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Gender/Ethnicity: Blade Runner/Vertigo - Coggle Diagram
Gender/Ethnicity: Blade Runner/Vertigo
Gender
Vertigo
Masculinity
Masculinity and traditional gender roles held of importance in the 1950s
Scottie's masculinity in crisis
Scottie becomes a passive male
Nightmare scene
Bright technicolour
Sharp edges, unusual cinematography - German Expressionism
Further shows male passivity
Tower scene
Dolly zoom gives the audience the sensation of Vertigo
Hitchcock's auteur style
Highlights Scottie's impotence and lack of masculinity
Saving Madeline = saving himself
Reclaiming what it is to be a man
Dialogue: 'Let me take care of you Judy'
Femininity
Madeline subjected to the male gaze
Following Madeline scene
17 mins of tracking shots - pure alternation
Auteur influence by pure cinema
Focus on visuals, lack of dialogue
Enigmatic Hermann score
Focus on viewing Madeline as voyeurs
Scottie and us as the audience are voyeurs
Madeline becomes passive
Opening scene
Close up of red lips - sexualization
Disconnected face - no identity
Hermann score - suspenseful and enigmatic
Auteur - spirals, mathematical
Midge - traditional 1950s gender roles
Maternal, nurturing, motherly figure towards Scottie
Ethnicity
Lack of diverse ethnicities reflects 1950's context
Old Hollywood Studio System
Blondeness is seen as 'other'
Kim Novak as an unobtainable ice queen
Ernie's scene - slow tracking shots - male gaze, voyeurism
Passivity, silent
Blondeness, synonymous with whiteness, suggests racial superiority
Hitchcock's obsession with blonde women
Idealised women
Context
Advancement in technology
VistaVision
Cinemascope
Encouraged cinema attendance
Post WWII era - lack of clarity, full of discomfort, society full of anxiety
Golden Age of Hollywood
Hitchcock had more control in filmmaking
Based on the book D'Entre Les Morts (The Living and the Dead)
Auteur
Framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, empathy
Innovative forms of film editing
Tower scene - Scottie's male impotence
Hitchcock as the 'Master of Suspense'
Inspired by 'pure cinema'
Focus on visuals, lack of sounds or dialogue
Scottie following Madeline scene
Focus on viewing Madeline through the male gaze and as voyeurs
Anchored by Hermann swirling score - enigmatic, tense
German Expressionism
framed shots to maximise fear, tension, anxiety
Reaction to social issues
1950s - post WWII, Cold War era
Moody lighting, exaggerated mise-en-scene, unusual camera angles
Themes/Motifs
Blonde women
Doppelgangers
Guilt
Spirals
Ethnicity
Asian characters and cultural influences
Bright neon lights stand out among dark atmosphere - overpowering
Reflects growing anxieties within USA of Japanese colonialism
Deckard eating Asian food
Lack of black characters
Replicants could be represented as 'surrogate blacks' - racially marginalised in the society
Replicants are marginalised, viewed as 'other'
Opening scroll
'Replicant' shown in bold red text and italic
Different to the humans, segregated, not associated
Dramatic synth score - highlights danger/fear surrounding
'This was not execution. This was retirement'
Making it seem better than it was. Not as serious, taken lightly
Reference to slave trade/colonialism
Gender
Female characters objectified for the male gaze
Intro of Pris
Long take/long shot as she walks down the street allows audience to take her in
Sound - Futuristic synth - sensual sounding saxophone
Sexualised connotations
Rachel
Traditional stereotypical female representation
1940s inspired hair and makeup
Red lips - sexualised
Passive character
Deckard forces himself upon Rachel & she complies - women as submissive, passivity
Auteur
Neo-noir
Chiaroscuro lighting
long shot - scene looks like a painting
Establishing shots
Shows audience vast Hadean cityscape
Opening - establishing shot of the Tyrell Corporation
Dark colour palette
Futuristic synth
Long take - audience takes in scene
Reality created - ship flies past audience
Eyes
All knowing, windows to the soul
Puts spectator in a position to reflect on the world being presented to them
Opening scene - fire, destruction, philosophical
Replicant vs. human
Consumerist society
Long shot of advertisements, bright colours, stand out amongst darkness
Scott's background in marketing
Context
New Hollywood era
Anti-authoritarian themes
Liberal attitudes to sex and drugs
More political