Walk on the Wild Side opening Analysis

Walk on the Wild Side -1962 Edward Dmytryts

Mise-en-scene: The audience is introduced to a section of the location which looks like a building site where a black cat makes its way out of one of the concrete tunnels. The cat is shown walking through various fences and tunnels which could suggest that the cat is powerfull and has no barriers. Later on in the sequence we are introduced to a second cat which has white fur, the two cats then fight which shows good against evil. Like in most thriller films good against evil is an iconic plot. There is a strong use of binary opposition used in the fight scene as the fight shows black against white which connotes a sense of good against evil.

Titles: The titles shown are both in serif font and capitals, in white again the dark background on screen showing strong binary opposition.

Editting: The editing is very slowpased it shows many dissolves and tracking shots of the cat, this creates suspence as it makes the audience curious to what happens next. The slow pased editting speeds up during the fight scene reinforced by various jump cuts.

Sound: There is non-diagetic music played through out the sequence, it helps create excitment during the fight scene and also keeps the pace through out the sequence.

Camera: We are introduced to a close up of the black cat which is centralised in the center of the screen. We get many low angle shots of the cat walking around which helps to make it look very empowering, and we also get a birds eye view shot of the cat.