First 5 Shots - Bridget Jones's Diary

Bridget Jones's Diary

Sharon Maguire, 2001

Lead actors: Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth

Production company: Working Title

Distributors: Universal, Studiocanal

SHOT 1

Medium longshot, immediate exposition of the protagonist, no narrative enigma (very brief the snow blocks some of her). Very little information is withheld, she's English, she's RP/middle-class connotations, she's a spinster. Sexuality not known yet, could be that she prefers women but highly unlikely. In background too couples. This creates a binary opposition, forever single/happy together. The whole plot of the film is to get her married to "Mr Right", and in the context of the whole. 

SHOT 2

Disolving transition into an extreme longshot of the snowy landscape a

SHOT 3

Panning shot to reveal cottage-like home. To signify her feeling of discomfort, dreaded anticipation of returning home?

SHOT 4

A woman is answering the door. This is counter-hegemonic in terms of patriarchic. However they seem to soon break the Bechdel Test by talking about a man.

SHOT 5

This is both a high and a dutch (also known as canted) angle, we still see no father or other male figure near the door, can be read as non-normative and counter hegemonic Wealth is exposed, along with the RP-accent this anchors a middle class family.