2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
 Analyse the significance of ‘Historical
Context’ in relation to shock and emotional
response
 Analyse ‘Freaks’, ‘Psycho’, & Rear
Window and their shocking elements
 Identify how pleasure can be gained from
Voyuerism
 Research the historical context of A
Clockwork Orange and answer a short
exam style question

3. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
 When viewing films we must place
the idea of emotional responses
(shocking / horrific etc) in to some
sort of historical context
 We must be aware of a films place
in history and how the development
of a cult status can influence our
response to film
 We must acknowledge that shock
can lessen in impact over time
 It is equally important to
acknowledge that shock can also
continue to remain shocking over
time

4. FREAKS & PSYCHOS
 Watch the following extracts from
Freaks & Psycho and make notes
on the following:
Why do you think the films were considered
shocking at the time of release?
How do the FORM & CONTENT engender a
shocking response from the audience?
Which scene is the most shocking to you, as a
modern spectator?
Why do you think one scene remains shocking
and the other not?

5. FREAKS & PSYCHOS
 Filmmaker have always attempted to gain
some sort of emotional response from
spectators, and spectators have always
attended cinemas in order to have their
emotions aroused
 Effective storytelling encourages us to feel
human emotions by allowing us to
sympathise, empathise or even identify with
characters and the narrative experience
 As spectators we must find this experience
pleasurable, or we would not return to the
cinema.
Write a short paragraph explaining
your own response to both Psycho &
Freaks

6. FREAKS & PSYCHO
 The change of what we see as shocking
changes over time as a result of changing
social values
 This leads to a change in what we deem to
be acceptable in film
 For instance, Hitchcock was pleased to get
a pan-shot of a toilet passed censors
 The lunch-time meeting between Marion
and her partner was also seen to be
pushing the boundaries of acceptability at
the time
 By modern standards it may be surprising
that this was ever considered to be
shocking cinema

7. FREAKS & PSYCHOS
 The initial reaction of the 1930’s public was
one of disgust, apprehension, and distress
towards the explicit subject matter
 For the first time issues of sexual deformity
were being used to illicit strange and
uncomfortable emotional responses from
audiences
 The representations of disability is Freaks
still has the power to shock
 The film was banned in the United Kingdom
from its release in 1932 until 1963 Freaks
(Todd Browning)
 Many people still respond in a negative way Banned in the UK
as they see the film as mocking of the for 30 years – 1932
‘freaks’ - 1962

8. REAR WINDOW
 Watch the following sequences from
Peeping Tom & Rear Window
 How do they encourages the idea of
film as voyeuristically pleasurable?
 What is the connection between
voyeurism and pleasure?

9. VOYEURISM
What sort of emotional
response does voyeurism
The voyeur is presented as a
bring about? ‘diseased’, often paranoid,
violent individual who violates
 Depending on what you are the norms of everyday life.
Films validate these depictions
viewing your responses may be
of the voyeur by having persons
different for different films in power (family members,
editors, supervisors, the police)
 We maybe able to experience articulate how and why the
people watching without the guilt voyeur is a sick or deviant
or negative feeling and this person and why his or her gaze
is inappropriate
brings pleasure (Denzin 1995: 3)
 Alternatively it allows us to
engage in otherwise Taboo
activities and can provide a thrill
/ new experience unavailable in
the real world

10. VOYEURISM
 Read the analysis of Rear Window and underline any
important or relative points

11. CONTEXT
 Log on to the internet and research the history of A
Clockwork Orange
 Consider
 The Book
 The Development of the film
 Critical & Commercial response
 Removal from Cinemas by Kubrick
 Legacy
Considering the significance in the films
historical context, how has this
knowledge impacted upon your own
personal response to the film?