Abstract
‘L.I.E: Long Island Expressway. You got the lanes going east; you got the lane going west. You also got the lanes going straight to hell...' Thus opens L.I.E., a film about a fifteen-year-old boy who becomes involved in an unusual relationship with a much older man. Here, the first words of dialogue imply a precise context for the story that is to follow. Indeed, we know that the action will be set in the wealthy New York City suburb of Long Island. We can also expect the film to tell us more about this boy's life, such as where he lives, how he lives, what his friends and parents are like and why, according to him, some lanes go ‘straight to hell'. S. Sontag has suggested that film differentiates from print media in the sense that ‘it establishes a proper context for the use of images' (Sontag, S. 1975: 66). In effect, film seems to be a successful medium for the representation of socio-cultural aspects of life since it allows the audience to read signs in a continuous and perhaps more explicit form. However, the conception that ‘ the value of signs in film depends on the social context pertaining at the time the film was made, at the time the film is seen, and by whom it is seen' (Bignell, J. 1994: 193) also adds to the signification of signs.
