Sin City Opening Sequence Analysis

Sin city is an example of a new age thriller with an aged look, the film is very good at enveloping the audience in the life of crime and sin, hence the title. At the very start of the clip it is a black screen the audience can hear the distant sound of police or ambulance sirens.This shows that straight away the director is trying to surround the audience in a world of crime and corruption. The camera fades up from black to reveal and young blonde woman walking away from camera towards a balcony railing,the camera is at a high angle suggesting that she could be some form of victim or insignificant. The sound of the sirens continues in the background accompanied by the high pitched brassy sound of a jazz trumpet. From looking at the mise en scene we can see that the movie appears to be dated around the mid 1950's, the majority of the film is black and white however the red long evening dress worn by the blonde woman in shot has been highlighted so that it stands out in contrast to the black and white. The color red represents lust and blood, giving a sinister appearance to this female character "the lady in red". A few seconds after the woman reaches the balcony we hear a voice over, the commentator is male he appears to be complimenting this women through the use of poetic wording use metaphors and similes. However " She shivers in the wind like the last leaf on a dying tree" this technical use of poetic language appears to be very sinister. It implies death, loneliness and weakness / vulnerability. As this point the audience haven;t yet established who each character is so at this point the clip is very unpredictable and exciting. The camera angle then changes and we get a mid shot over the shoulder of the woman, we see a man approaching her, he is dressed in formal wear and is suited to the time frame of the rest of the film. At this point me find out through the use of camera that this man is the narrator, he explains how he lets her hear his footsteps as he approaches, this is very intimidating he wants her to know he is there even though she probably already knows that, this creates a dominance of his character over her she appears very weak cold and vulnerable whilst he is cool calm and confident.