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 Representation is where a group, place, or thing is shown again to an audience in a specific way, to present a certain ideological perspective. In Les Revenants, gender is represented in a conventional way, primarily through the use of mise-en-scene, editing and symbolic coding. These media language techniques are used to reinforce existing gender stereotypes, by constructing the male and female character's differently, to highlight particular characteristics.

The stereotypical representation of gender within Les Revenants, positions the audience differently, dependent on their gender. Whilst a male audience may feel empowered by the narrative encoded through media language, as the ideological perspective conforms to patriarchal societal expectations, a female audience may feel uncomfortable by the lack of subversive representation. Within this key scene, the character of Simon is the only male, and he is presented as powerful through the mise-en-scene of costume. He is fully-clothed, wearing a suit which has connotations of power and financial success, binary opposing Adele’s costume which is low-cut and revealing. Adele’s costume is white, which acts as symbolic coding for purity, suggesting the producer believes this is the correct and normal way for a woman to dress. This idea is anchored by the length of the camera shot on Adele’s costume, providing a strong focalisation on her appearance. Within this shot, the mise-en-scene of a mirror is also included, further reinforcing the stereotypical representation that women should be obsessed with their appearance. This binary opposition between the representation of Simon’s character and Adele’s character effectively constructs gender differently, as how Lisbet Van-Zoonen theorises, and positrons the female audience in an uncomfortable position, as they are yet again treated as objects, opposed to powerful people like Simon. Adele’s actress further reinforces this idea of women being weak, by crying and displaying sad facial expressions, which conforms to the conventions of the horror genre, where women are stereotypically represented as being the ones to be saved. Although Les Revenants demonstrates strong genre hybridity, it is unsuccessful in being subversive of gender stereotypes and archetypes of horror, and therefore this representation of women being weak was intentional. This positions the female audience in an even more uncomfortable position, as they realise their stereotypical representation was purposeful. This representation empowers a male audience, as they can recognise their representation as being powerful, as the male characters assume the strong, hero archetypes within the narrative.

Within this scene, the characters of Adele, Simon, their daughter and Lena are all white, meaning audiences who are an ethnic minority may find it challenging to identify with the characters, and therefore feel excluded from the narrative due to their lack of representation. This positions these audience members in an uncomfortable position where they lack power, reinforcing outdated views on society and equality. In the show overall, this is also an issue, as all of the main cast are white. Despite not being progressive both in relation to stereotypes and inclusion, this scene does include some subversive elements, which are arguably overshadowed by the strong focus on stereotypical representations, through the character of Lena. The dialogue, ‘you’re welcome, dickhead!’ Includes taboo lexis, which subverts the polite and innocent representation of female characters throughout this scene, up until this moment. Her subversive nature is further anchored by the mise-en-scene of costume and setting, as despite wearing a short dress, she is confidently standing alone in the dark, which acts as proairetic coding for danger within the horror genre. This is further anchored by her positioning in the shot, where she is captured standing central to the camera, connoting the idea of confidence. The audience could perceive her costume as being sexualising and conforming to the gender stereotype, that a woman should be constructed for the sole purpose of appealing to a male audience, however, I believe the preferred reading is for her to be seen as strong and confident. This creates an empowering mode of address to the female audience, and could potentially unsettle a male audience who do not agree with this representation. However, due to the strong emphasis on Adele’s weakness during this scene, these elements of the narrative and Lena’s characterisation are heavily overlooked.

These stereotypes are not only encoded through mise-en-scene, but also the use of sound. The sound of the ‘doorbell’ is significantly louder than the sad toned, violin-style music in the background, during the scene inside Adele’s house. This loud pitch could be used with the intention of making the audience jump, which is a key convention in the horror genre, positioning the audience in an uncomfortable position to reflect Adele’s emotions. Adele is clearly startled by the sound, as emphasised through her wide-eyes facial expressions, reinforcing gender stereotypes that women should be afraid of answering the door when they are home alone. Simon’s character aggressively bangs on the door, shouting ‘open the fucking door’, once again incorporating taboo lexis to stress his frustration, and representing men as being the gender to be afraid of. Some audiences may find this representation to be accurate, as many women could feel oppressed by the male gender in the past, yet some audiences may find this an unfair representation to make, as it is a massive generalisation. The lack of lighting around Simon’s face creates hermeneutic coding, as the audience wonder what his facial expressions are, and this could create a scary mode of address to the audience, as they are afraid his reaction to Adele not opening the door may be troublesome, further reinforcing the stereotypical representation of the male gender, being scarier than women. 

Overall, representations within Les Revenants position the audience differently dependent on their gender, race and outlook. Those who are from an ethnic minority background are positioned as underrepresented, and therefore will feel they lack importance. For a female audience, they are positioned as being weak and lacking power in comparison to men, as despite the subversive character of Lena providing a modernised representation of women, she is overlooked due to the focus during this scene being on the stereotypical Adele, who is constructed differently to Simon through the mise-en-scene of costume, sound aspects and facial expressions. This links into Van-Zoonen’s theory, that women are constructed differently to men to appeal to a patriarchal, hegemonic society. A male audience are positioned powerfully and successfully, and conform to both positive gender and genre expectations, as being heroic and strong. Some male audiences may have a problem with their representation as being aggressive, but this is dependent on outlook.