How does the opening of Sin City use film noir conventions to establish themes and audience expectations?

The first shot fades in from black and starts very slowly. This creates a mysterious atmosphere which straight away gives the audience an expectation of a crime or thriller theme. Also the sound of the everyday city traffic immediately sets the scene to form a classic urban city film noir location. This long shot contains a view of the city full of large buildings which makes the woman in the red dress seem insignificant but at the same time begins to create a femme fatal character because the colour of her dress stands out from the film noir setting.

This is the second shot of the opening which introduces the male character. The fact that he is stepping out of the shadows creates the theme of moral ambiguity. In film noir the use of shadows helps to portray this theme. Both the characters have parts of light and dark on their faces to show chiaroscuro lighting which portrays a good and evil side. This also brings out the theme of deception because the truth of the characters is being hidden from the audience.

This over-shoulder shot also shows the chiaroscuro effect on the woman’s face and the fact the camera has moved in closer might make the audience start to expect something more as it makes the scene become more emotional. The man in this shot is about the same size of the tall building which may suggest he now has authority over the woman who is shorter than him in this shot.

The green in her eyes in this close up shot suggests that there is sometimes more to her lurking beneath the surface. It makes the audience gain expectations and has them waiting for the outcome. 

This is another long shot where the colours have been inverted so that the black and white are opposites. The shot has also been given a cartoon affect to bring out a 1930s comic theme. This shot makes the audience believe that these too close and in love, so brings out the theme of deception.

The camera angle then changes back to a close up of the two of them, which adds to the deception as it hides what is truly happening. In this shot the man unexpectedly shoots the woman and at this point a bright white background flickers across the screen, which is made to shock the audience. It also suddenly brings out the theme of murder for the first time in the scene. It shows hardly any light left on his face which suggests his evil side has taken over. He is holding her with an emotional expression to show that he feels guilty and doesn’t like what he has done.

 

This last shot of the scene has the camera zooming right out to eventually show thousands of dark tall buildings. It gives the effect that the audience are now looking down on the two of them to show how they are insignificant and vulnerable compared to the rest of the city.