Heckerling uses an immense range of camera angles, shots, costuming, sound and lighting to present us with the transformation, Clueless. Irony occurs through the shift between Cher’s voice over and the images on the screen. This occurs at the beginning of the film when Cher says “I actually have a way normal life for a teenage girl…” and we see a close up shot of her choosing her clothes for school on a fashion-coordinating computer. Parody is seen through Christian, as being a romantic male ideal, (his presence is accompanied with slow motion and violin sounds) and Murray one of “all the most popular boys in school” who have their own dress and language code. Long shots of Cher’s beautiful house, streets and school are sunny and seemingly effervescent; demonstrate the carelessness of her world. Cher is invariably in the centre of every shot and the camera always follows her. Cher and her friend Dionne are usually in the centre while the background is faded and out of focus. All the character’s personalities can be identified through their costumes. The audience can clearly establish Josh’s beliefs and values through the t-shirts he is seen wearing, such as the “amnesty” t-shirt. Music clearly establishes the world in which Cher lives in. For example the song “Fashion by David Bowie” represents the superficial, consumerism, materialistic world that Cher’s life revolves around. Since the modern day audience can relate to Heckerling’s teenpic, the text will most likely illuminate one’s perception of transformations for the reason that they are more easily recognizable in Clueless.
The journey of self knowledge that both protagonists undertake plays an important role in illuminating ones perception of transformations as the adaptations give reveal a good insight into what transformations really are. Emma is “handsome, clever and rich…” who has an inclination to have “too much of her own way.” Emma goes through a journey of self knowledge and comes to realize her vanity and rids herself of these “real evils”. Guiding her through this process is Mr Knightley who is the “one of the few people who could see faults in Emma Woodhouse, and the only one who ever told her of them…” Much like Emma, Cher undertakes a journey of self-knowledge with the aid of Josh to help her get “a complete make over, except this time…” she’d make over her “soul”. Cher is distinctly more likeable than Emma to ensure the film audience can identify with Cher, the main protagonist. Although Cher’s faults and mistakes are not as harshly scorned by Josh as Emma’s are by Mr Knightley, they reveal she must reform herself to be worthy enough for Josh. Josh says to Cher “If I ever saw you do something that wasn’t ninety percent selfish I’d die of shock”. Heckerling has paralleled Emma’s traits in Cher to allow one to note how transformations can enable us to see that character flaws still exist in today’s society but can be changed after a journey of self-knowledge guided by one.
The theme appearance versus reality is important when evaluating the transformation process of the comparative texts. Heckerling satirises Cher when Christian’s sexuality is revealed when Murray uses satirical dialogue and describes Christian as “a disco dancing, Oscar Wilde reading … friend of Dorothy… He’s gay!” A close up shot of Cher is used to accentuate Cher’s shocking acknowledgement of the truth. Cher’s costume also supports this theme, as she is always putting on am image and dressing sophisticatedly. She wants to appear older and mature than she really is (which is ironic due to her mini tantrums). In Emma Frank Churchill is secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax. However, he chooses to seclude this piece of information and flirt with Emma, obviously trying to make it appear as if he was more interested in Emma then he truly is with Jane. As a result, Emma, through her naiveness, thinks he is very much in “love” with her; Emma’s dialogue reinforces this idea: “He is undoubtedly very much in love … - and when he comes again, if his affection continues, I must be on my guard not to encourage it.”
Both Austen and Heckerling are able to show the existence of a social hierarchy, one essentially based on wealth, is permanent, rigid and virtually impermeable. The distinction between social classes and the immense value placed on ones station in life is apparent in both Emma and Clueless. In Emma, owning property was essential to social status and according to Emma; the emerging new middle class of tenant farmers were not worthy of association. This is why Emma is so disparaging of Mr Martin. Similarly, when Cher introduces Tai to the many distinct groups in their school, highlighted by different camera angles, Cher classifies them according to what they wear, where they sit and what their interests are. “…And that the Persian marfia. You can’t hang with them unless you own a BMW. And there’s…all the most popular boys in the school.” Via the transformation process, Heckerling is able to portray how society still values a class hierarchy and social structure. Austen’s use of the ‘all knowing’, omniscient narrator emphasises the idea that Emma’s position within society is earned due to her belonging to the landed Gentry class, as the Woodhouses were first in consequence there. “All looked up to them.” The Woodhouses, with the assistance of the narration style highlight the popular belief held by 19th Century society, that social status and rank is privileged, thus it can only be given at birth. Individuals belonging to the aristocratic, superior classes must not marry below their rank and were expected to maintain and conform to the regulations governing social etiquette. This idea is heightened through Emma’s unwillingness to attend the Cole’s dinner party
In Clueless costume, setting, music and voice-over ensure the audience understands how the status of women has changed tremendously in society. Heckerling shows Cher wearing a suit, emphasizing power, driving a jeep and listing the various features of the vehicle and Heckerling plays the song “I’m just a girl” to highlight the fact that women play a big part in the modern society. Whilst Austen gives us the impression that women only had the power to reject or accept proposals. Marriage played a very important role in Austen’s society as it served as a means to secure property, wealth and land. However, Emma is lucky to be privileged in that “a single woman of good fortune is always respectable”. Instead “Sex” is the driving factor for relationships in Clueless. Sex replacing marriage as a pervading theme is further represented by the girls having sex discussions and talking about virginity. Tai questions “Cher you’re a virgin?” Cher responds with “God you say that as if it’s a bad thing”. At the end of the film the girls talk about what they want their weddings to be like suggesting marriage is still important to them. However, one can believe that to them marriage is only a superficial way of getting dressed up. Dion says “I want all the bridesmaids to be wearing sailor dresses with little sailor hats...”
It can be seen via a comparative study of Jane Austen’s novel Emma and Heckerling’s teenpic, Clueless, how certain values are universal and timeless, while societal changes can leave to a shift in other values. This illuminates one’s perception of the concept of transformation as a process that unveils similarities and differences in values between different contexts and thus comments on the changing nature of society.