Roland Barthes argues that meaning is constructed from a complex system of signs and myths. Evaluate this theory of semiotics. Refer to The Returned to support your answer
Roland Barthes’s theory of semiotics is extremely useful, as it helps us to break down the complex set of meanings that Les Revenants uses to confuse and disorientate it’s audiences
Semiotics - the study of meaning
Sign - anything that signals deeper meaning. For example, the dark MES of LR connotes eeriness. The show has dark MES. It is spooky!
Myths - a story that helps us to understand the world. For example, there are only two things in life you can trust: death and taxes. We joke about death to make it seem less scary. However, LR subverts this myth by exploring the afterlife.
Narrative - the episode is a classic example of a multi strand narrative. It takes many different character arcs that form one complex central narrative. In addition to Camille’s story, we have a number of side stories and B stories that all share screen time. In this sense, LR resembles a soap opera. This contrasts with BM’s single strand narrative.
Codes - proairetics, hermeneutics, symbolics, and referentiality
Polysemic: many meanings
This episode relies on hermeneutic codes to convey complex and contradictory meanings
- Other theories that can help us to understand LR include postmodernism (losing the sense of what is real), Genre theory (totally unconventional for every genre), narrative theory (not conventional at all! Yet also conventional!), cultivation theory (representation, mysterious), representation (how groups are represented)
- Stuart Hall’s theory of representation, including younger people, children, parents
- Postmodernism and hyperreality - the response of thew characters are confusing and complex
- Gauntlet and identity. Different audiences can get different things from this… teenage characters will appeal to teenage audiences, older characters will appeal to older audiences
- Gender performativity!
- Binary oppositions
- Theories of genre, particularly intertextual relay… unconventional!
Key scene - Camille comes home
The scene where Camille comes home presents a complex system of signs and myths, which constructs a confusing, upsetting and highly unconventional mode of address for the target audience.
Claire rushes through the house in a state of panic. The use of head height, eye level mid-shot align the audience with Claire. However, this positing is highly confusing, as Claire's panicked face is both a proairetic code and a hermeneutic code, forcing the audience to ask why she is reacting like this.
The scene takes on a polysemic approach, by combining a mundane, boring slice of life narrative with the conventions of the horror genre position the target audience in a confused and uncomfortable mode of address.
Les Revenants adopts the conventions of a multi-strand narrative. This style of narrative is popular in dramas, sitcoms and soap operas. SJ adopts a single strand narrative.
The kitchen wide shot is planimetric in composition. It has a sense of symmetry that alludes to plays and stage shows, taking the audience out of the narrative, and placing them into a sense of anxiety. Additionally, the symmetrical blocking of the shot creates a tension between Camille and Claire, mother and daughter, that will confuse the target audience. Taking the symbolism further, the split outlines two separate genres occurring on screen at the same time. Camille’s narrative is conventional of a teen drama, and her performance underlines this. She is totally oblivious to her mum’s panic, and is rude, calling a cup ugly. However, Claire is very much in a horror film. The symbolism of the CU shot of the back of her neck constructs a conventional horror narrative, positioning the audience in a scary mode of address.
Through the process of intertextual relay, the horror fan audience will recognise the various conventions of the horror film. The lack of non-diegetic sound, the tracking shot, and the many BCUs of Claire’s face all construct a sense of dread that proairetically suggests a gory jump scare. However, the audience are instead presented with the unconventional MES of an average looking girl pulling out Tupperware and eating a sandwich . The audience expectation and the dull reality construct a binary opposition where multiple genres are combined in a confusing way. In this sense, this complex combination of meanings reinforces the validity of Barthe’s theory
The lighting is low key, ambient and has simultaneous connotations of ambiguity, the horror genre, yet also the relaxing and well thought out atmosphere of an upper middle class family. This is reinforced through the MES of the setting surrounding the house, with empty, leafy streets and the unlocked door suggest a sense of security and wealth .
The open plan living dining area is divided by an enormous pillar. Not only symbolising class, it also symbolises a dive between the two characters. They both support completely contrasting states of mind, with their performance styles completely at odds with one another. However, the mother is alive, and the daughter is dead, a highly depressing, bleak and confusing set of signs and meanings.
The soundtrack is composed by Glaswegian rock band mogwai, a highly unconventional choice. However, the soundtrack they produce is highly conventional. During the conversation, a discrete keyboard drone plays in the background creating a creepy and ominous and anxiety inducing atmosphere. However, as the sequence progresses to Camille having a bath, the music flips to a less subtle, and highly conventional version of the horror genre soundtrack. The percussive thumping is daunting, distressing, and resembles either footsteps or a thumping heartbeat. However, this is at complete odds with the mundane, slice of life situation.
This combination of media language constructs an ominous and terrifying mode of address in an effective and sophisticated way that can only be made possible through the complex application of semiotics
The cinematography of the sequence, specifically the long shot across the open plan kitchen not only distances the audience from this complex and confusing interaction, but also distances the two characters. The blocking of this shot is made meaningful through the MES of the huge pillar which serves many symbolic functions. It constructs a binary opposition between the reality of Claire, and the imaginative fantasy of Camille coming back from the dead.
The scene uses extensive intertextual relay to encourage the audience to expect the conventions of the horror film. The pleonastic sound of the crash of Camille entering the house alerts Claire. At this stage, there is non-diegetic sound, emphasising the diegetic sounds of the Seurat household. This continues with a tracking shot of Claire leaving Camille’s bedroom, symbolically laid out like a shrine, positioning us with the grieving mother. We cut to a POV shot of a figure moving behind the fridge. This shot is a clear reference to the horror genre, and functions as a proairetic code, suggesting to the audience that a jump scare is incoming. Instead the audience’s expectations are shattered. We are confronted with a chatty little girl eating a sandwich. This constructs a binary opposition between the horror genre, as experienced by Claire, and the drama genre as experienced by Camille. This complex interchange forces the audience to experience the overwhelming and confusing emotions of the mother.
The low key lighting of this sequence is conventional of the horror genre. However, it also polysemically constructs a comforting, warm and stylish atmosphere, further confusing the target audience
The non-diegetic soundtrack during the conversation is clearly artificial and ominous. It is saturated in reverb, and is bassy and anxiety inducing. However, as soon as Claire agrees to get a bathrobe for Camille, the music becomes dissonant and terrifying. At this stage the soundtrack becomes that of a cliched horror film. The staccato percussion resembles a heart beating quickly, symbolically encoding the panic that Claire feels. Claire’s reaction is confusing, yet is also completely understandable. She chooses in panic to lie to Camille, for fear of shattering this illusion. This complex set of codes and myths confuses the target audience, forcing them into interpreting a complex and troubling narrative.
Examples of binary oppositions
Young and old
Alive and dead
Life and death
Poor and rich
Light and dark
Past and present
Black and white
Mundane and the horrific
Nature and the city
Relaxed vs scared
Complex vs simple