Brief Encounter

Within lesson we watched Brief Encounter and studied the representation of women. Throughout this film is appeared to me that the women being represented were conforming to their stereotypes which in the past were more so a dominant ideology as opposed to modern age today in which women step out of their stereotypes.

The first stereotype I noted which women conformed to was the stereotype that they are obsessed with their appearance. Laura is often seen powdering her nose or fixing her hair, in addition to this she always has nice clothes on which represents that she takes time to look good. Theorist David Chandler comments that representation are a construction of relaity. Today we live in an age with icons who dress nice and are obsessed with their appearance such as models like Kate Moss or celebrities like Angelina Jolie. However such people lived in the 1940s when this film was shot, for example, Judi Garland and Jennifer Jones. This stereotype is also enforced with sound, speech in particualr. Laura's husband comments saying "stop beautifying" this suggests that she is constantly fixing her appearance and spends a vast amount of time being vain looking in mirrors in attempt to look better.

Women in this media product are collectively represented to be quite domestic. It is noted through conversation between Alec and Laura that she is a stay at home mother and the only time she goes out is on a Thursday to get shopping for her house. Also Laura's husband later in the film tells her "I want my dinner" signifying that she is the one who prepares the dinner and it is the usual thing that she fends for her husband. Another woman is also seen to be domestic, the middle ages woman who works in the cafe at the station, at the beginning of the film the first action she is seen doing is cleaning glasses. Also the maid which is in this film is a woman and is seen caring to the children and is therefore is represented to be quite hands on domestic. This stereotype follows Barthes theory and appears quite natural, this is because it is an ideology, women are seen to be domestic and home makers god for cooking and cleaning across the world, it is a global attitude.

Another stereotype which is enforced within this film is that women are very emotional. Throughout the most part of this film Laura is seen crying due to the guilt she feels for betraying her husband and because of the thought of Alec leaving. At one point towards the end she even considers committing suicide which expresses the exaggeration of women's emotion. Also Laura's emotions are represent through her voice over narration, this told the audience all of her emotions which were often represented to be all over the place. The use of such a voice over allows other women to relate to her situation which follows Baudrillards theory as a hyper reality has been created in which the lines between reality and what the media has constructed has become blurred because women in real life are in this situation. Mise en scene is also used to portray Laura's emotions, the train station is dark as Alec leaves which represents a dark moment, also when she goes out with Alec it is often bright with sunshine representing it is a happy moment. Also when Alec and Laura nearly get caught by Alec's friend the rain which appears acts as a pathetic fallacy as Laura is crying due to her guilt and how she could of let it get this far.