Analalysing 'The Godfather': Opening Scene

I’ve chosen to analyse is the opening scene from ‘The Godfather’. The reason I have chosen this clip is because it is very typical of a thriller genre. The non-diagetic music starts off immediately from a blank black screen. This makes the audience concentrate on only the music and to get into the mood of the movie. The word ‘father’ is held up by strings like a puppet, this maybe suggests that Gods hand is taking control. Also it gives us an idea about the film, that maybe it is about someone who has a lot of power and controls everyone’s movements like a puppet. The music playing is of a trumpet, the sound and flow of the music is slow and very tense like the blues. The calmness is used to make the audience feel comforted when watching the movie but has a twist and the disturbing atmosphere of the music makes it edgy, which makes it typical of a thriller genre. The blank black screen fades into a close-up of the Italian man. He speaks as if in a dramatic monologue and talking to the audience. We see he is wearing a suit, very smart in black and white. As the close-up of the Italian man zooms out to a mid shot we see his clothes and the mise-en-scene. There is silence in the background, no music or any diagetic sound. This is very typical of a thriller genre as the audience is drawn into what the Italian man has to say and listen to him without any distractions. The scene is very tense like a typical thriller. The audience are still unaware of who the Italian man is talking to. The Italian man is now on the right side of the frame making him less important. Us as an audience read from left to right, so now we are mainly concentrating on the Italian mans surroundings. The audience now discovers who the Italian man is talking to, we see a man’s hand out of focus resting on his face, and we assume that he is resting it on the table or an armchair. The Italian man breaks out this is the first time we see him taking his eyes away from the man he is talking to. The shot we are looking at is a view point shot from behind the man on the table. He is still out of focus and we do not recognise him and he is still a stranger to us as he is hidden. This effect makes us feel as if we are there. The Italian man looks up to the man handing over the glass of water, doesn’t thank him but gives him a gesture of thankfulness. This whole scene is shot in one shot, without any cuts. The scene zooms out throughout the whole scene to create an intense atmosphere and real time effect to make the audience feel they are there, like a typical thriller movie.