SCARFACE
Released in 1932 by Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson is a famous film noir that was made to aware the citizens of America and send a message to the American government about the gang wars and the violence in the streets.
The story’s about a young adult that fights to climb the ladder of the success in the mob. Below I will be talking about the opening of this movie highlighting technical points like the mise en scene, sound, editing and cinematography.
SOUND:
In the opening sequence in Scarface there is violin’s, cellos and trumpets score. These were used in the 1900’s because this sort of music was most enjoyed back in those days. It is also very southing to listen to. Then, there is no other sound than the diegetic sound made by the 3 men talking around the table. At the end of the scene we can hear a Foley sound made by a man whistling followed by a special effect of gunshot.
EDITING:
In this opening, they no particular use of editing because the movie was made in the early 30’s.At the time, movies were filmed with super 8 cameras that directly gave the images on blank screen.
CINEMATOGRAPHY:
In this opening, it all starts with a warm angle shot that shows a street lamp indicating the name of the street. On the same shot the camera turns to the restaurant the keeps filming the scene until the end when the man get killed. For this, they only made one long shot.
MISE-EN-SCENE:
In this movie, the three men wear black suits, typical dress of film noir characters. Seated around a round table smoking cigarettes witch are often used as props in film noir movies. At the end of the opening, a guy wearing a hat holds a gun, witch are perfect props for this genre.