und, set against the angular man made metropolis, a sense of exreme lonliness and vulnerability. We can also see hundreds of identical lights which the director uses to create a sense of conformity between the people in the city. However the railings infront of character show that she is seperate from the sea of people. The theme of vulnerability is also highlighted in the colour of her dress, sharing its conotations with blood and passion, which seperates her from the masses; prehaps she has chosen to live apart. These themes of seperation are implied by the director to give the character a sense of exsistential alienatoin from her settting. The characters skewed perception of morality in an underground world which does not allow a conformative value system has lead her to be alone in both worlds. The director uses this idea of darkness with the iconic and steriotypical neo-gothic city to produce strong conotations of Film Noir.In this shot we can see the building behind the character, with the use of an intresting camera angle which faces the woman, but also allows us to see clearly behind her. This camera angle emphasises the action of the woman turning her back on the light flooding out from the party. This highlights the theme of isolation in the film, as she is set apart from the light exuding from the building behind her.
The director uses lighting in this shot to show how glamorous, attractive and alluring this world must be, yet the woman is able to turn her back on it, with what appears to be a vulnerable and withdrawn body posture. The director hints to the audience through this use of lighting that she is distrusting of the scene behind her, and that her aloofness and isloation from it are her choice. Her indifference is momentarily lifted as she acknowledges the presence of the male character coming up from behind her, indicating that she must still have some attachment to what is behind her. As the male character makes his way from teh party inside towards the woman he narrates to himself. "She shivers in the wind like the last leaf on a dying tree.I let her hear my footsteps. She only goes stiff for a moment." Right from the outset the dialogue is heavily styalised in the tradition of film of Film Noir, and because the director has made the description of the woman from the perspective of the male character, the audience gains a sense of mystery and unknowing about the female character. This adds to the overall theme of mystery that the director builds on in this opening scene to draw the attension of the audience. This also adds to the idea of Film Noir by portraying the female character as a femme fatale.
When the male character reaches the female character we become awear of strong shadpws on their faces, this keeps the dark themes of running, adding a sinister edge to their convosation. The Female is wearing bright red lipstick which stands out strongly along with the dress against black and whiteness of the film, the lipstick indicates passion and mystery which identifies her again as a femme fatale, giving more connotations with film noir.
The man is dressed very formaly in a suit with black tie, the darkness of his suit creatges mystery, another running theme of the film. The male character invitres the female character to smoke a ciggerette with him, this acts as a social ice breaker between the two characters and shows flaws in the lifestyle they both lead. This also lets the characters portray these flaws to each other establish a common ground between them whilst exersising their social style and grace. These ideas rest firmly with the ideas of Film Noir and create themes of darkness, passion, intimacy and a slight sense of risk in the film. After the male character has has explained that the things he sees in the eyes of the female character make her everything a man could want, she takes a drag on her ciggerrete and as she does so her eyes flash green sudenly, this indicates extra layers in the character, hightening the sense of mystery and increasing the idea of her being a femme fata
le.The female character then asks what it is he sees in her eyes, to which he replys "I see a crazy calm, you're sick of running, you're ready to face what you have to face. But you don't want to face it alone." The two characters now embrace, whihc as they do the picture changes to an almost monoprint coloures as the two characters become grey silhoettes infront of the city skyline, this connotes the idea of togethernesws and intimacy between the male and female as they kiss, highlighting the themes of passion we can see in the film from this opening shot.
After the chacters embrace we can once again hear the narration of male character. "The wind rises electric, she's soft and warm and almost weightless, her perfume is sweet promise that brings tears to my eyes, I tell her that everything will be alright, that I'll save her from whatever she's scared of and take her far far away. I tell her... I love her, the silencer makes a whisper of the gunshot, I hold her close until she's gone, I'll never know what she's running from. I'll cash her check in the morning." As he narrates the situation he shoots her unexpectadly, this adds again to the film's themes of mystery, danger, passion, and darkness; Sumerising the theme of the film in one contradictory action.
