Analysis of "Se7en" Opening Scene

An opening sequence for any film should: 1. Establish Character 2. Create Mood and Setting 3. Create Enigma.

The title sequence in the film “Se7en” meets these criteria in several different ways. It introduces a character even before any titles or credits, this gives the impression that this is going to be the main character throughout the film or play an important part in the plot. It creates a mood by the character setting off the metronome and the continuous ticking noise associating us with the sound of clock and as though the character is running out of time, or is being timed. Then taking in to account the fact that we know it is a Crime – Thriller we can put the pieces together and guess that the main character we see first could be a detective type character and the ticking could symbolise his time running out to catch the criminal. The metronome could also be a part of enigma because it could symbolise something that we become to understand why it is important and it unfolds later in the story.

The next bit of the opening includes scenes of distorted images, writing and drawings on paper and pictures being developed. This is a major example of enigma, the distorted images act as “clues” to what the story is about, at this point we do not know if they are actual clues related to the story or if they are giving us an insight to a character but they are factors that we will find out about later on in the story.

The last section shows a building with the word “Monday” printed on the top, this gives us the understanding that it is a Monday; the start of a week and so potentially it is a new day with no current events happening before this day. Then it cuts to a man and women asleep in bed, we have to guess that the building we saw is their apartment. The man gets out of bed trying not to disturb the women, as though he is getting up early for work or something along those lines. This gives us the idea that there could be two main characters or that this character could be related to the character or even that this character is working for the first character. That is also an example of enigma because we will have to wait and find out.