Tuesday, 8 December 2015
Wednesday, 2 December 2015
Explain how Tarantino establishes thriller conventions in the title sequence of Kill Bill
Explain how Tarantino establishes thriller conventions in the title sequence of Kill Bill.
Tarantino opens the scene with a sound bridge over the film companies’ intro titles and a quote saying “revenge is a dish best served cold”. This quote is quite intimidating and terrorising as revenge is generally an immoral and evil action. But this already establishes the thriller genre as vengeance is a very common theme within thrillers. For example the crime-thriller film ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ follows a plot line driven with the idea of payback. The sound-bridge of a women breathing deeply creates confusion in two ways. It could be that the sounds are connoting lust and pleasure and the other way is the idea of the women being in pain and distress. Since Tarantino is widely known for directing very violent films, it is more likely for audiences to assume the second scenario. The opening quote also supports this idea of revenge and suffering.
The first shot opens with a women covered in blood wearing a wedding dress. This is an example of use of juxtaposition- contrasting the purity of the white dress with the disturbing stains of blood. The shot is in black and white suggesting it could be an event that is not set in present day so could be a past event or even a future event where the film will build up to. Use of black and white establishes thriller conventions as chiaroscuro lighting can be accomplished more clearly and is used to make the subject more prominent and apparent. Chiaroscuro lighting in this case is used to direct the audiences’ focus completely on the women who is the main subject of scene.
The camera shot used is a very high angle shot looking down on the women lying down so the character has little to no power. This shot is also a close up of the woman’s face so by doing this, the audience can see her misery and pain in greater detail. This is the main shot of the scene and consumes almost all of the scenes time. The reason why Tarantino wanted this shot be the longest of all the shots could be to inflict trauma on the audience for having to look at this distressed women for so long. As a viewer I soon felt pity for this character because this close-up emphasised her situation.
Diegetic sound is a big part of this scene and is used to build tension. One example of this is when the footsteps get louder and louder, you feel the characters presences next to the beaten women. This is a convention of thriller as it keeps the audience ‘on the edge of their seats’ by building suspense. We never see this characters face so by doing this sets a mood of mystery, which is often a common theme in thrillers. However, with the use of costume, the audience can make an assumption as what kind of man he is. For example, he wears cowboy boots which connote ideas of him being quite macho and bold. To support this idea he also wipes the blood from the woman’s face with his handkerchief marked with his name Bill on it- suggesting he is quite self-centred and egotistical. The audience then hear the diegetic sound of a gun being loaded where he appears to then shoot the women in the head without hesitation. This makes this kind of character typical to the thriller genre by being a murderer, criminal, possibly a hitman and a psychotic individual, which are characteristics of generic characters in thrillers.
The location of the scene is not known, but since the bride is wearing a wedding dress infers that the scene may take place in a church/chapel. In a way, Tarantino contradicts thriller conventions here as chapels are linked with happiness and serenity- not evil and violence. Generic thriller locations make the audience feel claustrophobic and trapped whereas I feel this is quite an open place. On the other hand, it is quite dimly lit, which is a thriller convention and it also appears slightly derelict.
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