“Maybe we got lost in translation” is a quote from Taylor Swift’s ‘All Too Well’ song that can, unfortunately, be relatable to most people. Misinterpretation seems to be a close friend of communication, following closely behind and awaiting the moment to arise.
The topic of misinterpretation is a sore one for the entertainment industry. More often than not, authors or producers will create a work of art with the intent to get across one message but end up getting surprised when the audience interprets it entirely differently.
One example that comes to my mind is “Jennifer’s Body”, a feminist campy horror movie, which was meant to show “how alliances between girls get distorted and corrupted by the patriarchy” (Kuzama, 2018). And even though nowadays it is categorized as a horror classic, back in 2009, when it first came out, the film was met with negative reviews and low box office numbers. But why and how did that happen?
To answer that question, learning about the Encoding/Decoding model of communication introduced by Stuart Hall might be helpful. In this model, Hall describes how creators, be they producers, authors or someone else, encode meaning into their work for their audience and then decode that meaning through their point of view. In the case of Jennifer’s Body, screenwriter Diablo Cody wanted “to make observations about some of the more toxic aspects of female friendship” (2018) and explore what it is like to be a woman. It is also essential to mention that Cody and Kuzama wanted to focus more on the female perspective, having little interest in catering to the male audience(BuzzfeedNews). But the audience, which, ironically, ended up being young men, interpreted the film “as a cheap, trashy, exploitative vehicle for the hot girl from Transformers” (Cody, 2018), essentially losing the main points of the film, or better said, never trying to find those points.
The ‘original’ audience viewing the film as something completely different from what the screenwriter and director had intended can be understood with the help of Hall’s theory. Hall explains that the audience decodes the meaning based on their own experiences, leaving some messages being misinterpreted. In the case of ‘Jennifer’s Body’ the lack of experience of being a woman, as well as expecting to see “a sex romp for straight teen boys” (Grady, 2018), led to the film being categorized as a failure in 2009.
In all honesty, it is very upsetting how a good movie like “Jennifer’s Body”, which managed to combine horror and morale in one, not only failed upon its release but also greatly affected women involved with it.
Some people say that ‘2009 just wasn’t ready for this movie.” (Grady, 2018), but part of me thinks it isn’t the case. Suppose it was promoted as something that it really is and for the audience that Cody and Kuzama had in mind. In that case, I think the audience, even in 2009, could have decoded the message as intended, and the film would have received positive reviews. But I guess now there is no way of knowing that.
Reference List :
All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault) (2012) Spotify. Available at: https://open.spotify.com/track/7KR99ZBAg8oiupNIinrgRF?autoplay=true (Accessed: 21 November 2023).
Grady, C. (2018) ‘How Jennifer’s Body went from a flop in 2009 to a feminist cult classic today’, Vox, 31 October. Available at: https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/10/31/18037996/jennifers-body-flop-cult-classic-feminist-horror (Accessed: 21 November 2023).
Hall, S. (1973) Encoding and decoding in the television discourse. Birmingham England: Centre for Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham.
Jennifer’s Body (2009). 20th Century Fox.
Peitzman, L. (2018) ‘You Probably Owe “Jennifer’s Body” An Apology’, Buzzfeed News, 7 December. Available at: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/louispeitzman/jennifers-body-diablo-cody-karyn-kusama-feminist-horror (Accessed: 21 November 2023).
