Monday 10 January 2011

Intertextuality Research

Different thriller movies are inspired by each other. There are a variety of film makers that have used different elements from the movie 'Psycho' in an attempt to make their movie successful, we call this method intertextuality. Intertextuality is a term used to describe films with visual similarities and similar narrative conventions. Film makers take different elements from different movies and place it within theirs. This could be camera angles, sound, mise en scene and characters .


The 'Fatal attraction' is a film about a woman who is mentally unstable, un-stability is a personality trait used in many thriller films, this was taken from the movie 'Psycho'. We normally associate the word 'Psycho' with person who is mentally unstable.  During the scene that i watched in class i noticed that the leading lady Alexandra Forest (Glenn Close) is dressed in a white gown, white connotes purity and truth. This element of mis en scene is very similar to 'Psycho', being that the leading lady was wearing a white robe in the shower scene.




The 'Fatal attraction'  uses similar sound clips to 'Psycho', when Alexandra is struggling to breathe she runs to the kitchen sink and turns on the tap. Non - digetic sound clips are used to add emphasis within the clip, this has been taken from the famous shower scene in 'Psycho'. A narrative convention for thriller movies is that male characters are usually the attackers, in The 'Fatal attraction' this gender role stays the same (stereotype). 


Other intertextuality elements are the shiny knife, white lighting, close ups to see facial expressions and fast film score music. 







No comments:

Post a Comment