Micro analysis opening of A touch of evil

A touch of evil opening scene micro analysis

Mise en scene:

The first scene we see is a man in a dark alley way and even though it lacks fog it is still in the conventional setting of an alleyway, even though the film is in black and white you can tell the lighting is dark and thus making the alleyway dark. The vehicles are typical for the type of era, long and low riding. We see many men running across the road throughout the opening sequence and the majority of them are wearing fedora hats in which fedora hats are very common and conventional in this genre of film, along with the hats they are wearing big trench coats which once again are common to see in a film noir. The couple who looks like they are to be the main characters are walking along the road and the woman is wearing a white outfit which could suggest that she is a femme fetale who are known for when they are first introduced to wear white.

Editing:

The whole opening scene is one big long sequence without cuts this continuity editing, there is a bomb in the car and the camera follows the car and the continuity shows us that the car could go off at anytime and keeps us on edge. There is cut on the couple kissing then another cut on to the car exploding and then another cut back to the couples facial expression showing their shock and surprise before they run over to see what has happened.

Camera:

A crane shot is used to follow the car from a height and to follow the car when it goes into the alleyway in which the camera could not fit and keep the continuity edit going. A long shot is used to show a man put the bomb into the car then make his escape.  A track and dolly is used to follow the couple when they make their way to wherever they are going. A medium shot is used to show both the man and womans reaction to the explosion but close enough to also show their facial expression.

Sound:

Until the man and wife talk to the man at the booth there is non diegetic jazz music in the background which is a typical convention for film noir. There is an diegetic asynchronous explosion which adds to the shock as we can not see the explosion.