Book Research

I have pulled out a book from my local library about media studies by Ziauddin Sardar and Borin Van Loon and it has a section on representations of women. This section of the book is essential to my study as it underlines the fact that woman are always seen as 'objects of the male-gaze. This book also talks about the fact that women are constently stereotyped as 'bimbos' in the media. This tern 'biimbo' is seems to have very denigrating connotations in todays postmordern society we are living in. This book also identifies to us the characteristics of a 'bimbo'. She must be blonde with flashy make-up,large breasts, a mini skirt and high heels. She is also meant to be promiscuous stupid and uneducated.

The section of the book carries on to talk about the fact that there are two types of women and that a female can only fit one catogary. There is the pure maternal modestMadonna-like woman and there the loose,sexual, amoral and sinful woman. Also, Sardar and Van Loon go on to talk about a womans dependancy on make up and cosmatics and artificial modifications.

This book links perfectly with my study as it shows how oppositte the character of Domino Harvey is from a typical woman. Keira Knightly in Domino chalenges all the stereotypes as she doesnot take care of how she looks and she is notin anyhow stupid or uneducated as she excels her job as a bounty hunter. I will use this book and other books i find as a guide to see how Keira Knightly and a 'typical' woman juxtipose to an extent.

Bibliography

http://www.wikipedia.com/
http://www.mediagaurdian.com/
http://www.newline.com/
http://www.keiraknightley.com/
http://www.dominomovie.com/
http://www.variety.com/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/
http://www.richard-kelly.net/news/news.php?id=79&from=2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3671572.stm
http://www.dominomovie.com/real_domino_harvey.html
http://movies.about.com/od/domino/a/domino072005.htm
http://www.hollywood.com/feature/Domino_Interviews_Mickey_Rourke_and_Edgar_Ramirez/2446166
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=8773

Analysing poster (Migrain)

The poster potrays the darkness in Keira Knightly in every sense. Iam going to use Migrain to analyse how the personality of Keira Knightly's character is explored in the poster.

Media Language-
The setting is significant as she is sitting in a dark place surrounded by blackness. This could connote that she is trapped in this evil world with no way out. The lighting is also important as the 'spotlight' is on her. This could suggest that she is the protagonist in this film and that all eyes are on her. The Mese en scene shows us Keira Knightly by her self which automaticaly connotes her independance and that she doesn't need anyone,

Representation-
Her short hair implies her masculinity which represents her as manly as she doesn't care about her hair or look. From the darkness around her eyes we can see that she is represented as very quite and that could suggest that she has a darker side to her and that she has a lot to hide. The blackness around her eyes can also connote the pain she has suffered. The injury in her hand can represent her as very daring and always living on the edge. Her blonde hair and her promescoues clothing potrays the fact that she is still a girl and will always be the second sex trying to impress the males in a patriarchal society.

Audience-
Independant women who slightly in the feminist side will be intrested as Keira Knightly looks like a woman who does not need any male power to help her i her life. As she is smoking a ciggerette, Knightly could appeal to the rebelious teenage girls as they might lead similar lifestyles.

Ideology-
The main ideology in this poster is the fact that even though she is living in a male dominant patriarchal society, Keira Knightly is still an independant woman taking care of herself. Another ideology could be rebeliousness as she is sitting their smoking a ciggerette with her legs up. She is like a rebelious young teenager who wants to be opposing society doing whatever she wants.

Most of the things that i have mentioned in this post are social factors in SHEP for example, smoking is a rising social factor upon young adults today as they believe that one way to rebel against the goverement is by taking drugs. Another issure is male dominance but today women are becoming more independant where they now are focusing more on their careers than becoming housewives.

Historically, films in the 20th century will not show a woman smoking a ciggerette and dressing promescuisly however, they will potray women as housewives taking care of children and being controlled by men.

Keira Knightly

Keira Knightley is also a famous Hollywood actress. Even though she is not as famous as Angelina Joie, Keira Knightley's career kicked off after the release of Bend It Like Beckham and The Pirates Of The Carrabean Trilogy. Keira Knightly comes a rich childhood as her mother was an award winning playwright and her dad was a theater and television actor. Bend It Like Beckham was the film that launched Knightly's acting career as it was a success grossing about $18 million only in the UK. After Bend It Like Beckham, Knightly starred in the big budget action film The Pirates Of The Carrabean alongside Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp.

Just like Angelina Jolie, Keira Knightly has been in a lot of action and thriller films that show her chalenging female stereotypes and one example of this is Domino itself. Another film that potrays Keira Knightly as chalenging female stereotypes even though it is not an action or thriller film is the football-themed Bend It Like Beckham. Females are not usually stereotyped to be sporty however, in this film, Keira Knightly and Parminder Nagra are both seen being very sporty playing a man's sport even though they are being criticised by their parents. This film, just like Domino, connotes the postmordern society we are living in where these kind of films which chalenge stereotypes completly are exepted and enjoyed.

Nevertheless, even though Keira Knightly has a lot in common with Angelina Jolie, the two actors also differ as in real life, Angelina Jolie carries out these manly actions and we can see that from her tattoos however, Knightly is the complete oppositte of what she is potrayed as in films such as Domino and Bend It Like Beckham as in reality she is a model and she takes care of her body as we can see from her figure.

Research on Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie is one of the most known and high-paid actresses in the bussiness winning oscars and acadamy awards. Angelina Jolie started acting with her father Jon Voight in the movie 'Looking To Get Out'. Throughtout Angelina Jolie's acting career, Jolie has been involved in lots of action and thriler movies. Examples of these films are Mr. And Mrs. Smith, Wanted, Tomb Raider etc. In most of her films, Jolie, just like Keira Knightly in Domino, chalenges female stereotypes for instance, Jolie is always seen with a gun in films like Mr. And Mrs. Smith and Wanted and she is not passive and girly like actors such as Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan. Jolie has always been the aggerasive woman in most of her films not only by bieng equiped by dangerous machinary but also talking with a manly tone and generaly being active. In her films she is very similar to Keira Knightly in domino as she takes care of herself and doesn't need any man to take care of her however, we always see her surrounded by powerful men for example Brad Pitt in Mr. And Mrs. Smith which makes the audience feel that woman do need men after all no matter how independent they are.

We can see Angelina Jolie's masculinity in reality as she owns a large amount of tatoo. To be specific, Jolie has 13 known tatoos which automaticaly underlines her manly behaviour and masculinity and that would affect her acting as she would take these manly actions with her when she is acting. We can see that in her films as she is normally an independant, strong, aggerasive woman who takes care of her self. However, In most of her films, the only power she possess is when she is armed with weapons and weapons such as guns are often seen as phalic symbols. This highlights the fact that woman will only feel powerful if they use something that reminds them of men.

New Line Cinema

New Line cinema is an institution that is owned by Time Warner and is now a division of Warner Bros. New Line Cinema, created by Bob Shaye, used to be a small distrubution company in New York City However, today New Line Cinema is one of the biggest and most celebrated film producing companies in the world. New Line Cinema had lots of famous successes for instance films such as Serial Mom, The Lords Of The Rings film trilogy, the Friday trilogy and Get Out Your Handherchief which was the first New Line Cinema film to win an oscar. New Line Cinema's biggest success is The Lords Of The Rings trilogy as it grossed about $3 billion at the worldwide box office. New Line Cinema is known for the films they relsease and the variety of their genres for example as well as comedy films such as the wedding crashers and Friday, New Line Cinema also released action films such Chris Tucker's Rush Hour and most importantly Domino. The film Domino was first denied by 20th Century Fox and in the end the film was financed by New Line Cinema.

Researching different texts

Casino Royale-2006

Films such as casino royale show exactly the opposite representations of women in Domino. In this film women are seen as passive where they do not get their hands dirty and they wear dresses which show alot of cleavage whereas in Domino, Keira Knightly is the complete oppositte. Another difference between Domino and Casino royale and the representation of woman is the fact that in Domino Keira Knightly is an independent woman who doesn't need anyone taking care of her however, In casino royale, Eva Green is represented as very week and dependent on a manly power as she is saved at the end of the film by Daniel Graig (James Bond)

The Godfather-1972

The Godfather is another example of how women used to be represesnted in the 20th century. In this crime drama film, Diane Keaton is seen as the passive wife who loves and takes care of her kids. She tries her best to stay away from trouble and to keep her family away from it too. This is the opposite of Keira Knightly in Domino even though the genre of the two films are the same as unlike Diane Keaton in The Godfather, Keira Knightly finds trouble herself and wants to be involved in that kind of dangerous lifestyle.