Textual Analysis

The ‘Touch of Evil’ opening scene inaugurates with a long take filmed through a continuous flow of events. The filmed was directed by legendary, artistic and pioneering director Orson Welles who made this filmed entitled as one of the last greatest film noirs of the period. We first open with the ‘Universal Studios logo’ establishing credit to the production and distribution studio that marketed the film. We fade to black then open with a character holding a bomb facing the camera. He swifts out of frame and hides from characters walk in the alley way beside, he anxiously toward them takes a glance and runs. Through the mise en scene we see his shadow move fast, due to the use of the shadow on a connotation level the shadow could suggest that the character is unable to identify with hinting the role of the antagonist. His menace remains because he is anonymous and he delivers a potential threat to a male and female entering the car as he places a bomb in the boot. The camera moves up and follows the camera passing building through a high angled shot, the cinematography and ambient sounds reveal the amplitude and immediate threat to other citizens. The car drives with the camera then the two protagonists Ramon Miguel ‘Mike’ Vargas (Charlton Heston) and ‘Susan Susie Vargas’ (Janet Leigh) walk into frame. The diegetic ambient live music adds to the verisimilitude of the scene and the busy atmosphere is illustrated when the cars run past the characters, also we see wild sheep on the road. The security protection is determined first when the guards walk past the frame and a character asks Susie for identification and proof of birth. Vargas’ reputation is established when they know who he’s a detective and his history is made evident when they recognise his previous cases. The suspense of the scene is shown through dialogue when the woman with the bomb in the truck thinks there a ticking noise in her head and no one believe her, thus playing on one of the human horror of lack of control. Their personal romance is made clear through a kiss and finally we straight cut to the car exploding and the bomb going off. Orson Wells leads us through the scene with suspense due to the long take that slowly builds up tension and he leaves the narrative with the question of who planted the bomb and why?

This text is of the opening credits of ‘Taxi Driver’ directed by Martin Scorsese we first see inter-titles of Columbia Pictures who produced the film and then actor Robert De Niro in large text emphasising the scale of his fame was huge back in the 70’s due to films like ‘The Godfather: Part 2’ and Scorsese and De Niro’s first collaboration in ‘Mean Streets’. We then hear a tremendously powerful and post-film noir non diegetic score by Bernard Hermann with a strong sense of jazz. The visual imagery transition fades from black to abundant smoke rising from the floor almost representing hell with the red colours. We then see a taxi cab drive through the some smoke and establishing this vehicle as a heroic presence through the score and how the cab is dominating the screen. The imagery represents New York in that time as hell on earth with pimps and prostitution plaguing the street, the film is a complex character study of Travis Bickle and we see the world through his eyes therefore his perception of the city is emphasised through the visual imagery. The notion of looking through Travis eyes is illustrated on the shot of his eyes framed on a close up. The non diegetic score is constantly contradicting itself because we hear the beautiful chilled jazz and then the extreme dramatic post-film noir tempo, thus representing the personality of New York City through Travis’ eyes, it can be beautiful and dramatic or repugnant in this case. This visual imagery parallels the score with the blurred depth of field showing vague city lights and through mise en scene romantic colours of red and orange, Scorsese is playing with idea of how unattractive things can be beautiful.

This sequence is from 'La Haine' 1995 (‘Hate’) which is a stunning film which studies human identity and feet’s they will achieve once they have abandon dignity. This subtle art film and character study fellows the three lives of Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Hubert (Hubert Kounde) and Said (Said Taghmaoui) over 24 hours, they live in poverty stricken Paris and underclass France due to a civil war. The sequence begins with and black sequence introducing the producing credits on white small inter-titles, there is no sound during this which is unorthodox and creates a strange mood. We then cut to a shot of Documentary footage of a character shouting insults at police officers calling them murders demonstrating that they have no form of self defence. Using documentary footage adds to verisimilitude and shows truth behind the films voice. Furthermore this ideology of truth is established in credits dedicated to those who have lost their lives during the making of the film. The best directors know precisely when to use sound but more importantly when not to use sound and knows because he uses the most effective sound in cinema silence, he gives the credits a strong raw and unusual feel which captures the personality. Fundamentally that all that credits are is capturing or illustrating the character of the film. We then suddenly hear a voice that speak in dietetic dialogue and tells a story about a man falling from a building reassuring himself by saying so far so good. “It’s not the fall that matters, it’s the landing.” The dialogue on a connotation level stands for the character decent in the story and their attitude to it. The imagery used here is the earth being struck by a petrol bomb on a polysemic level this could suggest that the character destruct is affecting the whole world or the war is affecting the global community. We then cut to documentary footage with a Bob Marley non-diegetic music playing of the song ‘Burnin and Lootin’ which is almost a contradiction in its self because reggae is often seen as a positive and vivacious music with this opposing images of War and crime. This will help me because my film is also a neo realist crime drama about people from an under previled back ground and what they will do in desperate times.