FILM STUDIES

  Character traits most important characters in secrets and lies Cynthia  Hortense Maurice  Monica  Roxanne Cynthia, Maurice, Hortense, Monica, Roxanne  Vladimir Propp's character tropes recognised easy categories (binary opposition)   1928 said that all stories follow a clear narrative structure which repeats across fairy tales  identified characters which are apparent in most narratives  villain; struggles against the hero  the dispatcher; the character who sends the hero on their mission  the helper; helps the hero in their quest  the princess; the hero seems the most deserving of her and the villain tries to prevent this, the journey often ends with the hero marrying the princess  the donor; prepares the hero for their 'quest' giving the hero a magical object  the hero; seeks something throughout the story, reacting to the donor false hero; disrupts the hero's progress by taking credit for the hero's actions or tr...

  British critical film review: Secret’s and Lies (Mike Leigh)   The 1996 Mike Leigh film Secrets and Lies is truly an excruciating yet extremely heart-warming story displaying the new mood in British film in the mid 1990’s. Work varied, reflecting social and cultural contexts, rebelling against the social hierarchies, making working class people and their issues visible and important. In this case , following the death of her adoptive parents, a successful young black optometrist establishes contact with her biological mother – a lonely white factory worker living in poverty in South London. Class is certainly a paramount factor of the film, reflecting one of the constant binary oppositions occurring, the separation between the working lower class and the middle class. Cynthia and Roxanne are in poverty, Roxanne “works for the council” and Cynthia in a low paid factory, their desperation for stability is not in fact outwardly expressed but concealed and only released on rare ...

  NARRATIVE Levi-Strauss - Key points Conflict Binary opposition  Discipline - Social Anthropologist Studies storytelling in primitive societies, exploring how visuals on caves told stories Creates meaning  Two contrasting characters/things - struggle through opposites  OPPOSITIONS: Hortense and Roxanne (Class and race) Cynthia (children but no money) and Monica (Money but no children) Maurice and the absence of another male figure (absence of conflict) - heightens the importance of female figures and how he can exist in the world without other male characters. He is not conventionally aggressive, he demonstrates it as an outpour of emotions.  Possible ideas - Conflict creates meaning, the actual dialogue of "secrets and lies", sudden epiphany  - Opposite binary's - Cynthia and Monica  - Race, gender and class do not emerge within the construct of binaries - so Strauss's ideas are limited  - To engage and apply binary opposition we have to being w...

 1990's CONTEXT  RACE CLASS AND POLITICS Changing lifestyles: - Class divide vs Climbing ranks (Monica and Maurice) - Increase in middle class households containing: White Goods, Mobiles, Internet. - Sexual liberty and the 1990's. - Brit-Pop (spice girls and Riot girl - white feminism). - 1996 - Last Irish Magdalene Laundry closed.  Class Politics: Thatcher's Individualism vs New Labour - Individualism - left over from Thatcher's era. "No such thing as society" - Welfare State.  - New Labour - move towards Neo-liberalism. - Socialism and Champagne Socialism - drive to highlight disparities in class - British Film Making (Trainspotting / Billy Elliot).  - Focus on improving education.  Closing the Class Divide: After 18 years of Conservative Government, New Labour was aimed to appeal to all social classes, but above all it tried to capture new, young, white-collar middle-class voters from Thatcher. They wanted to push for people to engage in cooperative self...