The camera then shows her son eating cheerios which suggests that this is seen as a normal routine for this family. Her husband then bursts through the kitchen whilst holding one of their other sons in his arms but trying to calm him down, as he is kicking and screaming. The viewers are then shown how different this child is to the other child eating cheerios as he is forced to sit in the armchair whilst the parents strap and tape him to the handles. By introducing the characters this way it suggests to the viewers that this child is not normal and the parents use violence which the children eventually learn from.The boy becomes progressively worse and the mother slaps the boy after he has scratched her on the hand - by the use of violence from the mother to calm the child it represents residual ideology.
However, this film introduces the characters in a subtle and mysterious way as they are shown to be violent but their faces are not shown throughout the opening sequence, and if they are, they are only glimpses and are not shown for more than 2 seconds eg. when the mother gives the one son more cereal, we beliefly see her face. By using this technique it relates back to the genre as it makes the movie to be seen as mysterious and represents Barthe's Enigma Code as the viewers wonder why the one child is more disturbed than the other.
The continuity editing in this sequence is very effective as by the use of slow cinematography at the beginning raises tension and suspicion as the viewers wonder why wax is dripping down the table. There are also jump cuts of the woman stirring the wax and pouring it into the sculpture and by the close up shot of the mask and wax being poured around it makes the sculpture seem suspicious as it could have been a made up sculpture or someones actual face. By the use of props it makes this sequence more powerful as the camera mainly focuses on the objects in the room rather than the people as we are not shown any faces, this could connote that the tools and objects this woman is using could be seen as important in this movie by the way she makes the sculpture and could come up later on in the movie.
I think this sequence is very interesting as I like the way the characters are introduced in an anonymous way by only showing shots to their shoulders, not above. I also think by showing this little story at the beginning sets the plot and why the children are disturbed when they are older. After this story is told the title 'House of Wax' takes over the screen and we see these letters also made by wax and melting which could again connote melting blood.
We are first shown a river by a crane camera shot which eventually shows the viewers a medium close up of a mans face. The mans then glances to the woman in the bed who has just woken up. The close up of the mans face afterwards suggests that he seems distraught and distracted by the way he is ignoring the woman. The camera then flips to the womans point of view and we slowly see the man flip himself over the balcony. By the use of no non-diegetic sound in this sequence it raises tension for the audience and suspense as they are waiting for something to happen.
The camera then flips back to the mans point of view as he is falling down the balcony and then suddenly we are shown a reaction shot of the woman as she is looking over the balcony at his bent body on the road.
By the use of this short story it demonstrates Barthe's Enigma Code as the viewers are left wondering why this man has commited suicide and why the woman was so oblivious at first and not thinking that he would throw himself over the balcony as she attempts to start conversation with him.
No comments:
Post a Comment