Article:

Video Surveillance in Hollywood Movies

This paper examines the representations of CCTV in contemporary popular culture, namely Hollywood film, from the perspective of culture and film studies. It starts from the observation that a growing number of Hollywood films are not only using (fake) CCTV images within their narrative, but are actually developing ‘rhetorics of surveillance’. Following the argument of Thomas Y. Levin, contemporary Hollywood film is increasingly fascinated with (the images of) video surveillance. This fascination can be explained with the use of ‘real time’ and a shift from spatial to temporal indexicality in these movies. The paper then takes a closer look at three recent films: Tony Scott's ENEMY OF THE STATE, Steven Spielberg's MINORITY REPORT and David Fincher's PANIC ROOM. The role and uses of CCTV imagery in these films are analyzed; the role of the heroine under surveillance is examined; modes of (im-)possible resistance against CCTV are discussed.