Megan Turner

PR3: Critical responses to media products

Leon: The Professional is a 1994 English- language French thriller film which was directed by Luc Besson. The cast include Jean Reno as main character Leon who is a hitman but refers to himself as a “cleaner” Gary Oldham as Drug Enforcement Administration agent Norman Stansfield and Natalie Portman as 12-year-old Mathilda who becomes Leon’s protégée.The genre of the film is an action/thriller, this is mainly because of the use of drugs, guns, showing different gangs/mafia and blood. There is also use of a love interest but in this film it is different as Mathilda finds herself falling in love with her rescuer Leon, in which makes for an uncomfortable Leon to attempt to keep her feelings from getting stronger as she is just a child and has never been in love.For the settings the film begins by showing us buildings and Central Park telling the audience that the location is in New York. The film also ends the same way showing the trees followed by buildings.

The main character (Leon) is first only shown by extreme close ups which gives the mystery of who he is and what job he has. It shows close ups of his hands, lighting a cigarette and then a shot of his sunglasses which we see another person’s reflected in the glass. After we see this stereotype of an assassin there is a scene in which shows Leon in a different environment, his home and he is doing normal everyday things but looks sad. Comparing Leon to the usual main male character of action films like James Bond, they are equally dangerous and use weapons but their looks are very different in the way that James Bond is found attractive and he has lots of luxuries whereas Leon has not got the same attraction with looks as he’s older and less physically fit. In the film Leon is shown in his little simple apartment in which he hides away working as an assassin. As well as this, Mathilda’s role in the film, she is very young and is considered a love interest in Leon but because of how young she is it makes the audience uncomfortable as they don’t know how Leon will react with her saying she was falling in love with him. In James Bond they always have a love interest who is found beautiful and of an older age that this differentiates the

Megan Turner

type of film. Mathilda is first shown unhappy and smoking as she sits behind the bars of the staircase with her legs dangling through, almost like she feels imprisoned, shown with a bruise near her eye which she says she fell off a bike used as an excuse as we later find out her family are not that nice and loving towards her.

Stansfield is a “bad guy” even though Leon also kills people, Stansfield kills the whole of Mathilda’s family including children just because of the father’s mistake to do his job correctly for Stansfield himself.In one scene he takes some green and yellow coloured pills that seem to show him taking them before killing people as though it gets him to that stage that he doesn’t care so it makes it easier. The green and yellow coloured pills are used as representation throughout the film in which we later see the men’s’ toilets where Mathilda is waiting for Stansfield it has the similar faded colours and this could be like a side effect in his mind that these colours appear. The narrative of the film is set in a linear structure which means the film follows through from beginning, middle and end.From the example, the film uses binary opposition with the two characters. In this scene Leon comes out of the shadows behind the guy who is looking round before a knife is held to his neck. This shows the use of life and death by showing the guy as a victim and Leon with more power. The phone is used for the man trying to keep his life by getting help and the knife is used for taking his life.

The iconography used in Leon: The Professional is set in New York as the start and the end of the film both show the buildings and Central Park. At the beginning of the film after following over the New York setting and is then cut to the busy streets where we see a yellow cab which are common taxis in New York giving us more information of the location. The camera technique is a tracking shot in which brings us through the busy streets of New York and to a small area which has an Italian restaurant which becomes a known location in the film. Before entering the restaurant, the colour representation used with the red and black colours change the feeling towards where we have ended up

Megan Turner

as though there is danger and a warning. Other Iconography used in this film include the use of guns, drugs, violence and gangs throughout the film.

For the style and techniques of the film, there is use of forward tracking at the beginning of the film taking us to the certain locations. There is also the use of the non-diegetic background sound which is calming and from a different country which appears as we get to the area of America that has an Italian restaurant. There are diegetic sounds throughout the film like a glass being put down on table and Leon pulling a photograph off the table at the beginning. There are also sounds like the bones of someone’s neck breaking and heavy breathing which makes the film intense at times. The director decides to use another language without subtitles so we are still unsure of what’s to come which makes the audience uncomfortable as we are unsure who Leon even is at the beginning, they then speak in American-English.Some scenes are edited by cross cutting which means two scenes will play and go back to the other one so nothing is missed. There also over the shoulder camera angles as Leon comes behind the guy holding a knife to his neck and coming out of the shadows.

Parody and pastiche

Megan Turner

Deadpool is a 2016 American superhero film which is directed by Tim Miller, based on the Marvel Comics, starring Ryan Reynolds as main character; Deadpool. Here we have two examples of self referentiality, in this case this is when the director and main actor in the film reference to previous work and can be classed as self-parody as actor Ryan Reynolds has his picture used on a front cover for a magazine for “Sexiest man alive!” and a few minutes later shows a superhero card in his wallet of his previous film as The Green Lantern.

This example is one of many in the opening title credits where they use parody examples of the usual stereotypical characters in this type of genre with superhero’s and villains. Not only this but Deadpool uses reflexivity as the main character looks and talks to the camera which could be pastiche and post modernism for example, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is another film where they decided to have the main character at points of the film talk straight to the camera. At the end of Deadpool they use a clip during/after the end credits so the audience waits to see if the clip gives a sneak peak of a second film or sequel to the film shown. In these pictures we see how Deadpool uses post-modern features and parody as he recreates the end scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, wearing the same clothing, in a similar setting

and using the same phrases.

Pulp Fiction

Megan Turner

Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime/black comedy/thriller film which is directed by Quentin Tarantino set in a non- linear storyline. The film stars John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis and Christopher Walken. As it is set in a non-linear structure this means the narrative doesn’t follow through from beginning, middle and end. Todorov’s theory is that there are five elements of narrative which includes exposition, inciting incident, rising action, falling action and denouement. In Pulp Fiction, the non-linear structure means that it does include these elements but they can happen anywhere in the film. Pulp Fiction was one of the first films to create a multiply story based structure which was from the point of view of different characters.The film started with a black background with white writing telling us the definition of PULP. The film is post-modern as it does ‘look backs’ while constantly referencing to many other films. There is a scene in Pulp Fiction where they go to a 50’s style dinner whilst it’s set in the 90’s/late 80’s due to the music playing and the clothing and hair. The character Mia, wore a white shirt and black pants which are quite timeless which can be worn again and again in many different eras as it is a simple but quite smart and casual look. This is known as bricolage as it references to a mix of genres and historical eras within the one shot or scene. While they are in the diner there are waiters and waitresses dressed as famous people such as Buddy Holly and Marilyn Monroe which adds to the 50’s look of the American diner as they are seated in a 50’s/ late 60’s.

While still in the diner, the pair enter a dance competition in which uses intertextuality and parody as the actor John Travolta previous work; Saturday Night Fever, he uses similar dance moves that makes it self-referentiality towards the previous actor’s work.In this image we see the pastiche used as John Travolta’s previous film;

Megan Turner

Grease he is also sat in the driver’s seat of a 50’s/ late 60’s red car with a woman. Tarantino references back to some of John Travolta’s previous work so throughout there are moments that you realise you may have seen a similar performance from Travolta himself.

Kill Bill is an American two-part martial arts film series that was originally supposed to be as the one film but was released as Volume 1 and Volume 2. Kill Bill directed by Quentin Tarantino, was released in 2003 and part two was released in 2004 starring Uma Thurman as the main role along with David Carradine as Bill. Kill Bill uses pastiche of two genres; Westerns and Kung Fu movies. In these two genres the camera techniques and dialogue are highly reminiscent of the two classic genres in which Tarantino creatively mixes the genres together for his film, this is also known as Bricolage when it references to a mix of genres or historical eras.

Kill Bill begins with the opening credit sequence and music like 1970’s Hong Kong’s Shaw Brother’s films that have similarities. In the opening credits of Kill Bill Vol.1 it even features the Shaw Brother’s logo which most people may not be familiar with unlike places like Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore and Chinatowns across North American and Europe.

Quentin Tarantino chose actors who had previous roles they played with martial arts stories this is known as self-preferentiality as is refers back to

Megan Turner

David Carradine’s previous work as he is also known for his role in the 1970’s TV series Kung Fu. Here is an example of how Tarantino uses Carradine playing a similar role involving Martial arts.

Tarantino uses a post-modern twist on the first fight scene between two assassins who use to work together, is very similar to 1970’s martial arts films but the confrontation takes place in a quite house in which the woman’s daughter is in another room which means they hide the fact they are trying to kill each other when the child comes into the room. The use of weapons is also an unusual juxtaposition as the struggles of the two assassins are using household objects like kitchen knives, fire irons, and frying pans. There is also use of parody in which he juxtaposes the stereotypical female gender roles with extremely violent behaviour. There are some intertextual references used during the films like when she writes a list of who she’s going to kill, ending

with number five with states Bill in a noticeable bigger font and underlines a couple of times is like from a film called A Professional Gun in 1968 and also in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1967) they have a similar scene when the have a gun to their head whilst lay on the floor this also happens to her when the assassins attempt to kill her at her wedding. The image below is an intertextual reference from Lady Snowblood (1973) we can see the inspiration that Tarantino took including camera angles/shots and mise en scene.

Megan Turner

Production technology and distribution methods

Since the 1950’s to 1970’s the production techniques were filmed and sent to selected cinemas to only be showed in the cinemas as an option of viewing, this was before it was made into VHS tapes that allowed people to re-watch whenever they want in the comfort of their own home. When people had the option of buying the film as a video in the 1980’s/1990’s it was produced by film and video and then it was distributed by cinema and film and the producers decided to improve the distribution method by creating DVDs/ Blu-ray in the 2000s.

After 2000s there were more options to how people could access films and at this moment in time we are able to find any film by just searching it which means the distribution methods have improved from film in cinemas to now video and digital which can be shown as a download, streamed, in the cinema and also DVD and Blu-ray. The option to download and stream films has been around for about ten years now in which allows you to watch a film at a click of a button which is the easiest and most used way of watching films in this day and age. Therefore, the producers are confident with what distribution methods to use as the audience will have a knowledge of different films in each genre as they can access any films they want to see and this would mean that if the producers decided to put a pastiche or parody scene in the film most people will understand and see what they did by using it.