Analyses of relevant key text

Analyses of a relevant key text:

James Bond From Russia with Love Essay on

"How does the sequence create suspense, tension and anticipation associated with the thriller genre"

By studying a short extract from 1964 James bond film "From Russia with Love " I will analyse and study how the sequence creates tension, suspense and anticipation in terms of the main characteristics that are desired when creating the perfect thriller film. I will do this by carefully considering how cinematography, editing, mise en scene and narrative structure are all collaborated in the sequence and how they work together to meet the criteria of the thriller genre.

The extract opens with an establishing shot of a middle Eastern City- Istanbul, Turkey, focusing mainly on a mosque, the location seems exotic and different and initially draws the audience to the suspense of an unknown destination. We then come to long shot of the busy city and the mosque just behind which fades into the next long shot of a lady who later we discover i

s the female

 protagonist, entering the mosque; she is blonde, pretty and young, we would instantly view her as innocent however her character becomes more mysterious through out the extract. The camera tracks her movement into the mosque, and is followed by an extreme long shot outside the mosque to a medium shot of the next character; the antagonist suggesting he is following the lady. He is dressed in a shabby brown suit, with a moustache and beret; he is dark skinned so we presume he is a native/foreigner. The lighting is contrasted from the high key lighting used outdoor to the low key lighting inside the mosque, the use of low key lighting makes the audience more suspicious of what is going to happen next. When we first meet James bond in the mosque the low key lighting forms many shadows , it focuses on half of his face in some clips, this suggests to the audience that we do not know his character fully, we only know one side of him and it leads to the suspense of what his character is and makes him come across as secretive. James Bond is first introduced with a low angle shot of his figure this type of shot makes him come across as powerful, the male protagonist- he is displayed as sharp and handsome, he seems high class as he wears a so

phisticated suite and glasses; the sunglasses symbolise the fact that he is undercover and doesn't want to be recognised adding to our suspicion of an enigma code; who is he? and why is he there?

The scene opens with ambient sounds of the outdoors, through out the whole of the ex

tract there is no dialogue used it remains visual communication . The first noticeable ambient sound , is of a tour guide taking people around the mosque, this starts synchronous as we can see the characters and the sound connection, then it becomes asynchronous as the guide has walked out of the shot yet we can still hear the sound of his voice, this suggests the danger of being caught in a public place, as the characters have to remain silent as there is a tour happening whilst they are in the mosque. We then view a range of medium shots of James Bond to the lady known as Tatiana; this editing is known as cross editing between two characters leading us to believe there is a relationship between them, the cross cutting of characters throughout the scene builds tension and highlights the need for visual over verbal communication, we build ideas on who they might be, and why they might be there but we are never certain why which adds to th

e anticipation of finding out. James Bond takes a gun out from his pocket; a prop that is used to display dang

er and violence in the scene. He begins to run from boulder to boulder in the mosque, building up the tension of him hiding from someone. The diegetic sound of footsteps echo in the mosque adding to the intense atmosphere and building on the tension of the sequence. The scene then cross cuts between the three characters James Bind, Tatiana and the Antagonist. The antagonist seems to be following Tatiana who bends down t

o place a tin in between two boulders, while James bond follows the antagonist. the gold tin is one of the main props used in this scene at the end of the sequence we discover that it holds a map inside it ; this creates the narrative structure of an enigma code, the audience are intrigued what's inside

 the tin? what is the map for? why are the two men after the map? these are all part of the mystery that the sequence is trying to create.