Wallander - Analysis

Cinematography

Cinematography in the Film Wallander draws a lot of attention to the viewer’s so they are very engaged. We see an extreme close up of a bloody knife in a female characters hand. As a viewer I personally feel abstract to this as I do not usually come across knives smothered in blood in the first minute or two of an opening sequence. I believe the establishing shot at the start of the opening sequence is almost perfect, the camera tracks along the water and land which shows the landscape of setting of the film. The tracking shot immediately sets the mood of the film and gives an unnerving effect which makes an audience think something unpredictable is going to happen. The framing of the shots in Wallander are done as if they are photographs. Every object within the frame is central; if I was to split the shots up into 9 equal segments every square would look symmetrical. As viewers we are attracted to the well composed shots which also make us feel relaxed whilst we absorb the storyline of the film.

Mise-en-scene

Furthermore, there is a taxi drivers ID covered in blood which makes the characters seem more authentic as we try to predict what his life was like or even the type of character he was. An audience would question if the taxi driver had any children or a wife and why he was killed. The setting of the film is in the day by the bright coastline which makes it more suspicious to the taxi driver’s death. The costumes are mainly dull and meet stereotypical teenagers dress sense of genes and a dark jacket. The girl’s clothes look messy and unclean. The adults in the opening sequence are mainly police officers and are in police uniform. The characters seem to have vicious facial expressions and seem to look as if they have no guilt what’s so ever even though they look suspicious of murder. The key prop in the opening sequence is the knife drenched in blood. The knife makes an audience believe someone has been injured or even killed from the knife. So as a viewer we question why the knife is bloody.

Sound

Sound plays a big part in the atmosphere of Wallander. There is an example of non-diegetic sound of birds which adds to the naturalist effect of the coastline. More importantly there is a low ambient sound which shows anxiety of the when we see the two shot of the characters walking along the grass pathway. As a viewer we can tell that the characters have conspired something or they will be convicted for something they may have committed. There is also interesting dialogue between the police officers; they are discussing the victim’s injuries. This then leads the audience slightly into the narrative which then encourages them to continue to watch the film so they can see if there predictions were correct.

Editing

The film Wallander has some thought-provoking parts of editing for example, we see an extreme close up of a knife which then cuts into a shot of match on action n with the knife which then cuts into the title sequence, as viewers we are surprised at this transition which makes us feel as though we want to continue to watch the film as it seems interesting. There are a few shots of eye line match for instance the male police officer looks towards the police car then the film cuts to the convicted girls in the police car. This editing effect makes the film look more continuous. Even more there are lot of focus pulls shots when the camera is focusing on the different characters. As viewers we are able to visualise the characters facial expressions stereotype the type of characters they are.