Les Revenants exam structure

Les Revenants 

Hyperreality = when a representation is better than reality

The whole show is hyperreal as they all come back from the dead

THE SHOW IS SET IN A SMALL TOWN IN THE FRENCH ALPS - CANT JUST SAY FRANCE 

Representation = when something is presented again by the producer in order to manipulate the ideology of the target audience. 

Producers do this in order to construct an ideal reality to shape the world. It allows audiences to gage and interact with the show more - for financial reasons (to create money)

(need to include definition in exam) 

Les Revenants is highly polysemic (also manipulative)

You should use your own argument to talk about the show. 

Are representations ever real?

NO - whatever we see in film and tv shows isn't real, it is someones version of reality or what reality should be like. 

EXAM STRUCTURE.

• Right at the start of the paragraph, say who is being represented? e.g. Lena is an unstereotypical girl
• Use key scene to back it up e.g. the scene where she is taking Simon to Adele - the mise-en-scene of her fiery red hair and red dress suggests she is rebellious, doesn't stick to the standards
• What this shows (your argument) shows she is subverting the hegemonic norms - could argue she is in the show to be pretty and she is there for the purpose of the male gaze etc Lizbet Van Zoonen theory.
• HOW DOES THIS REPRESENTATION IMPACT THE GROUP BEING REPRESENTED? HOW DOES IT IMPACT THE TARGET AUDIENCE? representations construct reality and they become the norm - if we see it over again it becomes cultivated - George Gerbner. 

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Promotional images are sent via a press pack to newspapers and magazines and these are used by the publishers to sell the show. They may not be from the TV show itself. 


Promotional image - Character = Camille
- Looks really pale 
- Mise-en-scene of her clothes aren't exciting - generic - not stereotypical - dressed like a        middle aged woman which suggests she is a mature character - symbolic of her maturity 
- eyes look lifeless
- not stereotypically attractive 
- direct mode of address
- creating the ideology that young french girls are stereotypically unattractive 
- not stereotypically attractive
- Hair = flat, dull
- Shy, timid and a little bit grumpy.
- she comes across as a moody and grumpy character - calls her mums new mug ugly.
- she isn't wearing any makeup - looks very tired and ill - not the stereotypical                        representation of a teenage girl - impacts the audience as it suggests that there are high       expectations for teenage girls but also challenges the stereotype that teenage girls are         immature

Promotional image - mum, Claire Seguret 
- represents middle aged women - stereotypically attractive  
- looks pale and ill - similar to Camille - her daughter died so she is mourning her but then      she comes back to life
- hair is a mess 
- clothing boring - understated glamour, very chic - looks like a stereotypical mother. 
- Atypical - 
- Impacts the audience because it suggests that women don't have to wear loads of                makeup in order to be attractive - subverts stereotypes 
- she is stereotypically middle class  

Promotional image - madame Costa
- Middle aged woman - 50's 
- stereotypical middle class clothing 
- she is wearing simple, understated makeup 
- she is wearing a blazer - looks well dressed and glamorous. 
- she is laid back and care free - cheeky expression - atypical representation

Promotional image - Simon 
- Pale
- White male 
- Wearing leather jacket = cool, edgy and rebellious = stereotype 
- Very serious = he doesn't talk a lot - reserved, impolite, rude, grumpy, quite aggressive 
- stereotypically dark and mysterious - hegemonically attractive - hair, face 

Promotional image = Julie
- pale 
- looks sad. depressed, gaunt
- costume looks boring 
- group in society = working class - gets called out to old mans house to look after him -          nurse/carer = stereotypically working class job - looks very tired  
- early 30's 
- not wearing makeup, looks plain 
- costume - looks too old for her, oversized jumpers - stereotypically dresses like a librarian    and like an older man 
- Audience are impacted as she isn't sexualised in any way - she is very blunt, forward and    aggressive (goes against Lizbet Van Zoonen's theory) - when she see's Victor outside she    just gets on with her life  - atypical representation of women. 

Promotional image = everyone 
- they are all white (black people largely represented in crime films like Boys in the Hood or   Straight Outta Compton) 
- Viktor at front leading them 
- features so many white people as it represents the demographic of France countryside - it also targets the stereotypical white middle class audience 

The characters in Les Revenants are stereotypically attractive French people. 

If a TV shows speaks to multiple audiences it is called a 'double mode of address' = Les Revenants

HUMANS = the synths are ethnically diverse = shows they are different

George Gerbner argued that if a certain group of people were left out of media product then this was known as symbolic annihilation.