Les Revenants: in-depth key scene analysis

These notes were created by students and have only been slightly edited for content and clarity. They would all be excellent examples to use in your mini-mock, real mock, or even the real exam!

Scene one - Simon and Adele

Simon is being walked to the house of the person he says he knows by Lena walk under a tunnel whilst talking about where they're from, walks towards the street of the person Simon is looking for and leaves Lena without saying anything, going towards the house.

Simon looks through the window of the house to see a woman (Adele) wearing a wedding dress or night gown she notices him but he disappears to where we can hear the door ring and be knocked on, the woman is spooked as we can infer she thinks he is dead, he shouts for her to open the door but she screams back in tears telling him to go away she is then on the floor crying as the daughter comes down to see whats going on and she comforts her saying its all OK.

• -Lowkey lighting
• -Spooky Mysterious sound track
• -Adele's response isn't logical or typical
• -Mise en scene of Adele's mid-shot of her crying against the door positions us with Adele, in order to make us as the audience ask question and confuse us.
• -Simon is banging on the door which seems aggressive
• -Non diegetic sound track, use of piano as dominant instrument using the arpeggio
• -The scene is meant to be an emotional scene where they meet again however is said
• -The Show is about Death, which is seen by everyone as one of the few certainties
• -The Show is also about those who have come back from the dead, return of the love ones
• -"Open the fucking door" Simon shouts, as to him everyone is being unreasonable
• -Les Revenants is about the inevitability of death
• -Mise en scene of the mirrors is that Simon is a ghost and doesn't belong in that world
• -Adele saw Simon in the mirror and was spooked as she wouldn't think it possible
• -Hard knocking on the door is diagetic, with the shot of the door handle moving is intertexual reference to the horror genre, this makes the genre clear to the audience, however the scene also has another genre that of romance making this a hybrid genre (paranormal romance), demonstrates generic hybridity. The reason for this is to have a wider target audience
• -Adele wearing a white night gown symbolic with a wedding dress, and Simon wearing a black, showing a binary opposition, the opposition between the characters also comes with the way the characters act, Simon being more masculine and Adele feminine, back Van Zoonans theory
• -Shot types changing, shot counter shot, switching between the characters
• -Low-key lighting creates the proairetic code, making the audience feel something bad is going to happen with the only source of lighting being that of a lamp creating a hard contrast.
• -Low key lighting may also be making an intertextual reference to the sub genre of Gothic horror.
• -Lighting is artificial also.
• -Lena looks quite laid back and rebellious,  with the mise en scene of her red hair, short red dress, and her use of the word "dickhead", wearing what seems to be a military jacket making her appear to be more masculine
• -Long shot of Lena shows how alone/lonely the character is.
• -Experimental use of cinematography
• -Clothing of Simon and Adele is symbolic of a bride and groom
• -All characters appear to be middle class to identify with the MC audience
• -All characters in the show is white, suggests again the show is directed at a middle class white audience
• -Slow pace editing, starts slow and speeds up as the scene intensifies. Use of slow pace makes the show targeted at an older audience.

Scene two - Mr and Mrs Costa

• -Man burning the house down, setting a flame the photographs and having a women tied up to the bed next to the fire then a wide shot of the house burning down
• -High angle shot of Madame Costa, being tied up and gagged creating her to appear vulnerable, with us being positioned behind the fire in the other room, making the audience feel guilty. Atypical response of Costa
• -Sound track doesnt fit the scene, contrapuntal sound, where we'd expect a dramatic sound track.
• -Mundane response of Madame Costa
• -Mr Costa is laid back as he burns everything to the ground as he feels he's lost it
• -Mise en scene is of a old persons house.

Thanks Spencer for the notes!

Key scene three - The sex scene

• How does thing scene make meaning?
• Mid-shot of Lena wearing white top represents purity and virginity
• The leaves in the background are representative of youth and purity
• Hermeunetic codes as we start to learn to about the characters
• Mise-en-scene of kitchen sink appears stereotypically middle-class  - aspirational middle-class family.
• Lena 'pulling a sickie' to sneak in her boyfriend is a relatable moment for the audience
• Birds eye view close up of Lena and her boyfriend positions us with them, which feels uncomfortable, positioning us is a voyeuristic way. - this is anchored through the use of low-key lighting which connotes intimacy, privacy and ultimately, sex. 
• Lena's boyfriend looks stereotypically low-class through the use of costume. The difference  between the class of the couple creates a diametric opposition - Lena is different from the rest of her family, she is rebellious.
• This is generally a consensual and positive representation of sex (sex positive).
• The mise-en-scene of the coach forms a binary opposition between the two scenes - the colours on the coach are ordinary, boring, with cool tones. Whereas when it cuts back to the sex scene, the colours are more bold and hot.
• While Lena is enjoying sex, the close up of Camille highlights her discomfort and distress- binary opposition.
• Camille is feeling what Lena is feeling which could be viewed as potentially offensive for the audience
• Camille and Lena are symbolically linked
• Sex is represented simultaneously in different ways
• French word for orgasm - 'la petite mort'
• There is something symbolic about losing virginity in the media, loss of innocence and childhood, was a girl and now she a lady.
• Could argue that it is sexual assault - the scene
• Polysemic meaning - Camille is acting out what Lena is feeling; gender performativity - the idea that Lena is simply doing what she is supposed do whereas Camille is freaking out.
• Camille is covered up in a big jacket and Lena is wearing a vest
• Camille is sat by herself on the bus with the mise-en-scene of the jacket where she is completely covered up connotes Camille's sense of isolation
• The coach is a relatable setting for the young secondary audience as well as for the primary adult audience.
• Lena boyfriend always wears his beanie throughout the whole scene - stereotypically rough around the edges, a 'bad boy' and looks as if he doesn't belong in their middle-class family
• the lexis of the mother doubting her daughter will appeal to the middle-class target audience - helps the audience to discover Lena's more rebellious than Camille

Key scene four - Viktor stalks Julie

• Non-diegetic sound is very suspenseful and seems like we are watching a horror film
• continuous use of low-key lighting
• This scene is conventional to a horror film
• It could be argued that Les Revenants performs generic-hybridity by combining aspects of horror which can therefore appeal to multiple audience s
• The close up long tracking shot of Mr Costa walking through the hall is a proaeiretic code as we expect something to jump out to him, but round the corner is his wife sitting innocently
• The establishing of the grey concrete flats where Julie lives suggest that she may be in danger as she lives in threatening area
• Julie never appears threatened, when she sees Viktor standing there she simply says 'whats he doing there?' This demonstrated that Julie is pretty no nonsense, aware and laid back. This is further anchored through the mise-en-scene of her costume ; she is wearing baggy oversized jumper with collar and baggy jeans, she is very casual and relaxed. She doesn't conform to gender stereotypes- we cannot see her figure at all.
• Julie doesn't have overly expressive facial expressions, she has bags underneath her eyes, she looks a bit messy - she is not stereotypically, hegemonically attractive. 
• However, she looks stereotypically french, which will appeal to a french audience.
• In her apartment, she has her own drawings on the road suggesting she an artistic and creative person. She has stacks of books, suggest that she is academic and intelligent (mature student).
• She seems like more of a relatable character to an older student who has creative aspirations.
• When Viktor arrives on her doorstep there is a binary opposition between Viktor and Julie.
• Setting - Bus shelter - low-key unnatural blue lighting coming from an electronic advert is cold and threatening. Julie is sitting by herself in the middle of the night forming a proairetic code as we think something bad might happen to Julie. Despite this Julie doesn't look like she cares.
• The static long shot long take where victor comes up in the background behind the glass  is highly typical of a horror film.
• Little kids are the ultimate binary opposition. Viktor is out by himself in the middle of the night. He forms a binary opposition with Julie as he is well-presented and clean but Julie is scruffy and dirty. 

Thanks Alana for the notes!