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An Essay On The Parallelism Of Vera

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An Essay On The Parallelism Of Vera
The parallelism of Vera to the figure of the reclining nude as the object of the male gaze is constructed only to be threatened by Vera’s returning of the gaze. Almodóvar implicates the viewer into the narrative as the film alternates between footages from the surveillance cameras in Vera’s chamber and these long shots of the camera slowly panning across Vera’s body in a manner that associates the viewer’s gaze with that of Robert’s. The cinema, according to Laura Mulvey, derives its pleasure from “scopophilia,” where looking becomes the primary source of one’s pleasure, and “voyeurism” in which the people that the viewer sees on the screen do not know that they are being watched. The man represents the looker and the woman represents the object to be looked at. Both Robert and the viewer partake in the acts of contemplating on the success of his creation and deriving visual …show more content…
Security cameras are continuously monitoring Vera, yet she is conscious of this fact, knowing the exact moment when someone is watching her. As Robert zooms the camera to solely frame Vera’s face on his flat screen, Vera tauntingly stares directly into the camera––at him. Another moment of Vera’s sense of self-awareness is when Zeca, played Roberto Álamo, lusts over the surveillance feed of Vera exercising in her room. Vera walks up to the camera with the knowledge that someone is there. In relation to Titian’s Venus of Urbino, Vera is always the object being looked at, but is also an object that is looking back. While Titian’s Venus initiates the gaze and invites the viewer to look further, Vera disrupts this relationship by looking back to disavow the gaze in such a manner that it gives her power over Robert by using his desire to her
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