More on Thrillers - (Sin City and Silence of the Lambs)

Recently I have been watching more thrillers in order to gain more ideas for my own thriller opening. Throughtout the past month or so, I have watched 'Silence of the Lambs', Hitchcock's 'The Birds', 'Sin City', 'Chinatown', and we are just beginning to watch 'Layercake' directed by Matthew Vaugn in lessons.

Out of these films, I have most enjoyed and been influenced by 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'Sin City', as these have many thriller signifiers, eg claustrophobia and spiralling narratives of mystery and intrigue.

Sin City
I found the opening of 'Sin City' brilliant, as the mystery is straight away highlighted to the audience. The opening started in an urban city on the balcony of a sky scraper, straight away adding danger and loneliness due to the height of the building. The audience are straight away drawn to a seductive femma fatale in a red dress, which connotes feelings of both danger and passion, and the camera pans in whilst an internal monologue, which adds a more personal feel for the audience which helps to engage, is spoken over the top of slow jazz and diegetic sirens, showing that crime is rife in the city. We can see that despite the urban setting, it is very bleak, and the darkness and rain are very styalised in order to emphasise the thriller signifiers.

The mise en scene in the piece has been edited to be black and white, like the influential thrillers from the 1940s. The only mise en scene which is coloured is the femme fatale's red lips and red dress, which emphasises the idea that she is dangerous yet sexual. The other mise en scene and settings which are used in the sequence are modern, and plain, in order to make the gun, the red colour of the woman, the chirascuro lighting and the flash of green we see in the femme fatale's eyes stand out and make an impact on the viewer.

The post-production editing to make everything black and white apart from the woman's dress, lips, and for a split second, eyes, is very effective, and although this would be hard to do in my own opening, i think would be excellent. I also really like the internal monologue over the top, although i think that this would be hard to be effective and sound good if I were to include this. As the man and woman kiss, the picture changes effect and becomes almost monochromatic. We see the woman representing sexuality, vunerability and danger, whilst the man creates security; typical for thrillers. The opening ends as the man shoots the woman. The fact that we dont know who these people are, or what they are doing simply adds to the thriller signifier of mystery, and drawing the audience in.

Silence of the Lambs
I found the idea of having a woman detective and protaganist in 'Silence of the Lambs' very interesting and effective, although obviously it removed two key ideas of thrillers - the male protaganist and the femme fatale. Although I like this different idea, i don't think it shows thriller signifiers aswell. However, my favourite shot from this film was Hannibal Lector locked up in a small cell inside a large room. Both of these barriers made a feeling of claustrophobia; necessary in thrillers, and the metal bars surrounding Dr Lector increased the feelings of crime. Later, we see Hannibal Lector kill two people in here, and then mysteriously vanish, to be found hiding on top of the lift. The shot down from the lift shaft onto Lector on top of the lift uses ideas of enclosed spaces, having no way out, and a high angle shot, which makes us undermine Lector, as we start to believe he will get caught.

When I make my own thriller opening, I hope to include lots of enclosed spaces to create claustrophobia, and also open with something exciting in order to appeal to the audience. I hope to use fitting non-diagetic music, perhaps slow jazz like in 'Sin City', to suggest sleaziness, the underbelly of the city and to pay tribute to the film noir movies that this music was common in. I am tempted to maybe audition some people to see if their voices suit an internal monologue, although I'm not sure how effective that will be. Hopefully I will also be able to use some good post-production editing to make the opening interesting, and will perhaps use fast-paced editing, like the editing used in the robbery at the begining of 'Layer Cake', as this gives the film a fast paced, action kind of feel.