Module 1- Practice Exam

Casino Royale (2006) Film poster

The purpose of a film poster is to, prior its cinema release, promote the film by giving insights into main characters, themes, slogans and titles in order to maximise profits. Casino Royale is one of many 'Bond' sequels by MGM/Columbia Pictures, a major film distributor.

There are four images: one major and three minor. The one major image is situated on the left of the poster and consists of a long shot of James Bond, already signifying his major role and importance in the film to the audience. The use of the long shot also allows the audience to see his dress code. He is wearing a black suit with a white shirt suggesting his authorititive figure yet he adds a casual look by his bow doing not being done suggesting a change in the Bond as actor wise he has changed. His smart dress code as well as his shirt button being un-done promote the idea of the male-gaze with the idea of post-modernism and the reversal of Mulvey's female gaze theory. This is abandoned because there is a lack of female representation, suggesting the idea of a patricarchal society and his personality becomes an enigma to the audience, thus the film poster successfully persuads them to watch the film and find out.

The image of Bond also consists of him holding a gun and could be interpreted as a phallic symbol as well as allowing the audience to acknowledge that fact the gun is an icon of an action genre film. The female gaze is present again as Bond's blue eyes contrast with his suit and the grey background allowing them to stand out and are enhanced.

The first of the three minor images on the right hand side of the poster is an extreme long shot of a boat, an aeroplane and a helicopter; Bond and his 'girl' being in the back boat avoiding the chaos of an aeroplane crashing as they were probably trying to escape from it. Thistherefore gives an insight to the narrative of the film and shows a picturesque image (a boat travelling in the river with a man and woman inside it) distructed by the areoplane- a theme present throughout the 'Bond' movies. The second image is a medium shot of Bond and his 'girl' in water un-dressed again emphasising the idea of patricarchy as he only uses the girl for sex. The thrid image is a long shot of the fron of Bond's black care with an explosion behind it yet the car does not seem effected. All of these: the suit, boat, woman and car represent a capitalist society whereby the audience would aspire to acquire money and material wealth and see this as the norm just like Bond as all of them.

The long shot of James Bond is especially striking because of the lighting. There is light from the back-right of him causing some of his face to be in shadow. This adds to the enigma of the character by creating him to be a mysterious figure, yet a witty one. Therefore, Bond is presented as a white, witty, smartly dresses, sexy and rich man creating the audience of boys to want to aspire to be exactly like him. The audience would therefore be teenagers to young adults of C1-D socio-economic grading.

Behind the long shot of James Bond is the infamous oo7 logo which is cut off and then used to seperate the three minor images. This is in grey and creates the idea of continutity of the other Bond films, making the audience aware of this as well. Also, with the absence of other ethnic groups (other than whites) sense of nationalism can be portrayed as well, espeically due to the fact that Bond has this appearance of being part of the bourgeios because of his materialsitic posessions.

This "Casino Royale" film poster is overall, trying to communicate to its audience the contiunity of the great success of the Bond films, through the iconography of an expensive car, a girl, a boat, a gun and a suit, as well as a new characteristic: a new Bond. Therefre its fills its purpose and does it successfully. The ideas it is expressing through its mediated representation are firstly a sense of the audience aspiring to be like Bond through a capital society as well as a patriarchal one.