The aim of this study is to analyze how the depiction of a young male and female protagonist who persistently seek success differs and which film techniques are used to depict male and female perfectionism. Since 1989, young people, especially in the cultural sphere, have stated that they feel an increasing pressure from their surroundings and from themselves compared to previous generations. The strive to be successful causes anxiety, depression, and perfectionism, where the latter has been linked to narcissism. Previous studies have found that media, especially film, has a crucial impact on how viewers perceive people with mental illnesses and stereotypes concerning gender, and the exposure to gender stereotypes may influence the viewers’ physical states and attitudes. This study adopts a qualitative comparative textual analysis using case studies, with an approach called neoformalism focusing on three formal levels: narrative, stylistic and thematic. The study also includes theories from feminist film studies. The films used as case studies are Black Swan (2010) directed by Darren Aronofsky and Whiplash (2014) directed by Damien Chazelle. The result show that differences between male and female are prominent on all three levels of the film form. Nina in Black Swan needs to rely on sex to succeed and she gets punished in the end for the transgression, while Andrew in Whiplash simply practices to reach perfection. The film techniques used show more pictures of Nina's body and female props like mirrors while Andrew is shown solely around musical instruments. They are also both perfectionists and narcissists, but overall, Nina is shown to be more irrational and paranoid than Andrew and these psychological qualities are reflected in and communicated by the formal system of the films.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-119085 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Jahrehorn, Frans, Kvist, Rebecka |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för medier och journalistik (MJ) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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