Film Openings- The Godfather (1972)

Film openings are the first thing an audience see's when they watch a film. It usually starts with the production and distribution company logo's. The names of the actors or cast, usually the prominent actor or main lead get more screen time than the other actors. As well as that the directors name appears as well. For my film opening research I will be researching these 4 aspects in them Mise-en-Scene, Camera Shots and Angles, Sound and Editing. The two films that I will be looking at are The Godfather (1972) and Mr and Mrs Smith (2005). I have picked different genre's in order represent how different genre's are presented in the first 2 minute opening sequence.

The Godfather 

The Godfather I find is an Interesting film opening to look at as it's not only part of the Gangster and Crime genre but is a legendary film, a classic. The first 2 minutes of Godfather are very brief and only tease what is to come next. Directed by the famous Francis Ford Cappola and starring the great actor Marlon Brando the film is one his best performances. The first sound we here is a very slow jazz soundtrack which is conventional of certain crime films the genre this particular film belongs to. The film starts with a black background connoting the darkness, mystery and corrupt themes the film has. This is than contrasted with the write writing the tile itself of the film 'Mario Puzo's, The Godfather' is written in white. White connotes peace, purity and innocence. The contrast is made very clear and used to empahises the over arching theme in the film what things seem to be are not what they need to be. If you look closely the title 'The Godfather' has puppet strings attached to it at the bottom. This is a clear symbolism of power, control and domination 'The Godfather' has who the audience have not been introduced to. It is almost like the relationship between a puppet and a puppeteer as the puppeteer controls the puppet without that control the puppet is nothing. The dark theme as the writing disappears and the audience is left with a black screen as well as adding to the suspense element of things as the audience do not know what will happen. This continues as 47 seconds into the opening sequence we here the first set of dialogue spoken by an character. The voice over is spoken by an distinct Italian accent. This is the first set of diegetic sound we here after hearing the non-diegetic sound of the slow and eerie Jazz music. The black screen in about 49 seconds fades into the man who is speaking and the first line the audience hear is 'I believe in America'. This is clever way of telling the audience where the film is set instead of a longitudinal establishing shot. The camera begins with a close up of his face but slowly zooms out eventually letting the audience know about his surroundings.The clever technique of over the shoulder shot is used as we see the man is talking to someone else as we see another man's finger in the sequence. The de-saturated lighting further reinforces the dark and criminal theme of the film never letting the audience forget what may come later on in the film. The man whose name we do not know is talking about an women's rape, presumbly his daughter. He looks visibly distressed narrating this story shown by his facial expression.The Mise-en-Scene they are located around reveal a brown wooden table the man is sitting with a few documents or papers on the table letting the audience know this is an professional enviroment such as an office. The clothes the man is dressed in are very smart as he is dressed in an black tuxedo signifying his social status, that his is 'rich' or upper class. The editing is very slow paced highlighted by the zoom, a technique maybe to signify there is no hurry as highlighting the way they think e.g. planning everything out before you strike.The scene highlights a sort of justice scene as the man appears to be asking some sort of justice for his daughter's rape. This is what I personally interpreated it as in the first 2 minutes of the opening sequence. I found this very interesting to watch.