The Red Sciamma Opening Scene

Sciamma uses subtle visual cues to encourage the audience to read the character as male. The opening scene involves them riding in the car with their father, the father letting them sit on his lap and drive, and the scene reads as father/son bonding. The character is seen in “boyish” clothes, wearing a blue shirt, and goes into their new bedroom which is painted in blue – all things the audience has been socially conditioned to view as masculine. Contrasting the character with Jeanne, the little sister, who is portrayed as very traditionally feminine in a pink room with stuffed animals all around, further increases the idea that this character is a little boy. Furthermore, the relationship between the siblings is portrayed as that of a protective but loving older brother with a precocious little sister. Jeanne later becomes Mikael/Laure’s biggest ally. …show more content…
When they are asked their name by Lisa, a neighborhood girl, they respond Mikael. Lisa takes this at face value, as does the audience, because Sciamma has set it up so we view the character as a boy. Lisa goes on to introduce them as Mikael to the neighborhood boys and they are accepted without question. It isn’t until the next scene in which we see the siblings taking a bath together that we as an audience are clued in. The mother (none of the adult characters are given names) calls out to “Laure” and when they stand up we see that they are female bodied. Now the audience knows Mikael/Laure’s secret and can confront its own ideas on gender and gender identity. Sciamaa does a great job showing that gender is a social construct and allowing the audience to hopefully arrive at that conclusion by asking themselves why they viewed the character as a boy and what changes for them when they learn that the character is female