How Does The Opening of Sin City Use Film Noir Conventions to Establish Themes and Audience Expectations?

This shot is a high angle long shot of the
woman and the city. This shows the film is set in a big urban city at night time which is a good film noir setting. This shot of the big cityscape creates a sense of the woman being lost and her seem powerless, alone, insignificant and vulnerable because everything else in the shot is so big compared to her which gives her a low status. The chiaroscuro emphasises because of the lighting and the night time setting which gives an unsettling atmosphere. Her dress is the only colour in the shot which makes her stand out from the film noir scene. The colour red implies that she is in danger or it is around her. Red suggests love, passion, seduction and blood, all of these meanings are used in the opening scene to sin city. Some themes that are in film noir relates to the meaning of red for example danger, dark romance, crime and murder. This might make the audience expect to see danger and murder or they could easily be deceived and believe that she is a wealthy, important wife.

As soon as the guy emerges from the light there is a sense of moral ambiguity as you don’t know whether he is going to be a good character or a bad one. There is a good use of chiaroscuro to show good and evil. Is he a dark character coming out from the good? Alternatively this could mean he is a good person coming from the party of good people. The shot tries to set the scene of film noir, film noir peek time was around 1940’s – 1950’s. The railings and the door way makes the film seem very 1930ish, also the music is 1930’s jazz, so this sets the film noir feel. Throughout the opening scene of Sin City there aren’t very many different shots. In the first minute there is only about three which gives the impression that this film is quite calm and quiet but also it can make the film seem quite mysterious. I think the audience will expect the film to be quite calm and loving. I think the audience’s first reaction will be that he is a good character.

This is an over the shoulder shot, and a still shot like most of the shots in the opening. The stillness of the shots shows how secretive the location is, nobody can see them clearly or properly. As you can see from what they are wearing it looks like they are at a party as he is wearing a suit and by her dress, so everybody else will be in the party, so they aren’t going to be caught. In the shot the guy is higher which makes him have high status and power over her. The women is a classic femme fatale character because is a mysterious and seductive woman, you can tell this by the way she acts and the red of her dress and lipstick as red is the only colour in the shot, which makes her stand out. Red normally represents blood, death and seduction. Femme fatale characters often lead to dangerous and deadly situations. The audience might think the woman is a bad character as she seems mysterious and she stands out, so the attention is on her. 

This is close up shot which the main focus is her eyes as this is the second and last colour in the opening scene. The green eyes show another femme fatale feature because green shows that she can be evil, envious, jealous and has energy. These emotions are what some femme fatale characters consist of. Her black nails are another important feature in the shot as it represents death, unfairness and sadness. But a lot of deception is used in this scene because of their conversation and the audience wouldn’t expect to see any sadness because they probably wouldn’t notice her nails. The man has a voice over as well throughout the scene, he uses quite a lot of poetic language which makes him seems like he really loves her. “I came her for you” and “I’ve watched you for days” are two snippets of the man speech which have two sides. One is a romantic side which the audience and the women see, but the other it like he has been stalking her and been assigned to kill her.       

Here the directors have decided to invert the shot, which makes the shot looks like a 1930’s comic. This helps make the film noir more distinctive, also because it’s black and white which the main feature for film noir is. The chiaroscuro shows good and bad sides. In the voice over the guy says “That I’ll save her from whatever she is scared of” I think the railings emphasis is important because in the shot because in fact they are going to keep her safer than the guy.

Before this shot there is a close up which is only the second during the opening, this is so he can get the gun ready, without the audience knowing what going on. When he actually does shoot her I don’t think the audience expects it. When she is shot the screen flashes to white, which show surprise and also because she is dying it shows peace and the calmness. This is also an element of film noir because using chiaroscuro the screen flashes to white to show that in fact she was the good character. Also crime/murder is usually a theme of film noir. This shot is an extreme high angle which is like God is looking down on him. He is looking up like he is waiting for God to judge him.  I think it raining in this shot because rain symbolizes cleansing and a new life, which is basically what its happening in the scene.  At the end of this scene the guy says “I’ll cash her cheque in the morning” which shows her unimportant she is to him, and how much it doesn’t bother him killing people. I think the audience wouldn’t have expected him to kill her but for him to love her because throughout the opening scene he seems like a charming, loving and admirable guy the way he uses poetic language and the way he acts shows this.  I think opening uses deception as its biggest theme. It makes the audience and the female character believe something else, but when he kills her it all changes.

Every shot has been still until the camera pulls out and round the building this show how insignificant they are and how unimportant it is that she is dead. This shot shows film noir well as you can see just light, dark, shadows and her red dress of course. Throughout the opening scene of Sin City I think Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller use film noir to display the themes of mainly deception and also crime. I think the audience are greatly deceived during the opening scene because you expect the complete opposite of what happens.