Opening Scenes and Enigma - 'Psycho'
The second film that I'm going to be looking at that introduces enigma/mystery in the opening sequence is 'Psycho', also directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
When the camera pans round the cityscape it zooms in on an apartment block (after a series of dissolves), housing a hotel where rooms can be booked by the hour. We come into the scene during the middle of a conversation between a man and a women. We have no idea what they had been discussing previously, and we are left to assume much; we guess that they have been having sex, that they are not married and that there are issues in their relationship.
When the camera goes inside the room, almost sneaking through the window, the mood is quite dark and the interior is claustrophobic, foreshadowing that something sinister is going to happen. 'Psycho' is a horror film and, like the thriller genre, these films often begin by withholding narrative information to unsettle the audience and keep them guessing.
When the camera pans round the cityscape it zooms in on an apartment block (after a series of dissolves), housing a hotel where rooms can be booked by the hour. We come into the scene during the middle of a conversation between a man and a women. We have no idea what they had been discussing previously, and we are left to assume much; we guess that they have been having sex, that they are not married and that there are issues in their relationship.
When the camera goes inside the room, almost sneaking through the window, the mood is quite dark and the interior is claustrophobic, foreshadowing that something sinister is going to happen. 'Psycho' is a horror film and, like the thriller genre, these films often begin by withholding narrative information to unsettle the audience and keep them guessing.
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