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Micro-Analysis

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"Killer's Kiss": Ending (the chase scene near the end of the film) Analysis - (55:50-1:00:50) - 'Davey leaves to rescue Gloria, but he is captured and restrained as well, leading to a chase and confrontation in an abandoned warehouse full of mannequins.' 

Plot Summary/Synopsis

Killer's Kiss is an American film noir crime film, directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by Kubrick and Howard Sackler.  It is the second film by Kubrick.  The film stars Jamie Smith and Frank Silvera.

Narrative Style

  • The film is about Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith), a 29 year-old welterweight New York Boxer at the end of his career, and his relationship with his neighbor taxi dancer Gloria Price (Irene Kane), and her violent employer Vincent Rapallo (Frank Silvera).

  • The film is called Killer's Kiss, because Vincent Rapallo, who is the 'Killer' in this case and the villain of the film, wants to take Gloria Price, the damsel in distress, for himself, and him capturing her and his attempts to earn her love by attacking her and seducing her is the 'Kiss' from the 'Killer' that is Vincent.  So Davey Gordon, the hero of the film, has to go rescue and protect Gloria from Vincent and his gang by deciding to leave town away from their interference, but that doesn't stop Vincent, which leads to a whole chase between them and Davey, whilst he tries to rescue Gloria.  This is the basic plot of the story.

Cinematography

  • Open-Frame

  • Mostly uses a lot of Long Shots and Establishing Long Shots - one notable example of this in this scene, is when Davey is running over the rooftops of several state apartments.

  • Mostly uses panning movements

  • Long Cuts

  • Long proxemics, as in the characters in this scene are positioned in a pretty to very far-away distance from the camera

  • Large, wide and long depth-of-field - As the aperture of the camera seems to be narrow, shorter lens appear to have been used to capture more in the shots, and all of the cuts are all in deep focus, even though we should mainly be focusing on the character running across the rooftops, however, if this were the case, then we would get closer shots of the character.

  • Characters surrounded by tall buildings, dwarfing them - creates vulnerabiliy within them, especially Davey, who in this scene is both being surrounded by tall buildings and in the wide open space of Brooklyn when he is running around the rooftops of several state apartments

  • From a small, dead-end road to the rooftops above the tall buildings to a dark room crowded with lots of mannequins.

  • Mannequins that are positioned very close to each other across the dark room.

  • This film is shot in Brooklyn, New York City, USA, which makes sense seeing as how in terms of National Context, it is an American film, and American films, even nowadays use NYC as a popular destination to shoot their films.

  • However, this film is not shot for the sake of shooting in such a popular city to film in, especially when Killer's Kiss was made during the silver ages of Hollywood, as in the start of Hollywood films becoming such big hits in the film industry.

  • What's so special about the filming location in Killer's Kiss, especially in this scene, is that Brooklyn is an everyday urban setting, and why this is so significant is that this makes what is seen on screen seem more realistic to the audience, therefore creating a sense of realism.

  • Also, this type of chase scene, that goes down narrow and wide and dark alleyways, corners, shadows, dead-ends and dodgy areas (as in areas that seem like the protagonist is trapped but finds a way to escape in), is very typical in film noir films.  This can show us how there could be more in these areas than meets the eye, which this scene also touches on, as Davey is trying to find a way to escape a dead-end, and he eventually finds an escape ladder, something he didn't initially see in the first place.

Mise-En-Scene/Location/National Context

Music/Sound

  • Most of the sound in this scene comprises of just foosteps of Davey and the mafia trying to chase him, and the emergency exit ladder being pulled up and down.

  • It is mostly pretty silent and quiet music heard throughout this scene

  • Mostly ambiance noise of the city of Brooklyn

  • Even if there was a lot of music present,  it still wouldn't add that much effect overall to the scene, as the music in this scene does not intensify or have any composition to create any effect.

  • However, when Davey and the mafia enter the mannequin warehouse, the music intensifies, creating a sense of suspense.  Since it is also a dark room with shadows and darkness, it also conveys a sense of fear and unknown, as the audience won't know what's going to happen next.

  • However, the main purpose of this silence and ambiance noise in this scene is to intensify and amplify the suspense or sudden burst of noise that might happen at any second, in which sudden noises are also typical in film noir films.

Macro-Analysis

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Narrative Structure

Auteurship

  • ​So this film starts with Davey waiting for Gloria to leave town to the West Coast away from the mafia, and this is after they have decided to do this, as well as after the events of the whole film that took place before then.  So therefore, the plot of this film is non-linear, which can therefore lead to these narrative devices or techniques, there's not just one narrative technique that Killer's Kiss uses, but there's several of them:

  1. To start off, one of them is Barthe's (Enigma) Code, where it includes 3 narrative devices - Action, by which a resolution is produced by action, Enigma, that teases the audience by presenting a nuzzle or riddle to be solved works to delay the story's ending pleasurably, and Cultural, which the audience can recognize as being part of a culture.  All 3 of these narrative devices are applied throughout the whole film, but specifically for this scene, the Enigma and Cultural narrative devices are used, as the Enigma in this scene is the chase that takes place throughout the whole scene, and the Cultural in this scene is how the the people chasing Davey in this scene are wearing black suits and ties, so the audience can recognize them as being part of the mafia or gangsters.  Also, since this film applies all 3 of Barthe's (Enigma) Ciddes, it can imply that "Killer's Kiss" is dependent on Enigma.

  2. Next, in this scene, we can see that as the mafia are chasing Davey across the rooftops of several state apartments through the city of Brooklyn, we can see them falling down from time to time from trying to jump over the ledges and walls of the rooftops, whilst Davey is having no problem or issues with jumping over ledges and walls.  This is a symbolic conflict that can convey Davey as more stronger, powerful, heroic and dominant than the mafia who are more weak, powerless, cowardly and submissive.  All of this therefore, can tell us that this film also applies Binary Oppositions (or Levi-Strauss' Theory) to its narrative.  This conflict can assist in strengthening the film's story, as this chase scene helps to engage the audience, as this chase scene creates a sense of suspense to the audience.

  3. Finally, "Killer's Kiss" also applies Todorov's Theory of Narrative, where it includes all 5 stages of Todorov's Theory, from Equilibrium to Disequilibrium to New Equilibrium.  In this scene, it is at the stage where Davey is attempting to repair the damage of the disruption of the film, that is Gloria getting kidnapped and getting into trouble with the "killer's Kiss".  This scene is near the end of the film where it is at the stage of a New Equilibrium.  However, this New Equilibrium is also the first stage of the film, which explains why the plot of this film is non-linear.

Editing

  • In terms of editing, it is kept very simple and plain, and therefore this type of editing allows film noir films like Killer's Kiss to keep at a slower pace than fast-paced, technologically-advanced films that we are more familiar with today.

  • However, this slow-pace and simple editing of film noir films at the time allows the audience to look at the scenes like this chase scene more in depth.  However, today, we may see that these shots in this scene especially are very long, so therefore it may tend to bore audiences today.

Lighting

  • In terms of lighting, low key lighting and high contrast lighting between black and white is used.

  • The lighting in this scene especially is interesting, because there is an establishing long shot of Davey running across the rooftops of the Brooklyn state apartments, and we can see the rest of Brooklyn City in the background more clearly than other scenes in the film.

  • We can clearly see this arrangement of high contrast light and dark lighting.

  • This contrast of lighting between dark and light is to express how Davey is not only coming out of the darkness of the alleyway tunnels and into the light of day, but also to signify how Davey is trying to escape the darkness of being captured by the mafia who is chasing him.

  • This contrast also emphasizes the characters' shadows in this scene and film.  

  • It also suggests that there is no happiness in the film by showing no colour.

  • However, it is also interesting because this particular lighting technique is mostly and normally used in German Expressionist films, known in that as Chiaroscuro.  Well that's because film noir is influenced by German Expressionism, which would explain why a lot of the things being micro and macro-analyzed are very similar to German Expressionism techniques.

Shadowing

  • With the use of shadows, they suggest more mystery within the scene, especially the shadows or darkness between the bright, light mannequins in the warehouse.  It suggests that there could be someone in those shadows in between the mannequins watching, without anyone noticing, waiting to strike.

  • The shadows also create darkness, which suggest evil within, lurking in the shadows between the mannequins, it also suggests that it will be hard to escape the evil.

  • Plus, the bright, light mannequins in the shadows and darkness can connote them as like ghouls or ghostly spirits waiting to be awakened.

  • All of these add or enhance the scary, dark and ominous tone and mood of fear and unknown within the mannequin warehouse.

Final Presentation

"The Killing":  What scene - Time in the film - 'Description of Scene'

Plot Summary/Synopsis

"The Killing" is a 1956 American film noir crime film, directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by Kubrick and Jim Thompson, which is actually based on the novel Clean Break by Lionel White.  The film stars Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards and features Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr., Jay C. Flippen and Timothy Carrey.

Narrative Style  

The main plot of the film is: 'Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) is a veteran criminal planning one last heist before settling down and marrying Fay (Coleen Gray)'.

"In the mood for love":  What scene - Time in the film - 'Description of Scene'

Plot Summary/Synopsis

"In the Mood for Love" is a 2000 Hong Kong romance film, directed by Wong Kar-wai.  The film stars Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung.  The film's original Chinese title, meaning "the age of blossoms" or "the flowery years", which is actually a Chinese metaphor for the fleeting time of youth, beauty and love – derives from a song of the same name by Zhou Xuan from a 1946 film.  The English title derives from the song, "I'm in the Mood for Love". Wong had planned to name the film Secrets, until listening to the song late in post-production.

Narrative Style

The film takes place in a 1960s setting in 1962, where 'journalist Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and his wife move into a Hong Kong apartment, but Chow's spouse is often away on business.  Before long, the lonely Chow makes the acquaintance of the alluring Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk), whose own significant other also seems preoccupied with work.  As the two friends realize their respective partners are cheating on them, they begin to fall for one another; however, neither wants to stoop to the level of the unfaithful spouses'.

"After the wedding":  What scene - Time in the film - 'Description of Scene'

Plot Summary/Synopsis

"After the wedding" is a 2006 Danish drama film, directed by Susanne Bier.  The film stars Mads Mikkelsen and Sidse Babett Knudsen.

Narrative Style

'Jacob Petersen (Mads Mikkelsen) dedicates his life to helping street children in India, and when the orphanage he leads may be closing, he receives an interesting offer.  A businessman will give him $4 million - with conditions. Jacob must return to Denmark and take part in the wedding of the man's daughter; the event is a crucial meeting of past and future, throwing Jacob into the most-intense dilemma of his life'.

Micro-Analysis

​Scenes - 

  1. (00:00-05:00) - beginning of the film - Nope

  2. (19:23-24:23) - planning of the heist, finding out George spilled out the beans to Sherry - Maybe

  3. (40:50-45:50) - Preparation for the heist = Racing horses being prepared, Johnny seeing Marvin for what might be the last time he sees him, Johnny books escape flight for the end of the film, Johnny rents a motel room, Johnny puts key at the bus station, Mike and his wife moment - Nope

  4. (44:50-49:50) - Preparation for the heist = Johnny puts key and gun at the bus station, Mike and his wife moment, Mike picks up key and gun at the bus station, Mike arrives at racecourse and uses key to lock gun in the locker room, there is a comedic moment at the end. - Nope

  5. (49:50-54:50) - Getting into position for the heist - First race begins, Mike bartends a seemingly drunken Marvin (or it might all be part of the act), Randy goes to the racecourse, comedic moment where he immediately ignores and ditches a civilian woman in need of help!, Randy waits for Johnny to drop the money to him at the end of the heist, Maurice gets ready for the heist, the 7th Race begins = the moment everyone has been preparing for, Maurice walks to Mike the bartender. - Maybe

  6. (54:50-59:50) - The heist - the announcement that the 7th Race is starting, Johnny signaling Maurice to start the planned bar fight, a fight between him and police/security officers begins, George watches the ensuing fight in a distance in a money-winnings counter, the "not admitted" door secretly and magically opens for Johnny to enter, Maurice gets taken away by the guards and officers, Nikki leaves his home to the racecourse to keep a watchful eye on the winning horse (Red Lightning), he has trouble parking and pretends to be friends with a track parking attendant/guard, the races continue. - Most Likely

  7. (59:50-01:04:50) - The heist - the announcement that the 7th Race is starting, Nikki argues with track parking attendant/guard, Nikki shoots leading horse (as a way of distraction to the crowd), but gets shot whilst trying to escape, no blood!, revealed that he got a flat tire from a horseshoe the track parking attendant/guard wanted to give him as a present, that's why he couldn't escape in time before getting shot, Johnny goes to the racecourse, Johnny signals George, signals Marvin, signals Maurice and signals Mike, the announcement that the 7th Race is starting. - Most Likely

  8. (01:04:50-01:10:20) - The heist - above 5 minutes though so beware! - it is revealed that George let Johnny in, Johnny goes into pick up the gun that Mike left him in the locker room, changes into a robber, killer clown costume, Johnny then breaks into the observatory room and orders them to put all the money in the room in a huge bag form him and threatens to kill everyone in the room if they try to oppose him, he then orders them to go into the locker room and stay there, he then throws the money bag out the window to where Randy is waiting for for him to take away, he changes back into a regular suit and just barely escapes as he is nearly caught by a police officer/security guard. - Now, Yes

  9. (01:05:20-01:10:20) - The heist - now this is 5 minutes! - Johnny goes into pick up the gun that Mike left him in the locker room, changes into a robber, killer clown costume, Johnny then breaks into the observatory room and orders them to put all the money in the room in a huge bag form him and threatens to kill everyone in the room if they try to oppose him, he then orders them to go into the locker room and stay there, he then throws the money bag out the window to where Randy is waiting for for him to take away, he changes back into a regular suit and just barely escapes as he is nearly caught by a police officer/security guard. - Now, Yes

  10. (01:10:20-01:15:20) - the heist crew waiting for Johnny to arrive, whilst hearing on the radio of their mysterious heist, shootout scene where everyone including Randy, Mike and Marvin and Val (Sherry's real lover) all die, except George, Johnny escaping with the money and buying a giant suitcase to put the money in, George barely escaping alive. - Most Likely

  11. (01:12:41-01:17:41) - shootout scene where everyone including Randy, Mike and Marvin and Val (Sherry's real lover) all die, except George, Johnny escaping with the money and buying a giant suitcase to put the money in, Johnny finds a safe spot in the wilderness to store the money in the suitcase, George barely escaping alive, shooting Sherry after finding out she betrayed him by sending Val to kill him and the others. (earlier). - Initially, Yes

  12. (01:13:12-01:18:12) - shootout scene where everyone including Randy, Mike and Marvin and Val (Sherry's real lover) all die, except George, Johnny escaping with the money and buying a giant suitcase to put the money in, Johnny finds a safe spot in the wilderness to store the money in the suitcase, George barely escaping alive, shooting Sherry after finding out she betrayed him by sending Val to kill him and the others., parrot! (later). - Initially, Yes

  13. (01:14:20-01:19:20) - Johnny escaping with the money and buying a giant suitcase, George barely escaping alive, shooting Sherry, parrot!, Johnny and Fay meeting at the airport, old lady checking in for flight. - maybe

  14. (01:18:12-01:23:12) - ending of the film - Nope

  15. (01:19:20-01:24:20) - very, real ending of the film - Nope

"Throughout the big, huge heist scene, each scene within the heist scene begins with a dissolve into a low angle shot of the loudspeaker post that makes announcements.  Also, in each scene, they begin with the announcement of the 7th race beginning."

Cinematography, Framing and Composition (Depth-of-field, Proxemics and Rule of Thirds = done

Music/Sound = done

Editing = done

Lighting

Shadowing

Mise-En-Scene/Location/Historical Context = done

Scripting (Optional?)

Objects and Costume = done

Macro-Analysis

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Narrative Structure

Auteurship/Directorial Intention/Auteur Context = done

Critical context/Film Criticisms (optional if any)

Target Audience = done

Genre (Context) = done

National Context + Additional Cinematography, Mise-En-Scene and Music

  • This scene overall mostly uses Mid-Shots and Tracking and not much other different types of camera shots and movements are used, other than some Close Ups of Johnny's clown-faced mask.  This shows that this scene was filmed to be kept simple as possible, to get the scene's message out, that a robbery is taking place, as straight-forward as possible, as opposed to shooting this scene with a lot of different shots and movements that tend to instead complicate the situation.  This small amount of types of camera shots and movements also helps to further allow the audience to focus on what's going on, and in turn this scene is shot in Deep Focus.

  • Mostly Closed Frame - this limited amount of 'freedom' that the 'vault guards' have of moving in and out of the frame suggests that these victims have no way of escaping Johnny and are trapped in the frame, literally, of choosing either to obey Johnny to live or try to escape but get shot trying to do so.  However, there are two moments where it is Open Frame when one of the 'guards' walks to the vault to fill up Johnny's bag with more money and when the 'guards' walk out of the vault room into the locker-room by the orders of Johnny.  This suggests their attempts at trying to escape Johnny or their obedience to him and them literally escaping into the locker-room and obeying Johnny in order to prevent themselves from getting killed.

  • Large, wide and long Depth-Of-Field - As the aperture of the camera seems to be narrow, shorter lens appear to have been used to capture more in the shots, and, again, all of the cuts are all in deep focus.

  • Proxemics - the actors (Johnny and the 'vault guards') are positioned very close to each other in the very small vault room, and this small amount of space between them conveys a sense of tension, fear and suspense as the small space between them provides a way or image to the audience to not only suggest the idea that this is like a jail or prison to the 'guards' but also to show how inescapable Johnny is for the 'guards', there is no way that the 'guards' can escape the room and run away to call for help, as not only is this a small room, but if they move, Johnny says that he'll shoot if one of them makes a wrong move.  This also highlights how much power and domination Johnny has over them.

Research - Film Analysis

Research - Plot Summaries/Synopsis

Research - Reviews​​

Genre Conventions

Contexts

  • Low key lighting is also used, and when 'low key' is mentioned, it tends to mean not much lighting being used and it makes sense seeing as how not much lighting is used in this scene, the lamp in the locker-room is the only light that seems to be present in the room, and the light coming from outside through the windows appears to be the only source of light in the vault room.

  • The lighting in this scene is especially interesting, because there is dark lighting and shadow surrounding Johnny in his costume and with his gun, whilst the 'guards' are seen as being exposed or stuck in bright light.

  • We can see that this particular scene has an arrangement of high contrast lighting between black and white is used.  

  • This contrast of lighting between dark and light is to express how Johnny can be seen as this dark, scary figure (in which his costume helps add to that) who pulls horrible stunts to get people to get what he wants, therefore also adding to the horror from seeing Johnny like this.  It also expresses how the 'guards' can be seen as innocent figures who have no choice but to follow Johnny's orders or be killed, also connoting their vulnerability.

  • However, what can be ironic about this is that Johnny is exposed to bright light when he is getting ready for his robbery for the money in the vault-room and when he is escaping the racecourse in the daylight in the crowds of people.  So this can connote his vulnerability to potentially being caught by security guards, but he eventually escapes.

  • This particular lighting technique can be known as Chiaroscuro, but this lighting term is mostly used in German Expressionist films and yet "The Killing" is an American Cinema Film.

  • With the use of shadows, they suggest more mystery within the scene, especially the shadows or darkness between the bright, light mannequins in the warehouse.  It suggests that there could be someone in those shadows in between the mannequins watching, without anyone noticing, waiting to strike.

  • The shadows also create darkness, which suggest evil within, lurking in the shadows between the mannequins, it also suggests that it will be hard to escape the evil.

  • Plus, the bright, light mannequins in the shadows and darkness can connote them as like ghouls or ghostly spirits waiting to be awakened.

  • All of these add or enhance the scary, dark and ominous tone and mood of fear and unknown within the mannequin warehouse.

  • Small spaced room mostly filled with huge shelves and boxes of money, along with what looks to be a cash register on the very left of the vault room when the 'guards turn to face the wall'.  Since the vault is filled with lots of money and cash, several books can also been seen in a table shelf below the 'guards' and these can suggest that these are books either about horse-races or most likely about money.  This mise-en-scene containing money-related objects is to emphasize the greed and hunger that Johnny has for money.

  • All of these things all in a very tight spaced room, so it makes the room more crowded and squished, and again makes it seem like the vault room like a jail that is inescapable for the 'guards', therefore helping to increase the tension and suspense.

  • This film was filmed in several locations such as Bay Meadows Racecourse, Los Angeles International Airport, San Mateo, California, and Los Angeles, California.  Basically most of the locations that were used to film "The Killing" were all in California.

  • During the 1950s, especially 1956, crime rates were pretty high considering during that same time in Los Angeles and throughout California, there was a crime gang war going on between two gangster groups that was put to an end that same year of 1956.

  • So either this can be considered a plain coincidence, or this film could just be following and linking to the typical narrative structure or context of a crime film, in which witness the rise and fall of a criminal is witnessed and they are also doomed to eventual failure in the end of a crime-genre film.

  • Optional: Or possibly, this film could be linking back to that specific event and is just highlighting the typical eventual doom, failure and circumstances of a criminal's actions, inspired from that event, although it is unlikely due to the story and script of this film being written prior to this film. 

  • http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/08/19/stanley-kubrick/

  • As an auteur, Kubrick’s style can be difficult to elucidate because it developed significantly over his career; however, one thing is clear – he lived and worked on his own terms, often butting heads with anyone who got in the way of his creative choice and freedom. From his early fascination with photography, he focused heavily on visual arts and perspective in his films. He is known for the one-point perspective shot, in which a scene’s art direction, action and camera movement lead a viewer’s focus to a very specific point.

  • The cinematography in his films is always innovative, stunning and aesthetically pleasing, often making use of strong primary colors or a sharp contrast between black-and-white. For dramatic tension, Stanley Kubrick loved to use the long tracking shot and later in his career the newly developed Steadicam system.

  • Because almost all of his films are adaptations of books, Kubrick developed an understanding of literary translation into a visual world, often structuring his films into distinct acts. He is famous for prolonging sequences and slowing down the rhythm of the film, building emotion and suspense in the plot.

  • https://sites.lafayette.edu/fams202-sp15/2015/02/20/kubrick-auteur/

  • Adaptation: Adapted every film he made from a novel, excluding his first two films: Killer’s Kiss (1955) and Fear and Desire (1953) (both from original source material), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

  • Shots: Often uses extreme close-ups of intensely emotional faces.

  • Long Takes: Known for his exorbitant shooting ratio and endless takes, he reportedly exposed an incredible 1.3 million feet of film while shooting The Shining (1980), the release print of which runs for 142 minutes. Thus, he used less than 1% of the exposed film stock, making his shooting ratio an indulgent 102:1 when a ratio of 5 or 10:1 is considered the norm.

  • Music: Almost always uses previously composed music (such as The Blue Danube and Thus Spake Zarathustra in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

  • Tracking Shots: In almost every movie he made, there is a tracking shot of a character (the camera following the character).

  • Plot: Almost all of his films involve a plan that goes horribly wrong.

  • Contrast: Frequently uses strong primary colors in his cinematography and sharp contrast between black and white.

  • Themes: His films often tackle controversial social themes.

  • Symbolism: Very strong visual style with heavy emphasis on symbolism.

  • Slow-paced dialogue: Often had actors pause several beats between line delivery. Also, rarely (if ever) did his dialogue overlap.

  • Shots: Slow, methodical tracking shots.

  • The use of props actually plays an important part in this particular scene of the whole heist

  • Guns are used in a lot of crime films, and in this scene, Johnny is seen holding a gun out pointing towards the innocent 'guards'.  The important connotation to note here about the gun is that the gun represents that there will be an element of danger within the movie as well as conveying a sense of suspense and tension, as the audience is left tensing up.

  • Money is also seen as another important prop in this scene, as the large amounts of money in piles and wrapped bundles connote the large amount of greed and hunger for power that Johnny possesses, as gangsters are usually all about gaining the upper hand and power over others, and having large amounts of money can help them with that.

  • Of course, there is also the clown mask that Johnny wears.  To start off with this prop, clowns are usually associated as being figures of comedy and making people laugh by performing funny tricks and stunts.  However, the idea of clowns is being juxtaposed and contrasted with the fact that this film is also a film noir, so this association of clowns therefore is being opposed, as in the use of the clown mask prop by a criminal like Johnny is used to convey clowns as being more of the opposite - a scary, creepy and horrifying figure by roaming around town performing tricks and stunts outside the law.  I mean, the clown mask's jaw moves  as Johnny speaks along with his weird striped undershirt, which makes the clown in Johnny more realistic and more scarier.  This not only conveys a sense of horror and intimidation within the audience, but this 'scary' clown mask also captivates and emphasizes Johnny as a character: his greed and thirst for power and wealth by performing scary and intimidating tricks outside of the law, that is obtaining lots of money.

Crime

  1. Lighting and Shadowing (Black and White)

  2. Setting

  3. Props

  4. Costume (for Johnny specifically at least)

  5. The themes and motifs of violence, murder, heists, robberies, criminals and gangsters, operating outside the law, stealing and violently murdering their way through life.

Horror

  1. Jump Cuts

  2. Ambient Noise

  3. Lighting and Shadowing (Black and White)

  4. Props

  5. Costumes

  6. Setting - in an isolated areas where there is no help for the characters and no hope of finding somewhere to run.

Film Noir

  1. Setting - everyday urban areas

  2. Lighting and Shadowing (Black and White) (Chiarascuro)

  3. Themes of greed, murder, corruption, love, betrayal

  4. Darkness and only a small prescence of light

  5. Props

Typical Narrative Structure for Crime Films:​

  • Crime stories in this genre often highlight the life of a crime figure or a crime's victim(s). Or they glorify the rise and fall of a particular criminal(s), gang, bank robber, murderer or lawbreakers in personal power struggles or conflict with law and order figures, an underling or competitive colleague, or a rival gang.

  • Gangster/crime films are usually set in large, crowded cities, to provide a view of the secret world of the criminal: dark nightclubs or streets with lurid neon signs, fast cars, piles of cash, sleazy bars, contraband, seedy living quarters or rooming houses. Exotic locales for crimes often add an element of adventure and wealth.

  • Film gangsters are usually materialistic, street-smart, immoral, meglo-maniacal, and self-destructive. Rivalry with other criminals in gangster warfare is often a significant plot characteristic. Crime plots also include questions such as how the criminal will be apprehended by police, private eyes, special agents or lawful authorities, or mysteries such as who stole the valued object. They rise to power with a tough cruel facade while showing an ambitious desire for success and recognition, but underneath they can express sensitivity and gentleness.

  • Gangster characters often fall prey to crime in the pursuit of wealth, status, and material possessions (clothes and cars).

  • Although they are doomed to failure and inevitable death (usually violent), criminals are sometimes portrayed as the victims of circumstance, because the stories are told from their point of view.

Narrative Theories

  • ​So the whole heist in "The Killing" basically jump cuts back and forth to events that are simultaneously happening to the heist crew.  This technique is called intercutting, and this is actually a form of continuity and better flow because it allows the audience to keep track of everyone' s status and role and what they are doing at the same specific time (during the announcement of the start of the 7th race) and therefore to engage better with the film itself.  So therefore, the plot of this film is non-linear, which can therefore lead to these narrative devices or techniques, there's not just one narrative technique that "The Killing" uses, but there's several of them:

  • To start off, one of them is Barthe's (Enigma) Code, where it includes 3 narrative devices - Action, by which a resolution is produced by action, Enigma, that teases the audience by presenting a nuzzle or riddle to be solved works to delay the story's ending pleasurably, and Cultural, which the audience can recognize as being part of a culture.  All 3 of these narrative devices are applied throughout the whole film.  The Action and Enigma in this scene is Johnny's robbery and heist of the horse-racing money bank, and the Cultural in this scene is how Johnny is dressed as a clown within a gangster suit, and since these to contrast and juxtapose each other but yet feel as though they are one together, the audience can recognize the clown within Johnny to be part, or clowns in general for this film, to be related to the mafia or gangsters, connoting that clowns conveyed as evil in this film.

  • Next, in this scene, we can see that Johnny, who is dressed as a gangster but also like a clown, is shown having full control, power and demand over the 'guards'.  This is a symbolic conflict that can convey Johnny as more stronger, powerful and dominant than the innocent 'guards' who are more weak, powerless, cowardly and submissive.  All of this therefore, can tell us that this film also applies Binary Oppositions (or Levi-Strauss' Theory) to its narrative.

Extra - this is the point where it's too much and not really my scene:

  • Finally, "The Killing" doesn't necessarily apply Todorov's Theory of Narrative completely, as the ending of "The Killing" doesn't include a 'New Equilibrium', instead the film ends with Johnny's failure to establish a new equilibrium from which he was attempting to repair the damage of a certain disruption in the film, that is....This would also help to further explain why the plot of this film is non-linear.

  • The music is heard starting off from a quiet and soft tone and then the volume starts to pick up and start getting louder and louder during when Johnny is getting ready for the robbery itself.  The music especially gets louder when Johnny puts on his clown mask and takes out his gun.  This use of music increases the amount of suspense in the audience as to what Johnny might do next, we don't know fully know what Johnny will do once he gets into the vault room, and this is the tension that builds up in the audience.

  • However, the fact that the sound of the loudspeakers announcing and updating the audience on the races is simultaneously happening while Johnny is hurrying up to get ready to rob the horse-racing money, only creates a sense of pressure not only within Johnny but to the audience as well, because this also suggests that someone might be coming to find Johnny and if he doesn't hurry up soon and fast, he will get captured and this heist will be a fail.  And we as an audience have been seeing how well it has been going since their initial planning of the heist, so a failure to this heist would not only be a loss for Johnny (which eventually happens in the end of the film) but a loss to the audience as well.  It also creates a sense of awareness that time is running out.

  • The same music also plays softly and quietly in tone while the

  • In terms of editing, in general it is kept very simple, plain and slow-paced than fast-paced films that we are more familiar with today.  This goes along with a good amount of simple cutting between each shot.  This type of editing therefore particularly allows this main part of the heist or whole reason of the heist along with everything that is shown on screen to be all kept in, again, deep focus and to get a straight-forward message out to the audience that a robbery is happening within the heist.  This is unlike films today which are edited to have a lot of fast cuts between shots, which therefore can cause the audience to loose track and focus with what's actually being done.

  • This simple editing of Stanley Kubrick's films at the time allows the audience to look at his scenes like this iconic heist scene more in depth.  However, today, we may see that these kinds of shots are longer than what we are used to, so therefore it may tend to bore audiences today.  So basically, our engagement in films has changed throughout the years.

  • Young adults

  • Late Teens

  • Adults up to Middle Ages

  • Todorov's Equilibrium Theory

  • Realism (and Formalism)

  • Editing is to help the continuity of the films flow

  • Awareness of Time

  • Mise-En-Scene

  • Classical film ending where either it's a happy ending where everything is back to normal after the problem is solved/the guy gets the girl (cultural), or the guy and girl are separated (counter cultural), or the death of the main character(s) (soft spot)

  • Overall, they're supposed to be predictable, it's always not open-ended, it tends to answer every question that we have through the course of the movie so therefore we don't leave the theatre al confused and lost unlike some contemporary films today.

  • "A chain of events in a cause-effect relationship in time and space." - Bordwell and Thompson, Film Art

  • Routine Life (Intro to problem), Problem solving (characters logically work through a problem to create/enhance a story), Problem resolved (end of problem where life goes back to normal)

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