The opening of Sin City

How the opening of ‘Sin City’ uses film-noir conventions and how it sets audience expectations?

The opening scene of ‘Sin City’ is considered the most memorable in the entire film. It starts off with a huge landscape in black and white or more accurately in monochrome. The large buildings and area create a sense of isolation as the two characters shown are away from the party, which is taking place inside the building. They are high up on a balcony which also adds focus to the characters and there is a man and a woman with what seems a friendly connection.

The dialogue of the scene is rather minimal and it seems as though the male lead is controlling the conversation and the woman is restricted to answering questions and accepting compliments. This straight away shows the audience who is in charge and who has the power in the scene which in this case is the man (Josh Hartnett). The voice over is also spoken by Hartnett and has a poetic essence to it with the use of words like ‘crazy calm’ and ‘the wind rises electric’ which is the opposite to the words the characters use to speak. To the audience this gives the impression the characters are actually in love or at least falling for each other, but then there is the abrupt killing of the femme fatale and in the voice over he says ‘I hold her close until she is gone’ which shows remorse and regret, but then he changes the subject and becomes quite factual and says ‘I’ll cash her cheque in the morning’. This makes the audience feel distant from the character and they find it hard to connect with him on an emotional or sympathetic level.

Also the use of colour is another important aspect to note as the red dress on the monochrome backdrop adds character to the femme fatale. She seems quite elegant as she is wearing a long evening gown but then the colour red suggests she is dangerous and cannot be trusted. It also adds to her isolation and that she is alone which interconnects with the dialogue where he says to her ‘you’re sick of running…you don’t want to be alone’. This shows the audience the effect of the colour red in this scene and how just this one dress can determine so many things.

Furthermore the use of props is also something that’s used to draw the audience’s attention from the cigarette to the lighter and even the female lead’s eyes are focused on for a second of the scene. They turn green which is another use of colour in the scene; this establishes the intimacy and the flirtations they are exchanging. The use of these iconic props is something that is expected in film noir because they are regularly used in film noir, they add emphasise to most of the scene and film and help the viewer understand what’s happening. Another thing to point out is the setting, in this scene the use of rain creates an uneasy atmosphere, it makes it unsettling almost eerie. This makes the viewers question what’s going on and also displays to mystery which questions the characters relationship. The audience may feel that the rain is purposely used to display the relationship between the two characters, but also it used for general effect.

In addition with the landscape being so huge and the city buildings being so large the characters seem insignificant compared to the landscape. And also the inversion of the colours to create a comic like picture is used purposely to link in with the ‘Sin City’ comic theme, this is a more modern film noir convention which hasn’t been used before. At the end of the scene she dies and he holds her in his arms and the camera swoops out in to a birds eye view which is in a god like manner as though because she is dead god is looking over her. The audience will then assume that the man who killed her did actually care for her and possibly love her.

In conclusion the audience’s expectations are built to feel that may be in the film is full of mystery and deceit. There is possibly a lot of betrayal and hidden meanings. The film is displayed as dark and eerie to the audience, showing that there may be a lot of in depth, underground secrets which makes it confusing as the audience to understand what’s going on and also makes us predict that there possibly are elements of duplicity and unfaithfulness. It sets the standard fairly high considering impact which makes the audience expect a lot from the film itself.

Here's a clip of the theatrical trailer of 'Sin City'.