Bridget Jones ROM COM analysis

Here the fourth wall is broken as Bridget addresses the audience directly, making us understand that she is the main character. It also makes us feel close to her for a brief moment when the shot is in freeze frame of a close up on her face. This builds a relationship between the audience and the character making us want to know more about her life. The dialogue ‘That was it’ makes us question what ‘It’ is. During this scene we see her surrounded by older people and people in general which could imply that she is at a party or special occasion.

This Party hat is placed outside in the cold and is slightly covered in snow. The fact that it is outside alone could resemble Bridget’s loneliness throughout the rest of the film. The covering of snow could also show Bridget’s emotions of being lumbered and weighed down by personal things.  The idea that it is a party hat could also symbolise a good night out turning into just a memory and the hat is a souvenir for this memory. The weather in this scene gives a clue to the audience what time of year it is.

 ‘All by myself’ has already began to play through the titles’. This song symbolises how Bridget is feeling and links to the theme of the film.

The camera slowly tracks up to Bridget’s flat. This is effective as it builds up our expectations of what her flat may look like. When we see the inside, it is unorganised with low level lighting. This gives an insight to what kind of character/person Bridget is and gives the audience clues.  He low level lighting sets the atmosphere as mellow and warming. Bridget is sprawled across her sofa in a long shot which allows us to see the setting. She is dressed in red cosy pyjamas suggesting that she is having a night in in front of the television and with a glass of wine. We can work out that she probably isn’t expecting anyone.

 

During this, Bridget is narrating her feelings over the top of the soundtrack and also the titles. The titles have already begun to appear. They Begin as a plain/simple capital font but eventually turn into a font which looks like casual hand writing. This font could represent the casual idea of the film and how Bridget is just an ordinary person and is very informal. The yellow colour could represent happiness which contrasts with her emotions. However, it may also highlight the humour in the film.

A medium shot of a television shows that she is just watching anything she can in her boredom of staying in and doing nothing. The rule of thirds is used here making the shot a lot more interesting to look at and also allows us to see the clues within the setting such as the amount of books stacked on the shelves to the right. The old style television may highlight her lack of money and wealth/that she doesn’t update her technology much or just the era this film was set in.

Cross dissolves occur between each shot to perhaps give the audience a sense of time passing by. It shows how Bridget moves around the room and also how she hardly leaves the sofa over the whole duration of the time passed.

This is a shot that has been cross faded into and we see Bridget moving off the sofa to check her voicemails. Here there is a non-diegetic voice saying ‘You have no messages’. This creates a realistic feel for the audience as well as a sense of pity for the character on screen. This emphasises her loneliness and lack of social life that she has at this moment in her life. The phone being in the fore ground reinforces that she hardly uses it.

 We then see her sat back down on the sofa and chugging back her drink at a fast speed. This shows how she is feeling and that she perhaps wants to drown her sorrows with alcohol.

It is revealed that the music ‘all by myself’ is actually non-diegetic when we see the character miming along with the lyrics. This shows that the song really does relate to Bridget and her emotions. We feel the full power of her emotions when the song kicks in and she to emphasise her movements with it. A long shot is used here to get the full image of her outburst. The rule of thirds is used here to leave space for the titles to appear as the scene plays on.

Finally, in a bold and neat font, the main title of the film appears allowing us to know that the film is properly beginning now. We again see Bridget from a long shot allowing the viewer to see her actions fully and emphasising the outburst in the music/her emotions again. It is almost as if she is pointing at the title as it has aligned correctly for it to look this way.