Representation through Male and Female Characters

The main focus of representation in our thriller is to do with gender, between the male and female main characters. We also had to portray what people were like in the 40s. We decided to create a counter stereotype in our thriller, this is between the girl and the detective. Usually in a thriller, a middle aged man would always have authority and power over a young girl, however we have switched this around in our thriller and instead we have the young girl as the one with the power and authority.  The Blue Lamp is a film, which helped to inspire us to make our thriller, it portrays a young girl who seduces and older man, and this was a common sight In many films for the 1930s-40s. Her clothing suggests that she is wealthy because they are stylishly well cut and look expensive; she wears high heels, which elongate her bare legs, which she shows off to entice men. Long blonde hair and big blue eyes are also typical of seductresses in the 1950s as they wanted to portray themselves as innocent and beautiful because men where unsuspecting and attracted to this. We chose a blond girl to play the main part because we didn’t want her to look like a true killer or a ruthless assassin, instead we wanted to make sure that it is obvious that there is someone in the background who is making her commit all these murders. Women who kill did some research into real women who killed to find out there motivations and backgrounds in order to apply them to our own femme fatal and make our thriller more believable. The woman I looked at was Ruth Ellis (9 October 1926 - 23 July 1955).

Ruth Ellis was the last women to be executed in the UK, after being convicted of the murder of her lover, David Blakely. From a humble background, Ellis was soon drawn into the world of London nightclub hostess, which led to a chaotic life of brief relationships, some of them with upper-class night clubbers and celebrities. Two of these were David Blakely, a racing-driver already engaged to another woman, and Desmond Cussen, a retail company director, and former RAF pilot. Bakely beat. abused and continuously cheated on her in their violent relationship even causing a miscarriage when he punched her in the stomach during a heated argument. On Easter Sunday 1955, Ellis shot Blakely dead outside a public house in Hampstead, and immediately gave herself up to the police. At her trial, she took full responsibility for the murder and her courtesy and composure, both in court and in the cells, was noted in the press. Albert Pierrepoint hanged her at Holloway Prison, London.  She was a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown and this is what our femme fatal Dayana represents. However in Dayana’s case the detective did not abuse her but perhaps she is a victim of another man/group of men who have forced her to kill him.