The opening starts with strong and dramatic music, with the image of a looming silhouette of a man approaching the screen. His movement changes the scene from an extreme long shot to an extreme close up. We also notice that the man is on crutches and we ask; who is he? Why is he on crutches? He appears more mysterious as his identity is hidden. This then cross fades to an image of the street. We see a man working in a tram line and as he is doing this, a sign lights up telling us that it is set in LA. This is particularly noticeable as it is effectively used in the rule of thirds and it contrasts the dark, low key lighting. However, our attention is drawn to a car coming down the road. We notice this as it is the only car to appear and we know it is significant. When this happens, the music gets higher and faster the closer it approaches, telling the audience this isn’t an ordinary car and that something is about to happen. The speed of the action then increases as the car almost crashes into another car, which beeps. This all creates tension.
There is then a new shot of a man getting out of a car. His face is hidden and this makes the audience ask; who is he? He then rides in a life with a man whose face we do see. The two characters contrast as the man in the lift is short and cheerful, making the other man seem even more mysterious in comparison. We cut to a low angle shot of the man as he walks along the balcony, which gives him authority and he seems more powerful. The audience still wonder who he is. This air of mystery is then reinforced when he walks into an empty office and the low key lighting means that we see his shadow before we even see him. The first time that we see him is when he is lighting a cigarette and we notice that he can’t use one arm. We, as the audience, wonder why this is. We then see a close-up of him and he is sweating and seems stressed. This contrasts his cool demeanour that we saw before and we ask ourselves what could have happened to make him so stressed? This is then answered when he is recording a confession of a murder he has committed. This confession is used to give the audience additional information about the storyline and to hook them in and ask more questions. Because of this, they will continue to watch to have their questions answered. This kind of extended dialogue is typical of film noir and the same shot is held for a while so that we are solely concentrating on his words. We then go into a flashback where the audience knows they will see the events leading up to this point and their questions will be answered.
Kiss Me Deadly (Aldrich, 1955 USA)
We start with a close-up of running feet. We immediately start asking questions like; who is this person? And why are they running? We then switch to a long shot and we get a bit more information, seeing that it is a women and that she is wearing nothing but a trench coat. She doesn’t even have shoes on. One again we ask why this is. We then see another long shot of her and this time we get more information about her surroundings. We see that she is running down what looks to be a deserted road and is all alone. We can’t even see any city lights behind her which signifies that she has been running for a long time. One again, we wonder why this is, but also who and from where is she running from?We then cut to a close up of her face and this allows us to see what she looks like, giving us more information about her. The music then gets faster as a car comes by and this close up allows us to see the change in her facial expressions, telling us she is clearly in need of help and we assume that where ever she was before, she was in danger. This makes us ask more questions as to the nature of this. We then see an eyeline shot of her looking at a car. The car screeches to a stop and we hear this thought diegetic sound. The loud sound is used as the car almost hit her and it makes the audience momentarily fear for her. There is also low key lighting used as it is set at night time (a typical convention of a thriller) and it makes the headlights, and the idea of help, stand out more.



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