ANALYSIS OF A FILM OPENING: SIN CITY

Sin City is a 2005 American neo-noir crime film. It was produced and directed by Frank Miller and Rober Rodriguez and was based on Miller's graphic novel series also named Sin City. It stars Bruce Wllis, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba, Brittany Murphy, Mickey Rourke, Elijah Wood and many others. The film follows three stories; one about a man who goes on a brutal rampage following the murder of his lover, the second about a street war between some prostitutes and some mercenaries, and the third about a police officer who is protecting a woman from a serial killer. The opening scene is based around the first story, and was created much before the rest of the film by Rodriguez in order to show Miller he could translate the graphic novels into a film without loosing their original content.

The scene opens with a woman walking over to a balcony in a red dress. Everything else is in black and white but her dress and her lipstick. A man walks up behind her and she turns around. He offers her a cigarette, which she takes. They kiss and he holds her, then shoots her and she dies in his arms. The camera then zooms out to an overview of the city and the buildings are in the shape of the film title 'Sin City', which then turn red and block out to leave just the text. The pace is quite slow, and the viewer does not expect the woman to be killed. However, as soon as she is it gives a firm idea of what the rest of the film will be like. It starts with a high angle shot, showing the vulnerability of the woman. The next shot is a mid shot, showing the two characters interacting. There is a lot of use of over the shoulder shots and close ups to show the emotion of the characters. When the woman in on the floor dying in the man's arms, it is a high angle shot in heavy rain. This is when the overview of the city takes over. The editing is very smooth and flows well. There is a moment where the two characters kiss, and the shot becomes almost cartoon like. This is because the kiss is staged, and the man is actually a hit man that has been hired to kill the woman. However, the audience does not know this so the sudden use of animation creates an enigma. The location is a terrace, attached to a large building. This gives the impression of wealth, although the location itself is not clear. We assume we are in a large city due to the overview.

The costumes are evening wear, and look expensive. They fit in well with the surroundings. The only props used are the cigarettes, lighter and the gun that kills the woman. The cigarettes and gun are actually mentioned in the voice over narrative so we get the impression that they are heavily important to the story line. The characters speak in a very hard boiled sense, much like the old Film Noir films. As this is a neo-noir, this has clearly been done on purpose to introduce the audience to the genre. There is use of a voice over, another convention of Film Noir, which adds more mystery as the things the character is saying do not seem to match the images we are seeing. For example, he says 'I'll never know what she was running from. I'll cash her cheque in the morning.', whilst we assume that he knows her because of the way they act together before he kill her. The background music is quiet jazz, and follows the mood and rhythm of the speech. It stops at the sound effect of the gun shot and then different music takes over as the camera moves away from the characters. It becomes more modern and dynamic, whilst still having jazz elements. It reflects the change of atmosphere, as a murder has just been committed and the audience does not know why. The title font is very plain, and very much in the style of Film Noir. The text is all one colour, a red which could represent blood as we have just witnessed a murder. The only title used is the name of the film, we do not see the names of actors, directors or anyone else who made the film. This means that there is no other text to distract the viewer from the action. The narrative is quite clear, yet very confusing. At first it seems that the pair are a couple but as soon as the man shoots the woman this creates an enigma, 'why did he do that?'. We don't really find out much about the characters, which creates another enigma. The audience immediately take a disliking to the man because he kills the woman and talks about cashing a cheque. This gives him in the impression of being corrupt and evil, and she seems defenseless. The production value looks quite high end since the opening is very sophisticated, and smooth. The genre is clearly noir, the atmosphere and voice over narrative are perfect examples of classic Film Noir conventions. The opening certainly grips the audience since it creates an enigma, and the audience wants to know why the opening scene has happened and what it means.