Men are represented as chaotic; there are clips of Alan Rickman bringing his hand to his face and of Colin Firth stamping his feet. The “it’s about men” sequence features stereotypes of men and they are portrayed as chauvinistic and concerned about sex. When Hugh Grant is in an important meeting, he makes a crude remark “who do you have to screw to get a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit round here?” At this point Martine McCutcheon enters with the tea and biscuits, suggesting to the audience that there is a link between them. The Kris Marshall clip represents a young person’s attitude to love as just out to have a good time. Colin Firth is epitomized as dithering, he watches half his novel go into the river while Lucia Moniz takes action and dives in, however when she starts stripping, his concentration is diverted to her. In contrast Liam Neeson is portrayed as warm and affectionate and there is an emphasis on the modern father and son relationship between him and his son Thomas Sangster. Thomas Sangster appears mature for his age because the sequence ends with a high five and with him saying “let’s get the shit kicked out of us by love”
However the trailers have a more sympathetic view of women, offering a diverse and positive representation. Heike Makatsch starts off the ‘it’s about women’ sequence by seductively putting her sexy red dress off. It is then followed by a shot of Kiera Knightly on her wedding day and a maternal scene featuring Emma Thompson and her child. In the sex scene with Laura Linney and Rodrigo Santoro, Laura Linney is portrayed as a young, powerful, twenty-first century woman. She seems to have a casual approach to sex because although she appears to be having sex with an idealised man, she is also speaking on the phone and says “no, I’m not busy”. The mise-en-scène suggests that they are in a woman’s bedroom, the fact that Laura Linney is on top and that she is wearing clothes while Santoro appears to be naked illustrates to the audience that she is the dominant person.
Love actually has a quintessential English cast and some of the actors bring with them their own personal stereotypes. Hugh Grant, for example is always type cast as a diffident, awkward Englishman. Kris Marshall however is only recognised in the UK as Nick in My Family where he plays the same gullible, foolish and naive character. Furthermore Martine McCutcheon played the role of the young, working class, cockney girl in both EastEnders and My Fair Lady. The rest of the cast are internationally recognised actors such as Colin Firth and Emma Thompson which consequently means that the audience expectations are reassured. The trailers also emphasize the international stars such as Rowan Atkinson in order to sell the film and to break the American market.
Both trailers use persuasive language to promote the film, at the beginning of the first trailer, they have “we want you to drop everything” suggesting to the audience that this is all that should grab your attention. Correspondingly, the trailers describe the film as “the ultimate romantic comedy” to convey to the audience that no other romantic comedy is as good as this. Only trailer two establishes the location of the film, it features quick edited shots of London. London is a cosmopolitan city however the trailer only briefly acknowledges its multicultural aspect by featuring a token shot of black people at the Notting Hill Carnival.
The trailers are constructed differently but use some of the same scenes edited to appeal to the target audience. The Bill Nighy scene is used in both under captions ‘it’s about honesty’ and ‘love can be easy.’ It represents a stereotype of someone in the rock industry; it is an example of ironic British humour and is making fun of Britney Spears. The Heike Makatsch and Alan Rickman scene is used in ‘it’s about desire’ and ‘love can be dangerous.’ The scene is a stereotype of an office affair, the camera is at a high angle putting Alan Rickman in position of power even though Heike Makatsch is the one being sexually provocative by having her legs wide open.
Leitmotif is used consistently in both trailers, this is evident as there is constant repetition of hugging, kissing, sexual innuendo and the coming together of lovers, friends and family members. The leitmotif reveals to the audience that there is going to be a happy ending and the couples which are going to end up together. In trailer one, the leitmotif along with the song ‘All You Need Is Love,’ helps to convey the message that “love is all you need.” In contrast trailer two does not use ‘All You Need Is Love’ but uses ‘Turn Me On’ to create a sensual atmosphere and to coincide with the sexual nature of the clips featured. However both trailers use ‘This will be ever lasting love’ to change the tempo.
I preferred trailer one because I thought it was less reliant on the actors to help sell the film and more so on the storylines. Trailer one also contained a lot more humour in comparison to trailer two which focused more on scenes that were sexually suggestive. Furthermore, I liked the fact that trailer one opened with Hugh Grant and Colin Firth welcoming the audience because it made me feel that they were personally addressing me. I believe that both trailers were successful at reaching their target audience because trailer one had more obvious jokes and emphasized the comedy aspect of Love actually which would appeal to the younger viewers. In contrast trailer two featured more sexual scenes and used the names of actors to entice and attract the older viewers.
