The Last Seduction - Scene Analysis

Using the final scenes from The Last Seduction (1994) detail how through macro and micro elements how this is both typical and untypical of the genre. 

The film holds the typical character narrative with the 'Fall Guy' (Mike) and the femme fatale (Bridget) both being the main protagonists of the film. However, this film is slightly different in it's narrative as the main protagonist of The Last Seduction is Bridget, the Villain. As the Hays Production Code was abolished in 1967, this film has deliberately tried to make the audience appeal to the villain, despite the factor that there is no redeeming featuring about her - a character structure that would never of been shown in 1940's Film Noir. The empowered woman and the innocent man is very typical of Film Noir. In this particular scene, the dominance of Bridget is clear when she over-towers Clay and how every shot looks up at Bridget to make her appear more powerful. This is different to Double Indemnity as the dominance of the femme fatale, Phyllis, is far more subtle. Phyllis never kills her husband, she tricks Walter into doing it, and despite the control Phyllis has on him, Walter still devised the entire plan to kill Mr Dietrichson. In The Last Seduction, Mike has completely fallen into the spider woman's trap and is actually framed for the murder as Bridget is the one who kills Clay.

A big difference seen between The Last Seduction and Double Indemnity is the fact you actually see the killing in this scene and also in the final scene when you see the killer get away with it and the fall guy is left in prison. A narrative like that would never have passed the Hays Code when it was in use. The explicit nature of the dialogue is particular apparent in Last Seduction whereas in Double Indemnity, far more subtle and suggestive language had to of been used. Therefore, the nature of the writing and explicit nature of the film, it doesn't fit into the typical subtle writing of film noir, as there was no hays code to restrict what could and couldn't be shown.

Location is fairly typical of film noir as it's set in Beston and also New York. By using Beston it shows that even humble small town America can have a dark and twisted underbelly and by using New York, it follows the typical urban and mean-street idea of Film Noir. In Double Indemnity, the location is the sunny streets of LA, similarly to Beston, showing how even the happiest of places have a dark side.

If... Closing Scene Analysis

With reference to the closing of the film text If (1968) detail how it represents the representation of youth and conflict "Swinging Britian".

The final scene of If... (1968) shows group of nurses, priests and general workers and enforcers of authority running out of a church that has smoke pouring out of it. There's then an explosion from a bomb and people lying lifeless on the floor. It's originally difficult to tell if the entire scene is in the protagonists head or if it's real or not. As it's difficult to distinguish whether it's reality, it's clear that this is the protagonist's dream. We then see a fast zoom in to the protagonist shooting into a group of people, by figure expression we can see that he's extremely angry and by doing this, he's taking back control in his life. We also see that he's with a girl that he met after him and Wallace stole a motorbike. The girl represents freedom that he and Wallace experienced, the control that he had on his life for that brief period and how the girl also felt trapped and lack of control in her life working in a cafe.

After the group of boys are repeated shooting at the crowd, we see people from the church window handing out guns to everyone else. This could show how even though they are meant to be a god loving society, it could show a hypocrisy which is a reason as to why the protagonist is so angry in the first place. Then the headmaster attempts to reason with them and claims that he understands them and begs them to trust him, but the anger is too much for the protagonist and the girl, who represents in this case a wish for freedom shoots him. This is a visual metaphor for the protagonists wishes to have control of his life out-weighting any reason that the establishment have to offer.
We then see every member of the crowd trying to fight back, showing that even though the leader of the school is dead, the idea of conformism is support by every member in the crowd. The scene then cuts from scenes of the members of the establishment shooting back at the protagonist and the protagonist shooting back and defending himself. By using a close up shot of the protagonist, it makes him appear as more of a victim showing that he's always been a victim of the conformist's aggression, but when he fights back, he's extremely outnumbered.

Georgy Girl (1966) Opening Scene Analysis

The opening scene shows a confident young women in old fashioned clothes walking down the streets of London. The street and busy moving cars could act as a metaphor for how swinging London is just passing her by, but she doesn't seem to mind too much that she's not living the sixties dream. The, like other iconic sixties film, the protagonist is then seen swinging her handbag to indicate her own confidence and rebellion - this could also been seen as ironic as the old-fashion yet confident protagonist is taking part in a typical scene of the sixties. 

As the female protagonist, Georgy, approaches the shops window to look at the latest fashion. Through the cinematography looking through the window at georgy and the figure expression, it's clear that she is interested to try new and modern hairstyles. However, as she briefly goes off scene, it's clear that she's apprehensive about the idea of change. As she walks into the shop, she's quickly ushered by a worker of the hairdressers. When he looks at her and touches her hair it's clear that he's very judgmental about the way she looks. The camera then shows close up shots of each hair style. As it's quickly changes from one style to the other, it shows how unsure Georgy is about having her hair styled differently, however she gives into the peer pressure and changes her hairstyle.

After coming out of the hairdressers, Georgy looks at herself in the mirror and is quite shocked she she find the style doesn't suite her. Georgy's costume is typically old-fashioned and with the modern hairstyle, she feels as if she's living a lie. Georgy then runs to try and fix her hair when she eventually gets to a public toilet. Without hesitation she wets her hair so she can quickly restore he comfortable style.