Thirteen

Our task was to discuss narritive and representation in a film. I did Thirteen.

‘Thirteen’ tells the story of a naïve thirteen year old girl in America, Tracy, as she starts to grow up into a woman. To become known, she meets befriends the most popular and beautiful girl in school, Evie. Tracy’s world is turned upside down when Evie introduces her to a world of sex, drugs and shoplifting. They at first have fun with this but eventually, as the lead character’s new attitude becomes dangerous, she descends into a dark, emotional world which causes tension between her family, teachers and old friends.
The character is at first represented very innocently, before she meets her influential friend, Evie. For example, through the clothing she wears. She is shown to be young as she is wearing basic t-shirts and jeans with trainers. She also wears her hair in pigtails showing the audience that she is still fairly immature and just a child. However, this changes radically later in the film where her appearance becomes a lot more gothic and dark. This helps to give the message to the audience that she has become independent and is also going through adolescent rebellion, but her appearance also gives the impression of destruction as her tops are slashed and her jeans are ripped. The idea of darkness is shown as all her clothes are black. She also wears a lot of make-up here – her face is very pale, showing the effects of the drugs she is taking but also Tracy wears a lot of dark eye make-up, giving the impression that she is trying to ‘find herself’ and intentionally wanting to look like a grown woman. Throughout the film, there is a very prominent advertisement in ‘The Valley’ which shows a woman's white face, and underneath it are the words ‘Truth Is Beauty’. Throughout the movie, as Tracy falls deeper into trouble, the face becomes more distorted and dirty, reflecting Tracy’s behaviour and its effects in the story.
The narrative in ‘Thirteen’ tells a cautionary story. Tracy is shown to be an A-grade student. In one of the first scenes she is reciting a poem she has written for a homework assignment to her mother, ‘She covers her eyes, denying to herself, what she thought happened.’ The lyrics of this poem tell us what might happen later in the film, as Tracy is in denial about the mess she is getting herself into. There is also a scene where she is sitting around with her friends and they are all doing their homework. This highly contrasts the scenes with Evie, which show Tracy’s lethal self-destructive behavior. For example, the opening scene shows Evie and Tracy sniffing a drug, and then, as their faces are so numb, hitting each other and making themselves bleed. It then flashes forward to 4 months before where Tracy was seemingly normal.