Suffragette - Analysis

Suffragette is a British historical drama film, which has been released in 2015. The movie was directed by Sarah Gavron and written by Abi Morgan.

The film centres on early members of the British women's suffrage movement of the late 19th and early 20th century. The main roles are played by:

·      Carey Mulligan 

·      Helena Bonham Carter 

·      Meryl Streep 

·      Ben Whishaw

·      Brendan Gleeson 

·   Anne-Marie Duff.

Theatrical release poster of the film

In the film, the representation of women is based on the ways in, which women at the time were seen as and effectively portrays the existing stereotype of the female gender.

In the film women are presented as weaker, vulnerable, fully dependent on men as well as less important to the overall society through a range of different factors such as:

·      The camera angles and shots used in different scenes

·      The visual codes such as colour

·      The audio codes 

The producers of ‘Suffragette’ used a high range of different camera angles that they used in order to show the situations women were in the pain they were going through. An example of this is the use of close up shots on the face of Maud, one of the main characters. The use of this helps to emphasise the pain that the females felt and had hard it was for them to cope well with the every day-to-day lifestyle that they had to go through. In addition, the use of a close up helps to create a bond between the audience and the character and therefore, feel more sympathetic towards them and understand the strong message behind the actions much more.  In addition, a range of long angle shots is also used in order to show the surrounding and situation that the characters were in. This is shown when the suffragettes were waiting outside the parliament in anticipation for the results for a changing law. The use of a long shot in this situation, helped us, the audience to have a better understanding of how many people were actually involved in the ‘rights for women’ action and so emphasises the actual importance and seriousness behind all of the events

A close up of Maud

Moreover, throughout the whole of the film, the setting was clearly noticeable to be quiet dark and cold. The use of those kinds of colours in the scenes straight away sent a clear message to the audience that the life at the time was in fact dark and cold and people didn’t have that power and happiness within them to carry on.  Furthermore, women in the film were mostly seen wearing black outfits. This therefore, helped to create a colour imaginary as black is a colour associated with evil and death and so connoted the idea of women and their feelings being dead inside due to the unequal treatment. In a sense, this could also suggest that many women were starting to give up on the idea of being able to live.

Suffragettes wearing dark outfits 

Lastly, the audio codes that were used in the film also helped to set the cold atmosphere and create tension. When at the end of the film, Emily Davison was hit by the horse all background noise including both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds began to slow down, eventually leading to a complete stop making the scene happen in a complete silence. The fact that the sound stopped because of the death of one of the fighting woman suggests that this was a very serious and memorable event in the history of the suffragette movement and that together with the gradual cut of noise, the discrimination and unequal treatment of women was also starting to change and fade.

Overall, I really enjoyed this film and personally, I think that it was a very good idea to bring something like this out as it helps to teach people about the history and life of people in an interesting and engaging manner. Also, the way that the film was produced in helps to emphasise the struggles that different people ad to go through and at the same time suggests that we should prevent things like this from happening in the future. Moreover, it also shows that we should never give up and stand for what we believe.