Fandoms

Fans have ownership of the films, can change parts of films.
Fan fiction - parodies them sometimes, being cine literate allows us to understand this through viewing the film as if we took an oppositional reading.
Fandom + Spectatorship changes thw way we view films.
Indiana Jones 4th film - example of a franchise that disappointed audiences. 
My fan fiction: Batman vs Darth Vader
Uses and gratifications theory - Blumer and Katz four pleasures fron films: Diversion, personal relationships, identity and surveillance
Blockbusters offer escapism
Films = - for relationships e.g. choosing to see a romantic film cause you're single.
Personal identity e.g. Fight Club, beliefs cluld be altered.
Surveillance
Active and Passive Spectatorship
Passive assumes we are all the same
Active: all different
Pleasure: Sense of belonging = personal relationships, links to social media - not only a viewing experience, also a social experience. Personal = Cosplay - conventions,  links to relationship, allows escapism (makes them feel unique and strong in themselves). Grants sexual confidence
Active: Fan fiction - Adapted ideas - Parody - allows an exploration of oppositional gazes in the film.
Production. How are the audiences involved? They present their expectations via yt.
Authorship (directors mark) - Themes, Style, Genre (JJ Abrams)
Film history (Past) - Male dominated. Then oppositional.
Gender used to be important, but not as much now

Practice Question - Representation

The films La Haine and Pan's Labyrinth explore aspects of masculinity and femininity, national identity and class, which challenges the dominant ideologies of the country the film is based around. Both directors Kassovitz and Del Toro both seem to rely on representation to convey messages and both explore them in different ways. I believe that both La Haine and Pan's rely heavily on representation in order to convey their messages in order to challenge dominant ideologies. Masculinity seems to be represented through fascism in Pan's and in La Haine through power and dominance. Femininity seems to be almost non-existant in the two texts due to the lack of dominant female characters in both films. National identity seems to be represented and formed by the church and the military. Finally, ethnicity and class seems to be characterised in La Haine through the diverse range of characters and their backgrounds whereas, Pan's seems to rely more heavily on sexual yonic and phallic imagery to represent the idea of tainted youth.

In terms of masculinity Pan's seems to represent masculinity as being presented through fascism and power. An example of this is during Ofelia's death scene. It represents male dominance and power in the form of Vidal who is a tyrannical fascist officer. When Vidal kills Ofelia it represents the oppressive nature of man, dominating one of the very few female characters of the film. This could have been done to represent all men as oppressive to women during the time period of the Spanish civil war. Women seem to be nothing more than pests in men's way in Pan's and when they interfere with their plans or lives they are punished, which is why one may argue Ofelia is killed by Vidal. In terms of national cinema this ties in to the fact that Spain was stuck in an oppressive fascist society during that time period and seem to just ignore the atrocities that occurred then. Del Toro attempts to appeal to the Spanish audience by basically saying this is something which should be dealt with and talked about, rather than just pretending that it never happened.

La Haine attempts to represent masculinity through having power through believing in traditional french values, which are known as liberty, fraternity and equality through the French immigrants. An example of this is the scene where the police attempt to move the 'french' minorities from the roof of an estate building. The police seem to be unable to do so due to the unity that their brotherhood share to have masculine power over the police. Kassovitz may have done this to represent the power that the minorities may not realise they have in French society, possibly supporting the riots occurring in 1990's France, attempting to make a statement that the minorities need to make a stand since they are the ones with real French values and ideas, not the oppressive middle class government.

In Pan's  The power of men is destroying nature, nature is represented as female. This may explain why there are not many female characters in the film but lots of yonic imagery through out to represent the oppressed femininity. For example the two scenes featuring the tree, it's beauty increases as the film progresses. This could be an analogy for men e.g. fascism destroying nature. Also, perhaps Del toro was suggesting that life can only thrive in a woman. For example Ofelia's death representing the destruction of nature. However the uprising during the Spanish Civil War is featured at the end of the film, featuring a strong woman at the lead of the charge, defeating Vidal. Showing a woman defeating fascism could suggest a rebirth of nature and a rebirth in Spanish society since, nationally, the ground in Spain is supposed to be broken and dead. Del Toro may be suggesting that finally talking about the Spanish Civil War may cause a rebirth in society, or a rebirth for the destroyed nature in Spain.

La Haine does not explore the ideas of yonic and phallic imagery. Instead, they explore ideas of class and ethnicity. La Haine is critical of France during the 1990's as it subverts cultural expectations. It breaks stereotypes of French people and French culture and expresses the feelings of marginalisation that the French immigrants were experiencing in the 1990s. For example when the three boys visit the capital, the lights turn on when Vinz snaps his fingers. They leave thinking nothing will happen representing their mindset that nothing that they do will make a difference to society, when actually, the lights turn on. This could represent that their fraternity, one of the traditional French values. Kassovitz may have done this due to believing that fraternity may indeed be enough to bring equality and liberty back to modern French society and make a change. This is further reinforced due to the context of France during the 1990's since students rebelled to make change in society and eventually did through the death of a young black French student killed 'accidentally' by the police.

In terms of national identity in Pan's seems to be represented by the church and the military. People in Spanish society were very religious due to the effects of the Spanish civil war. The military are presented as fascist at evil, perhaps even demonic. For example the room which the pale man who is supposed to be a child eating demon is almost identical to Vidal's room where he meets with his associates. This could mean that Del Toro is attempting to portray the Spanish military during that time as demons due to the fact that later in the film Vidal kills Ofelia. Which, is similar to the demon who kills children. Del Toro seems to represent the military as destroying youth and the church as Ofelia's saviour, due to her descent in to the fantasy realm with the 'king and queen' and herself who could represent 'the holy trinity'. This is fitting due to the negative outlook of the military during the spanish civil war in Spanish society and the positive outlook of the church in Spanish society during that time period. This also makes sense due to Del Toro also originally being of Catholic descent. 

Representation of France - La Haine

Prime minister didn't care for immigrants (Front National)
La Haine is seen as an accurate representation of France, portrays it in a realistic way.
La Haine highlights the current issues of racism in France during the 1990's.
La Haine is critical of France during the 1990's it subverts cultural expectations.
La Haine breaks stereotypes of French people and French culture.
La Haine expresses the feelings of marginalisation that the French immigrants were experiences in the 1990s
Visit to the capital, lights turn on when he snaps his fingers. They leave thinking nothing will happen representing their mindset that nothing that they do will make a difference to society.
La Haine represents French values through the French immigrants. Scenes Cops vs Immigrants (Liberty)
When Vinz is woken up by Said (Fraternity)

Representation in Pan's

Ofelia has a birthmark on her shoulder, which is said to be proof of her royal identity. At the start of the film the moon can be seen to be a crescent that matches the birthmark. At the film’s end the moon is full, perhaps signifying her complete transformation to her royal identity. They call her the daughter of the moon.

The power of men is destroying nature, nature is represented as female e.g yonic imagery through out, tree scene. An analogy for destroying nature. Life can only thrive in a woman e.g Ofelia's death.

Pan's Labyrinth color codes the separate worlds of the film. Blue for reality. Red/Gold for fantasy. Green for the world of the Faun. As the boundaries between the worlds break down so too do the colors bleed from one world to another. Pale Man's room is yellow to represent caution and mystery.

Many viewers wonder why Ofelia is so foolish as to disobey the Faun’s instructions and wake the monster by eating the grapes. Beside the fact that disobedience in the face of authority is one of Pan’s central themes, recall that Ofelia was sent to bed with dinner the night before and may have gone a full day without eating at this point. Also keep in mind that Ofelia has just been proven right when she trusted her own judgment and ignored advice about which door hid the knife.

The Fairies weren't the only ones to mislead Ofelia about which door hides the blade. The Faun’s book also suggests the incorrect middle door. The door also plays on the same theme of deceptive visuals as the increasing beauty of the Faun. The beautiful door is the false choice. The shabby, broken down door hides the treasure.

The Faun in greek mythology represents the god Pan.

Ofelia returns to her Kingdom at the film’s end despite failing two out of three tests put to her in the film. She wakes the Pale Man and refuses to turn over her brother to the Faun. The only test she passes is retrieving the key from the toad.

The number three is supposed to symbolise Mars, the greek god of war. This use of the number three tasks is symbolic in Catholic (The Holy Trinity), as well as the three at the end could represent the fact that Ofelia is trying to fix the war like situation in Spain.

The two fairies killed by the Pale Man are seen alive again in the final scene. If we are taking the fantasy sequences literally this lends credence to the theory that the tests may have been faked and were more about how Ofelia behaved during the tests than about the supposed goals. suggesting that Ofelia may have made up this fantasy to deal with the Spanish Civil War.

Exam Prep (Themes)

Themes:

Pan's:
- Fascism
- Masculinity
-Power and Conflict
- Oppression
- Patriarchy
- Family

La Haine:
- Power and conflict
- Poverty
- Racism
- Gangs - Fraternity, brotherhood
- Violence
- Rebellion
- Masculinity

City of god:
- Power and conflict
- Poverty
- Drugs and violence
- Patriarchy
- Child gangs
- Government corruption
- Brotherhood

Revision

Themes:
CoG + Pan's shares themes of youth and innocence/violence.
La Haine, CoG and Pan's has a theme of government oppression
Government oppression destroys innocence.
Universal themes = sells well world wide.
National Cinema - challenges the dominant ideology of the country
Rules - Hollywood conventions
Narratives
La Haine - cycle of violence
CoG - many separate cycles of violence with intertwining stories from an observer viewpoint
Pan's - intetwining stories
Genre
La Haine - Social realist, crime, youth drama which aspires to be a gangster film.
Pan's - fantasy, war film, horror
CoG - gangster film, war film

La Haine - Context

Kassovitz was influenced by the death of Makome M'Bowole by a police man.
Front national (French equivalent of the BNP).
Immigrants were marginalised
Conflict in the banlieues slums. (Riots)
Student Riots
Slavery in France in 1780
High immigration in the 1930's
Battle of the Algiers