. Also, at many points in the film, M...
