Explore how Les Revenants represents issues and events
ISSUE: Death and grief - "One of the key themes represented in Les Revs is that of death and grief, and how we react to death"
KEY SCENE - An excellent example f this can be found in the scene where Lena comes home drunk at night to be confronted by her long dead little sister. The extreme low key lighting has symbolic connotations of death, and is connotative of a graveyard. This is further anchored through the setting itself. Throughout the show, Les Revs is set in deep rural France, which has connotations of isolation and death. Furthermore, a binary opposition is formed between the tall and grown up Lena and the short and childish Camille. Additionally, the appearance of a spooky small girl is highly typical of the horror genre, although les revs uses this convention is a highly atypical and even confusing way. The big theme being addressed here is death itself. Death here is represented as something deeply uncomfortable, but also something natural, inevitable and necessary. This concept is highly complex, and clearly will resonate with a niche audience.
THEME - feminism
KEY SCENE - Lena and Simon. bell hooks, feminism is for everyone. Lena is a confident, sex positive and strong and rebellious. She is a complicated character with a complicated back story
THEME: refugees and immigration
KEY SCENE - Camille is a symbolic refugee. She is stranded in the middle of nowhere, and must walk home through the bleak, desolate MES of a motorway. Additionally, Camille is not welcomed with open arms. Claire reacts to Camille's return with utter horror, and this horror is later repeated by her father, stepfather and older sister. Camille quickly realises that she does not belong, and has become a refugee in her own home. I would argue that Les Revs is not a convincing allegory for immigration, as the themes of death, sex, and feminism demonstrated throughout are far more pressing, This is further underlined by the glaring fact that almost every character in the show is white. While of course refuges can come from a number f countries and situations, it is clear to me that the ideologies of this show sit elsewhere.