Les Revenants Key scene analysis: Camille returns

1) Remember to use media language, above all else.

2) Essential not to just 'chat' about the show.

Synopsis: After an apparent school bus crash off of a cliff, we find Camille Séguret,  has begun to return and walk home. 

How is she alive? Did all of the other children die?  -> Les Revenants is /filled/ with hermeneutic codes to keep audience investment through mystery and the wish to discover more.

Les Revenants is for all intents and purposes, the dictionary definition of a unconventional cult show for a niche audience. It targets a small, albeit dedicated audience.

Key questions:

How do generic paradigms and iconography position audiences?

A generic paradigm/ convention could be a certain element we expect from a piece of media in a genre. In a zombie show for example? Blood, post-apocalypse, mindless zombies and guns.  Western? Saloons, cowboys, duels and funny American accents.

Positioning may also refer to everything from the pace of the edit. Is it fast and snappy to position the viewer in an exciting mode of address, or in Les Revenants case, a slow edit. This may position us in a tense, mundane almost boring mode of address. 

How do representations (of gender, age and socioeconomic class) position audiences?

Recap: Les Revenants as an unconventional horror narrative:

Whilst Les Revenants fulfils many of the known conventions of the horror genre, it does so in a purposefully atypical and subversive manner. This in turn provides the preferred reading of an exciting and challenging show for horror fans, yet may situate audiences oppositional through its difficult subversion and lack of immediate action. 

The scene where the previously dead Camille return to life and shocks her mother is particularly challenging. Using many hermeneutic codes, the audience is expected to simultaneously read this scene in two different ways. Firstly, as a slice of life family drama where Camille is simply having a really bad day, juxtaposed with a chilling horror narrative where Claire is forced to confront her daughter after having seemingly returned from the dead. For who knows how long...

Expectations of the horror genre are subverted throughout this sequence...

One last time.. This reinforces that Les Revenants is a HIGHLY unconventional horror narrative.

Establishing Shot/Cross-cutting

Exterior night time, we cross cut to another scene of Camille's mother visiting her childhood bedroom.  Then back to Camille. Reinforcing she's dead, but she's also not? 

This establishing montage also in turn reinforces that Camille is very middle class, based upon the setting's mise-en-scene. Large glassy houses,  hedge-lined streets and lorries.

Positioning through a relatable middle-class setting.  Audiences may be familiar with the mise-en-scene of a relatively mundane, dull household. Posters, pins and calendars stuck to walls, etc.

We're being positioned with Claire here, a stereotypically hegemonically attractive middle-aged woman. (What a mouth full.)

The utilisation of generic paradigmatic features is used here in a variety of means. Most clearly, the tracking shot that positions us as Claire. Slowly moving down her stairwell after hearing a thudding noise, presumably from outside.

Further positioning through cinematography, doing a 180 to position us /with/ Claire as opposed to being her. Unique in that low-angle shots are often symbolic for the character on screen to be shown as an authority figure, in charge. But this is in binary opposition to the context of the scene.

The lighting is lowkey, so Claire's face is half-obscured, though we can still get a better look of the familiar middle-class mise-en-scene, through the stairwell.  From what we can make out of Claire's expression to anchor a feeling of fear. A proairetic code that informs the viewer of the likelihood of excitement and danger ahead.

POV shot

A fleeting glimpse of a hand is shown on screen through this POV from Claire's perspective.  Despite the fact that we as the audience as already informed on something that she is yet to be. It belongs to Camille. This helps us to infer further that this situation is alien to Claire. Camille /isnt/ supposed to be there. She shouldn't exist. Yet she does?

Simultaneously we are both positioned as Claire:  Scared, and apprehensive, trapped by a Horror film's conventions. Yet all the while we are Camille: Annoyed, bored and hungry. Held down by conventions of a drama.  The two genres clashing at this moment. 

The text is polysemic, there are many meanings that we can take away as viewers, from this show.

A reverse reaction shot of Claire

Her expression is unconventional for the Horror genre. She isn't screaming, or fearful. Nor running away. But still and calm. We are equally as confused as Claire at this moment. 

Camille is portrayed and represented as a stereotypical 15-year-old girl.  The mise-en-scene of her costume, a simple hoodie, and a flannel shirt. Paired with her neutral attitude of being neither respectful nor rude. Its clear to her this is just another mundane day-in-the-life. 

Audience positioning directly with Claire in this situation. Forced to consider that our generic paradigms of the Horror genre have been dramatically subverted, and shifted from the norm. Reinforced by the actor's performance. Pure confusion. Everything Camille has been doing is the pure opposite of expectation.

 

Hermeneutics through binary opposition.

This long shot positions Claire on the far left, and Camille on the far right. Both are bathed in light, with the centre of the room standing as a pillar of darkness. One side representing life, and the other death. Yet all the while, the kitchen is an example of family life. Making meals and eating them together. Our expectations are subverted once again. 

This is an example of a hermeneutic code because we are being asked a question. What the hell is going on here? Why is Camille alive, why is she back? Why is Claire so confused? This all reinforces once again that the show is extremely unconventional for the genre.

Another tracking shot of Claire from behind as we follow her upstairs as she calls her husband. The non-diegetic soundtrack is playing quietly in the background. Deep, bass-filled,  elongated stretches of sound therein tightening the tension. This is a clear proairetic code. The anchorage of this tense soundtrack alongside the tracking shot. Reinforcing the proairetic nature of this scene. We are to see some violence. A single, lonely woman climbing the stairs. She's going to die to Camille right? No.

An example here of contrapuntal sound, the non-diegetic music does not fit the scene it is paired alongside. The scene in many cases is mundane. Camille simply having an exchange with her mother to get a towel. In that sense, it is voyeuristic that we are peering in on what is conventionally a regular family situation. - But through this contrapuntal sound, we are brought back to Claire's position. This situation is alien, confusing, and creepy.

 

The soundtrack upkeeps, continuing to build upon Claire's confusion. As she sprints into Camille's room and takes away all of the photographs. But why does she react in this way? We don't know.  Throughout the rest of the episode we've seen a number of characters react to loved ones returning from the dead, for example, Adele hears Simone outside her home. Or when Julie takes in Victor.  Lastly, there's monsieur costa, who murders his wife by burning her when she comes back.

Mogwai's soundtrack is unconventional for a tv show but extremely conventional for a horror film's narrative. 

We are positioned here, seeing Claire question her own sanity. In terms of gender, age and socioeconomic class. We are positioned in a highly atypical way, after having viewed the middle-class household and characters. We expect a straightforward drama, but this is subverted entirely. We're left with barely any anchorage as to what is occurring in the scene at this moment. 

Again. Don't ramble about the show without being poignant. Remember the specifics of the scene, things like anchorage, positioning, the mise-en-scene, generic paradigms. 

Les Revenants is a show about hermeneutics, a show about mystery, and a show about getting to the bottom of this mystery.