1. Sunset Boulevard
The score begins before anything is seen on screen other than the ‘Paramount Picture’ logo. The score is orchestrated, with deep brass instruments providing sporadic bass notes, high tremolo strings holding the same note, to add tension, and mid-pitch trumpets playing a sharp chord pattern. When the tremolo strings kick in, the ‘Paramount Picture’ symbol fades, and the camera tilts downwards to a medium-close up, revealing the words ‘Sunset Blvd’ emblazoned on a gritty street curb. This establishes the name of the film, and some amount of setting- we can assume that it is a city curb, and that the name of the street is ‘Sunset Boulevard’.
The camera then tracks backwards, the first title appears, and the tremolo strings fade in volume. Titles are superimposed over the image, which is of a road- the camera continuing to track backwards, with the shot always pointed towards the floor. Woodwind instruments and Tenor Saxes play, with rhythmic kettle drums building and dropping to build and drop tension. The titles are all capitalised, in a broken military style font, in white. The mood is dramatic, and tense, the audience is being lead to believe that perhaps something important is about to, or has just, happened.
The last title fades, and the camera tilts back upwards to show a long, American road, with trees either side. Police cars speed towards the camera, framed almost centrally in the shot. A voice over plays non-diegetically, whilst police car sirens provide a diegetic background noise. The music has faded to a low volume, and brass and strings provides the melody. The mood is calmer now, the voice over sounds like a middle aged, American man. He seems to be an omniscient, present tense, narrator; the voice over is used to set the scene, provide a background narrative, and bring the audience into the film. It begins with the words ‘Yes, this is Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California ‘- the language is informal, personal, as if he is speaking directly to the audience.
As the voice over speaks, the cop cars are shot from a high angle, pulling up at a large mansion, getting out of their cars and running around the side of the house. The camera pans to follow them. The voice over almost explains what is happening in the shot he says ‘The body of a young man was found in the pool’, as the shot cuts to the cops and reporters crowded around a pool, with the body of a man floating face down in it.
The cops are dressed in high-street cop uniforms, and the reporters wear trench coats and trilby hats. It then cuts to a low angle, underwater shot, with the dead, floating man, facing the camera. The cops and reporters can be seen in the depth of field, talking frantically, and taking photos. The shot fades. The opening is shot in black and white, natural lighting.
2. Double Indemnity
The film opens on long shot of a city street, with extremely low key lighting, to tell the audience that it is night time. Only the pin-prick lights of streetlamps and car headlights can be seen through the darkness. The music is a frantic score, of harpsichord, bells, strings, trumpet, viola, and trombone. A sign reading ‘Los Angeles Railway’ lights up, as the car drives towards the camera. The camera then cuts to a medium close up of the traffic lights changing from ‘Go’ to ‘Stop’ the car, in the right half of the shot, does not stop, but purposefully carries on. There is a quick cut to the car swerving around an oncoming vehicle from the right of the shot. The music builds, and slows down as the car pulls up to a building. We do not yet know who is in the car, or why they are driving so erratically.
You get the feeling that they are perhaps being chased, or else have to get somewhere immediately- it is, again, like Sunset Boulevard, setting the audience up for something big, only to bring them back down again, when there seems to be no particular reason for this type of driving, or score, as the next shot is a man walking into the building (this is assumedly the driver of the car). He then has a conversation with a short man, who casually asks him lots of questions as they walk into a lift together- he seems as if he is eager to impress of please the car driver- they seem to already know each other.
The driver of the car gives short and cagey answers, and he is dressed in a mac or trench coat, with a trilby hat. This raises questions over who this man is, why he is so mysterious, and where exactly he is. He seems, however, to be our perfect Film Noir hero- perhaps a detective, or police man; reporter, or writer, private eye, spy, etc..., he is guarded, shady, a middle aged American man. The music continues, throughout the short conversation between our assumed hero, and the talkative man, but quietly, and much less frantically. It seems that it is common in Film Noir openings, then, for the music to build tension, and draw in the audience, before dropping down to either a more upbeat score, or to dialogue.
3. The Third Man
‘The Third Man’ begins with a black screen and a faint sound of a gong symbol. Then a close up shot of vibrating zither strings fades into the picture, the strings forming even horizontal lines across the shot. The famous music by Anton Karas fades in, and titles are superimposed over the strings. The titles are white, and cross-dissolve into each other, in the centre of the shot. The credits role for 1 minute and 27 seconds, before the shot fades to black- the music ends, and the shot fades in on a shot of Vienna, before the superimposed title ‘Vienna’ appears.
A voice over sounds, and the camera cuts away to a series of shots of statues in Vienna. The shot then cuts to a two shot of two poor men- shown through their slightly dirty faces, and flat caps, buying and selling on the black market. The voice over accompanies the action, with the words “I really got to know [Vienna] in the classic period of the black market”.
The slight juxtaposition from the shots of the statues to the shots of dodgy dealing on the black market serves the purpose of setting up one of the themes of the theme: class differences/ ignorance of culture and art, and gives the audience an insight into the personality of the narrator: the fact that he says that he never really understood Vienna for the wonderful art and sophisticated culture, he only really understood the black market of Vienna. We can assume that the narrator is a lower class, petty criminal, with a chosen ignorance to art and culture- he is aware of it; he’s just not interested in it.
4. The Maltese Falcon (Note: this is the only video I could find that had the opening in it. I analysed up to 2:00)
The opening shot of ‘Maltese Falcon’ is of an ornamental bird- assumedly the ‘Maltese Falcon’. The shot of the Falcon seems to be lit from underneath and the front from several angles, casting multiple dark shadows across the non-descript wall behind it. We cannot make out where the ornament is. The score kicks in- again, an overblown, dramatic orchestral piece, with trumpets, brass bass notes, orchestral drums, panpipes- un-melodic and almost un-rhythmic. The titles appear with a ripple transition- perhaps symbolic of memories? After all, the falcon that is pictured statically behind the titles is lost, and so the water-like rippling titles could be a reference to this.
The credit titles finish, but in the place of a voiceover, as is conventional in Film Noir, there is a rolling title, introducing the audience to the story line, and giving background information on the film. The title describes how the ‘Maltese Falcon’ was lost, and its whereabouts remain a mystery ‘to this day---‘. This acts as a narrative hook, suggesting that the audience are about to find out where the Falcon is.
The titles fade to black, and fades in on a shot of San Francisco bridge, with the superimposed title ‘San Francisco’, the score continues to develop, the tone of the music becoming much more upbeat, over a series of long shots of San Francisco. The shot then fades to a mid shot of a window, shot from the inside, emblazoned with the words ‘Spade and Archer’ appearing backwards through the window. We can assume we are being let into the inside of some sort of recognised firm or business.
The shot then tilts down to a man sitting at a desk, rolling a cigarette. His (assumed) PA walks into the room, and speaks about a woman waiting for him, describing her as a ‘knock-out’. We get the impression that the man at the desk is perhaps a bit of a womanizer, as his (assumed) PA, feels the need to comment on her looks. He seems pleased at this information- we get the idea that this is a possible love interest. This is unusual, as the hero of a film Noir is usually pretty indifferent to women and love stories between the hero and another female character are usually pretty limited.
5. Touch of Evil
The opening scene of a Touch of Evil is a pretty famous and iconic first shot. The shot is a continuous shot for over 3 minutes, opening with an unseen man setting the timer on a bomb, and putting it in the boot of a car. A couple then get into the car, and drive around the corner, passing some policemen. A pedestrian couple pass the car, and the camera tracks them instead- through dialogue we understand that the man is a well-known detective, recently married to the woman on his arm. They stop walking, to kiss. As they kiss, the car with the bomb in it blows up.
This is a pretty unconventional opening to a Film Noir- there is no voiceover, or titles, and the music is a jazz piece, as opposed to an orchestral score. The music is almost diegetic- the audience gets the feeling that the music is playing in the streets of the city, due to the low volume, and trailing echo. We do, however, have a detective, and a crime.
Much like all the other openings I have watched, there is a definitive narrative hook in the opening that would seemingly dictate the rest of the plot. In Touch of Evil, it would seem to be the exploding car and the culprit behind it- the detective was an eyewitness to the crime, and so we can assume that the rest of the film will follow him trying to find the culprit. What is even more interesting is the fact that we see the bomb being put in the car, but, of course, we do not know who the man is.
Lighting and shadow is used well throughout the opening- e.g. the bomber’s shadow, illuminated on the wall beside him as he runs towards the car. This could be done to perhaps make the bomber seem bigger than he is- we have seen him priming the bomb, but we do not know what he is going to do with it. It seems this use of shadow sets the audience up for something big. The cinematography in this opening, also, is groundbreaking. Although the opening shot is one continuous tracking shot, Welles manages to include close ups, mid shots, long shots, a crane down, a high shot, crane up all in the opening.
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