Roland Barthes – The ‘Enigma Code’

Roland Barthes (12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980) was a french literary theorist and philosopher who devised the idea of the Enigma Code. This theory suggests that a text (film, poster, television) portrays an element of mystery to entice the audience, thus intriguing them further to watch or read said text. It may pose ambiguous or philosophical questions, it may present a concealed image, or an image that is distorted. For example, a murder mystery will most often reveal the identity of the murderer until the end of the story, allowing the audience to qestion, ‘Who is the murderer?’

In the ‘Never Let Me Go’ trailer, there is a lot of ambiguity that is presented to us. We ask the vital question ‘What is this film about?’ as we are unaware of the plot. This juxtaposes with most trailers, which are designed to inform the reader about the initial ideas, plots and themes. We also question the characteristics, asking ‘Can these people feel emotion? Can they even love?’ creating more uncertainty within the audience. This uncertainty, Barthes believes, is interesting to the audience, thus persuading them to watch/read a certain text.