Analysis of Kill Bill (Quentin Tarantino 2003)-By Connor Hilton

The sequence begins with a close up on a female characters face, she appears to be injured and is breathing heavily. Her facial expression indicates that she is afraid and panicking. In the background loud foley foot steps can be heard which create suspense as we can hear they are approaching the female character. The female character's costume seems to be a wedding dress indicating that there has been a wedding but something bad has happened, which makes the audience start to question and builds to the enigma.

There is then a cut to a close up of the feet that are walking towards the female character. It appears that the costume is suit trousers which could tell us that the character is the groom of the wedding. The lighting is very low-key which adds to the dark feel of the sequence and also helps to create suspense when combined with the use of loud foley footsteps.



The camera then cuts back to the female character's face and we can see the tip of the other character's shoe. The other character is still not being shown in the camera to make the sequence mysterious. The use of restricted narration here links with the low-key lighting to really create a mysterious feel and to establish an enigma.

Due to the other character speaking the audience is informed that they are male. After some dialogue the male character bends down and brings a napkin with the word "Bill" written on it. The male character slowly wipes the females cuts with the napkin. The moment the napkin touches the female character's face the speed of her breathing increases dramatically, this works like a build up in background music because when the speed increases and becomes more prominent the audience is informed that something is going to happen. This creates enigma in the same way a crescendo in background music would but it has a subtle yet powerful impact. The female characters facial expression also becomes more scared and she starts to shake so much that it is very visual. As the male character wipes the cuts of the female character the female character's eyes begin to stare into nothingness, her eyes stop moving around and she stares straight which is a visual sign that someone is thinking so this makes us wonder what she is thinking about, she could be thinking about what the man is going to do next.

When the male character has finished wiping the female characters face we hear a few sounds of the man shuffling and a case or box being opened but we are still not shown the male character or what he is doing. Although, we do know that whatever the man is doing is scaring and shocking the female character as her eyes widen and her pupils dilate when we hear the man bringing something out. The female character begins to shake her head slightly but not so obviously which indicates that what the man is doing is not what she wants him to.

There is then an exchange of dialogue where the female addresses the male character as "Bill" and begins to speak and all we hear is "The baby is your-". The female character is cut off because the man has just shot the female character. We see a quick splatter of blood on the wall behind the female character and then it cuts to the opening credits. This action is very quick and unexpected and therefore very effective at keeping the audience on the edge of their seats and when it cuts to the opening credits it indicates that this is only the start and there is much more action to come which keeps the audience interested.

This opening is very effective because of the restricted narration, we never get shown the male characters face throughout the whole opening sequence which creates enigma. Due to most of the sequence being a close up of the female characters face we are left to question where they are and what is going on which creates this disorientation that is to be expected in a thriller film.

As the killing of the female character is shown at the beginning of the film it could be assumed that the plot of the sequence is non-chronological which is common among thriller films as it adds to the mystery and confusion which is complimented by the action.

Overall, I feel that the sequence is very effective at keeping the audience interested due to the restricted narration techniques used. As we never see the male character throughout the sequence we are left to question what the male character could possibly be doing to upset the female character. The non-chronological plot order also compliments the restricted narration as it also keeps the audience on the edge of their seats and constantly wondering what is going to happen next.