P.L gender essay question

How are the key elements of film form used to construct representations in this scene and how do they contribute/ help to construct the film's messages regarding representation of gender?

Key elements such as Mise-en-Scene and editing, are used to construct a representation of gender in this scene.

The cinematography in the scene is framed around both Mercedes and Vidal throughout the scene, at the beginning of the scene the frame is mostly based on Vidal representing his power at this stage, however the frame moves onto Mercedes after she bring out the kitchen knife this is done to show the binary opposition changing along with who is in control in this scene. The camera positioning is done like this to emphasis the role of women in society. This represents the oppression of women in the movie and at the time (five years after the Spanish civil war), starting to stand up for themselves. Furthermore, Mise-En-Scene is used through props and performance, for example the hidden knife carried by Mercedes symbolises how she/ women have to hide their true selves as they are seen as subordinate to men, their is a low key amount of light that surrounds the room except for the natural light through the window that glows on Vidal showing his higher power with the low key of lighting covering Mercedes in the dark like a shadow just as it is like during that era for women. During the rule of king Franco women tended to be treated as lower than men as the Fascist beliefs of a dictatorship mostly exclude women from a free life.

Furthermore, sound is used to represent gender in this scene for example, Quiet non-diegetic sound is played when Mercedes is stabbing Vidal to portray retaliation and the audience is inevitably taken aback by her unforeseen power, Guillermo Del Toro does this to show the audience that women have a lot of subtle power which they rarely get to use. All the diegetic sound foley sound is very over exaggerated such as the sheathing of her knife from her dress, the exaggerated sound creates suspense and builds focus on smaller aspects such as the individual stabs this is done to make the attacks feel more ferocious for the viewer as they see the main antagonist (Vidal) falling to his knees in front of Mercedes who is "just a women". Also the sound of rope tying Mercedes up is enhanced which demonstrates how powerless and restricted she is in this situation and could reflect how she felt constricted when she works for Vidal at the camp with people she hates instead of fighting with her brother, Pedro. 

In addition, Mise-En-Scene contributes a lot to the representation of gender in this scene one predominant factor towards this is when Vidal unbuttons his shirt whilst Mercedes is tied up, this may have been done to show Vidal's sexual dominance over Mercedes and to symbolise women as a whole in 1944. In continuation, the scene is set inside the food storage shed this could be because the camp wasn't expecting to have prisoners, this further demonstrates the idea that men didn't think women where equals and that the idea of betrayal wasn't possible, as if a soldier disobeyed orders he would be shot as shown by the death of the doctor, and so only a worker which where all women would have been put into a prison/secluded area other than the food storage shed.This attitude lead to the stabbing and later on death of Vidal due to his stubbornness towards women and treating them with minimal respect, and thinking that he wouldn't need to have another officer with him as again Mercedes is "just a women".


Finally,the editing of this scene helps outline and focus on the representation of gender in this scene and in the play as a whole. In this scene similar camera shots are used to the previous torture scene focusing on the torture equipment as Vidal gives a speech on how he will eventually trust the person at the end of it, this scene links to gender as we feel different towards this scene as to the other one, this is because Mercedes is presented as someone who fight back trying with confidence to break out of the ropes. This part of the scene represents Women trying desperately to break out of the oppression they faced during the 1900's and specifically the 1940's during the rule of King Franco. Also at the start of this scene the cuts are extremely long to make the audience feel more attached to the scene and to make them feel like they are really there, this is done to emphasis and make clear the struggle Mercedes has had to face throughout the film and at this climax in the film as a struggling women in society who is chained to a man through 'ownership' .


To conclude, many elements of film form are used in this scene and all work together to give the main statement of women being oppressed and how they will soon overcome their struggles and win over the men gaining independence, such as being able to vote in 1931 in Spain being a recent step up for women during this time.