REPRESENTATION October 2nd

Roland Barthes Mythologies (1964)

 Barthes myths were considered to be the dominant ideology for the time. It shows the idea photography can manipulate people's ideas. The picture from the Paris Match below shows a young Negro boy in French uniform saluting the French flag ( the tricolour) or perhaps some sort of commanding presence that the reader of the magazine is unable to see.  It's trying to display the unity in France no matter what race you are. It is also trying to display France as this great country because it is showing this sort of unity

 

 

 

 

 I decided to choose the poster for the movie Goodfellas. From the poster, we can see the three main actors in suits. This indicates that they're prosperous men and seem to be dong well in life. However, all three are meant to look quite intimidating. Robert De Niro is in the middle indicating that he's somewhat the leader of the three characters. The poster has a black background indicating that the movie has a somewhat dark tone. Below the three men, an abandoned street in New Jersey is represented with someone who has clearly been murdered. The way in which the three main actors are standing above the dead body indicates that he's been murdered and the three are in fact criminals. The tagline also gives a lot of things away about the characters. It quotes the character Ray Liotta plays saying " as far back as I can I remember, I always wanted to be a gangster". This further proves the point that they're in fact part of organized crime rather than being small time crooks. The tagline below says "three decades of life in the mafia" showing that the movie is actually about the Mafia. The three decades part also indicates that the movie is in fact a representation of sometime in the past, most likely 20th century America.