This movie's opening scene manages to grab the audience's interest through the different techniques, codes and conventions of the film noir genre throughout it.
The first noticeable technique is probably how the movie
starts with the opening credits where there is music playing during it which is
non-diegetic, the music has an intense feel to it as it uses quite loud
instruments such as violins and trumpets. The choice of these instruments helps
to build an idea for the audience of the storyline of the movie as it is common
for these types of instruments to be used in creating the intensity due to the
fact that the instruments can sound so strong and confident, which could be
representing the main characters personality towards his job. However the music
is quite lively and the detective is known to be quite calm and collected.
Another technique used is the range of shots, the first main
one would be the establishing shot which gives the audience an aerial view of
San Francisco, this helps to give the audience an insight of where the story is
set. We know it is San Francisco because it actually says this on the screen in
text over the establishing shot and is multiple times during the scene. It may
have been pointed out so blatantly because San Francisco is/was known to have a
quite a high crime count so may foreshadowing the drama that will happen
throughout the film, it has been used in many different film noirs and has
become a stereotypical location for these films to set in. Also during these
establishing shots the view is shown to be moving from right to left or zooming
out in order to give the audience a better views of the city, as well it gives
them an idea of how big the location that the film is set in is. During the
scene there is a lady that is telling her distressing story to the detective,
we get to see all of her emotions due to the close ups of the woman's face, it
helps the audience to understand that she is in need of help. There is then a
shot of a window that has writing on it, which reads 'Arthur and Spade', which
we presume to be the companies name in which he is4being shot up right at the
two characters, this time we are viewing it as a shadow which could be
representing the mystery of the film because shadows sometimes cover up things
that would otherwise have been seen. Another thing is that when we first see the
writing on the window of the two names it is backwards so is harder to read but
when we next see it as a shadow it is the correct way round, perhaps this could
be trying to foreshadow how something may be distorted when you first view it
but when you look around you can find the true meaning (the femme fatale).
Class is shown quite a bit throughout the opening scene
which helps to give the audience a further understanding to how the characters
may act and behave during the film (e.g. the upper class are known to be more
snobby and uptight than the other classes) In this movie’s opening scene it
shows a lady wearing a very expensive and posh looking dress with an eye
catching hat with a fur shawl, this all suggest that she is in the upper class
because during the years that this movie was set this was the best fashion out
there and would have been very expensive and hard to get, the idea that she is
of upper class is supported a little later on in the scene as she has to pay
the men for their services and asks if what she has given the man is enough,
which indicates that she is willing to pay more because she can. The men
could've also been viewed as high class as well, again, due to the clothes they
are wearing which is very neat looking suits with no creases, which gives the
impression that they care a lot about their appearance. Similarly their
hairstyles contribute to this because it is very neat and there's not a hair
out of place which suggests their very well put together, perhaps this is
because they have the money for it. The men were also seen smoking cigars which
could indicate their class as they would've been expensive in the years the
movie was set during.
In film noirs they are the stereotypical characters that are
used a lot in all of the movies and in 'The Maltese Falcon' those stereotypical
characters have been indicated straight away to which character play which role
in the movie. First off there is the 'Damsel in Distress' who may turn out to
be the femme fatale who will hurt out main character in whatever ways possible
in order to get what she wants, this is known as the spider and the fly
storyline which is a very stereotypical narrative for film noirs. The femme
fatale will trick the main character by acting all sweet and innocent to begin
with (which we observe in the opening scene) in order to get the males to fall
for her so it will be easier to manipulate them and acting like she needs to be
saved may help her do this as the men will feel masculine if they help the
damsel to feel safe. In the scene the lady also did not make much eye contact
with the detective perhaps as to seem as if she felt a bit intimidated by him
because of the power he had in the position of work he has. This is can be
supported with the way the women is speaking, she is talking rather fast as if
she wants to finish as soon as possible, and again this may be down to nerves
or intimidation. Furthermore when the second man, Miles, enters the office we
can see the woman shuffling nervously in her chair, again, suggesting that the
men have some kind of dominance over her. The men in the opening scene seem to
contrast the upper-class lady's feelings as she was very nervous with very
rigid body language whereas the detectives postures couldn't be anymore more
relaxed or slouched, this could be due to the stereotypical male characters
which are always calm and collected with very little emotions because they need
to stay strong for their work. They are leaning all across their desks and as
well as leaning back in the chair whilst the lady is the complete opposite. A
female secretary was introduced early on in the scene and was called
'sweetheart' and 'darling' which shows how woman were portrayed in movies in
those years, only in the movie for sexual reasons. The private detective also
repeats what he says to his secretary, which suggests that he thinks of her as
a bit thick and wouldn't understand him the first time.
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