Under the skin – context

What I though of the film – The film is a very special piece gut it is not what I would look for. I enjoy deep world building and lore, while this films has a style of individual interpretations.

Questions

  • What is the plot? : Disguising itself as a human female, an extraterrestrial (know as the woman and played by Scarlett Johannson) drives around Scotland attempting to lure unsuspecting men into her van. Once there, he seduces and sends them into another dimension where they are nothing more than meat. As the film progresses, this mission becomes more complicated as The Woman starts to develop human emotions.
  • What is the void? Why did the woman take men to this place? : The void is an other worldly black abyss which has been created by the extraterrestrial as a way of harnessing meat. They seem to be able to be creates anywhere by the woman. The floor of the void is liquid like but is selective – only humans who walk on it are submerged. In this place, human beings are placed in a kind-of trance – they only focus on the woman. when they are submerged, their bodies eventually disintegrate until there is nothing left but skin/. After this happened, we see the shot of blood. This suggests that the meat is being harvested by the alien – but no reason is given as to why – is it for food? Fuel? We don’t know exactly, and that’s intentional.
  • Who is the motorcyclist(camio by real motorcyclist) : is referred to as The Bad Man on IMDb. There are two reaccuring characters in the film – The Woman and The Bad Man (played by world champion motorcycling Jeremy McWilliams). Although The Bad Man is not shown to be an alien at any pint in the film, it is fair to assume that he is. Not just any alien, but someone who The Woman is reposting – her leader. Presumably, this is also where she got money from. In the opening scene, were are shown The Bad Man picking uo a female body that he has stashed. He takes it to a van and drives to his lair. After that, The Woman takes the clothes off their female body and wears them. Subsequently, we are shown circling lights in the sky – this could be the indication of an alien spaceship hiding in the plain sight. Throghout the film, The Bad Man is keeping a tight watch on The Woman and realists that she’s released The Deformed Man after he’s been in the void. The Bad Man interacts and captured The Deformed Man, plus him the trunk of a car and drives away – assumably, to kill him.
  • Who is the character with facial deformities : This character is played by Adam Pearson, an actor who has a genetic condition called neurofibromatosis. He said that he hoped the role would challenge disfigurement stigma. Like the other men, he is considered prey by The Woman, due to his loneliness and vulnerability.
  • Eyes : links to the theme of voyeurism in the film
  • Why did the woman kill so-many people but did not take their identities? : The woman only preyed on male characters- we will discuss feminist interpretations and the representation of femininity in the film as this may provide reasons foe this. She is a luring Syrian. (she wears a fur coat – linking her to a predator, she becomes active and ditches her coat) ※Scarlett Johannson – she was one of the sexiest actors – playing with idea about her being a ‘alien’
  • Why does the woman develop human emotions? : As she is wearing the skin of a human being, she is seeing the world from the perspective of a human – starts to move away from he cold, emotions-less from the belongings scenes. She is introduced to characters who challenged her emotional capability to feel empathy or care – The Deformed Men, The Quite Men or fear – the rapist The Logger. Her sexualised fur coat is discarded after she allows The Deformed Man to live – this could represent her leaving being her inhuman, predator-like self.
  • Crying woman : She is the former worker, the seductive characters become emotional and they they have to be killed (cycle and cloned worker) ※The worker ant (worker exploitation – Marxism)

◯2014 Scottish Referendum

Referendum (Scottish Independence Referendum Act 2013) :

The SNP – Scottish National Party, which Nicola Sturgeon leads – secured 69 seats in the 2011 Scottish Parliamentary Election. That’s four Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) more than it needed for a majority, and five more than she got in last week’s vote. Independence is the SNP’s main aim and the then prime minister agreed, based on those election results and the number of MSPs, Scotland should be asked about its future.

set out the arrangements for the referendum and was passed by the Scottish Parliament in November 2013, following an agreement between the devolved Scottish government and the Government of the United Kingdom. The independence proposal required a simple majority to pass. All European Union (EU) or Commonwealth citizens residing in Scotland age 16 or over could vote, with some exceptions, which produced a total electorate of almost 4,300,000 people. This was the first time that the electoral franchise was extended to include 16- and 17-year-olds in Scotland. Prominent issues raised during the referendum included what currency an independent Scotland would use, public expenditure, EU membership, and North Sea oil. An exit poll revealed that retention of the pound sterling was the deciding factor for those who voted No, while “disaffection with Westminster politics” was the deciding factor for those who voted Yes.

Who called it? : Scottish Parliament (Nicola Sturgeon)

Why was the referendum called? :

The Scottish parliament makes decisions on things like education and housing for its citizens. Health is the main issue that’s devolved – meaning Scotland doesn’t need to follow the policies the UK government sets out – and that’s why, during the pandemic, we’ve seen different rules coming from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England on Covid-19 restrictions. Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP party campaigns for more powers and argues Scotland should be able to make all its political decisions, so things like defence and foreign policy.

For younger voters things like university tuition fees, defence and the economy were key issues. Those wanting independence argued free university fees in Scotland could continue but those against said financially that wasn’t possible. If Scotland had voted “yes” it would have broken up the UK’s armed forces and would have needed to start its own one. Radio 1 Newsbeat’s coverage at the time included a debate a week before the September 2014 vote.

What was the result of the referendum? : Scotland rejects independence and remains a constituent country of the United Kingdom

What was the effect on British and Scottish identity? :

25% say they feel ‘Scottish, not British’, while just 6% state that
they are ‘British, not Scottish’. 62% acknowledge being some
mixture of the two.

Are there any links to the Scottish referendum in Under the Skin? : Part of that was being aware of the referendum this year and that actually made it’s way into the film via the radio.” He’s referring to a scene in which Johansson’s character is listening to a debate about independence on Call Kaye, BBC Radio Scotland’s morning phone-in show. “We had conversations about whether that should be in the film because it was so specific and it might date the film. “But what I loved about it was that it was something that she could hear. I loved the idea that she could hear debate in the film: she could hear a difference of opinion and learn how human that is and how important that is to us. There was something exciting about having her listen to that. And the fact that it was something that was happening then and there – to me that just felt like well, this is when we made the film; this is when it was set; this was when she was present.”

Click to access bsa31_independence_referendum.pdf

◯Influences

-The films of Ken Loach

Films: Best known for – I Daniel Blake, Sorry we Missed You, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Kes, The Angels’ Share, Land and Freedom,

Social realist film: Social realism is a discursive term used by film critics and reviewers to. describe films that aim to show the effects of environmental factors on the. development of character through depictions that emphasise the. relationship between location and identity.

Themes/Styles: British socialist realism, socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (Poor Cow, 1967), homelessness (Cathy Come Home, 1966), and labour rights (Riff-Raff, 1991, and The Navigators, 2001).

What are similar to Under the Skin: realism, critiques to the British government

-The Man Who Fell to Earth

Themes/Styles: nervous exhaustion, love (human emotion, humanisation), “We’re trapped in our shells. Skin can be beautiful one moment and frightening the next.” The Man Who Fell to Earth is a precise, even literal, expression of that idea.

What are similar to Under the Skin: “We’re trapped in our shells. Skin can be beautiful one moment and frightening the next.” The Man Who Fell to Earth is a precise, even literal, expression of that idea.

-2001: a space odyssey

Themes/Style: the perils of technology(Hal presents the problems that can arise when man creates machines, whose inner workings he does not fully understand. Second, the book explores the dangers associated with the nuclear age. The novel issues a warning against the destructive power associated with that technological innovation in the military arena), evolution(evolutionary theory implies that humanity is not the final goal of some process, but only a stopping point on an undirected process. One way this process might continue, the book imagines, is that humans will learn to rid themselves of their biological trappings), space exploration (Lengthy journeys, such as manned flights to Saturn, and advanced technologies, such as induced human hibernation, are created and brought to life throughout the story.)

What are similar to Under the Skin: realistic style with tinge of sci-fi, lack of straightforward narrative style

Jonathan Glazer – “Well, I tried to get rid of every recognizable influence there is. I wasn’t interested in referencing other films at all. Like I was saying earlier, the film would only work if it stood apart, or it has to stand apart to provide that perspective, so you can’t be dragged back by things from other films or books. So I was kind of rigorously staying away from comparisons. But in terms of references and things like that, you’ve watched a lot of films and you’re not really conscious about how references kind of come about or how they reveal themselves. But in this film it was absolutely not conscious at all. The only aspect of it which was conscious was the very first few shots of the film, so that there was a feeling of trying to take an audience on this journey – you kind of lower them into it. And looking at the first few shots of the film, it seems like you’re watching a science fiction film, and [as the eye is forming] it looks like an alignment of planets, the docking of a spaceship and all of that sort of stuff. It seems like you’re looking at that, and then of course we reveal that what you’ve been watching is the construction of an eye, and that [indicates] that the film will be about looking. So you get a feeling that maybe, okay, I understand the language of this film, I understand this is science fiction, but you understand where the film will push you – that this is like a science fiction film, in order to help lower people where we wanted to be.”

◯Post feminism and feminist film theory

Postfeminism is a term used to describe a societal perception that many or all of the goals of feminism have already been achieved, thereby making further iterations and expansions of the movement obsolete. Many feminist critics use the term postfeminist to negatively describe the renewed embrace of activities and positions that current and previous generations of feminists have deemed sexist or oppressive. The wide-ranging circulation of the term and its uncertain definition prompted scholars to study the implications of its usage. The term “postfeminist” can be used as an accusation against feminist scholars whose work is seen as insufficiently feminist

Where women in the media are viewed from the eyes of a heterosexual man, and that these women are represented as passive objects of male desire. Audiences are forced to view women from the point of view of a heterosexual male, even if they are heterosexual women or homosexual men. (From a feminist perspective – How men look at women, how women look at themselves and finally, how women look at other women.)

The heroine’s first “cruise” is initially depicted via a montage of point of view shots. Her car patrols a busy street of Glasgow as the camera presents views of unwitting male pedestrians through the windshield. Men of varying age, race, and size are evaluated as they stroll the streets, looking at their mobile phones, listening to music, watching for traffic. The montage represents an inversion of the cinematic construct of female objectification, here the female gaze appraising men through the shielded screen of her car. The voyeuristic nature of these shots evokes Michel Foucault’s understanding of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a mechanism used in the surveillance of inmates ‘for dissociating the see/being seen dyad: in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever seeing; in the central tower, one sees everything without ever being seen.’[8] Significantly, feminist film theorists have argued that the self-censoring effect of the Panopticon is explicative of woman’s experience under patriarchy; ‘defined in terms of visibility, she carries her own Panopticon with her wherever she goes, her self-image a function of her being for another.’[9] This analogy is enunciated here by way of subversion; the peculiarity of viewing unsuspecting men as objects for female disposal underscores the omnipresence of the male gaze under which women are scrutinized.

  • Define Barbara Creed’s ‘Monstrous Feminine’ theory

 the interpretation of horror films conceptualizing women, predominantly, as victims.[4] Throughout the book, Creed observes how women are positioned as victims within the horror film genre, and challenges this overriding patriarchal and one-dimensional understanding of women.[4] Creed challenges this masculine viewpoint by arguing that when the feminine is fabricated as monstrous, it is commonly achieved through association with [female] reproductive bodily functions, or through matriarchal traits and tasks.[4] Creed uses the expression “monstrous feminine” because it accentuates the significance of gender in relation to the construction of monstrosity. 

  • How does Barbara Creed’s ‘Monstrous Feminine’ theory relate to Under the Skin?

She is the ‘monster’ in this case yet her role as a exploited worker makes her a victim of the ‘corporation’. She symbolises a sex worker, selling her body to lure victims. Her as an individual is not respected. She is almost raped by a man.

scene where she is only looking at woman – idea that she is observing them rather than seeing them as pray

Production context

  • Planned by Glazer for many years
  • Limited production budget ($8m)
  • Did Sexy Beast before Under the Skin
  • British independent co-production (funding) joint venture with the Film4 (BFI – British Film Institute)
  • Co-production partners, distributed by Canal ＋ UK (French audiences are more sophisticated in what they want to see) ※France promote independent cinema

☆The film is an identity study – “A grand statement on what it means to be a human being.” ※Using something which is not human to talk about humanity

  • British independent science fiction film set in part in Scotland – critical success, commercial failure
  • Written and Directed bu Jonathan Glazer (learnt cinematography working in advertising e.g Levis Odyssey and directing music videos e.g. for Radiohead)
  • Sexy Beast (2000) set his auteur filmmaking style – also directed Birth (2004)
  • Innovative approach to production to create verisimilitude (a sense of racism/authenticity) – non professional actors, location, grey aesthetic, lack of fantasy in city, hidden cameras, improvisation, lack of editing
  • Start marketing of Johansson but use of non actors and hidden cameras
  • Non-actors help create a surreal verisimilitude (oxymoron)
  • Music synergy a key factor (soundtrack composed by Mica Levi). Glazer wanted the music to be impressionistic reflecting feelings
  • Significant poster campaign based on Johannson as a start and SF conventions – limited budget and target art house indie demographic
  • Social media marketing focusing on ‘the look’ e.g. black matter. Flyposting campaign (gorilla marketing) in major cites (limited marketing budget)

Social context

  • There are interesting issues that this film raises about the representation of britishness, particularly in the context of the Scottish referendum – question about identity – country decided = national identity divided
  • Johansson’s character has a middle-class English accent and we see many stereotypically negative representations of Scottishness in the film, which could reflect hegemonic (dominat) power relationships in the British Isle. ※The contrast between English and Scottish

Historical/Cultural context

In some ways, the films aesthetic and ideological concerns are a throwback to the 1960s and 70s in its use of stylistic visual influences from Niv Roeg and Stanly Kubritck or the realism of Ken Loach. It also shares that decade’s concerns with alienation and identity. Exploring the relevancy of these concern in the postmodern world of social media and identity politics could be a useful critical approach ※Age of identity

Technology context

  • The use of digital effects in important in many sequences in the film, particularly in the opening sequence and the murder scenes but is the use of the low tech hidden dash cams that give the film powerful sense of realism and immediacy
  • The van was fitted with several vary small cameras and Johannson was able to drive in real location surrounded by members of the public, interacting with them using improvisation
  • johannson was testes in her role (blends documentary cinema)

Genre and subgenre

  • Science fiction with primarily realist mise-en-scene. Also hybrid genre = sci-fi horror
  • The film has minimalist and elliptical style that jumps between highly stylised fantasy and CCTV-like realism, creating a challenging yet innovative aesthetic
  • The film is shot using hidden cameras and imporovides scences using non-professional actors reminiscent of Ken Loach but also highly technical visual effects sequences reminison of Kubrick. Off yet memorable fusion of aesthetic styles
  • Dark mise-en-scene, stylised (Sexy beast has a brighter colour palette, more like Birth) marketing impressionistic use of colour – saturated at times (non realist, surreal scenes) but desaturated/natural at other times e.g. beach scene
  • Sub genre – Alien threat/Futuristic worlds: “What if?” narrative concerned primarily with identity (the alien as representative of societies fears)
  • Fear of technology but crucially for Under the Skin, dear of the other
  • Dystopian negative outcomes – its not all going to be OK…

Narrative intertextuality

  • Intertextual references to 2001: a space odyssey (time and pace, representation of surreal environment)
  • Unusual alien life form and morphing (plus, as in the above surreal environments) links to The Man Who Fell To Earth
  • The following year (2014) Ex-machina borrowed from the representation in Under the Skin
  • All of the above films but the boundaries between protagonist and antagonist (representation of the anti hero)

※large part of humanity is fearing death (mortality)

MEMO – Similarities between Ex-Machina and Under the Skin

  • nature
  • between men and god
  • AI is human – sexuality (seductive to men)
  • lifelessness
  • Turing test – test a machine to work out whether it mirrors human emotion
  • questioning what is humanity and identity
  • many mirroring
  • Unconventional narrative structure – Todorov’s theory difficult to map but still narrative closure wit the suggestion of a new (bleak) equilibrium
  • Some exposition in terms of characters development – setting introduced but not the problem
  • Single stranded, open ended
  • Significant use of narrative enigma to engage the spectator with at time narrative action positioning the viewer into empathy at unusual moments e.g. the ending
  • There is a lack of explicit causality which frustrates attempts by the spectator to develop a cause-effect chain in the narrative. Some events seem unmotivated, such as why the victims are being killed, whilst other events lack a clearly explained effects, such as why she leaves the man’s house towards in the end of the film.
  • This is unconventional in the film narratives and can be very challenging (or rewarding?) for the spectator, who is required to work much harder in making meaning
  • Much of the narrative is communicated purely visually in the film, there is distinct lack of any dialogue, particularly expositional dialogue. We can see this in the opening sequence when we are given no backstory to establish the characters to their relationship to each other. The relationship between the motorcyclist and the alien remains mysterious throughout and we are often left to deduce character motivation from looks alone
  • All characters in the film lack names, which make identification with them very difficult, and challenged mainstream narrative conventions. You could also argue that the characters lack mush personality in that they seem to lack emotion of though in their actions. It is left to the spectator to deduce what they can about the characters

◯What binary oppositions are in present in the film?

  • female vs male
  • corporation vs worker
  • human vs alien
  • realism vs fantasy
  • emotions vs emotionless
  • rural vs urban
  • life vs death
  • isolation vs connections
  • passive vs engagement (?)
  • affection to others vs purpose
  • m/c vs w/c
  • old vs new
  • preditor vs pray
  • innocent vs evil
  • conventional beauty vs deformed
  • Scottish vs English
  • light vs dark
  • feminism vs objectification
  • Society vs individuality

(woman: love, care, fear, guilt – lose purpose to live)

Voyeurism

There are clear motifs connected to spectatorship in the film. We constantly see characters watching others, eyes watching us r characters looking at themselves. This aesthetic motif is introduced of the film as we see eyes being manufactured for the alien. ※exacerbating the human body

Representation and Ideology

  • Identity study – explored what it is to be human, linked with genre conventions of SF
  • Casting Adam Pearson – he said that he hoped the role would challenge disfigurement stigma
  • Narrative closure suggests mankind is doomed – she is burned alive as a metaphor for destroying what you fear )Johansson sheds her skin to reveal a black mass)
  • Bleak for humans and non-humans – we destroy what we don’t understand (Adam is the most human character in the whole film)
  • The representation of woman is complex in the film, particularly in the use of Johansson’s body and the gaze we adopt towards it. In the seduction of her victims the alien uses stereotypical representations of female sexuality; the red lipstick, the fur coat, undressing slowly for the sexual pleasure of the male gaze. However we also know she is consuming these male victims and is not necessary female
  • The representations of men tend to be stereotypical but men are also objectified and represented as lonely in this film. We see the drunken, yobbish and arrogant young men, motivated by sexual desire but also by a need for company. It is they who are viewed naked before being killed
  • There is a reversal of gender representation in the second half of the film as the alien becomes the prey for men. We see her hunted bu the men on motorcycles, romantically wooed by a man she meets and disturbingly assaulted and killed by a violent sexual predator at the end of the film. It could be argued that the empowered woman is punished, confirming patriarchal power.

☆Does UST challenge or subvert gender stereotype

-Femininity stereotypes that are subverted

  • easily influenced – not easily yet influenced by others
  • submissive (second half of the film)
  • home-oriented
  • easily hurt emotionally (not sure if that shows)
  • talkative
  • indicisive
  • sensitive to others feelings
  • very desirous of security
  • cries a lot
  • emotional
  • verbal
  • kind??? do not see that much
  • tactful
  • nurturing

-Masculinity stereotypes that are subverted

  • dominant – first half of scenes
  • not easily influenced
  • worldly
  • not at all talkative
  • tough
  • logical
  • analytical

Ideology of water

  • Water important motif in the film – representation of the abyss/death/an end (that is neither reassuring of comforting)
  • Initially planned as big budget decision made to focus on a female version and POV – alien perspective of the human world (Alien – POV shot from the men in the liquid in the void, Human – POV shot of the logger who sexually assaults the man)
  • Johansson deliberately cast out fo context (Marvel work at the same time as sexualised ‘feminist’ Black Widow) – attracted production funding
  • Existentialism as fundamental underlying ideology (what it is to be human?) examined through the narrative – link to Moon ※Blurb – Under the skin is about seeing ourselves through alien eyes

Post feminist and sexualisation

  • Johannson is arguably a post feminist representation – powerful and in control but could be argued she is sexualised foe the male gaze (in the commercial sector as Black Widow but here a much more multi layered, complex character) – how can argue against this?
  • Subverting horror tropes by preying on men (she becomes more venerable, however, later on)
  • On one level it can be read as a revenge narrative – luring men into a liquid abyss (for reasons deliberately withheld)
  • Examination of the physical female body also a discourse, in the mirror and when studying her own genitals

Marxist reading of UTS – The Woman as Worker

Motorcyclist is her boss – The Bad Man is dominant, and the woman is submissive, the man is a threat (carries dead alien, violence towards Deformed man), stereotypical sex worker attire(sexual relation to men ), street level, given money for working, urban area, the worker ant (one of many)

Subtext – ※The film can be a metaphor about sex workers in Glasgow. They become emotional.

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