1ST 5 SHOTS OF FILM 3: Bridget Jones's Diary

Bridget Jones's Diary

Sharon Maguire (2001)

BBFC 15, MPAA R

Film Opening Length: 0

Budget: $25m
UK/US/World Box Office: $60.2m, $71.5m, $282m
Theatrical Distrinution in 

Production Companies: Working Title Films, Studiocanal, Little Bird
Distributors: Universal Pictures, Miramax Films

LINKS:
IMDB, RottenTomatoes (Tomatometer 81%, Audience 81%), BoxOfficeMojo, Wiki


Trailer for 'Bridget Jones's Diary':
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SHOT 1

The opening shot of this film opening is a medium long shot of the main protagonist (it is clear that she is the main protagonist since she is the first character shown). You can denote that it is snowing and the protagonist is holding a piece of luggage to connote that she is going somewhere for Christmas or New Year's Eve/Day (setting denoted from the snow - winter time - christmas time). The lighting is bleak to connote Bridget's life and how she feels when she goes to see her mother. You can also denote that there is a black taxi in the background which further denotes the setting (London) to the audience. A female diegetic voiceover appears in this shot, establishing the first person narrative; this voiceover provides anchorage of who this character in the shot is. She is saying: 

"It all began on New Years day... on my 32nd year of being single. Once again, I found myself on my own and going to my mother's annual turkey curry buffet. Every year, she tries to fix me up with some busy-haired, middle-aged bore and I feared this year would be no exception."

This voiceover doesn't provide any narrative enigma (Roland Barthes) in the film opening at all but instead provides the audience with exposition (her age, where she is from - her accent tells us that, that she is single and where she is going) immediately into the film. This character is heading to her mother's annual turkey curry buffet on New Years Day. The fact that the bags she is carrying are not feminine and that she is carrying all her luggage provides binary opposition (Levi-Strauss) to the stereotypical girl.

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SHOT 2

The next shot is an extreme long shot of the village where Bridget Jones has just arrived at to go to her mother's house. There are multiple signifiers here which connote that the village is stereotypically British white middle class in the A-C1 class range, such as the religious cross, the church, the red telephone box, the red poppies on the cross etc. These signifiers are used to attract an international audience because they are very familiar and stereotypically British. The signifiers like the church in the background and the cross signify that the village is also quite religious.

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SHOT 3

This shot is a crane shot, following where the character is going. This connotes that the film is not a low budget film but instead, a high budget film (A Working Title film). You can denote that the house in this shot is very big and the garden is very decorated which connotes that the people who own this house (Bridget's parents) are very wealthy. You can denote that in the garden, there are two bushes which are decorated as two swans touching nose to nose (two swans together connote love), this connotes that the family (most presumably the mother) is obsessed with love. As you hear from what the main protagonist says in her voiceover at the start of the film opening, you know that her mother always goes on at her about finding a man.

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SHOT 4

This shot immediately tells the audience that there is a completely different atmosphere in the mother's house to how Bridget is in her own life, from the drastic, immediate change in non-diegetic sound to what can be denoted as an upbeat song. This non-diegetic music also reveals to the audience that this is not just a film in the romance genre but also in the comedy genre - therefore rom-com). This shot says to the audience that whenever the main protagonist sees her mother, it is always a fake kind of happy and an act. She hates how her mother sets her up all the time for a date. 

SHOT 5

There is a sort of dutch angle here which connotes that this house is an uncomfortable, uneasy place for the main protagonist. Also, this dutch angle connotes that she found the hug and kiss from her mother uncomfortable. The furniture and objects in this shot are old fashioned and very ordered to connote that this house is dominated by the mother; this tells the audience immediately what the mother's personality is like. Also, the inside of the house connotes wealth. The father living there may have had no say in any of the design or furniture of this house. The mother's clothing is stereotypical of an old, traditional person.