CONSUMING PASSIONS: THE STORY OF MILLS AND BOON

In the big grey file on the cabinet in front of you, under the white board, is the disc that we started watching yesterday: 'Consuming Passions, the story of Mills and Boon'. Please take it out and use one of the Macs at the back of the classroom to finish watching it. 

Then make written notes on how women are represented. PUT THE DISC BACK where you found it at the end of the session. You can start it again as you make notes.

Characters in Consuming Passions (written by Emma Frost, BBC4 2004)
Mary 1920s (marries Charles Boon, emotionally neglected by him)
Janet 1974 (dowdy typist, avid Mills and Boon fan, infatuated with the arrogant surgeon; becomes a full time writer as Raquel Pretty)
Kirstie 2008 (university lecturer, in passionless relationship with Nick, courted by Jake)

NOTES: as usual, on

• how the mise-en-scene constructs representations of women (their clothes, gesture, posture; where they live; their environments; props; their fantasy worlds; lighting)
• how the camerawork constructs representations of women (shot types, angles, camera movement)
• how the sound constructs representations of women (what they say, their accents, their silences; voice-overs; the soundtrack; ambient sounds; non-diegetic sounds)
• how the editing constructs representations of women (how the story is told by, for example, transitions from the real world to the fantasy world, how the writer projects herself into the persona of Violetta Kiss; match cuts between her reality and her fantasy; the intertwined stories of the three women delivered through transitions between their lives)