Opening sequences of a film generally introduce the audience to the tone and theme of a film as well as the cast, crew and company. it is more than just a list of credits, and can become a min movie of its own, establishing mood, period and styles and can be seen as an art form. in this essay I will be comparing the films 'Catch Me If You Can' and 'Amelie' and i will discuss the use of genre, characters, camera shots, lighting, colour and storyline to see how these are aimed at a certain type of target audience.
‘Catch Me If You Can' is a Stephen Spielburg American crime film based on the life of Frank Abignale Junior who successfully conned millions of dollars by posing as a Panam airways pilot, a doctor, an attorney and as a parish prosecutor through cheque forgery, all before his 19th birthday. It stars Leonardo Di Caprio, Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken. The film was created to exploit the sympathy we feel towards the crook and deals with themes of troubled childhoods, broken homes and people on the run from their pasts throughout.
The elegant retro intro to Catch me perfectly sets the scene and time period. The sequence moves through various brightly coloured animated locations (an airport, the road, the poolside, a hospital) the colour scheme changing with each new setting. It describes the events of the movie almost literally but without ruining its events and still highlights the films topic. This prepares the audience for the main narrative and can be most fully appreciated after watching the whole film. The constant perpetual motion and endless metamorphosis follows a chase motif but in an excited and playful manner. Helped by the use of music, up tempo and stirring. But it can also be used as a metaphor for the new and jet setting prosperities of the mid 1960’s. Spielburg also uses vivid arrows above Abagnale and Hanratty’s heads to emphasise the tracking of their progress but additionally to keep the audience’s attention on their movements.
Eventually the two characters meet in the same frame and this turns to a fade out, leaving suspense and anticipation as to what will come next.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s romantic comedy Amelie is a film set in Montmarte, Paris about a young woman, grown up isolated from other children, who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better. Living with her iceberg of a father and her neurotic mother, until her untimely death, when Amelie is only six years old. Left even more alone, Amelie develops an unusually active imagination. At 23 she finds an old metal box of childhood memorabilia hidden by a boy who lived in her apartment decades earlier, inspired by this she decides to devote her life to bringing happiness to others.
The opening sequence of Ameile establishes the movie’s themes of happiness and simple pleasures throughout its surreal but unique visual style and creates the films quirky sense of humour. Most characters in stories are introduced by their characteristics, but Jeaunet introduces his characters by their likes and dislikes. These are not important to the overall plot, but they are humourous in their abnormality. For example, Amelie likes skipping stones and dislikes drivers who do not watch the road in old movies. The openings use vivid colours, lighting and an amusing voiceover which all combined create a feel-good experience.
The things young Amelie is doing whilst the credits occur are related to the credits themselves – playing with wine glasses and making noises when the composer’s credit is shown. She cuts out paper dolls for the editor, and plays with her mouth for the script and dialogue writers. And I think this shows the simple beauty and uniqueness of ordinary people.
The specific colours used enhance the films surreal atmosphere, emphasizing that while the film is set in modern Paris, it is not however the Paris of the real world but Jeunet’s fantasy version of it. Green tends to be the background colour and the main objects are red. The openings camera movement is unique as well. Where the camera moves subtly, even though it could easily not move at all and this gives the sense that the camera is almost floating around its subjects at all times, like it is the character itself. This camera dance allows the viewer to follow and become not only an observer but an important part of the action as well.
Catch Me If You Can - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaLDyrun_Cc
Amelie - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9FdDw1esFM
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