Media Coursework
Pretty Woman is without doubt the most romantic film of this century. Released in 1990 the film sent shock waves through society as director Garry Marshall took on the challenge of creating a film about a prostitute that falls in love with a sophisticated multi-millionaire. The film is an all time romantic comedy classic aimed at women over the age of 15 and couples.
The opening shot is complete darkness followed by the magician’s voice saying “it’s all about money” on a denotational level you gather from the next shot that the magician is talking about the magic trick. However, on a connotational level that little phrase is a significant insight to the film. It suggests that the rest of the film is going to be strongly based around money. The second shot is a big close-up of two women and a magician’s hands, the two women’s hands are decorated generously with expensive jewellery. The fact that they are playing with money suggests that the party is full of wealthy people and that they are wealthy enough to just play with money. From the diegetic sound of chatting and the calming background music it is clear that it is a formal party held by Philip Stuckey. The party room is scattered with sculptures of naked women without heads this suggests that Stuckey thinks of women as objects, and as they don’t have heads it emphasises that men only look at women’s bodies, linking to the introduction of Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) later in the film.
