The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (American Version) Analysis (Director; David Fincher, Date of Release; 2011) - By Sam Swinson
Key
- Camera
- Editing
- Sound
- Mise en Scene
- Key Terms
Analysis
The opening to ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ starts out with an establishing shot of a snowy lake (Figure 1). This is an extreme long shot and the camera pans to reveal a small house in the trees by the lake. The shot looks very desaturated or discoloured which starts to get the audience to question if this is in the old times. The non-diegetic background music is slow-paced and it connotes mystery to the audience. The music is pipe instruments and the piano. Additionally, as the house comes into the frame of the pan a diegetic phone ringing foley sound can be heard. The phone ringing is an off-screen sound because the audience can’t see where the phone ringing is coming from in the frame.
Next there is a cut to a long shot of the house and the audience can see that it is snowing outside which suggests that the house is in a cold and snowy country like Sweden (Figure 2). On top of this, it suggests to the audience that the person receiving the phone call is in this house. Then as the diegetic phone rings again there is a cut to inside the house where there is an old man picking up the phone. As the audience see the phone they can tell that they are in the current day because the phone has a digital screen. Shallow depth of field is used to bring the focus to the man picking up the phone because the shelving that is just in the comer of the frame is out of focus.
The first line of dialogue we hear is “what kind is it?” (Figure 3) this creates and enigma because the audience doesn't know who is on the other end of the phone call. Also, the character who picked up the phone straight away asked a question which suggests that he knew the phone call was going to happened and he already knows what the phone call is about. This adds to the enigma because the audience don’t know who he is talking to and they don’t know how the characters know each other. Furthermore, the characters costume doesn’t tell the audience whether he is a good or a bad character.
When we first see the character who is calling on the phone we see that he is in an office space (Figure 4). This shot is a close-up shot of the character and it only shows the back of this characters head so the audience is wondering who this character is. This is shown to the audience by the use of props, for example, there is an office desk and an old style office chair. On top of this, the lighting used for this part of the sequence is from a window and a lamp on this characters desk. This gives this character a shadow on one side because half of his body is lit and the other half is in the dark. This will confuse the audience because it means that they can't tell whether t this character is a good or bad character in the plot. This helps add to the enigma of who these two characters that we have seen are and what relation they will have to the plot. In addition, there is an opened package on his desk that he seems to be looking at as he asks the questions to the man on the phone which suggests that whatever he received in his package it could be relevant to the story. Furthermore, on his desk, there is a magnifying glass prop that could connote that this character is an investigator or he has been looking closely at the package that he has received. The character is wearing a suit as his costume which suggest to the audience that he could be powerful or wealthy. This helps make this a thriller because the audience is being given all these questions by what they are seeing, also, the opening sequence has the key conventions of a thriller like an enigma. During this shot, the non-diegetic background music becomes very slow paced, which matches the editing pace, and it is very quiet which puts more emphasis on the dialogue.
After this, the camera cuts back to a close-up shot of the other character as he is walking and it shows him stop as he says the line "and no note" (Figure 5). The character sigh's just before he says that line of dialogue which suggests to the audience that this phone call has taken place before and that both characters are confused by the package. On top of this, his body language shows that audience that this character was hoping that there was going to be a note with this package, however, because there was no note the character has been let down so he drops his shoulders. Also, his facial expression shows the audience that he was expecting there not to be a note with the package. Additionally, the character in the office says "same as last time" which suggest to the audience that he has been sent a package like this before or even multiple times. This adds to the enigma of what the package is and what its relevance to the story is.
Next we get a close-up of the man in the suit. This shows us the side of his face to reveal that he is an old man. Additionally, shallow depth of field is used to make the audience focus on the man in the centre of the frame. In this shot, we see the man take off his glasses and place them on the desk and we see him hang up the phone. As he does both of theses things he does them in such a way to connote that he is frustrated. This adds to the enigma and keeps the audience wondering about the package and the two characters. The character walks out of the frame and the audience doesn't get to see his face from the front at all throughout the sequence. As he walks out of the frame the focus is shifted to the package on his desk as the camera does a slow tilt down to reveal a framed item on his desk (Figure 6). As the picture get closer to being in the center of the frame the non-diegetic background music increases in volume. Then the picture is in the shot for a long duration which suggests to the audience that is is going to be very important in the story of the film and the picture is iconic for 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. After this, there is a fade to black transition which is used to end the opening sequence.
Overall, the sequence works well as a thriller because it has some of the main conventions of a thriller film. One convention that this sequence uses well is it creates an enigma because the audience want to know who the characters are and they want to know about the picture like who sent it and why is it relevant to the story and this keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. Additionally, it appeals to the target audience of young adults to adults well because it keeps them questioning what is happening. The pace of editing is slow which matches the non-diegetic background music and the main transition used is cut and there is a fade at the end of the sequence. On top of this, parallel cutting is used effectively to give the audience and idea of what both of the characters are doing as they are on the phone to each other.
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