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Transcript

This image shows the dark male figure approaching the alleged femme fatale; he chiarosuro lighting on the male's face is more evident in this frame. He then reaches into his jacket and removes an item, the audience are made to focus on the item he is withdrawing which arises the rhetorical question of what the object is. We then find out it is a packet of cigarettes, and he then offers her one. The use of cigarettes in the film is a typical feature within the mise-en-scene for "film-noir".

The next thing the audience hear in the same frame is the non-diegetic voiceover, which suggests to the audience that this scene may not be the present, it may be the past being looked back on, like a memory. The voice is deep and masculine which suggests he might be a dangerous character, not only does it add more detail to the situation, it allows the audience to sense how the character’s whose voice over it is, is feeling.

The opening shot to Sin City is a high angle establishing shot, this shot confirms that this scene is of a cityscape at night: it is set on the balcony of a high-rise building. There are shiny wet pavements and chiaroscuro lighting. A woman in a red dress walks into the frame to the middle of the balcony, her red dress immediately signifies danger but also signifies love and passion. The effect of the high angle shot of the woman suggests to the audience that she is vulnerable and weak. It may be foreshadowing what happens at the end of the scene, showing how powerless she is over men.

There is then a straight cut of a long shot of the woman from the front. The long shot reveals the character whose voice over the audience have been listening to. The long shot allows the audience to see both characters, one further away in the distance, and one up close stood right next to the edge of the balcony.

The lighting technique that is used is chiaroscuro, the use of this technique here creates a light and a dark side on the male's face; the manipulation of black against white to create an eerie effect. The male emerging from the shadows and wearing a suit could suggest that he is an evil character, such as a hit man, as darkness relates to evil; it represents the female's vulnerability from his presence.

The audience can clearly observe that the male is in control of this scene as he is shown to be taller and more dominant. From the female's face, it is easy to gather that she is almost disturbed by the male's presence, this is due to her blank, wide-eyed facial expression which is meant to represent deception to the audience. In the first shot of the female on the balcony, she is made to look powerful, looking upon the city, but according to the representation of the two characters here, she is made to look insignificant; deception is a key theme to "film-noir".

Even though the film appears to be black and white, except for the woman’s red dress, red lipstick and green eyes, the film uses low key lighting, showing to the audience that it is the evening. The effect of this low key lighting is a typical convention in thriller films, it sets the mood for what is about to happen by the end of the scene.

We are able to see a grand building behind the male and female which has a lot of high key lighting coming from inside of it, this as well as their clothing suggests to the audience they may be at some sort of party or ball.

Before the first image is shown in the opening scene, the audience is introduced to the film by the diagetic sounds of police sirens and car engines, and the non-diagetic 1930’s saxophonist music: these are key aspects to the genre known as “film-noir”. This sets the scene for the audience as we can piece these three sound aspects together. The saxophone tells us that the film must be set in a time period when this sort of music was popular. The car engines suggest that the setting must be a large, busy city, and the police sirens deliver a theme of crime to the film. These diegetic and non-diegetic sounds are all featured before the fade from black to the first image.

The woman wears a red dress and red lipstick, the red stands out vividly to the audience compared to the rest of the black and white scene. The effect of this is that as an audience, we will make enigma codes, and question this character. The colour red connotes danger or the director may be sexualising the woman, through the use of the colour.

This is a close up of the male's hand, in which he withdraws the lighter from his jacket and offers a flame for a cigarette. This close up on the flame could symbolize the flame as danger and the male forcing danger upon the female, the sense of danger is confirmed at the end of this scene as the male also withdraws a weapon and uses it.

With the high up, isolated urban setting and the chiaroscuro lighting, the audience receives an eerie, mysterious sensation – indicating that there is a crime or an act of violence being built up with the suspense. The female is now also being portrayed with the chiaroscuro lighting on her face, this shows that there is a good and could be a potentially evil side to the her character, increasing the possibility of her turning out to be a femme fatale like character.

As the female turns around, the shot changes into an over the shoulder shot; this is the first shot of the two characters face to face. The effect of this shot allows the audience to feel connected to the scene, and feel a part of the conversation, creating a sense of realism into the film. This shot also enables the audience to see the almost silhouetted male figure towering over the female, it is almost portrayed as threatening. Her face shows wonder which means she has never met this man before.

This image shows the exchange of the flame to the cigarette, this interaction seems to cause the female’s eyes to enlighten briefly to a green colour, alongside the male mentioning her eyes. The colour green can be seen as a representation of money, as green is the colour of money in America, the intentional setting for this film. The green eye effect is also used to represent greed which is a common theme that is used in film noirs, this may show that the male detects greed as a characteristic of the woman's life.

The non-diegetic music in this scene becomes very jazzy and mysterious which is another key feature of film noir: this represents the timing of when film noir became popularized by the public. There is then a straight cut of a shot reverse shot between the man and woman, this shot allows the audience to try and make a connection between both of the characters. The female has a slight weakness as she fails to make eye contact with the male and looks away on some occasions which could suggest she has a weakness over men.

As the characters make diegetic speech, the camera zooms in at them at very slow pace which emphasises the woman’s facial expression. Her facial expression suggests she is scared which is confirmed when she says "I don’t want to face it alone”. There is then a straight cut of an over the shoulder shot of the male showing the female turning round, giving him clear eye contact, then a close up shot of the male's face which shows his facial expression in great detail; being stern and serious.

The characters then kiss again, they stop and stare deeply into each other’s eyes, suggesting there is chemistry between them, showing their love.

This image shows the male holding the gun he just used to kill the female, the diagetic sound of the gun shot was sharp and quick, not the usual sound of a typical, loud gun shot. This suggests to the audience that the male character didn't want to kill the female as he only shot her once and it was quick, not making her suffer.

There is then diegetic sound of rain before the male character kills the female character,the sound of the rain gradually gets louder, making it parallel to the scene as it can be seen as cold, just like her death.

There is then a close up of the characters back in real form, as they hug. Although they are not both centred in the middle of the frame, only the woman is. The man is actually only just seen in the frame on the left, where she is leaning upon him. The camera then pans up towards the man’s face, showing his facial expression is still serious.

The scene then ends with a straight cut of a high angle shot looking down on the man as he holds the woman in his arms: their final embrace. This shot suggests that as the male is looking to the sky, he could be seeking redemption and showing regret. This shot could also show that after him killing this woman, he could have made himself vulnerable, whoever she was running from may be after him next.

The rain is used to represent remorse; remorse of the fact that he has just shot her. It is shown in his face, with the slightly skyward angled face and open mouth; as if to take a sigh of regret. The prop gun is almost a monochrome, which makes it clear to the audience of what has just occurred.

The male then moves in to kiss the woman which leads into a cut of a cartoon to show the silhouetted characters combined as one; it is symbolic and representative of both characters while they kiss. The effect of this cartoon is important, this is because Sin City is based on comic books, so the use of this cartoon keeps the sense of the comic books within the film. Those within the audience who have read these books will be able to make a great, clear connection to this frame.

The camera then pans down as he drops to the floor with her, it suggests to audience that even though she is dying, he doesn’t want to leave her alone. It therefore suggests that he did mean it when he said he loved her, or he doesn’t want to have a guilty conscience.

The woman is left powerless in this image, as of course she is dead, but is left in the control of the male character. He still holds the gun in his hand, which shows his power and authority. The scene then ends of this frame with the diegetic sound of rain falling to the ground, setting the mood for the death that has just occurred. He then says “I’ll cash her cheque in the morning”. This can confirm his role in the film as him being a hit man.

This part in this scene is also meant to deceive the audience, due to what happens at the end of this scene. It is meant to show the deceived possibility that they are together, and looking out over the city, as to say that they own it. It deceptively portrays the city as very symmetrical, as if everything is perfect and it has also allowed the director to put his own modern twist on a "film-noir" genre scene.

Sin City opening analysis.

By Danielle Braggins.

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