Saturday 31 December 2011

My analysis of the opening sequence to Barton Fink

Barton Fink directed by Joel Coen 1991

In the opening of Barton Fink the lighting is dark which gives the audience a disadvantage at not being able to se where it is set or where they are until a man is given a direction to pull a certain string for the curtains or some sort of prop for the play. As the camera scrolls along the back of the stage their are loads of diegetic sound of people talking and smoking cigarettes which gives it that setting that working at the back of a stage is not a good job and to support this is when the man pulling the curtain is late for pulling one of the strings because he is smoking nad reading a newspaper which gives the audience the feeling that he doesn't care about his job. As the camera continues to scroll along their is a medium close up the character Barton Fink with glasses on his face and holding the script to the play which lets the audience know that he is the writer also another factor is that he is dressed differently to the other characters, he is dressed smart in a tuxedo which is basically showing that he has a higher rank than the mem working behind him, one last factor which let the audience know that he is writer is when he begins the recite that last few lines to play without looking at the paper in his hand. Another aspect is that when the play finishes he called on to the stage which usually happens to the writers of the play because they came up with the story line and the audience loved it so they demanded his presence and as Barton Fink came on stage and the audience gave him applause. When it cuts to the next part of the opening sequence where their is a point of view shot of the character walking through a restaurant where his is meeting someone who congratulates him on the success of the play and his hard work and introduces him to couple which are posh and the aspects which give it away are the attitudes of the couple and the way they are dressed which is in tuxedos and fancy dressed also how the restaurant is decorated with ice sculptures and expensive cutlery.

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