Layer Cake opening monolouge

This is the longest version of the intro i could find.

Review of ‘Layer Cake’

The introduction of Layer Cake is made to do one main thing; it makes you sympathize with the main character. First of all it does this by using a voice over in order to give the audience the feeling they are inside his head. He starts by talking about how drugs came about as a “billion dollar business”, he starts to explain this showing you a robbery, it involves people with guns and masks, like a classic 70’s bank robbery, this immediately shows the audience it is a robbery but it uses a slow moving crane shot which does not match the action going on. It then smoothly transitions into a pan of people smoking drugs, it does this by using a texture match by zooming in on a women’s hair and then zooming out of a mans hair in the next scene this shows the audience a change in time, in this scene he talks about the introduction of drugs to certain countries. Towards the end of the pan you see a woman walking this slowly changes into guard’s legs at a prison, this shows that drug dealers go to prison. In the prison scene you see the men who were robbing the bank talking to the man who was drug dealing, the voice over then talks about how drug dealers and robbers bound together to make the drug dealers we have today.

After the explanation how drugs became popular to use and deal in certain countries you see the first shot of Daniel Craig, it is obvious that he is the main character because as he starts talking about himself in the first person he appears on the screen. You see him in a pharmacy shopping but everything on the shelves is a drug, for example cocaine and speed, this shows what he is thinking, they are also under a popular brand name. It also plays a very relaxed song; this shows that this character is very mellow. As he carries his items over to the counter everything begins to change into the normal thing you see in a pharmacy like vitamins and cough sweets.

The next scene is of him walking down a street with his bag. He says on the voice over “I’m not a gangster, I’m a business man who’s commodity happens to be cocaine.” This puts you on his side. Just after this it uses a crane to show him walking into a flat, he says that a kilo is worth one thousand pound, it then shows four kilo’s on the table, this shows that he is rich without him saying it because this could ruin your impression of this character. He then puts on a mask and begins to handle the cocaine, this shows that he is not a user himself, this also makes him more likable because drugs are associated with bad people. It then shows you these bad people by cross cutting to Amsterdam and the voice over talking about keeping away from loud people, because the next shot is of someone kicking a police car and getting drunk while the sun is still up this shows that these are the people he does not want to get involved with because they will get him into trouble.

You then see him and the rest of his accomplices in a meeting, he is issuing money to each of them while talking about giving money out fairly on the voice over to keep them happy, this again makes him look smart and fair making him more likeable to the audience. He then talks about paying his boss the right amount on time in order to keep him on your side again showing that he is smart. He then tells one of his people to “shut up”, this is the first thing you see come directly from his mouth, this confirms that he is the main character but it also shows that he is the boss before the boss he was talking about before hand. After this a man walks in and takes money from Daniel Craig’s character (who is not given a name throughout the whole film) and says that ‘Jimmy’ wants to meet with him, the music suddenly changes and his friend looks nervous, this shows that when Jimmy wants to chat it is usually not a good thing. After this he says “when you have a plan, stick to it” it then shows him transferring money across to another bank account, he states that he is saving a million for his retirement. This again allows you to sympathize with him, making you like him more, but you realise that it is not all going to be that easy, and makes you ask the questions, “what will happen when he meets with Jimmy?” and “what is going to happen with the people from Amsterdam?”

Pulp Fiction Opening Restaurant Scene

An Evaluation of Pulp Fiction By Luke Watt

I think that the opening to “Pulp Fiction” is good because it is funny, takes an unexpected turn and reveals a lot more than you first may think.

 

The introduction to pulp fiction talks about robbery and holding people for ransoms, this is very much linked to gangsters which is basically what the film is about, but it does not show an organized pair of gangsters, they very much go with the flow, make a decision when it comes to it which is also shown in the introduction even though the people in the introduction are not the couple you follow through the film.

 

The introduction uses lots of two-shots to show it is a fairly private conversation between two people. They use mid shots and long shots through out to show where they are and when a third person comes over. They use a close up when he puts the gun on the table to create suspense. The sound is very normal and plain to show it is a normal day in a plain restaurant/coffee shop. 

 

The introduction does not introduce the main characters, in fact it seems that it is not linked to the main characters at all until the very last scene, by doing this it makes you want to know what happens with these characters and it keeps this from you right until the end.

 

The introduction introduces absolutely nothing about the plot and unless you watch the film very carefully it is hard to pick up the plot at all.

 

The introduction introduces the theme of gangsters by showing some fairly amateur robbers. It is showing you one end of the scale before introducing you to the upper end who are the main characters. But it does not introduce the theme of gangsters like stereotypical gangsters of today but as more mature and experienced gangsters.

 

It introduces a very laid back atmosphere until the end shot when they start shouting. There is no huge gun fight or car chase and no particular problem is made obvious. It very much undercuts expectation because you see the adverts or hear from friends that it is a film about gangsters, but the introduction is just about a pair of amateur robbers discussing whether or not to rob a restaurant/coffee shop.

 

The introduction hooks you because you want to know what happens to the couple in the introduction, whether they manage to rob the store, whether they get away, and a bit later on, how they are linked in with the main characters and story.