A delectable film

The 2009 drama film A Single Man (based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood) is filled to the brim with looks and gazes. It follows a grief-stricken university teacher George Falconer (Colin Firth) during the day on which he plans to take his life. However, through meeting all kinds of people, somehow still seeing the beauty in them and conversing with them (and some of these people saying the things George needs to hear), it seems like he might change his mind.
As George seeing, looking at the people he meets during his day seems to be crucial to the plot of the movie, it should come as no surprise that we, as an audience, get to share a lot of these looks. In long, slow-motion close-ups we get to see exactly what George is looking at and what makes him regain the will to live.
To me this regained purpose makes sense, as his views are displayed so beautifully and so incredibly detailed that I have rewatched this film multiple times just to "ooh, see that scene at the bank again!" or "check out another time that part in the classroom" because I just could not let go of some scenes I so clearly remembered. This is why I thought of this film immediately when Fenichel mentioned the comparison between looking and "objects [looked at] being devoured by the reader [in this case the viewer]". The cravings I have for biscuits or cheap dark chocolate feel similar to cravings for these scenes. Now although this to me feels quite less scoptophilic, sadistic and sexual than Fenichel makes clear looking feels to some other people, it is a parallel that struck me.
The looks of others portrayed in A Single Man certainly do not seem as threatening to either George nor the audience as they do towards Sartre and other authors. We still "own" the things we see, the world George -and temporarily we too- inhabits is not "stolen" from him. Somehow George is not at all concerned with the looks of others towards him, it feels like he has a tunnel vision directed very precisely at what only he wants to see and I believe it happens more than once that he fails to keep a conversation going just because he is still stuck looking at the other person. His views are presented very clearly and we get to enjoy the exact same beauty as he does.
It should be noted that this beauty does not only come from women: George will look at anyone. Well, almost anyone. George is gay (he is in fact mourning the sudden loss of his husband) and his more intense looks (the ones highlighted by slow-motion close-ups) are directed only at women and gay men. To George these looks are, I suppose, not very sexual: he often quite distantly remarks on the other's beauty or pleasing smile, but never says these things with any sexual intent. They are possibly rather "objective" (as far as beauty can ever be objective) notes to himself where he tries to remind himself of why his life could still be worth living. George's "objectivity" however does not say anything about the way the audience sees the men and women depicted in the movie and more (sexual?) motives may have had a role in the decision of the filmmakers to portray them the way they have. I think I will leave this up to your judgement, but below I will list a few scenes which could be interesting to look at and of course I still recommend watching the whole film and all of its beautiful/delicious scenes.




Trailer:
0:54 close-up eyes female student
1:04 part of the "bank scene" mentioned

Scene with Carlos: George meets a gay young man from Spain, the two have a spark and some good conversation.This scene is chock-full of looks, including:

0:35-1:14 close-ups

2:16 onward a conversation in front of a huge billboard showing Janet Leigh's eyes in Hitchcock's Psycho

Lastly the classroom scene:

0:00 the scene is preceded by a scene next to a tennis court where there does in fact appear some sexuality in George's looks

2:19 close-up of a female student and a (gay) male student

3:55 a few more really short close-ups