British Film

How useful has an ideological critical approach been in understanding the narrative resolution of your chosen films?

One way that an ideological critical approach has been helpful in understanding the narrative resolution in ‘Under the Skin’ is through the films exploration of the ideology of Romanticism. This is because from the opening equilibrium onwards the film explores the loss of innocence and the effect of nature. During the opening equilibrium, Laura (Scarlett Johansson) stares at an ant with a childlike curiosity (performance). The extreme high contrast lighting emphasises her performance, as she intensely stares at the ant. This could be interpreted as a sense of innocence in Laura which would make sense as the non-diegetic phonetic sounds, she made earlier suggested learning how to speak like a child. This child like innocence is lost as the film continues and as she is exposed to the world, linking therefore to the ideology of Romanticism. Later on in the film, the mise en scene of Laura’s black abyss has negative connotations and suggests her loss of innocence after entering and being exposed to the world. It’s also reminiscent of Richard Wilson’s 20:50 oil artwork, meaning this negatively connotated mise en scene could have a link to environmentalism in which the director is trying to say something bad about the way humans treat the earth. Throughout the film, Laura’s performance is shown to us as emotionless. She emotionlessly watches as people drown and she emotionlessly lures men into death. The pivotal turning point in her narrative is the mirror moment. There is a long take of Laura staring at herself in the mirror which is a visual metaphor for her analysing herself and choosing to become a better person as she literally steps into the light. This in turn comes with a representation that she is human like now. She cares for people like Adam Pearson’s character and lets him go, as seeing the fly on the window (extreme close up) made her think of him and feel sorry for him which is a very human thing. This humanity allowed her to feel connected with nature and it’s this connection with nature that proves to us that she is human like now, providing a narrative conclusion. During the closing equilibrium, there is an extreme long shot of the forest super imposed with Laura sleeping. This suggests her closeness and connection to nature and how in nature she can feel calm; linking to Romanticism. This is further proven and emphasised with the contrast to the motorcyclist man who hasn’t had the same journey. The extreme long shot of him standing on the mountains suggests he can’t find Laura because she’s human now, but it’s also reminiscent of Caspar David Fredrich’s Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog, and through this we wonder if he can feel the connection to nature, knowing he probably can’t unlike Laura who’s narrative has concluded with her being proven to be more human due to her kindness, caring nature and connection with nature.

Feminism is also explored in the film ‘Under the Skin’ linking in with the binary opposition of men and women. For the majority of the film, Laura who represents all women are displayed as predator like. For example, the over the shoulder, high angle shot of her in the shopping centre makes her seem predator like, as does the mise en scene of her picking a fur coat. She’s also expressed as a predator later in the film when she’s luring men in her abyss room. The non-diegetic eerie music is in sync with her performance making her seem powerful, dangerous and predator like. To contrast, the men are seen as the victims/prey as they aimlessly get lured into death by Laura. However, there is a narrative flip during the ending equilibrium that flips the binary oppositions of men and women and therefore prey and predator. During the ending, she is chased by a man who is attempting to rape her. The lack of music during this scene emphasises the scariness and horrificness of the situation as it doesn’t need music to convey it’s horrifcness. The extreme long shot of her hiding in the trees paired with her scared expression suggests the danger she is in as well. To contrast, the man’s performance is disgusting and terrifying, as he continues to chew gum while aggressively attacking her. There can very easily be a feminist critique of the film, as the binary opposition of men and women hardly ever suggests equality, apart from maybe straight after she saves Adam Pearson. Plus, there has been critique of how she dressed herself up in a stereotypically attractive way, and how she hardly speaks and lures men in with the idea of sex, it can come across as objectifying.

One way that an ideological critical approach has been helpful in understanding the narrative resolution in ‘Moon’ is through the films exploration of the ideology of capitalism; specifically, its critique of capitalism. During the opening of Moon, the montage of the earth has high key lighting, and is all colourful. This contrasts to the monochrome like and dirty mise en scene with functional lighting of Sam’s work base, suggesting an unfair working environment to Lunar Industries Workers. Plus, Sam is seen running on a treadmill which could be a visual metaphor for him putting in all the work but getting nothing back. This all links in with the ideology of capitalism as capitalism doesn’t benefit everyone, like workers, and through this representation the film presents a critique of capitalism which is still evident in the narrative conclusion possibly suggesting no hope. The spider like shadow of the Eliza arrival, and the mise en scene of them carrying guns all has connotations of this capitalist company being dangerous. The motif of the countdown device of the Eliza arrival diegetic/foley countdown also suggests their dangerousness, as we are told to worry about them arriving before Sam leaves.  When Sam does escape, we hear non-diegetic voice over of the earth’s reaction to what he has told them about Lunar Industries and their exploitation of workers through cloning. He’s called a ‘wacko’ and an ‘illegal immigrant’ suggesting that what he has to say isn’t listened to, meaning the film could be saying that capitalism couldn’t be taken down.

Another ideology that is explored in ‘Moon’ is environmentalism. During the opening infomercial montage that uses archive footage, the voice over discusses how Lunar Industries is positively impacting the environment by finding an energy resource (the moon) that doesn’t hurt the environment. It contrasts long shots of factories producing pollution to extreme long shots of greening deserts suggesting it can help make this positive change. Plus, the positive non-diegetic major music also has positive connotations. However, viewers are also told to question them. The immediate switch to more negative non-diegetic music is one of the reasons why. Plus, how they say they are environmentalists, but they’ve just move from harming one unrenewable resource to another. Plus, during the animated sequence they present the areas they are going to help (70%) as basically purely West America, setting up the binary opposition of the east and the west as well as suggesting that they are corrupt to the audience. This idea of corruption plants the seed of doubt in the viewers mind, allowing things like the ticking time bomb of the Eliza arrival during the ending to create tension, as well as again linking into capitalism as Lunar Industries are a capitalist company. This is allowed an impactful narrative conclusion due to build-up of tension and doubt. However, the environmentalism problem wasn’t solved by the end of the movie. Possibly being suggestive of real life as the film was made in 2009 and environmental problems were a big deal then as they still are now.