A space for the female viewer? The spectatorial gaze and damaged masculinity in Tre metri sopra il cielo and Ho voglia di te

In this article, I analyse the narratives of Tre metri sopra il cielo (Three Steps Over Heaven) (Lucini 2004) and its sequel, Ho voglia di te (‘I desire you’) (Prieto 2007) through the gendered paradigm of the spectatorial gaze theorized by Laura Mulvey. These films, I argue, subtly shift the active/male, passive/female paradigm of looking by displacing Step (Riccardo Scamarcio) as the focalizing subject, thereby empowering the films’ female protagonists – Babi (in Three Steps Over Heaven) and Gin (in Ho voglia di te) and female viewers. By subverting norms associated with the gendered gaze, I contend that these films reimagine heteronormative gender roles in Italy in a way that resonated primarily with its female audience. By focusing on women who transgress traditional gender norms, and by presenting a damaged form of masculinity, these films successfully create a space for the female spectator.