Representation for Film texts

Film - How are people represented in your chosen text

My three studied texts are Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez Sin City, Niel Blomkeps District 9 and Fish Tank. The characters in the texts are represented in both a stereotypical way and a way that subverts from the typical role of a male and female. The representation of the characters are constructed through the miss en scene and technical conventions alongside the narrative.



In Frank Milers and Robert Rodriguez Sin City the female characters are typically represented as femme fatales due to texts hybrid genre which includes noir film. The character "Nancy" is represented as a femme fatale to some extent due to the fact she is objectified. Laura Mulvey said "women act as an erotic object for the male". An example of this is portrayed in the scene where Nancy is dancing in the bar, the technical convention of slow motion objectifies her body allowing the audience to view every aspect of her body. This is further highlighted through the numerous close ups on her sexual assets. The male gaze can be applied here as the camera angle portrays a male sitting on  a stool below her, therefore the camera is looking up at her giving the audience the impression they are looking through the males eye. However the typical noir femme fatale is diluted in Nancy as she is also represented as an innocent when we sees her as a child. Thus linking to Propp's character role of the damsel in distress or princess.



Moreover women are also represented as typically niave, this is highlighted through the character Lucile. Lucile is one of the female characters that does not use men to her advantage as she is a lesbian, however when she tries to take control in the scene with herself and Marv, she ends up getting shot by the corrupt cops. Thus representing women as niave and helpless if they are not using their body to be empowered. As the text is based on the time during the cold war, it portrayed women trying regain the power and control they had when the men were in the war. Therefore the text could be representing the women trying to take control however can not handle as they need men to save them,  again linking to propp's theory that in a narrative the woman is usually the damsel in distress.



Typically in sin city men are represented as cynical and insecure thus creating the typical noir cynical protagonist. This links to the time noir was set 1947- 1953 which was during the time of the cold war. As people were afraid of war beginning again, as this is not long after world war 2, they are depressed, do not trust anybody and are paranoid. The producer has encoded this in the male protagonists in order to express the attitudes of the time, an  example of this is expressed through the character marv who says: " hell is waking up everyday not knowing why you are here". This comment adheres to the fact that people of this time felt they were not supposed to be living ad thus were insecure. Due to the fact that trust was an issue at this time the men were also represented as aggressive and violent. An example of this is at the point when Marv escapes the murder scene of Goldie, he jumps through the police car window and punches the cop in the face to escape in the police car. As he knows the police think he committed the murder, therefore does not trust them and uses aggression to escape.



In my second text fish tank women subvert the role of being sexually objectified, and are untypically represented as violent and perhaps even masculine. This is highlighted through the female protagonist Mia. An example of women being violent and is the scene where Mia finds her friend in park provocatively dancing, which is the only point women are objectified, the shot of Mia sitting on the fence encodes that she is distant from the environment as suggested from the shallow depth of field. Her face expression indicates that she does not desire to be objectified which is untypical of a female role in film. she replies to the girls asking her why she is staring by head butting one of them followed by swearing.



However the text still portrays that females desire men to take care of them, and that a male is needed in the family for it to be able to function.  As the text is a social realist text, there is a lack of slow motion as this usually something used in fantasy or for scopophillia. However at the point in the narrative when Mia is on Connors back due to an injury we experience the first insight into her desires. The use of the slow motion creates a dream like and fantasy atmosphere that shows relies and wants him to care for her, the digetic sound of heavy breathing also adds to this. The representation that men are needed for a male to function is encoded in the scene when the four character are in the car. This is the first point in the narrative when we see Mia, her sister and mother getting along and doing something together. One could argue that this is because the male is there for them to be able to function as a family.


Though there is a lack of male representation in Fish tank, the male that is mostly represented is Connor. In some aspects the male is viewed through the female gaze, this is encoded at the point in the narrative when Mia first meets Connor. When he leaves her to go back upstairs to her mother there is a low angle shot that takes on the eye of Mia looking at his bottom thus showing she is sexually objectifying him. It is also encoded through the fact that at the point in the narrative when she meets him, he doesn't have a shirt on.


However in  Neil Blomkemp's District 9 Males are represented as powerful and dominant, this is encoded through the use of low angle shots that take on the eye of the character looking up at the male that is in power thus representing them as powerful and dominant. This is shown at the point in the narrative when the MNU solider Koobus Venter captures Wikus, this scene shows Wikus looking up to him whilst he is holding a gun to him. This implies man gain power through aggression and status, as he is a solider. As men are represented as in power we also see that if people oppose them, they respond in a brutal way. This again represented through the character Koobus Venter again during this scene when he says: "you're not going to waste anymore of my time" and "im just going to fucking kill you myself".


The women in district 9 are mostly represented as domesticated and only exist alongside the male. This is represented through Tanya, Wikus' wife, and Wikus' mother. At the point in the narrative when Wikus has disappeared Tanya is talking about him disappearing to the camera, she is presented in the home and is represented as emotional. The fact that throughout the narrative she is shown in the home encodes that she is domesticated. However at this point in the narrative she is presented in a pink bedroom implying that she is a kind of princess or damsel in distress, thus linking to prop's character roles. The fact that the majority of the time she is on screen she is talking about Wikus represents she only exists alongside the male in the narrative. Wikus' mother is also represented as only existing alongside the male as when she is presented in a documentary style scene she is captioned as "Wikus' mother. However there is also a positive representation of females through the psychologist "Sarah Livingstone". This is a positive representation of females as we see her being represented through her complex job role and not existing alongside a male. However one could argue that due to the fact she is talking about a male throughout the narrative, she only exisits in the narrative due to the male.