Audience negotiation and Les Revenants

This is the opposite of what we call mass media theory.

Audiences for Les Revenants:

• fans of the zombie genre
• media teachers
• educated, middle class audiences
• fans of Mogwai
• foreign media fans
• moody teenagers

Julie

• by selecting a hegemonically average woman, the producers position the audience in a more relatable mode of address

Positioning - where an audience are placed by a media product

How are we positioned in this scene? How can audiences negotiate this scene? Who are we positioned with? How is the positioning used both typically and atypically?

Les Revenants addresses a number of niche audiences through it's highly atypical mode of address. An excellent example of this appealing to niche audiences can be seen in the character Julie. Even the casting of the actor who plays the fascinating and typical character, Julie is hegemonically average looking, which is surprising to see in a mainstream, mid budget TV show, and the MES of her heavy set eyes and sickly demeanour allows the producer to construct a relatable mode of address. This is further anchored and emphasised through the striking scene where Julie returns home.

• in the establishing shot of this troubling montage, the audience are positioned in a distantly and even ghostly manner, as we follow Julie to her workplace
• the use of the extreme long shot here positions the audience in a voyeuristic mode of address, and asks the niche target audience to relate to Julie's experience of helplessness
• however, Julie's slouched posture and bored facial expression form a binary opposition to the potentially terrifying experience of being isolated and alone at night
• we cut to an interior mid shot of Julie on the bus. Far from feeling scared or relieved, Julie once more is distant, bored and exhausted. This is anchored through her messy hair and eyebags, which symbolically demonstrate the difficulty of her job
• the camera angle, however, positions the audience uncomfortably close to Julie, and through it's proximity, the out of focus Victor in the background
• this shallow depth of field emphasises Julie, even though she averts her gaze from the camera
• Julie's thrown together look subverts Van Zoonen's argument that women function as a spectacle for a heterosexual audience, which allows the show to target a niche audience of feminists who will take delight in seeing the representation of a woman who subverts stereotypical assumptions
• positioning shifts from Julie to Victor to a voyeuristic onlooker; themes of depression are emphasised through being closely positioned with Julie, without ever explicitly being asked to identify with her
• Julie's representation is realistic and relatable through her unglamorous construction
• a realistic and relatable mode of address that rejects hyperreal representations of caregivers and women
• Julie rejects stereotypical representations of women as automatic caregivers, which is highly relatable to certain niche audiences
• through her contradictions and flaws, Julie has a rich personality and character which can be negotiated by the target audience

Stuart Hall - audiences negotiate the dominant ideological perspective encoded by the producer

What is the dominant ideological perspective of Les Revenants? What is this show 'all about'?

• possibilities
• reality and falsehood
• depersonalisation, anxiety and depression
• trauma
• the dead coming back
• suicide
• questioning the existence of god and heaven

Themes of Depression

• Victor is often in the background, and is incapable of interacting with the world
• Simon is unable to return home, and the world has changed completely around him. He is alienated
• the soundtrack is bassy and anxiety inducing, and sounds like a panic attack
• themes of trauma, rehabilitation and self help
• the colours are bleached, dark and muted, as if optimism has been washed away