In the opening scene of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ the first object you see is a parcel wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. This could connote to the audience that later in the film one of the characters could be bound or tied up at some point, therefore adding a sense of foreboding and also letting the audience know what type of film it is going to be. This is backed up by the use of chiaroscuro lighting. The shot then cuts to a close up of a blade cutting the string off of the parcel. The lighting is still very dark and it is hard to make out what could be in the parcel. Although, there is some light coming through from the distance, this could be a window or a desk lamp. The darkness at the start could indicate that later in the film something will happen underground or someone will get buried. This is a connotation of a thriller film as being buried alive is claustrophobic and dark.
The scene then moves on to show a man’s face in the white light coming from behind. He is concentrating on opening the parcel with the knife but this still doesn’t tell the audience what might be inside the parcel. There is a use of shallow focus on his face so that the audience cannot see what is behind him in the background. Therefore this creates mystery and uncertainty as the audience doesn’t know what is behind the man.
As the parcel is opened more of the surroundings are shown, like the audience is unwrapping the location to get more of an understanding of the opening. At first, it appeared that it was going to be quite a sinister scene with a knife being used but in fact the object in the parcel is just a photo frame.
The music used in the opening sequence adds to the tension and doesn’t give anything away about what might be in the package. It connotes calmness but also sadness as it is slow and melodic. There is no voice over or narration or diagetic sound so the audience has to listen to the music and watch to find out what is happening or something that might happen later in the film.
Here ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ trailer for the film:
1 comments:
You have satisfactorily completed some micro analysis of aspects of mise-en-scene. To strengthen it would be useful to analyse another clip from this impressive thriller - for example how Lisbeth Salender is represented in comparison to a more traditional representation of deviant women (femme fatale) in the thriller genre. Also how Lisbeth Salander survives misogyny. Evidence is required on your blog that you have viewed an entire thriller film not just short clips.
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