touch of evil opening shot analysis

A coworker and I were watching "Touch of Evil" by Orson Wells one night and got into a discussion about the opening shot of the film.

An increasingly chaotic setting is revealed, more men in trench-coats and top-hats walking briskly in the middle of the street, another man wheeling a cart around, even a flock of goats which the car must circumvent? Next, the scene transitions into a crane shot of the bomb being put into the trunk of the car, as well as people walking towards the car.

This makes the couple, not the man or the time bomb the main subject. A Touch of Evil takes place in a small Mexican-American border town. This quick sequence promises that pain is. Camera angles and lighting also play an important role of introducing the implicit purpose of each character.

I thought it would be fun to do a very close analysis of the opening shot from Touch Of Evil since we haven’t had a chance to talk about it in class. Academic Writing, Class Assignment, Critical Analysis, Essay. Here the car and the walking couple speed up and down, passing each other at times as the camera maintains a deep focus on both subjects. Not only does the opening sequence show aspects of the storyline, it also illustrates Orson Welles’s talent as a director.

This long-take goes on for around three minutes and moves through a town near the Mexican/USA border introducing two of the main characters and mysterious activity. In three minutes and thirty one seconds the setting, the plot, and criminal milieu which will come to dominate the film are all established. Although never a box office hit, this mystery film quickly sheds its genre with an impressive display of dozens of cinematic techniques. Beginning with Citizen... Orson Welles became an icon in the film industry with his ingenuity and mastery of cinematography. “I am”, replies the Woman -Mrs., not Ms. she corrects the officer. ( Log Out /  Close ups on her face also add to the audience’s feeling of trust for her. The fast pan adds to the, synchronization of the man and the camera and implicitly indicates that the camera is showing, what the man is seeing. ( Log Out /  I was also constantly amazed by Welles’s camera work…definitely in the opening scene, but also when Vargas is almost attacked with acid, and the two men weave in and out of shadow. The long shot was timed perfectly, and foreshadows the conflicts in the movie. In numerous scenes, they would be shot from a low angle to make them appear more menacing. They are newlyweds, Mike and Susan Vargas (Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh); he's a Mexican drug enforcement official. But once the car enters the street and is stopped at the first intersection, the camera continues moving leaving the car in the background to reveal a quite chaotic setting: traffic cops in the middle of the street directing traffic, people practically running across the street, a man wheeling a huge cart of hats. Additionally, Vargas’ awesomeness is established when he retorts to his wife “Do you realize I haven’t kissed you in over an hour?” Then right after their lips lock the car which the camera had been following the whole time explodes!

This shows that he has lost his power, and also that his intentions in that scene were not evil. This camera crane arabesque is the opening of Orson Welles’ TOUCH OF EVIL, perhaps the last great masterpiece of the film noir era.

So, if you notice that I don’t do long sequences, it is not that I … ( Log Out /  Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. An example of this is the scene where he meets with Grande in the bar. Stuck? Here the setting is revealed, or at least we get a lot of clues as to the setting for the first time. “He was some kind of man… what does it matter what you say about people? This makes them appear bigger than they are, as well as gives them a feeling of being “off.” An example of this would be with the Mexican cartel men or the character “Grande”.

Impressively, this is done almost entirely without the use of dialogue. In particular, the use of long shot and camera angle help to illustrate both the explicit plot and the implicit purpose of each character. Lastly, the audience is able to see a shot of a man and woman walking along the streets.

Through camera angles, lighting, and long shots both the implicit meaning of characters and explicit plot of a mystery. Using multiple avenues including, unpredictable yet deliberate camera movement and select imagery, the opening sets and builds. Using a crane shot and a wider angle signifies to the audience that the particular car and people are not as important to the story and film as a whole. “The name is Vargas” says the man, a name which both officers recognize. His long tracking shots reveal a level of technical skill and attention to detail that helped me realize just how skilled Welles was as a director.

Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Janet Leigh’s character Susan, for example, was only shot from these angles. Handsome Charlton Heston is nicely tanned to play the role … The image’s, emphasis on the timer then adds an element of future uncertainty and inevitability, as it indicates, that the bomb will be used soon but not exactly when. The low angle shots, combined with the uncanny diegetic music coming from the next room, made for a simple, but unusually sinister scene.

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