This music video was released April 30th 2001 from Halliwell's second album being her first single from this album 'Scream If You Wanna Go Faster'. This song was featured in the movie as a soundtrack for Bridget Jones' Diary. By looking at the music video, we can see that there are intertextual references to the movie 'Bridget Jones' Diary' as it is all about a females point of view and being a typical, everyday woman.
It is clear that the narrative of the music video is inspired by the films from the 1980's 'Flashdance' (1983) and 'Fame' (1980). As there is a dance audition that's gone wrong, which is played in 'Flashdance'.
The video takes the form of a song and dance routine, very similar to a musical and intertextual links from the movie 'Flashdance', an audition scene gone wrong.
The video starts with a close up of Halliwell's feet, tracking her movement, which then moves upwards on the back of her body showing her tattoo, and as she is in bikini bottoms the camera gives the impression of a man looking at her from behind, making her look objectified by a male. From this mise-en-scene we can already know that this was inspired from the movie 'Flashdance' as she is alone in a dance hall with judges watching her, also wearing a similar (if not the same) costume to the actress in 'Flashdance' when she is auditioning for her dance routine.
There is a close up of the gramphone that Geri Halliwell is playing her music from, where we see the slipping needle and the first close up of her face, the camera is reflecting her actions and at this point we get the impression that the music is in control at this point. However, another interpretation could be the opposite where Halliwell is in control of the music and as soon as she makes a mistake or stops, the music too also stops.
As the music starts, there are close ups of parts of her body such as her toned, skinny stomach and legs, again looking from a male's point of view.
As soon as the singing begins, the lyrics are reflecting the camera shots as in the lyrics she says the word "rising" and the camera is titling up at her body. A sense of voyeurism is then shown by the man looking through the window of the doors showing that Halliwell is in control as people are wanting to come over and watch her and also showing off her talents.
The shots of Halliwell crawling along the judges table shows a power shift from the judges, to Halliwell and also when she kisses one of the male judges illustrates how she is using her feminine sexuality to win over the judge.
There are fast paced cuts, which is followed by the tempo of the music. The quick cuts also shows the different dancers in their bright costumes emphasising the fun in the song.
There is then a cut of her in a different costume where she is higher than everyone and they are all looking up at her, which shows that she is dominant to everyone.
The mise-en-scene where there is a exterior low angle shot, Halliwell wearing a small blue sweatshirt tries to give the impression of being in New York fire escape.
After this there is then a close up of her body whilst she is doing sit ups, which clearly shows her working her stomach muscles, which then cuts to a wide shot of her whole seeing her do sit ups with her dog beside her, which had a significance back at this time as her dog was seen a lot around in tabloids. Quick cuts are then used to see Halliwell's different sports abilities such as running, boxing and ballet dancing portraying that she is well in shape and has many abilities. The shot of Halliwell in a ballet class with a man partner shows that she is in control and she is dominate to the man as she is the one who walks away from him looking angry and frustrated.
Once they are outside, the dancers are dancing on top of the cars and we see a yellow cab, giving an impression of New York as New York is a typical place to where people believe they can achieve their dreams.
There is then a synchronised dance routine which is typical in pop genre music videos and she is in front as we can see from the high angle shots. After this there is quite a low angle shot with clouds in the background showing that Halliwell is in control of the weather and also giving the look of her being superior as the viewers are forced to look up at her. A word painting is shown at this point as the clouds are building up for the rain, which we see after this shot.
Staged rain happens, giving a 'wet-tshirt girl' look, again showing off her feminine physique and her sexuality.
Overall, the music video constantly shows her female dominance over everyone else in the video with the inspiration and intertextuality of the 80's popular dance movies showing off her abilities and her new shaped body.
No comments:
Post a Comment