Research into thriller openings - Stephen Potter - 3

Research into thriller openings – Pulp Fiction

Pulp fiction is one of Quentin Tarantinos most famous films, I find it surprising that this film is considered a thriller due to its almost comedic look and as it is a film that is not as serious and a tense as other films in this Genre.

The first shot we are presented with is what seems to be a couple within a diner, the male says “we can’t it’s too risky”. From this piece of dialogue we can tell or at least safely assume that they are planning to do something illegal, due to the body language of the female character, she comes across to the spectators as jittery and could therefore be unstable, whereas the male comes across as calm due to him lighting a cigarette. The conversation between these two characters is based on robbing places, they speak in such a calm way that these characters come across as seasoned criminals if they can freely talk about it. The use of body language and dialogue to establish characters mood are all parts of mise en scene, and have deliberately been utilised by Quentin Tarantino. Although the themes of the film are very mature, they are presented and handled in a way which makes them more realistic, hence why a couple in a diner attempting/contemplating to rob it is slightly more believable, Although this does not bring much enigma to the introduction, apart from leaving us questioning why they are criminals and who they are.

 After their conversation, and it is agreed they hold up the diner, the male gets a pistol out and says “same as last time”, confirming the thought they are seasoned criminals. The pistol is also shown directly in a Medium Close Up, the director has chosen to use this shot size to highlight the pistol as an important item.

This introduction is different than the other thrillers in the way that this s comprised of mostly dialogue, whereas the others are not, because the less that is revealed, the more enigma and mystery there is.