Tuesday 11 January 2011

SE7EN FILM OPENING

SE7EN

Seven is a 1995 American thriller film, containing neo-noir elements. David Mills and William Somerset are police detectives working in a crime-filled city, who become deeply involved in a case which includes a series of sadistic murders. The murders are all in correspondence to each of the seven deadly sins: Gluttony, Envy, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Greed and Wrath. The title is stylised as Se7en, which portrays the film is going to be a bit twisted and different from normal. This style is confirmed when we view the opening credits:

Immediately we are presented with music that has a continuous beat ringing in the background. The beat is used from one of Nine Inch Nails songs, 'Closer'. This is repeated over and over and starts to make the viewer feel a bit uneasy, especially with images displayed whilst it's playing. Occasionally the beat has an additional screeching, strange tapping sound, creaking or thud on top of the beat, making the continuous music irregular and mysterious, even though similar things are playing. Weird noises are constantly played, some that people have never heard before and is impossible to tell what the noise is. Towards the end, the music builds and builds, filling with so much noise and the beat gets heavier and scarier. Finally we hear a male singing "you get me closer to God" which is then ended with a final bass drum beat.

The things we see when viewing the opening credits consist of lots of strange objects which have something abnormal about them. We begin with a book open with something in the background out of focus opening the pages. Shadows tower over some other images, such as the two hands drawn on paper. We also see lots of small gadgets, but we see them for a very short amount of time, so we are unable to properly view what we are looking at. After the image has been taken away we are presented with a lot more short clips, and it is all a bit too much as we are still trying to figure out what the previous objects were. Also, what makes it more difficult to make out what things are is how close up the shot is. We are only allowed tiny glimpses of certain things, making us feel uneasy as something strange is going on. Using objects such as razor blades make us feel a bit on edge as it is clear that they are not using them for shaving. We see a piece of skin flake off the fingers holding the razor which is peculiar in itself. Flashing images are often used and when we are shown the credits one by one, there is always an eerie twist to the writing; for example, 'An Arnold Kopelson Production' is first showed to us backwards but suddenly flipped the right way. The writing is constantly moving, which we are not used to seeing as when we read things normally the words stay in the same place. This makes it even more mysterious. The focus of things is often a bit off, but only slightly, making things seem different but in a way that makes you question how they had done it.

Writing upside down, strange flashes, dark, bleak colours, unusual activities; I think this film has certainly accomplished in making the viewer feel most uncomfortable. Very effective and it makes you want to watch on, so you can maybe understand what is going on a bit better.

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