There are several key representations of identity in the Ealing Studios film "St Trinians"The First Area i will write about is the concept of "Britain".
St. Trinians is obviously set in a large stately home, in the countryside, somewhere in England. This could be considered to be the most stereotypical location for a private school in the nation if England. The Headmistress of the school also represents a very stereotypical image of Britain, having a posh accent, wearing clothes associated with the upper class. The makers of the film may have been distrubuting it to a worldwide audience, thus needed to make it obvious that it was a British school and would opporate along the lines of all the famous British private schools.
This makes it clear to the viewer where the film is set and what to expect from the characters. This may be intended to add to satire, as the way the characters behaved is nothing like what you would expect in a traditional British school.
The second representational area is the idea of "Britishness". This is the mindset, the way of thinking, the culture and the philosophy of the British population. One way this is shown is how all the students at the school are simply concerned with making money, and they will do so by selling whatever they can. This can be seen, they turn a chemistry laboritory into a brewery for gin, and also bet on horse racing. There are several ways that this represents "Britishness". Gin is a very traditional British drink, and also goes with the British culture of binge drinking. horce racing is an incredibly traditional British pass time and is a way many British people make money. These combined with a general will to use whatever they can to get the end product is a representation of British entrepaneurship.
Age in another area of identity representation. The film is set in a school, thus age divide are obvious. there are 3 age catagories in the film: children, teenagers and adults. However it challenges stereo typcial view of age. The children are certainly not presented as innocent, playful, excitable or easily entertained. This is shown by their entrepeneurship, and really runnign the show when it comes to creating income. They are the ones with the real power. This does two things. It satirises the age group, representing as businesswomen, out to make a large profit and exploit whoever they can to get it, the people being exploited here as people like Harry, who runs all their errands. It also makes a point that age group only affects you intelligence and personality in a limited way, that it is possible to do many things at any age. The teenagers are largely similar, but are also very interested in having fun, and will commit any crime in order to get what they want. For example, they steal a famous race horce and attack the opposition in a game of hockey. This represents and even more egoistical, money and power desiring, and want to enjoy themselves whilst they do all of this. The adults appear above anything bored. It is only flash Harry who still has drive and will power, as well as the policewomen, before she arrives at St. Trinians. Any adult who arrives their seems to give up and base their life around simply either having fun or avoiding trouble. This is perhaps a stereotypical image of adults, those who no longer have the aspirations of youths and want to preserve what they have left and then enjoy whatever they can.
There are some noticable things within each age group. The Children and youths are both collectivist within themselves. They put their own group above any other thing and will work and drive to get the best benefit to share only with that group. This can be seen for example, with the girls brewing and selling gin, and the elders helping eachother beat up the opposing team in a hockey match. They are exclusive groups, not allowing anyone else into or help the group for a period of time unless it benefits them. The adults do have a weak collective attitude based on mutual benefit, only helping eachother or acting as a group, to retrieve "Arab Boy" when it will save their jobs, and they realised the best way to do this is to act collectively.
St. Trinians attacks patriarchy and matriarchy. It is set in a school for girls, and these girls are just as devious, cunning, playful and intelligent as any man can be. This attacks the myth that women are inferior to men. It tries to create an image that women are just as good as running things as men, but at the same time, shows that it can go as horribly wrong as patriarchy. The school was in chaos, with each age group looking out for their own interests and paying no attention to any form of justice or equality. It was a "dictatorship of women" in which anything in their path was quelled without thought. It this sense it is saying two distinct things. The first is that men and women are equal to each other. It makes a point that each group has no fundamental differences and that each can achieve what the other can. It also makes a point that women can be as cruel, selfish and harmful as men, arguing again that gender differences are unimportant and equality is not not fair, but efficient. It would seemingly make a point that the best way to form a system of organization is to base around justice, equality, fairness and efficiency.
The Final representational area in this film is that of Education. Being set in a school it is hard to ignore it. It does not represent traditional education in a particularly good way. The film is a very stereotypical British private school, complete with ties, blouses, set in a castle where everyone bords. However their is utter chaos in the school. The film may be attempting to make a point of several things, power, tradition, orthodox private school and single sex schools. In short, it saying that each one either fails to create a good educational enviroment, is unfair, or most likely a combination. The authoritarian traditional education in England, involving a lot of pressure and limit to freedom in the film failed to create a suitable learning enviroment and lead to all the students rebelling and doing the opposite of what the system was trying to achieve.
There are some noticable things within each age group. The Children and youths are both collectivist within themselves. They put their own group above any other thing and will work and drive to get the best benefit to share only with that group. This can be seen for example, with the girls brewing and selling gin, and the elders helping eachother beat up the opposing team in a hockey match. They are exclusive groups, not allowing anyone else into or help the group for a period of time unless it benefits them. The adults do have a weak collective attitude based on mutual benefit, only helping eachother or acting as a group, to retrieve "Arab Boy" when it will save their jobs, and they realised the best way to do this is to act collectively.
St. Trinians attacks patriarchy and matriarchy. It is set in a school for girls, and these girls are just as devious, cunning, playful and intelligent as any man can be. This attacks the myth that women are inferior to men. It tries to create an image that women are just as good as running things as men, but at the same time, shows that it can go as horribly wrong as patriarchy. The school was in chaos, with each age group looking out for their own interests and paying no attention to any form of justice or equality. It was a "dictatorship of women" in which anything in their path was quelled without thought. It this sense it is saying two distinct things. The first is that men and women are equal to each other. It makes a point that each group has no fundamental differences and that each can achieve what the other can. It also makes a point that women can be as cruel, selfish and harmful as men, arguing again that gender differences are unimportant and equality is not not fair, but efficient. It would seemingly make a point that the best way to form a system of organization is to base around justice, equality, fairness and efficiency.
The Final representational area in this film is that of Education. Being set in a school it is hard to ignore it. It does not represent traditional education in a particularly good way. The film is a very stereotypical British private school, complete with ties, blouses, set in a castle where everyone bords. However their is utter chaos in the school. The film may be attempting to make a point of several things, power, tradition, orthodox private school and single sex schools. In short, it saying that each one either fails to create a good educational enviroment, is unfair, or most likely a combination. The authoritarian traditional education in England, involving a lot of pressure and limit to freedom in the film failed to create a suitable learning enviroment and lead to all the students rebelling and doing the opposite of what the system was trying to achieve.
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