Representations of Homosexuality in Film

Anyone who watches films, let alone studies them, will be able to tell you that your typical hero is a White Male. No surprises so far. This incredible specimen of our species can pretty much do anything. He's physically fitter and stronger, he's more intelligent, more witty, smarter in fact there's pretty much nothing he can't do in his quest to win the day, beat the bad guys and get the girl.

That's right, he always gets the girl because our Hollywood Hero usually a man, mostly he's white - but he's always heterosexual. All well and good - and there are various films which have put this under the microscope and deconstructed the arbitrary nature of the hero. But where does this leave homosexuality?

Homosexuality has been represented in a similar way to ethnicity throughout the history of cinema. Either as a deviance from the norm or as comic relief. Gay characters are often bit parts in the plot of a film - rarely main characters, and as such they are often reduced to flimsy stereotypes. Being gay often means that a character is funny or evil.

Whilst more liberal film-makers and indeed gay film-makers have striven to include more gay central characters a film can often be about the oppression and difficulties of being gay in a dominantly straight world - these films rarely have a happy ending. 

But we live in more liberal times, gay marriage is becoming legal across the world, and countries that object are often seen as out of touch or worse, in violation of human rights. Only film seems to have a problem with homosexuality - so what next for gay characters in film?

RESEARCH INVESTIGATION

This essay is about the theories of representation as much as it is about film analysis. The good news is that there is quite a lot of research in this field already; books, journals and essays have all covered this very topic. The bad news is that this means you are going to have write something original.

The choice of films as case studies are going to be vital here to ensure that you avoid cliches as well as avoid writing what has already been written!

Perhaps contrasting negative and positive representations would be a good idea, maybe even exploring the different types of stereotype that exists in films.

Some of this essay will be building on the knowledge you already have of Representations from the AS course, but a lot of it will be reading about films that you may never have heard of and applying it to the texts you have chosen. Also, a decent knowledge of the cultural context of the times and an understanding of dominant ideologies of society surrounding homosexuality will be vital.

Film journals will be your ally here. Start with this excellent site: Jump Cut

Please always label any research completed with your name and: Homosexuality in Film

MEDIA PRODUCT

You have two choices or you may wish to do a combination of the two. Either:

1. Write, direct and edit a trailer or opening sequence for a film with a gay protagonist or other gay characters.
2. Create a DVD cover for a new film and a review of it for a film magazine - the movie must have a central protagonist that is gay.

Option 1.

You will need to plan meticulously to direct, film and edit your own trailer or opening of a film that gay characters or a gay central protagonist. Your idea must be original but at the same time you must show that there are links between your Research Investigation and the product. 

Your film should also hold up to an academic analysis based on the theories of those you studied and researched when writing your essay.

Overall this needs to be of an excellent quality - the end result may well be a film challenges representations that you've found in your research or they may reflect the representations you have discovered, even if they are incredibly stereotypical - these things are all fine so long as that was the intention.

To create an interesting and engaging film will require excellent planning, and this should be clear from the quality of your film, the following advice should be heeded at your own peril:

• Outline ideas
• Write a step treatment (scene by scene)
• Write a script
• Storyboard key action sequences
• Write a shooting script (the order you will do film things)
• Have read throughs with your actors and let them know exactly what your vision of this film is
• Watch the footage carefully and write put together a 'paper edit'
• Re-shoot anything that doesn't work
• Give yourself lots of time for editing.

Casting is going to be vital - begin speaking to friends and colleagues now about taking part in a film whereby they may have to play a challenging role and keep them informed at every part of the process.

Option 2

You will need to decide on the narrative, themes, actors, director, visual style and setting of a film that will never get made!

Once you have decided on all of these factors and you know your (non)film inside, you will create the DVD cover for it - the fron should be images and copy relevant to the movie and the back cover should have screen shots and a blurb about the plot.

You must also create a two page magazine review or interview with the director of this fake film which must explore the ideas that you have found in your essay which relate to representations of gay characters in films but also looks and reads exactly like a film magazine such as Empire.

This is a slightly complex project which requires you to know exactly what the characters and themes of the film would be so that you can prove to the examiner that you have learned from your essay. But also show that you have the technical and creative skills to reproduce the style and content of a film magazine.

The Role Of Stereotypes by Richard Dyer

Bold lettering = Quotations

Why I have chosen this article:

I have chosen this article because it is rich in detail and provides me with enough information to be able to benefit whilst doing my research. I chose an article on stereotypes because my title for my project is homosexuality in film and films which explore homosexuality usually adopt different stereotypes which let the audience know if someone is homosexual.

Who this article was written by and an overview of what it is about:

This article was written by Richard Dyer. He discusses different stereotypes in film for example, black people, women and gay people. Dyer goes onto says how Walter Lippman says there is an 'absolute necessity for, and the usefulness of, stereotypes, as well as their limitations and ideological implications', which shows that stereotypes are needed in film in order to portray a narrative but they can also create problems. However, in the article it reads 'necessary, indeed inescapable, part of the way societies make sense of themselves' which mean this helps people make generalisations, patternings this links to the ordering process.

The main point of the article and include some key quotations:

This article is about stereotypes and how most stereotypes are shown in film however, as my research is focusing on homosexuality in film I am focusing on how homosexuality in terms of stereotypes is presented in the article. For example, it says how stereotypes are needed to identify a character it says how the categories would be 'invisible' as you cannot tell by just looking at a person 'unless the person chooses to dress or act in a clearly and culturally defined manner' which is true in a sense as it allows the audience to fully understand the character. So if someone was homosexual then film would potentially add characteristics about the person which identify him as homosexual for example, if the character was a gay male the they could make this person act more feminine or dress the character in more bold, flamboyant clothing to clearly show the audience that the man was gay by using the traditional stereotype. Another point which reinforces this is that in film we are made to treat being heterosexual and homosexual completely different they are said to be 'sharply opposed' even though, its 'experienced by everybody in their life. 

Whether or not i agree with the quotations: 

I do agree to a certain extent with these quotations because its good to show who the characters fully are in film however, it think that films do rely on the use of stereotypes massively, and they can be seen as offensive to some people, i feel like mild stereotyping is harmless but i do think that films should be able to make homosexuality in film normalised as we experience this in our everyday lives so it not new to anyone so taking the stigma away from homosexuality in film not making it a big deal like they do with heterosexual relationships in film then there would be know need to use stereo types because the people in the film would be treated equally without emphasizing someones sexuality, race or gender.

Examples of texts that relate to ideas expressed

Representation of Homosexuality in FILM : Research

This article was written by The Guardian in 2014, broadcasting how Hollywood has been criticised by Glaad a US gay rights organisation for it's "inadequate" representation of LGBT characters.
The article itself does not criticise Hollywood but provides an overview of the criticisms made by Glaad and statistics to support them.
For example, only 17/102 major studio films from the 7 biggest studios (Warner Brothers, Sony, Lionsgate, Paramount, Disney, Universal and 20th Century Fox) featured gay characters with "the majority being offensive and defamatory portrayals"
The CEO suggests that Hollywood is doing "more harm than good" with it's lack of "substantial LGBT characters in mainstream film in addition to the outdated humour and stereotypes"
The Guardian includes the fact that Sony was the only major picture studio to be rated "good" for it's "positive" characters in Battle of The Year and The Mortal Instruments (described as "the most inclusive film release of 2013")

The Guardian highlights the picture studios that failed and the reasons for their failed rating. For example, Paramount and Warner Brothers failed due to "including no positive portrayals of LGBT characters in any of their films". Films like Pain & Gain and We're The Millers were criticised for having elements of "gay panic" and Scorsese's Wolf of Wall Street was criticised for it's gay butler having an orgy.
This article explains what the Vito Russo test is and how it works. It was pioneered by Glaad, similar to the Bechdel test but instead of focussing on the importance of women roles in cinema it focuses on LGBT characters. For a film to pass this test it has to "feature an LGBT character not solely defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity and who if removed, from the film would significantly affect the plot." The Guardian found only 7/17 films that feature an LGBT character passed the test. The portrayal of transgenders was worse with only two appearances, both "tiny" roles neither in a "positive light". The Guardian mentions the damaging effects inadequate representations could have as they quote Glaad saying "these images continue to marginalise a community". It criticises films like Anchorman 2 and Identity Thief for their use of anti-transgender slurs by a main character "for no reason other than to make a joke". Glaad claims that "the media's representation of transgenders has long remained decades behind that of gay and lesbian people"
The Guardian described how none of the films praised by Glaad featured a gay main character as "the starkest fact" conveying it's shock at such statistics.

In my opinion, I feel obliged to agree with the article as there are hard core facts to defend the sad yet true claims that the LGBT are still disadvantaged even in cinema and that it is still difficult even in the most fairest society yet for a LGBT character to land a leading role or even serve a purpose other than fulfil a stereotypical, derogatory, prejudice role insinuating they are only relevant when highlighting their sexuality.
One criticism of the article though is the focus on characters sexuality and not relationships. In some cases, a characters sexuality is irrelevant to their purpose in the narrative. I think there should be more focus on LGBT relationships and not the character itself.

Research

This essay might be quite old now but that's not to say that it's not relevant. It might also offer you the opportunity to disagree with some of the things in it and say how cinema has changed.

Either way, Richard Dyer is a respected and relevant academic in Media and Film Studies.

Be sure to reference when using...

Gays in film from sssfcmedia

Richard Dyer on Stereotypes

Research

The Daddy of Media and Cultural Studies gives his introduction of representations...

Quote, Explain, Cite!

The Celluloid Closet

• In 100 years of film homosexuals are there as something to laugh at or pity. And in some cases something to fear.
• The whole group is not represented- Whoopi Goldberg
• Edison Experimental Film 1895
• The stereotypes are a fire source of humour.
• We learn from movies what is means to be a man , women and also sexuality- Richard Dyer.
• Movies provide us with history of what society thought homosexuals were at the time that they were made.

• 'The Sissy' was Hollywood's first gay stock character- didn't seem to have a sexuality.
• They were cliche-Arthur Laurents.
• Visibility at all costs, rather have negative than nothing.
• Sissy characters in movies were always a joke. No sin like being a woman. 
• Man dresses as women= laughs. Woman dresses as man= no laughs.
• Queen Cristina- Story of Swedish monarch who was a lesbian, but Hollywood changed the story.

• Catholic Church/ Protestants complain about the movies and the inclusion of homosexuality and in general sexuality.
• William Hayes- early censorship
• Hayes code- series of rules
• Didn't erase homosexuals from screen just made them harder to find- turned them into cold blooded villains
• Murderous Lovers- Alfred Hitchcock
• Movies were a warning to just watch and get back to the kitchen-1950
• Masculinity ruled
• seeming gay was almost as bad as being gay
• rebel without a cause
• being gay in homophobic society has to be killed- Richard Dyer
• Doris Day- man poses as gay in order to get the women into bed

Representation of Homosexuality in Film- Research Post

This article is called Gays in Film, by an English academic currently holding a professorship in the Department of Film Studies at King's College London, Richard Dyer. This article is based on the problematic obstacles that homosexuality in film faces, and how negative that the representation of it in films actually is- for example Stereotypes, the 'camp' gay guy,who is basically a girl. A film to support this ideological stereotype is GBF and Tanner, when his new BFF's give his wardrobe a makeover. Soon after he rocks up into school with all his new clothes and struts down the hallways like he owns the whole school, more like a "popular" kid. Also on the other hand we have the other gay main character, Brent, who is represented in the film to be the gayest, most confident gay guy in the whole narrative of it "the camp queen" per say, however is basically there to represent the different kinds of gay personalities in society, Tanner being more laid back and not as confident, still scared that everyone knows that he is homosexual, where as Brent is out-going and has already came out to his mum, but is ok in school as people don't suspect that he is gay, which again adds to the humour of the film as stereotypically, it is so clear that he is... 

"we have tended to condemn images of gayness in the name of aesthetic concepts and values that are highly problematic." I agree with this statement made by Richard Dyer as judgements globally of homosexuals in film, specifically men are that they are seen as camp and extremely feminine, which in reality isn't always the case. In film, gay men are labelled and targeted as loving everything fashion, make up along with all of the other bodily creative stuff, and having a specific taste particularly in colour which is no doubt pink. This is of course problematic as not ever homosexual acts this way, therefore stereotypes these personas in thinking that every gay person has to like fashion, the colour pink and act extremely feminine, along with the way that they talk, "to show gay people "realistically" on the screen means to show them in conventions of the prevailing cinematic realism. This kind of depiction in turn means to reproduce the ideas and assumptions about how gays really are which prevail in society." 

"No term is more frequent in gay criticism of the cinema than "stereotype."" I completely agree with this statement, as the stereotype of gay people in film is represented poorly. It is shocking that there is such a broad stereotype on homosexuality in general; where by film emphasises these "pathetic, ridiculous and grotesque figures that are supposed to be us up there on the screen.". "To know that a character is lesbian is immediately to know that she is aggressive, frustrated, loud mouthed, big boned and perverse." which is beyond the stereotype and not actually true, as in modern day society, more and more people are coming out as gay, and the majority are females, who are regular girls that dress and act like a regular woman/girl would. Statistics say that there has been an increase of people coming out as homosexual or bisexual, mainly down to the legalisation of gay marriage in the US, where more films are being made on homosexuality and "Compared to the 1900s, it is clear that the greater acceptance of homosexuality in the modern era has allowed more queer characters and issues to be seen with more respect and understanding in film and cinema". (Taken from wikipedia, not Richard Dyer's Gays in Film).

"It is not there to express itself, but rather to express something about sexuality in general as understood by heterosexuals." This statement is true to a certain extent on the grounds of homosexuality of a film's narrative being based on a person actually being gay, but not on their relationships or them as people, excluding their sexuality preference. Examples of this are, 'Brokeback Mountain' and 'Happy Together', a hong-kong based gay film.

Some of the main points of this article are that there is, "to argue that what appears to be "given" aesthetic principles are, in however ambiguous a way, also principles of heterosexual hegemony." Another thing being, "if you are representing sexual and emotional relationships on screen, it does make a difference whether they are gay or straight." Which I personally agree with as, despite equality now with homosexuality being a lot more accepted than past and previous years, homosexuality in film is still produced for an audience and their views, in which case those views could be modern or traditional. How being gay or straight makes a difference is because stereotypically in a heterosexual relationship you see a guy who is usually white and a woman who is also usually white, where as with a gay relationship it could be that as they are seen as "others", alongside with black people and other races, it could be felt as if this would fit the topic well, in the representation of homosexuality in film.

Representation of Homosexuality in Film (1)

"Since the gay movement began we have insisted on the centrality of the media (understood in its widest sense) as a carrier, reinforcer or shaper of our oppression." In the research piece I will be exploring this topic, to depict why homosexuality is represented so negatively within cinema, how it has improved through acceptance and why Hollywood is the shaper of homosexuality on these massive box-office films. One of the main reasons as to why homosexuality isn't shown through Hollywood blockbusters is all down to money and not homophobia. The money generated through blockbusters are huge, and homosexual films are give the impression that they wouldn't sell as well as if it was a straight, white, male/female in a film, as anything else is denoted as 'the other' as 

"Given the dearth of alternative images, it is reasonable to suppose that these had an important influence on both public ideas about homosexuality and damagingly gay self-images."

Hollywood does not give homosexuality a chance in it's producing films as all they care about is the money that is being generated and what will become the final outcome of revenue at the box office. It could be argued that people see Hollywood as being homophobic, however the only case in this problem is the money as, "Mainstream American studios are famously cautious, and the risk that an LGBT movie wouldn’t make as much money as a ‘straight one’ is something which will flash through every studio executive’s mind when faced with a new gay script."Another reason as to why Hollywood doesn't particularly use gay characters is because of, "narrative and agenda". Even though as Richard Dyer said in his Gays in Film article, "That gayness should reflect itself on film" rather than it being shaped by producers and directors.

"Movies are constructed and every element of them is created by the writer or director, which means everything in the movies was put there for a reason, at least in terms of narrative. So essentially, if you’re including a gay character in your script, there has to be a reason why on a dramatic or thematic level." This quote from Vada Magazine in the article LGBT Representation in Modern Cinema explores and signifies the use of gay characters in film in modern times. In films now a days, if you were to include a gay character within the narrative, the character would have to be there for comedic values, to add humour in it and make the audience laugh at this particular character's stereotypical gay personality, rather than with them. However there are homosexual films that have a serious ideological message behind them. An example is Brokeback Mountain and the two main characters Jack an Ennis, fall in love one summer as workers on a ranch as sheep herders, however when separated after that summer, they both marry and until keep up their affair for over a course 20 years. Which is a hard depiction and is "very rare to see a gay character in a narrative not about sexuality".

How homosexuality is negatively represented is by "Every lesbian and bisexual character in these films is accused of being a psychotic killer ... And the girl never gets the girl. I'm tired of that." Which is a reference from The Celluloid Closet documentary and to this day, well more modern, is Black Swan, a psychological thriller film about 2 dancers, going head to head to get the role in Swan Lake, which brings out Nina's dark side. It could be implied that this representation of homosexuality in film, of homosexual people being psychopaths, and that being gay is like a mental illness. Despite not being a film, Orange is the New Black expresses this. This is apparent when Healy's flashback to when he was a child takes place, with his mother coming out of a mental home he asks, "Dad what's a lesbian?" and his dad replies, "Lesbianism? Its a disease.".... "A disease like mums?"..."No, more like a mental illness. Which falls upon the representation of traditional views of homosexuality, and more modernly so, in film/TV as "During the Second World War and the subsequent Cold War, Hollywood increasingly depicted gay men and women as sadists, psychopaths, and nefarious, anti-social villains."

In more recent films, "Of 19 LGB characters, only two were portrayed as being in a public, stable, long‐term partnership and two were shown dating." which clearly denotes the views from studios only with them using homosexuality in their films as pushed to the side in these blockbuster films, as if they were to make them central characters they know that their films would bomb dramatically. Furthermore this represents, that homosexual people aren't judged upon as positively as they are seen an "others", another thing is that "It seems that a decade after ‘Brokeback Mountain’, LGBT characters still aren’t being portrayed as a regular part of every day life." showing that studios should perhaps stop making sequels and start "diverting" their ideas. 

In film, "Queer aesthetics typically challenge conventional ideas of what is thought to be universally true." Homosexual characters are always stereotypically represented "When discussing media representation of various groups, especially those we consider marginalised, stereotypes are often a primary concern." 

 This is shown from, how they act, how they dress, their look overall and a clear and evident act of gay person. Most gay men are represented as "camp" and are known to dress "fastidious" and act all confident and feminine in a stemming from a traditionalist view of a gay person basically being born in the wrong body, which is a disgusting representation.  "It is noticeable that the lesbian iconography is less elaborated and precise than that for gay men (because lesbian culture has had greater difficulty in developing under the double oppression of gayness and femaleness)."

In films that involve Homosexuality, a lot of it's audience is mostly gay themselves. Personally, I think that this is for relativity in their lives, even if it is a comedy film. the genre has many conventions that could be relatable to the specific audience member.  "Queer media doesn’t necessarily rely on queer people being the intended audience, nor does it require that queer people be affiliated with a cultural product in any way other than as consumers." Despite this quote being true, it is evident that films with the involvement with homosexuality only do "well" if their audience can personally identify with the film.




references used in this research piece: 

• Media Magazine
• eJumpCut
• Wikipedia- History of Homosexuality in American Film
• Richard Dyer's Homosexuality in Film Noir
• PinkNews.co.uk- LGB virtually non-existent in top Hollywood films
• mediasmarts.ca- Queer Representation in Film and Television 

Written by Richard Dyer
From: Jump Cut, no. 18, August 1978, pp. 15-16 

• ''Since the gay movement began we have insisted on the centrality of the media as a carrier, reinforcer or shaper of our oppression''

• ''A very common stance of straight critics, and alas of many within the gay movement, is that films should show that gay people are just ordinary human beings''

• ''There is no real difference between being gay and being straight''

• ''We are right to be angry about the succession of pathetic, ridiculous and grotesque figures that are supposed to be up there on the screen''

Gay and Lesbian Critisism

• "stereotypes of gays and lesbians such as the queen and the dyke reproduce norms and gendered heterosexuality"
• "the homosexual man or woman falls short of the heterosexual norm: that they can never be a 'real' man or woman"
• "the stereotypes of the queen as the effeminate man and the dyke as the mannish woman"
• "early gay and lesbian criticism was mostly directed at stereotyping"
• "dominant stereotypes of homosexuals- such as the sissy, the sad young man, the gay psychopath, the seductive androgyne, the unnatural woman, or the lesbian vampire"
• "for straight spectators, such stereotypes could confirm prejudice, while for gay an lesbian spectators they might encourage self-hatred"
• "Dyer argues that stereotypes have the function of ordering the world around us"
• 
  

A history of gay cinema- Steven Paul Davies

• "every homosexual was an expert decoder"
• "the notion of depicting a normal homosexual man or woman... was still thought as dangerously radical"
• "the drama of being gay is central to many gay peoples identities"
• "viewpoint that sees the world differently, with no homosexual eyes" - Male gaze theory
• "gay character in films: not sensitive, not intuitive, kind and somehow deeply sad, nor hilarious, bitchy and outrageous."
• "that gay people had emotions like normal people"
• "just part of life"
• "sexual roles are less fixed"
• "not a single gay character in the film was played by a gay actor"
• "without homosexuals there would be no Hollywood, no theatre, no arts"
• "gay cinema is attracting a huge amount of mainstream attention"
• "always something to laugh at, or pity, or even fear"
• "usually cast as the leading mans effeminate buddy or as the sissy"
• "portrayed as emotional wrecks, many of them suicidal"

Twenty Gay Stereotypes Confirmed

The Celluloid Closet

Research

Stereotypical gay characters

• Clueless-  When Cher Horowitz realises that her crush, Christian, is “a disco-dancing, Oscar Wilde-reading, Streisand ticket-holding friend of Dorothy,” his station in life immediately changes from sex object to the old, reliable gay best friend.
• I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry- Heterosexual actors relying on stereotypes to play gay characters. The characters they play are also straight pretending to be gay (comedic stereotyping).
• In and Out- Speaking of stereotypes, this little comedy relied on the notion that one’s level of femininity presupposed one’s sexuality, and, of course, it incorporated the long, unsettling kiss between Kevin Kline and Tom Selleck for awkward laughs. 

The effects of gay stereotypes

https://kiracurtis.wordpress.com/the-effects-of-the-gay-stereotype-in-current-american-film/

"In the 1920’s, when film was just a budding media, homosexuality was surprisingly common in movies but only in a comic form."

"comedic portrayal by such famous actors as Charlie Chapman was accepted and even encouraged. In films such as Wanderer of the West (1927) and The Soilers (1923), audiences laughed at the juxtaposition of an effeminate male character to the classic, tough cowboys of the West"

Hollywood criticised for negative portrayal of LGBTQ characters.

Ben Beaumont-Thomas - Wednesday 23 July 2014 11.54 BST

"The lack of substantial LGBT characters in mainstream film, in addition to the outdated humour and stereotypes, suggests large Hollywood studios may be doing more harm than good when it comes to worldwide understanding of the LGBT community," said Glaad CEO and president Sarah Kate Ellis. 

When homosexuality is featured in films, it portrays homosexuals in a very closed minded and stereotypical way. most characters are played by in reality heterosexual people, which is meant to add humour to the film through the gay character, this is offensive and gives the idea that no gay characters in films can be taken seriously due to these stereotypes.

Queer Temporalities in Gay Male representation, Tragedy, Normativity and Futurity By Dustin Bradley Goltz

1.

Gay TV and Straight America by Hollis Griffin

Gay TV and Straight America By Ron Becker (Rutgers University Press,2006), 283 pages.

"In the wake of the AIDS crisis, the tenuous successes of muticulturalist discourses, the laborious efforts of gay rights advocates, and the booming niche-orientated economy of the post-Fordist United States."

"Eve Sedgwick has used the idea of 'homosexual panic' to underscore the wildly indeterminate yet violently defended line of demarcation between homosociality and homosexuality in western society."

"Gay people and gay issues were rendered via affluent, whitewashed notions of 'progress' and queer sexual practises were obscured in favor of images of gay 'Normality'."

"Frequently gay couples appear for an episode or an narrative arc and then disappear, framed as things for the main, heterosexual characters to 'deal with'."

"Programs often narrate single gay people without ever showing them in relationships, sexual or otherwise."

The Media Students book, Questions of Representation

"What is assumed to be the reality of the group which is demanding adequate representation? Most groups large enough to make such demands are not homogeneous."

"If we always simply call for 'realism', we may ignore the fact that media texts do not have a straightforward relationship to the rest of the real."

"From whose point of view is it being told? Whose is excluded? Who is the 'them' outside this cosy community?"

"How is the group on the receiving end of the joke treated in the rest of the media? Does that change on how we might experience the joke?"

""The very obviousness of the conventions in the commercial cinema may mean that it is easier to manipulate in progressive ways than the hidden conventions of "are cinema"