An Analysis of an Opening Sequence By Justin Bishop

The Italian Job ( Felix Gary Gray, 2003)


Genre
The Italian Job (Gray, 2003) would conform to the Britsh Gangster genre. Even though in the opening sequence you do not see british actors, and the director is not british, it is based on a film written by a british man, it contains actors like Jason Statham who is a british actor who takes part in many british gangster films such as Lock, Sock and two Smokin' Barrels (Ritchie, 1998) and Snatch (Ritchie, 2000). In your average british gangster film you would expect to see violence, drugs, organised crime, and also many others, but in this filom you hardly see any of those conventions in the opening sequence. But questions are put forward, there are a lot of quick shots showing somebody drawing on a map, and also you see some routes on a map which could shopw one convention of british gangster which would be organised crime. Also the first character shown, who is in Venice, is on the phone talking to his daughter. His daughter talks about how she thinks he may have stolen the diamond thing saying' Does it have a reciept', this shows that this man may be involved with crime. She also talks about him being on parol which shows that this man is a gangster of some sort. This text does conform to the characteristics of the genre to an extent because it does not show you what crime is going to happen, but it does show you bits of a man drawing on a map which can raise questions about crime, but it does speak about crime and how the people involved may have been involved in crime in the past or present.

Film Language
The film starts off with some quick editing of sifferent scenes which immediatly shows the audience where this film is being set and also if there is going to be and=y crime. Thsi is shown where the man is drawing on the map which would give the impression that he is drawing routes or enterances to a place that crime might occur. The Gondalas are shows to show us where the main characters are and where this is being set. The man is wearing nice clothing to show us that he may be a rich gan gster and he has just purchased whatr looks to be an expensive diamond necklace which shows us that he might be rich too. The close up on the Gondalas is to show a sense of place and to show the audience where this is set. Also there is a close up on the jewelry which also shows us how the characters might be rich and also as he says 'Optimistic'. They use a handy cam shot when following the main actor. This is used to make the camera un noticable and to make the effect that the audience is in the location with him. There is then a mid-shot to show how busy the city of venice is and the room tone shows us also how busy Venice is. The there is an extreme long shot to show the beautiful cuty of venice and also how the buildings are so big compared to the small people. This can show how powerful the city of Venice is. Also this scene shows us how he may be back into the crime business. Most of the shots on his daughter are mid shots. This is not only to show us what she looks like and that she is still in bed, but it also can show us her reactions to her fathers plans. They use quite a slow and mellow song, The it changes to an up beat sound halfway through the opening credits to create enigma and to also create tension. This is a convention of british gangster movies too to show us that the place they are in is a nice area and that they are about to do something that is rather upbeat in tempo, like crime for instance. Then the sound changes to a quick but soft back track, This is to create tension and enigma also. From the dialogue we learn that his daughter is angry that he is planning on doing this because she says, 'Don't Break my Heart'. This shows that her father in the crime business makes her upset and she does not approve of his 'job'. From her fathers dialogue we learn that he loves hsi daugfhter and also that he does not listen to the law but he is a very nice person which we can grow to like because he has bought his daughter an expensive gift. The director used very quick editing during the opening credits. This is used well because it creates a lot of tension and enigma and also makes the audience ask a lot of questions.

Narrative
In this openign sequence there is no narrative at all but you can learn some things from the dialogue and the way the dialogue is structured. They talk a lot about crime but in a subtle way. This is introducing us to the main characters and how they react to crime. Also the dialogue creates a sense of enigma about the main character because you do not learn much, just that he is a family man and that he is a criminal, but you dont learn about his personality. His daughter takes crime to be a bad thing, whereas he takes crime as a good thing and because he has been in the game for a while he knows what to do. The audience is priveledged in a sense because they are not actually spoken to directly, but they arelistening in on a private call between the daughter and father. You learn through the camera techniques and screen time that the two characters are important becaus ethey have alot of screen time and also that you can see them clearly and hear them clearly. Though you don't know much about their personality this may be learnt later in the film. Both are shown in a good light in the sense that nothing bad is said or done about them or to them. Two big stars, Charlize Theron and David Sutherland, and shown first, this is because they are very big characters and famous actors. They pinpoint star characters at the begining so we can learn a bit about them first. Some themes that are said in the dialogue are about crime and also about their love for eachother and the dialogue shows how close the two are by when she says 'Why don't you come over for breakfast'. This makes it seem like this may be a normal thing. Tension is created and maintained by the music in the background. This music speeds up when something important happens and slows down when it is calmer and more relaxed.

Representation and Ideology
The social groups represented in this opening sequence are gondola riders and drivers, Tourists, gangsters, and also the gangsters daughter. These social groups are not really shown in a good or bad light but besides the gangster and his daughter, they are just shown as back ups and props to the film. Some values shown in this film is that crime is bad. This is shown when the daughters reactions are very bad towards her father saying he is in venice and may eb there because of organised crime. A diamond necklace is shown which he has boughten for his daughter. The dennotations of this may be that it is just a diamond necklace. But the connotations could be him saying sorry in advance for being into crime again, or this could also mean that he bought it for her because he may die and wants to give her a goodbye present.

Media Audience
The most likely target audience for this film would be from people around 12, because this is rated 12A, to around 60. Peopleover 60 may not appreciate this because they may find the violence and rude language offensive. Thsi is not for under 12's for the same reason that it may be offensive, and may teach them things that they dont need to knoe like crime and violence. The preffered reading of this text would be that even though crime looks like a good lifestyle, it is still wrong. But in the neggotiated reading it may be that crime is wrong, but the lifestyle does look evry attractive if he can afford an expensive looking diamond necklace.The oppositional reading would be that in some cases crime is good but bad in others, and in the abberant reading it would be that the criminal lifestyle pays off and is worth it because they can afford nice things and travel to very beautiful places like Venice. I would read this text by the oppositional reading because I know that crime is a bad thing but I do think that they have a good lifestyle and a lot of british teenagers would watch this film and agree that the lifestyle they are watching is a lifestyle that a lot of us wish we could have when we are older.

Institutional Context
A Lot of stars were used in this film such as Mark Wahlberg who got very famous through Planet of the apes. Charlize Theron was used too who is a start because of Sweet November. Jason Statham was used who got big through a lot of Ritchies films. And others were used like Seth Green and Edward Norton. This mixed bunch would be a very big selling point for this film because a lot of fans of all of these actors and actresses will want to see their new film so this will atracts not only a british audience, but an American audience and a big global audience. This was released by Paramount which is a very big Industrial film company. When released on DVD it was released by Paramount Home Entertainment which means it will be mass produced. Also because of this it will ber released on Blu-Ray which it has and has now become Paramounts Highest Grossing film. The film poster contains all of the key characters and Stars which is good because this is a key selling point to promote the movie and the stars involved. The trailer is very upbeat and also higley edited, showing all the main characters and stars to help sell the fim and characters in it. It was also released at the Tribeca film festival which is a very big film festival which can help to show the film as important