There are other stereotype-characters in ‘Clueless’ besides Cher. Her father is a powerful, dominating lawyer who most people are scared of. For example, when he is walking downstairs, there is a long shot that shows the hallway downstairs, and you can see Lucy, the maid running away from him when she notices him approaching her. The camera angle is high, so that Cher’s father looks even more powerful (being at the top of the shot) and Lucy, being lower down, looks extremely small and vulnerable. Josh is another important, stereotypical character. He appears to be the annoying older brother from college, who only comes back home during the holidays. He and Cher tease each other, and are very sarcastic with each other, like typical brothers and sisters – except they are not related. He likes depressing music and is interested in helping the environment – which is how older college brothers are ordinarily portrayed. Travis is described as a ‘loadie’ – someone who loves skateboarding and doesn’t go anywhere without his skateboard – he takes it with him to lessons and the canteen. He seems to be on a ‘little world of his own’ – he doesn’t really listen in lessons and comes out with comments that are completely unrelated to the lessons, such as when he mentions ‘Nine Inch Nails’, and when he gets his report card, he completely overreacts and tries to jump out of the window. There is also Elton – the ‘cool’ guy in the ‘in-crowd’ who is probably the most popular boy in school – who every other boy wants to be friends with in order to be considered popular and all the girls want to date. There are also various other social groups that you would typically find in any film about an American high school. The teachers are also stereotypical – Mr Pool is unenthusiastic and sarcastic with the students. Miss Geist is hopeless at trying to get the students involved in various relief efforts and the PE teacher has various masculine characteristics.
In ‘Pleasantville’, Jennifer and David are both stereotypical characters. Jennifer is contrasted with David. She is ‘cool’ – she smokes and is popular and flirts with the ‘jock’ – the ‘coolest’ boy in her school and manages to get a date with him. She appears to be the leader of her social group – she appears most confident when Mark Davis appears and is the only one talking properly – the other two girls with her just say ‘hey’ in the very short, wooden conversation that Jennifer and Mark have. She and her friends appear to be ‘Valley girls’ – they use ‘like’ and ‘whatever’ the same as Cher and mentions that she is only related to her ‘geeky’ twin ‘on her parents side’. Her friend also mentions that she ‘must be from the cool side of the uterus’, which is a very ‘Valley girl’ thing to say as they are obsessed with being popular and there is no such thing as the ‘cool side of the uterus’. Jennifer doesn’t mind wearing revealing clothes, mentioning that her new dress isn’t ‘slutty – it’s fun’. You also get the impression that she feels she is the most popular in her group when she says ‘yeah, sometimes I’m jealous of you too’ – she raises her eyebrows so you know she is being sarcastic because she believes that everyone should be jealous of her and she’s got nothing to be jealous of. Once again, as with Cher, fashion, image and popularity are very important to her. When she goes to answer the door, she fiddles with her hair to make sure every strand is in place and when she is stuck in Pleasantville she hates the old-fashioned clothes and the fact that her skin looks ‘pasty’. She also complains how her life is ruined – she was doing really well back at school – her skin was looking great since March, she was popular and the boy she fancied was finally starting to notice her. She blames it all on David, just because he is a geek – she knew that he ‘couldn’t be a geek for so long without suffering some really tragic consequences’ and that she is now ‘stuck in Nerdville’ so she is shallow – things like this don’t just happen because you are ‘uncool’.
David is the complete opposite to Jennifer. He is described as a ‘geek’ – someone who doesn’t have many friends, doesn’t care for the latest fashions and isn't very popular. He also appears to lack confidence. This is shown when he appears to be talking to a girl, until a long shot establishes that she is very far away from him – he doesn’t have the courage to go up to her and talk to her properly. When he says ‘everyone knows you, I just don’t know you…technically’ it shows he is feeling awkward because he hesitates and he even says ‘bye’ even though he knows that she can’t have heard him, showing he is nervous and so lacks the confidence. You get the impression that he obsesses about Pleasantville when he is watching the programme and can predict precisely what the characters are going to say and he gets every question right when he and his friend are sitting on the bench testing each other. It also shows that he is probably jealous of the lives the people in Pleasantville have because he has watched it so many times.
The television repairman is another interesting character. He comes without being called and leaves without asking for payment. He acts like the people in Pleasantville – he’s happy and tells David off for using the world ‘hell’ when he’s in Pleasantville. You also wonder how the remote control can put you ‘right in the show’ (which turns out to be ironic) and how one can have ‘oomph’ as well, so that creates tension. There is a major contrast between the residents of Pleasantville and the real world. In Pleasantville everyone is happy – there are never any upsets and no one ever swears. All the language they use in Pleasantville is very polite – such as ‘geewiz’, ‘pumpkin’ and ‘swell’. These are all old-fashioned American expressions. In contrast, in the real world they use ‘hell’, ‘slutty’, and ‘mud bath’ and there are all of the awful things going on in the world – such as famine, HIV and lower salaries. Jennifer and David’s mother is a huge contrast to Bud and Mary-Sue’s mother in Pleasantville – she appears uncaring because she is just leaving them so she can meet her boyfriend and sounds moody when she is talking to him. The teachers at the school are also stereotypical – depressed and talking about depressing topics in dreary-sounding voices, whereas the teachers in Pleasantville are all cheerful. The people in Pleasantville again contrast against the real world, because they appear naïve and innocent – couples have separate beds and at Lover’s Lane about the most passionate the teenagers get is holding hands. The families seem very close in Pleasantville too, unlike in the real world. Everybody seems to have a routine and each person has a defined, definite existence – until they turn coloured there is no variety in their life. Their life is ‘reliable’ and the same, which is the name of the television repairman’s company.
All of these stereotypes help to attract the audience’s attention because often you can relate to the stereotypes because you may know people who are similar, and also because the characters may be humorous, such as Travis. You see all the main characters in the two films develop and mature, and another thing that interests the audience is seeing them develop relationships – such as Cher and Josh. Especially as you can see that there is chemistry between Cher and Josh, yet the characters don’t realise it themselves, you carry on watching to see if they get together. There is also the comedy factor to keep you interested in watching. You want to see how the superficial characters of Cher and Jennifer get their comeuppance and how they mature and overcome their shallow nature, and also laugh at the comments they make. You see both Jennifer and Cher go from being ‘blonde airheads’ who don’t really know anything to becoming mature adults – Jennifer changes dramatically when she starts to enjoy reading and continues to stay in Pleasantville even though she has the opportunity to go back. Cher also becomes self-aware, realising that she is ‘clueless’ when it comes to love, but she manages to ‘makeover her soul’ so that she matures. These stereotypes are almost a failsafe way of encouraging young people to watch the film because they are funny and there are a variety of characters within the film to prevent you from being bored.
The camera angles are used in similar and different ways in each film. For example, close-up shots are used frequently in both films to show the characters’ expressions and reactions to whatever they have just heard. For example when Cher’s father tells her that Josh is coming to stay, seeing her appalled expression in ‘Clueless’ and when Jennifer in ‘Pleasantville’ shouts ‘No!’ when she sees her date, Mark leave on the screen, as if she is looking through a CCTV camera, seeing her distraught expression. Long shots are also used in both films to establish the setting and location – for example when showing Cher’s extravagant house or the high school with the students. In ‘Pleasantville’ there are also long shots when establishing the school and students, and also when David and Jennifer are stuck in Pleasantville there is a long, sweeping shot of the street, showing the contrast between the real world and Pleasantville. Medium shots are also used a lot in each to show more than one character in the shot and some of the background and there are many examples in both films of following characters down the street.
In the opening scene of ‘Clueless’ the camera is sweeping quickly and randomly around the party, which reflects that the characters are happy and excited. This is also shown in the fast paced music, ‘Kids in America’. Later on, when you see Cher in her house there is a montage of her getting ready before school. This seems like a ‘way normal life for a teenage girl’ until she picks out her school clothes – on her computer screen is a program that helps her choose her clothes, by telling her if they match or not. It then produces a picture of what they would look like on her on the screen. The background of the computer changes from coat hangers to leopard skin, again indicating character – that fashion is important to her. When Cher gets her grade in her debate class, the camera zooms in on her face, which implies that it just dawned on her that she isn't as good at debating as she thought. An example of a high-angle shot is when we first see Cher driving, and the camera sweeps above the car, showing it off and indicating that she is unsafe on the road, as you are looking down on her. This is shown when a long shot shows her knocking over a hydrant that, according to Cher, ‘came out of nowhere’ even though it was stationary.
In the opening scene of ‘Pleasantville’, we see David apparently talking to a girl, as there is a transition between the two of them, and a girl appears to be reacting to what he said. However, we realise that he is really talking to himself when a long shot establishes the actual distance between them, and a further medium shot determines that she was actually talking to another boy. Later on, there is the transition from the ‘geeky’ David testing his best friend Howard on Pleasantville (and getting all the questions right) straight to his twin sister Jennifer, showing the contrast between the two of them, as she is smoking and seems much ‘cooler’. The shot goes straight from Jennifer talking to Mark Davis (who she was flirting with) to her in her bedroom talking to one of her friends about what happened. As she is walking around the room, the bright colours on her walls give another indication of what kind of person she is, and once again is contrasted with David’s bare, dull walls in comparison in the next shot. In the lessons, the camera zooms in at the teachers as they talk about the problems the students could face, such as HIV, lower salaries and global warming, to show that this gloom is inevitable – there is no escape and it is extremely depressing. When Jennifer and David are getting ready (Jennifer for her date, and David for the Pleasantville marathon), you see a close-up of both of their feet going down identical stairs in separate shots, which increases the pace as they are going downstairs fast and you don’t know who will get to the television first. Occasionally in the opening sequence, there is a juxtaposition of the real world with Pleasantville, which may confuse the audience if they don’t know where they are supposed to be. This is also done when David is watching the programme and you see him happy watching it, while his mother is in the next room arguing with David’s father – again, a contrast between his family life and the family life that everyone has in Pleasantville. You also realise that David appears to prefer the life in Pleasantville when he is looking out of the window at his mother packing up the car so she can go and meet her boyfriend, and you look up at him through the window, seeing his downhearted expression.
The camera shots are particularly important in ‘Pleasantville’ during the sequence when David and Jennifer are transported into Pleasantville, and what they do while they are there. You see a close-up shot of the remote control when it breaks, because it is a pivotal moment in the film, because it is the end of the world as the two main characters know it. You also see the television repairman reach for a different control in an extreme close-up, which obviously shows the audience it is important, especially as it an unusual-looking remote control that he picks up. There are also low-angle shots when the television repairman hands over the remote control and then when David turns on the television using the remote control, showing that they are in control as they have the remote control, which shows that it is going to play an important part of the story. When David and Jennifer are fighting over who gets the remote control so they can watch what they want, you see Bud and Mary-Sue on the television in the background also fighting over a transistor radio, so you know that that is important. You also see the television repairman in his van, which makes you wonder why he is still important to the story if he left the house. When the two of them are transported into the television, the shot changes to a high-angle one from the ceiling, showing the empty room to emphasise that they have been transported out of the real world. When the two of them are in Pleasantville, there a few short shots of the single beds and the door, to show how different it is from the real world. Then there is close-up of the television, a zoom-in on the Pleasantville calendar and a close-up on the family photograph, now with David and Jennifer in it instead of the original Bud and Mary-Sue, all to emphasise that there is no escape – they are stranded there. When David and Jennifer go into the kitchen, there is a point-of-view shot from the father as he puts down his paper and looks at David and Jennifer. This also allows us to see their alarmed expression at the amount of food for their breakfast.
There are a lot of ordinary uses of camera angles in both films, but more complex angles used in ‘Pleasantville’ because of the circumstances. In ‘Clueless’ the camera angles merely help the narrative, but in ‘Pleasantville’ the camera angles help create suspense, such as the low-angle shot when David turns on the television, you wonder what is going to happen. The same goes for when an extreme close-up is used when the television repairman gives David another remote control. The camera angles cannot be used in the same way in ‘Clueless’, as nothing fantastical or out of the ordinary happens in the film – everything that happens is realistic.
The music is important in both films because it creates feelings in the audience, without them often realising. The beginning of ‘Clueless’ with the song ‘Kids in America’ shows that the teenagers are excited and creates a happy feeling in the audience, as the music is lively. The music is modern and fast-paced throughout the film, which sustains this feeling in the audience, such as when Cher is explaining in a voiceover how she manipulated the teachers in order to change her grades. Music can also be used to give an indication as to character, such as when we see Murray for the first time. The music is modern and has a beat that matches the rhythm when he walks, indicating that he is a member of the ‘cool’ crowd. The music Josh listens to his different though – he listens to ‘complaint rock’, which is more mellow and indicates that he is probably more mature, as he listens to more calm, melodious music.
There is a contrast once again between the taste in music between Jennifer and David. Jennifer prefers modern, ‘cool’ music, whereas David prefers older, ‘uncool’ jazz or mellow music. When David is going home in the car, the music as you see the car driving down the street is from Pleasantville, which again reflects his preference for old-fashioned music and his desire to live in Pleasantville. The songs in the background are often instrumental. For example, when David and Jennifer are getting ready and then going downstairs, the music is fast, giving you a sense of urgency as it speeds up the pace. There is also music to help build up the tension before the remote control breaks, and also when David uses the new remote control to turn on the television. However, in both instances, the music stops (when the remote control breaks and when David turns on the television without any problems). Tension is also built up with the use of thunder and lightning sound effects when the television repairman is in the house, because they are often associated with horror or thriller films. Jazz was often used in ‘Pleasantville’ because it used to be seen as sinful music, which reflects the happenings later on in the film. There is also the heroic sounding music and the sirens going when the fire engine comes, which makes you think that something serious has happened – especially when the firemen say ‘go, go, go!’ it makes it seem urgent. However, the music stops when one of them is up the tree and say ‘here, kitty’, making it sound like they have overreacted – a lot of trouble for such a trivial incident.
Once again, as with camera angles, the music is more important in ‘Pleasantville’ than in ‘Clueless’. In ‘Clueless’ the music helps to sell the film to the audience, as it is modern, popular music as well as making the audience feel cheerful because of the lively music. The music in ‘Pleasantville’ has a hidden meaning though that not everyone will realise – the jazz music that is. It would not help sell the film in the same way as ‘Clueless’ as the music is not modern (in Pleasantville the music is modern for the time) or well-known and popular with a teenage audience, who this film is most likely to appeal to because the genre is partly ‘American youth’.
The lighting is also used to create atmosphere, often subconsciously without realising it, in the audience. In ‘Clueless’ all of the colours – both of the landscape and the clothes are bright, vibrant and with a great variety. There is a lot of artificial light used as well, as there is almost no shadow. This helps the audience to feel happy.
The lighting in ‘Pleasantville’ is much more natural though – only light from the Sun and lights (lamps) appears to be seen. Most of the time this looks light, except when the mother is in shadow when she is talking on the telephone to David and Jennifer’s father. This shows that she is probably uninvolved in David and Jennifer’s life, as she is especially focussed away from and is talking about going away for the weekend – she is deserting her children.
The artificial lighting in ‘Clueless’ could represent that Cher is ‘artificial’ at the beginning – she is the superficial character who is only really interested in fashion and image – not at all in what is going on in the ‘real world’ because she would rather watch cartoons than the news. The lighting in ‘Pleasantville’ on the other hand is realistic – probably to indicate that the world is not fake but authentic, unlike ‘Clueless’.
I think I prefer ‘Clueless’ as I can relate to the characters more and really like ‘teen movies’. Although some of the characters are similar in ‘Pleasantville’, such as Cher and Jennifer, there were more obvious stereotypes that created more humour, such as Travis, in ‘Clueless’. You see the main characters mature, but in very different ways – which are very successful. Both were humorous, but I think that ‘Clueless’ was more humorous, and as I love comedy this appealed to me more. ‘Clueless’ was a real ‘feel-good’ film – you could watch it and enjoy it simply for comedy, whereas it’s harder to do that with ‘Pleasantville’ because it has an obvious, serious message. ‘Clueless’ was definitely more light-hearted and kept the lively pace going more, so I preferred it because of this. You feel more involved in ‘Clueless’ too, because she talks in the voiceover to the audience and it is personal, but in ‘Pleasantville’ the audience feels much more like a spectator. I still did enjoy ‘Pleasantville’ though – it was still funny and was also unpredictable, but was not as successful at attracting my attention as ‘Clueless’ even though I do like fantasy films.
Mrs. Jordan’s comments: a very well written piece, which despite its length, is a pleasure to read because of its fluent style. Demonstrates highly skilful analysis and interpretation of the way filmmakers work. Makes apt and sometimes original comparisons.
