Kiss Me Deadly - Analysis

Cinematography

In the film ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ cinematography plays a huge part in creating a thriller atmosphere. Within the film we witness a large amount of mid shots. The mid shots create a sense of uncertainty for us as viewers. For the reason that we do not have a complete image of the person and we do not know who she is. The mid shots also attempts to play on our minds as we start to convince ourselves of the role the character plays. We see a focus pull at the beginning of the film of the car begins to gradually come closer to the women in the road. This not only wants us to believe the car is not going to stop but it also add a great deal of tension to us as an audience. Even so, the point of view shot of the women watching the car approaching the lady also adds to the tension created. As viewers we feel as though we are in the women’s shoes which then terrify us as we believe we will be run over or majorly injured if the car does not stop. The gentle establishing shot of the car coming along the road uses the rule of thirds as we break up the images into various segments and try to piece the story together.

Mise-en-scene

Moving on, the mise-en-scene in Kiss Me Deadly is a very typical setting of a thriller due to the time of day it is set. It is set at night time in a lonely countryside A road. Because of the distinctive setting we believe something or someone is about to jump out of grassland besides the road. I believe the setting is good as there are many dark colours and it seems as though the road leads to trouble due to the director focusing heavily on the rules of thirds whilst composing the film. Besides, the female character in the film uses strong but exaggerated facial expressions. She seems to be terrified and as if she has been tortured. These facial expressions are captivating and pull us further into the film. The female character is barely wearing any clothes but a long, pale scruffy jacket, she has not even got any shoes on her feet therefore she must have been in such a awful state she had to leave in a hurry. The car I believe is a superior prop which we mainly focus on. The car is a white sports car, we normally associate the colour white with objects such as clouds, snow and flowers which appear often in nature, therefore it is stereotyped to frequently be related to purity and cleanness.

Sound

Sound in the film Kiss Me Deadly progressively gets more interesting whist the story moves on. There is a soundtrack which plays in the background it is very ominous which makes a viewer feel tense whilst indulged with the film. There is diegetic sound of the car skidding off track almost hitting the female character. There is a large amount of dialogue between the arrogant man who is more concerned about his car then the lady he nearly killed. There is also incidental music in the background when the lady stands in front of the oncoming traffic, this adds atmosphere to the action which is a threatening tone and startles the audience. The incidental music immediately alerts the audience that something is going to enhance the depiction of the story advancing the film.

Editing

The film was made in 1955 therefore it is a very old film. The film is in the style of black and white which personally does not appeal to me. However there is a good reason to compose the film in black and white, it makes items such as fog; mist and smoke heavily stand out within the shots. The smoke or dust which is visible when the car skids off the road is highly exaggerated for visual effects. This makes the film look realistic. An audience may react more sharply towards this as the smoke or dust almost looks as if it explodes. There is match on action between the two characters just as they are about to have a conversation. Once again this type of editing just makes the shots look more interesting for a viewer to watch.