How is gender represented in Shallow Grave?

The director Danny Boyle uses mise en scene to create the idea that different genders are represented in different ways. One of the ways he does this is by dressing Juliet in a revealing dress, the dress is clearly more revealing in contrast to the other women at the ball and this is shown by a long shot of men and women dancing showing the other women’s dresses and how they go down to their ankles and don’t allow cleavage to be seen. He has dressed her like this to show that she is more feminine than the other females and that she is more outgoing than them. Alex, one of the males has been dressed in black trousers, white shirt and a checked jacket. The white shirt is done up all except the top button which portrays that the character doesn’t feel that he has to make an effort and also makes him look scruffy. Alex’s hair is quite long and scruffy which also presents him to the audience as being a laid back character with no care in the world. But, this is a complete contrast to the character David, who has clearly made an effort to look respectable because he is dressed in a black suit and bow tie which is stereotypically seen as clothing that upper class people wear. David is also made to look like a more responsible and older character by the use of glasses and the style of his hair. His glasses are black, quite a boring and mundane colour which doesn’t connote liveliness and fun, but they do connote seriousness and class. This is why that Boyle has used the colour black for David’s glasses because they sum up the personality of his character. David’s hair is clearly a lot smarter than Alex’s, although you can tell he doesn’t spend much time making it like that, he still puts some effort into it which connotes that he cares about the way other people see him and the way he looks.

There is a clear contrast shown the way the three characters are dressed and how they behave in public. As well as being portrayed by what they wear, it is also shown by the editing. The characters Alex and Juliet are shown to be much closer with each other than they are with David. This is shown by most of the shots being of both Alex and Juliet (a two shot) but David is the only person in his shot. By having David on his own most of the time connotes that he is the alpha male making Alex and Juliet below him in ranking. But, this could be seen as the opposite because some people may feel that the number of people must mean that that group has more power and that the loneliness of David could be seen as him having no power at all over the other two characters.

Danny Boyle has also shown the difference in power by using cinematography. He has done this by making Alex fall to the floor while he is dancing with Juliet. He might have done this because the amount of alcohol he has been drinking or he could have just tripped over something, Either way landing on the floor would have hurt but Alex doesn’t seem to care about that and is seen to be laughing, the fact that he is laughing also reinforces the view that he is laid back and doesn’t care. When Juliet dances over to him the camera shows a low angle shot with only Juliet in the frame looking down at Alex and placing her foot in his mouth to stop him from laughing. This shows the audience two things, one, that because of the laid back attitude of Alex and the low angle shot it shows that Juliet may have more power in their relationship and two would be that letting Alex see up her skirt is tells the audience that she has more power over him because she can flirt and flaunt her body to get what she want.

Boyle has also used diegetic sound to show that both males are more aggressive than Juliet. He has done this by making Alex and David the only two of the group to swear during this scene, Boyle knows that the stereotypical man is loud and aggressive but the stereotypical woman is seen to be well mannered and not aggressive. The first male that the audience see for filling the stereotype is Alex, this is shown by him swearing quite often and making a sexual reference which reminds the audience of the stereotype. Although to start off with David, the second male, doesn’t seem to be the stereotypical man, when a male at the ball askes Juliet to dance, he straight away turns aggressive and threatens him “you're going to end up inside a fucking bin-bag“.

By saying this it gives the audience an idea of what David is sometimes like and also for fills the stereotype. In contrast to the males, Juliet is seen to be much more polite than Alex and David because of her attitude towards other people and that fact that she doesn’t swear throughout the scene. Her non aggressive attitude towards others is shown when Alex recognises Cameron and begins to call him over, Juliet then disagrees with Alex about getting Cameron to come over because she doesn’t want any trouble. This shows that she is not scared of conflict, but will avoid it at all costs and also does not want to be embarrassed by the Alex and David.

The director, Danny Boyle has shown the three characters in different ways and played to the known stereotypes of men and women to represent the characters as individuals. Alex is represented as a male stereotype because of his aggressive behaviour and laid back attitude which is shown by the way he is dressed and the amount of swearing done by him in this scene. David on the other hand is represented as the alpha male of the group because of the way he is dressed at the fact that when he is shown on camera he is the only person in the shot in comparison to Alex and Juliet who are shown together. David is also seen to be using his tack ticks of getting something by being friendly and nice but soon learns that Alex’s method, aggressive and rude, works much better and therefore is shown to have adopted his Alex method when the male askes to dance. In contrast to the males, Juliet is shown to be more feminine than Alex and David. Boyle has represented her in this way by dressing her in a low cut dress and having a flirty relationship with the males in this scene. An example of this would be when she places her foot on Alex after he falls over, allowing him to see up her dress.