Themes and Analysis

 What social issues are explored in Les Revenants?

• Xenophobia, the children come to the town and are treated like they are inhumane.
• Religious issues, coming back from the dead (purgatory - waiting in-between your life and heaven). This could be controversial in France as it is a very catholic country.
• Teenage sex, sexual awakening and the loss of virginity

How are the returned constructed as 'other'?

• Reflects contemporary issues - immigration, camps and the integration of refugees into French society
• The returned as 'other', non-human 'the horde'
• Temporary camps
• Origins of zombies in Haiti - voodoo mythology, the native
• Conflict, fear, savagery
• Forced out of town, hunted down by the police
• The 'others' as destroyers - the dam. The returned cause apocalyptic events and destroy nature.

Own scene analysis: 16:30 - 18 mins, Simon trying to find Adele scene

Mise-en-scene which creates meaning

• The low-exposure lighting confines to the horror genre conventions, where the producers play on the fear of the unknown to create suspense and tension between the on-screen action and the audience. The use of horror conventions within this scene is further reinforced through the use of blinking lights, which is typical of this genre and easily recognisable. This acts as proairetic coding for something going wrong.
• The mise-en-scene of the elevator is a stereotypical setting associated with horror movies, as this plays on the fear of claustrophobia, and acts as intertextual references to other movies within this genre such as The Shining.
• The connotations of Simon's suit costume binary opposes the basic surroundings, helping introduce the social issues which are explored within Les Revenants such as alienation.
• The hermeneutic coding of the elevator closing on it's own creates mystery, as the audience wonder who else is in the building.
• The minimalist sound within this scene contributes to the overall eerie atmosphere, as the audience almost expect a loud sound to occur to make them jump. These sounds consist of the lights flickering on and off, Simon knocking on the door, and the elevator closing. These are all highly realistic, blurring the line between what is fiction and what is real.
• The lexis of the dialogue "Julie's love life is none of my business" helps introduce new characters to the plot line and introduce Simon's narrative of finding Adele.
• The sound of the cat meowing relates to supernatural creatures and paranormal activity, combined with the green colour pallet which has connotations of witchcraft and grossness.

Preferred Reading

• The preferred reading of this scene, is that Simon is simply a confused man trying to find the woman he was supposed to marry. This is constructed primarily through the dialogue and narrative, in which he engages with another resident of the flats to find Adele's whereabouts.
• The audience are supposed to read the character of Simon as being strong, as constructed through the binary opposition of his characteristics and personality against the female characters. He is dressed in a suit, connoting the idea of success and wealth, whereas the other women are dressed in a basic costume which constructs them to be working class and therefore lesser financially successful.

Dominant Ideology

• Men are strong and have the ability to take control, as exampled through Simon's expectations to pick up where he left off with Adele - despite everything which happened. The audience can construct their own identity from Simon.

Negotiated Meaning 

• An audience could negotiate the meaning of this scene to represent Simon as a weak character who is laughable. Although he is presented as stronger in comparison to the female characters, and more entitled through the use of dialogue and the narrative, he does behave in a way which is strange and bizarre which could come across as weak.
• The long shots of him standing idle in the corridors further alienate him, as he is positioned in the centre of the shot and therefore seems out-of-place.