Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

Audiences stereotypically need to be able to identify with at least one (usually the main) character with in a film By identifying with one or more characters, the film experience becomes more personal and realistic, and therefore more enjoyable and or affective. In The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), the director Anthony Minghella uses the intertwining of spectator and character gaze to force audiences to identify with two generically undesirable characters. This creates tension and discomfort, as well a desire to see these characters succeed due to the self-identification. Within the bathtub sequence, Minghella foregrounds the intertwined gaze of the characters and spectator through the style of shots in order to force the spectator to identify with both the voyeuristic Ripley, and the fetishized Dickie. The bathtub sequence from The Talented Mr. Ripley focuses on intertwining the characters gaze with that of the spectator. The scene is set within the bathrooms of Dickie’s Italian villa. The sequence begins with two characters, Ripley and Dickie, discussing their lack of siblings while playing a game of chess. Dickie reclines in a bathtub smoking while Ripley sits just outside the tub drinking red wine. The mise-en-scene is ro