Friday 28 January 2011

Bridget Jones Diary Deconstruction

 

Released: 13th April 2001
Directed by Sharon Maguire
Budget: $26,000,000
Gross USA: $71,500,556


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0243155/

Plot:
A British woman is determined to improve herself while she looks for love in a year in which she keeps a personal diary.

The establishing shot of the film is a small, scenic village covered in glinting snow and winter scenery. The village looks beautiful covered in snow, and looks like a picture from a fairytale. Along with the soft and gentle music that creates a picturesque scenario. The time of year is clearly winter as it is snowing endlessly. Winter signifies that it is around the time of Christmas, which is the most romantic time of year.  
 The shot of Bridget’s mother’s garden is full of trees and swan shaped hedges. These look like something out of a storybook and add to the fairytale theme of the film. The house itself on the outside is very middle class looking, and has a feel of elegance to it. However inside the house, it is very cluttered and homely, and has slightly naff Christmas decor. This adds to the contributing factors on how the audience perceive Bridget’s mother who seems to be rather strange and a little manic. Bridget’s mother wear overlarge, frumpy knitted jumpers to reflect her outdated fashion sense. Bridget has obviously also been forced to wear a Christmas jumper as she is wearing the similar hideous knitwear. The frumpy jumper also signifies how undesirable she is to men. Bridget’s oversized red pyjamas shown later on in the film are another example of how Bridget does not care about her appearance and is not out to impress anyone.
There is a large range of shots used in the film including lots of point of view and over the shoulder shots. These shots involve the audience more, creating verisimilitude. Panning is used to shoot Bridget moving through her house meeting and greeting family and friends. The film includes a voice over of Bridget speaking throughout the entire introduction of the film. This allows the audience to hear what she is thinking, like a diary entry. Bridget’s internal monologue is very humorous as it allows the audience to see her true thoughts and feelings.


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