Kiss Me Deadly Analysis

The Title of the Film

The title of the film (8) comes up on the screen after the film has begun and the lady has been rescued by the man in the car. The title also appears with the rest of the titles unlike 'Brick' where it is the main title only. By appearing during the opening sequence of the film, the title has managed to attract the audiences attention as they have become engaged in the plot. Another interesting thing about the titles is that it appears by scrolling from the top of the screen ton the bottom like 'Star Wars'. I feel that having the title of the film in the middle of the opening is very effective as it raises questions to the audience about it and why the film is named 'Kiss Me Deadly'.

The Revealing of the Location

The location is revealed through the use of an establishing shot which allows the audience to see the surroundings that the character is involved with such as in this film (2) where it shows her on a dark stretch of road with no cars in sight. This also raises questions as we do not know how she got there or why she is running or who from. This is a very good technique to show the scene as it provides the audience with a lot of information although they do not realise it.

Costumes and Props

The female character is wearing a long trench coat which makes her suspicious as we do not know what she is hiding underneath but as the opening progresses the male character informs us that she isn't wearing anything underneath which makes the audience consider her to be a 'victim' and to have low status. This allows the audience to ponder on what happened to her and why she is only wearing a trench coat. The male character is shown to be driving a white car which shows his purity and that he is the 'hero' of the film. He is also shown to be wearing a suit which makes the audience think that he is in a job with high authority although when the film is put into context it makes sense.

Camera Work

In this opening the director has decided to use an omniscient approach to filming the opening. He used a close up of the lady's legs (1) to show the panic she is feeling and a close up of her face to show her emotion which is also reinforced through her panting. The camera seems to be tracking the women as she runs towards the cars trying to hitchhike, this would be very effective in my film as it will give more information about the main character. Another interesting shot used is a low-angle shot (3) which shows the female character as having a low status which also reinforces the fact that she is a victim. The mid-shot (5) shows the female character to be in the same position as 'Jesus on the cross' which could suggest to the audience that she is a 'good' character rather than an evil lady who has just escaped from a hospital for the mentally ill. Another interesting technique used in this opening is the face that it is in black and white which makes the scenes later in the film more chilling to the audience as there is now emotion shown through colours just lighting.

Genre

We can clearly see that this is Thriller as the opening uses a sountrack that would get the audience in the cinema to be quite as they are trying to entice the audience into the plot. Another key point is that the film uses slow edits to calm the audience down just before the film begins and so that they can gain key information about the charcters and what roles they are to play in the rest of the film.