'Sin City' Opening Sequence Analysis

TITLES:

• Dimension Films and Trouble Maker Studios are not well known, meaning that perhaps the budget for this film was not as large as it could have been if been made by other companies.


• It skips right ahead to some action and doesn't wait for the opening titles to finish first. This may be used to separate this event from the future ones and/or to put some importance on it.

LIGHTING AND COLOURS:

• The opening sequence is all in black and white, with only a few accent colours such as red (of the woman's dress and lipstick-representing blood, death, passion, lust?) and green (the woman's eyes- to emphasise the man's compliment, show that there is some importance to them?).
• The lighting is reminiscent of film Noir, black and white in colour as well as the dark shadows and contrasting light on subjects needing emphasis.

• Changes slightly, in the way that it stays black and white, but whilst the man and woman are kissing, they change into white silhouettes and the rain turns white as well making is seem more like an animation or comic/graphic novel.

CHARACTERS:

• Narrator- is also the man speaking in the scene. He gives us an overview of whats happening and uses poetic and beautiful language making it seem like a romantic scene.


• He is also apparently an assassin/murderer who has been sent on a job.


• Woman in red- the victim of this man, seems very trusting but, according to the dialogue, had something to hide and something to run from.

SOUNDS:

• Diagetic: Police siren, rain, lighter, dialogue between characters, footsteps and the gunshot.


• Non-diagetic: Jazzy Saxophone music: stereotypically seen as romantic, sexual music, which is also quite old fashioned and more associated with older films. This matches in well with the black and white, but it contrasts with the fact the man, who seems very romantic and lovely at the beginning, kills the woman by the end of the 3 minute long section of the opening sequence I watched.

Camera:

• LS- to show where the characters are, on a balcony over looking a city.
  
  
  
  
• MS- to show characters- man walking up to the woman

• CU-To show facial expressions and reactions of the characters, also used, in this case, to show when the woman's eyes turn bright green (envy?).
  
  

  

• CU- of cigarettes
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Shot-reverse-shot to show dialogue

• High angle- when the woman dies- used to be dramatic as this is a typical shot that was used in dramatic scenes in romance films.
  
• all the shots kept a tight focus on the characters and their motions.

ICONOGRAPHY:

• Red (symbolising blood), guns, police sirens, rain, darkness- these are all very stereotypical of dark thriller films.

Also, cigarettes, expensive suits and elegant dresses can all be linked in with some kind of mafia gang, which could mean that this is a gangster thriller


WHAT QUESTIONS DO WE ASK?

• Why did he kill her?
  
• Who was she?


• Who is he?


• What was she running from?


• Who paid him to do it?
  
• Does someone get revenge?


• What happens next?

NARRATIVE:

• What i learnt from the section of the opening sequence that I watched was that the film may be based around this man. One of the main focuses may be the fact he is an assassin and thus, the film may be based around who he kills, who he kills for, why he kills and what the results of these killings are.


• It being called Sin City makes me assume that the city the film is set in, is not your average city and is filled with unethical organisations and people. This is also emphasised by the noise of the police sirens at the beginning.

The real narrative of the film is more complex. I used Wikipedia to find out the plot and found that there are many sections to the film and that the characters I saw in the opening sequence are not the only main characters. The film goes on to a selection of different stories, following different characters, but my main focus is the start. My interpretation of the narrative is not completely incorrect, nor is it completely accurate. I thought the man was an assassin and that he was sent by someone to kill the woman. This is true, but it turns out that the woman sent for him to kill her, so it is essentially her committing suicide. She had previously been in a relationship with a mobster who, when she decided to end the relationship, said he would kill her in a most terrible way. She decides that she doesn't want to find out what this terrible way of dying will include and uses her contacts to hire the assassin to take her life so she doesn't have to suffer and 'run' anymore.










*Click on the above picture to watch the opening sequence*