Monday 17 March 2014

The Last Seduction - Scene Analysis

 From 1:00:                                                                                                      

 The initial camera shot in the apartment scene (from 1:00) shows the flat in low key lighting with many shadows surrounding the rooms that can be seen. This lighting, despite being in colour, is very typical of the film noir genre where shadows and darkness are used excessively throughout the films in order to create a dark atmosphere. When the character of Bridget begins to move and circle round the sofa as if enclosing her "prey", she is mainly in the shadows and a clear shot of her full face isn't seen until she is towering above Clay, displaying her control, dominance and power over him. The use of shadows and the way her hair hides her face fully represent the character's hidden, deceiving identity and portray her as the "spider woman" or the femme fatale that is creeping around in the shadows, manipulating and luring the people (men) surrounding her.
When the shot of Bridget's face is used, what immediately strikes the audience is her red lipstick and dark hair. This is similar to the way the femme fatale of the film Double Indemnity, Phyllis, is portrayed. The aspects of the characters' physical appearances are used to demonstrate their falseness. Whilst in Double Indemnity, Phyllis has "bottle blonde" hair and garish make up, Bridget in The Last Seduction has dark hair that hangs in her down, obscuring the clear view of her face and supports the idea of lies and sinister mystery.
The notion of Bridget masking herself is reinforced through the clothes she wears, again, similar to Double Indemnity. Phyllis in Double Indemnity wears excessive amounts of cheap-looking jewellery and elaborate clothes with ruffles, which displays her falseness and masked identity. However, when Bridget wipes her fingerprints off of the can of mace using her coat in The Last Seduction, it can be seen very clearly that her outfit is pretty much completely without any sort of colour which suggests at her dark, mysterious character. Bridget's dark, long coat hides her figure causing her to remain in the background without standing out too much. This differs from the scenes where Bridget wants to stand out in order to attract people that she can manipulate.The other characters in the scene contrast with Bridget's dark, shapeless figure, especially the character of the "fall-guy", Mike, who's "innocence" of sorts can be seen through the bright blue clothes that he is wearing and the rolled up sleeves which show open body language.
In a documentary about The Last Seduction it is noted that the characters from Beston (Mike) were purposefully dressed in blues and browns that contrast with the New York characters' (Bridget and Clay) monochrome outfits. This hints at the idea of the New York characters being scheming and hidden in contrast to the Beston characters being open and a bit more vibrant (to a certain extent).

I found the very last scene quite interesting as, when Bridget's darkened-windowed stretched car drives away during the last 15 seconds of the film (from 5:45), it is dark, murky and it is raining. People are in the street with umbrellas and running around with coats. I think what this last scene is trying to say is that the ending doesn't deserve sun and bright skies because Bridget is surrounded by and surrounds people with a cloud of darkness and the rain and gloomy skies are Bridget's future. However, she is safe, warm and dry in her expensive car whilst everyone else is left out in the awful weather which represents her selfish way of making everything perfect for her and watching, and enjoying watching, everyone else struggle. 


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