In the 'Angel Cafe' opening, there are two characters, of different genders. They represent two very different social groups within society. They are both representative in the way that the stereotypes still exist today and are still present in a lot of people. However, they put an individual twist on stereotypes, especially the character Agnes as she challenges the conventions of a young teenage girl, deceptive, and dishonest.
The male role in 'Angel Cafe' is stereotypically an older middle aged man involved in dodgy
that come with it, for example, bad mouthing in the street, abusive to women, often drunk and uncivil. The representation in 'Angel cafe' is a very traditional image of how a middle aged manbusiness, and often associated with the drugs trade. He has been in and out of prison all of his life and cannot leave the trade. He is an older thug like person and the fact that he is a male reinforces the dominance of the male gender and the associations
may have been in the late 40's, the long dark coat and wide rimmed hat place him straight into the
shoes of Harry Lime in the Third Man, this was an intentional inter-textual reference within the opening of the thriller.
Some of his character traits are also similar to Harry Lime's. For example, the shifty behavior and always lurking in the shadows. The costume is a tribute to The Third Man and Noir Thriller traditions. This aside, his costume connotes wealth, vanity and social status. The rich coat is long and hiding the expensive watch, golden chains and bracelets exploiting his wealth and reflecting his vanity. His social status symbol is his hat, showing that he wears it inside even though it is a warm environment. It is polite that people take their hats off when they enter a building, however assuming he is above everyone else in the room stereotypically is associated with the upper class.
The female character in the thriller opening isn't the traditional image of a femme fatale. The character is deviant in that she takes the money from the till, but still appears blameless, hardworking and angelic. Another trait of a femme fatale is portrayed when she gets locked in the fridge by the man. This was influenced by when The Bride in Kill Bill is buried alive in the coffin. The actress that played the
female role had coloured skin, this also puts a twist on the traditional femme fatale image and makes it more edgy by challenging the image as well as the actions and expectations. Another lead female role in a thriller is Jackie Brown. Jackie is deviant in her actions, this has had influence on the character of Agnes, on breaking the mold of femme fatale's by twisting their image a little. It is edgy and challenges the representation of women in the thriller genre.
The characters in 'Angel Cafe' twist the social stereotypes, however keeping in form of the character's personality. Also when creating the characters, the target audience had to be considered and to understand what they would like to see from the characters they are watching and following through the rest of the film.
A little bit thin and often points are not explained in enough detail. For example you say that both genders are stereotypes!!! This is far too simplistic. You need to think of representation in the context of the thriller genre. Your male customer is not a stereotype in the realistic sense because I don't see too many older men walking about dressed in an overcoat and trilby. You need to make a lot more about the man's costume is a tribute to the noir tradition and connotes possibly his vanity and social status. You need to reference male characters in other noir thrillers such as The Third Man, Gilda, the opening sequence in episode 1 part 1 of The Singing Detective, The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, and contemporary films such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. You need to include screen shots and clips from this research to strengthen.
ReplyDeleteRe the waitress, again the notion of iconic femme fatales who are glamorous and deviant! Eve in Once Upon a time in America, Gildain the film of the same name.
This website will be of enormous help to you:
http://www.filmsite.org/femmesfatales1.html
Many more screen shots and clips please and another point to tighten:
You say...The actress that played the female role had coloured skin, this also puts a twist on the traditional femme fatale image and makes it more edgy by challenging the image as well as the actions and expectations....what about Jackie Brown?
Also this point is a little garbled. Why is the representation of an ethnic minority character edgy and challenging?
At present Level 2 reflecting basic understanding of representation.
Avoid adjectives like "blameless" and "angelic" in the context of the mise-en-scene in your film. My reading of the waitress is that she is a hardworking attractive goodtime young woman (the coat indicates "attitude")who is light fingered.
ReplyDeleteI have sent you an email which may help you with how to organise a response re representation of the waitress.