The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Explain how construction of this female character may contribute to this being an effective thriller opening, using the following terms:

• Stereotype 
• Femininity 
• Archetype 
• Binary opposition 
• Protagonist 
• Antagonist 
• Enigma 

The thriller opening begins with an elderly male character opening a parcel, containing a framed picture inside it. The spectator is unaware of the importance of the picture because it isn't made clear, and therefore has to keep guessing; creating enigma. However, the male character is shown sitting down and staring at the picture, followed by diegetic sound of him crying. This suggests that there is more to the picture for it to distress him in such a way. The fact that he is showing his emotions in crying and his appearance challenge the masculinity stereotype of being fearless and strong. His appearance is slightly frail and he comes across as weak.
















The scene cuts to a BCU of a female. She supports the femininity stereotype as she has fair skin, long blonde/brown hair and is wearing make up however looks natural. She begins to zoom in so that less of her face is appearing in the frame and the film title appears. This implies that she is 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo', meaning that it is a possibility that she is the antagonist, however she could equally be the protagonist as there have been no characters introduced yet for it to be them. The fact that the shot of the female characters face was straight after the male character receiving the parcel, could suggest that she has some relevance to the picture that the parcel contained. This also supports my suggestion that she could be the protagonist due to the male characters reaction to the picture and builds spectator positioning.

There is a cut to a hooded character and the camera tracks the character from behind, not revealing the face of the character which enhances the enigma because the spectator has no idea of who it is. Due to the characters clothing, as a spectator we immediately stereotype the character as a potential protagonist and stock character, and also a male character as the character opposes what femininity includes. However, part of the characters face is revealed where we see that the character is female. This character opposes the femininity stereotype completely, and therefore challenges whether she is the protagonist because she could be a antagonist or victim attempting to hide her identity by dressing like a thug.