The first scene is short montage of Cher and her way of life e.g. shopping, partying etc. It is filmed in a “hand- held” style with lots of jerky movements and out of focus scenes. It resembles a home movie! In my opinion theses initial scenes offer the audience a brilliant insight into the world of the film. Shortly before the end of the montage Cher starts her narration, leaving us in no doubt that she is the main character around which the film evolves. She tries in vain to convince her captivated audience that she has “a way normal life for a teenage girl,” which is very hard to accept as she is choosing her school outfit with the help of a computer. It can not be the norm, even in America!
The film is set in affluent Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. We now meet Cher’s father, “a litigator” who “gets paid five hundred dollars an hour to fight with people”, at the top of a magnificent staircase. The high angle shot offers a great view of the interior of the house and shows him as a character of considerable importance.
The next sequence takes place in the kitchen with Cher trying to control her father’s life with little success. There is a long shot with the camera panning round, keeping Cher and her father in the middle of the shot. The camera places the audience into the kitchen!
There is a cut and the next scene takes us for a drive with Cher in brilliant sunshine- natural lighting I presume. The low angle shot of her car, a white jeep with “four wheel drive” and a “monster sound system”, gives the audience a taste of the power she is wielding as the car zooms off into the distance. Unfortunately, Cher’s driving is totally irresponsible (she hasn’t passed her driving test yet) and she is not averse to knocking a few objects on the way. We sense her arrival as the camera is tracking, which gives us a long and establishing shot of Dionne’s house. The camera work gives the audience the impression that they are parking the car with Cher. Out of the house comes her friend Dionne and it immediately becomes clear that she is a “Cher clone”. The way she dresses, her facial expressions, her body language etc! Cher is here established as the central character again because Dionne is wearing a similar outfit which in my opinion shows admiration.
The producers use the same type of editing technique- a cut and natural lighting is used in an establishing shot of their school. The audience see Cher and Dionne, standing out from the crowd in their outfits, moving towards the camera and the school building. Around them atmospheric sounds (e.g. conversation) and special sounds (e.g. Dionne’s pager) can be heard. Dionne starts to speak about how possessive her boyfriend, Murray, is but Cher ignores her and instead the audience hear a voice over. She then has the audacity to give advice about Dionne’s love life when it is not required. To me this shows Cher’s need to be in control of every situation surrounding her!
Suddenly, diegetic music, “Shoop”, is played to signify the entrance of Murray. A fight ensues between him and Dionne with the camera taking the audience into the crowd and involving us in the world of the film by making us part of it. At this point the most important action is the fight but as soon as Cher decides that she is “outie” the camera leaves with her, again showing that she is central character.
The last scene in the opening sequence is Cher’s debating classroom. The camera follows the teacher, Mr Hall, to the front of the class where Cher is about to start off the debate. The camera gradually zooms in on Cher and we gain the impression that the people are listening but when the camera turns there is huge lack of interest from the other students but Cher is wrapped in her own ego and isn’t aware. There is a cut away shot of the teacher whose puzzled expression speaks for itself. When it is finally over the pupils cheer at the Statue of Liberty remark- the director is satirising. Cher places her chewing gum back into mouth and at that point you notice even that is colour coordinated to match her outfit. The “C” in her report card reflects her debating ability.
Although, I can’t say from the opening sequence how the plot will develop, the character of Cher is spoilt, self- centred and shallow and can only improve. Clueless is not my type of film and from what I have seen at the beginning, I would not necessarily choose to view the rest!
