Analysis of Kiss Me Deadly

(Kiss Me Deadly, Robert Aldrich,1995,USA)

Cinematography

As an audience, we are shown of a women running without any shoes and she is wearing just a long coat. And there is hyperbolic sound being used which is die-getic of her breathing heavily. As an audience this makes them believe she may be running away from someone. The camera shot is a close up of her foot and changes to a low angle where the camera is a little tilted down towards her, this shot shows her very small status. After there is a mid shot of her, the women’s facial expressions are shown very clearly that she is frightened. There is an establishing shot that clearly sets the scene it is an isolated dark lonely road. There is the car that comes speeding at her and swerves; this shot has the rule of third applied to it. While the women and the man are in the frame there is space in the centre. The women’s gets into the car with the man this starts to show many shots as we see the man talking. Titles start to appear, we see the back of the heads of the man and women which is showing an over the shoulder shots.

Mise- en-scene


The costume the woman is wearing is a trench coat, which clearly indicates that she may be just wearing that without anything under. She is bare foot, that shows she may have run away from someone and she is in stress and is not really taking much notice of her appearance. The colour which used is black and white this has a very strong affect on the audience because it makes dark colours stand out and the appearance of objects. The facial expression on the women shows strongly she is not in a happy mood, more distress and in a mood were she isn’t thinking right. The car is white which gives an impression of a hero because the old impression of a hero with a white horse.

Editing


The editing in this sequence is very simple, the title scrolled down with a black background, this has an effect on the audience because it makes the white words stand out in bold. The shot of the women’s foot cuts straight into the next shot which is the mid shot. Very similarly the shots continue like this. There are some shots that are longer than others this is because the quick shots build up tension. The longer paced shots are more calm and slow.

Sound

The sound in “Kiss Me Deadly” is very important, without it there will not be the same affect because it will be just image and no sound. There is hyperbolic sound used at the beginning and throughout the opening sequence. It is of the women breathing heavily, which indicates she is out of breath. It also sounds s like she is crying maybe due to distress and being afraid. The opening sequence clearly shows that it is a thriller because of the way the titles appeared and the way the filmed started of the women out of breath and nearly dyeing from a car crash. These small techniques being used shows the type of genre it is. It is also a noir genre a type of detective movie.