Semiology - Fish Tank

In the party scene towards the beginning of the film we see that the flat has lots of Alcohol littered around and each person at the party has a bottle of alcohol in their hand.

In terms of Roland Barthes' Semiology Theory we see that this has a few different meanings about the environment that the characters live in.

Signifier - Lots of Alcohol

Signified - The meaning of lots of alcohol is that the scene could be a party scene, characters drowning their sorrows by getting drunk or possible alcoholism in some if not all of the characters.

Sign - The interpretation of the signifier and signified is that the environment could be a wealthy environment as there is lots of alcohol, but with a closer look at the alcohol we see that it is cheaper alcohol versions of cider, vodka and beer rather than well known brands. This shows that the environment is actually not a wealthy environment. Also we could interpret that the characters are not well educated, as they turn to drink most of the time, as well as a potential abusive environment due to alcoholism. This matches the actual environment that the characters live in with it showing a mainly drunk environment and an abusive environment from Mia's Mum.