​AARON'S AS MEDIA

This is the third film I decided to deconstruct, Filth. Unfortunately, because it's a reasonably new film I couldn't find a copy of the opening anywhere online, so I can't provide a link, however I have included some screen captures of the sequence, above. Filth is available to watch for free on Netflix. 

At the very beginning of the film, we are presented with a screen of full, bright red with bold white text. The text is simply the titles. The music accompanying the titles is the famous Christmas song 'Walking in a Winter Wonderland', we can tell from the colours and music that it is probably Christmas in the film, this is confirmed a little later on in the opening. The music and accompanying colours give the titles a warm and jolly feeling, which is somewhat ironic as it contrasts the actual substance of the film, which is very cold and dark. 

Once the titles have finished, we see a slim, blonde haired lady, dressed all in black, looking at herself in a mirror and applying make-up. She appears to be in a bedroom, which is very black and white, in fact the whole scene is based upon the colours black and white, I think this is in order to use symbolism and iconography as the only things that are a different colour are her hair, her lipstick and her eyes. This could be to infer she is angelic and somewhat sexual. The music then begins slowly fading out as 'Carole', the lady looking in the mirror begins to narrate, we can tell she is narrating as her lips aren't moving although she is talking about herself and her marriage with 'Bruce', who is the antagonist in the film, who we meet later. We see Carole walking down a hallway and dressing up in very up-market and 'sexy' lingerie and clothes. The colour scheme throughout, what we can only assume is her house, is continually white, black and occasionally red. We then see a bunch of close-ups of Carole applying lipstick, putting earrings on, putting on stockings on, and putting her feet in high heels. We then follow her 'heels' as she walks down the street and into an underpass, the screen then cuts to a shot from the underpass looking up at Carole, she is shown as angelic again, by being surrounded in smoke, consequently we can only see the outline of her figure. On the stairs of the underpass we see a man, supposedly drunk, dressed as Santa Clause urinating against the wall, the red of his costume is glowing and emphasises the colour red once more. We then cut to a shot of an Asian man (later found to be a student) being followed and bothered by a group of young Scots, who go on to beat the man, who fails to speak English, to death, until Carole whistles loudly to alert them of her presence, the group quickly run off. Carole then approaches the student, crouches beside him and then looks up at the camera. We then cut straight to another scene, part of the opening of Filth. 

In this scene, we are introduced to Bruce. To begin we see him walking through an archway which is part of a castle, and over the drawbridge. Bruce is dressed in a suit and suit-coat unlike the people he shares the street with, who happen to be in tracksuits and less 'official' clothing. As he walks through the street, Bruce begins to narrate, taking over from his wife,  in a thick Scotch accent. Bruce talks about all the things Scotland has contributed to the world, and why being Scottish is so great; describing Scots as "such a uniquely successful race" as he walks, ironically, past a family of overweight, ginger, Scots, dressed in tracksuits, pregnant, eating, smoking, and drinking whiskey. He then continues down the street and blatantly puts his fingers in his ears as he walks past, and stares, at a man in a kilt playing the bagpipes, Bruce says "Like my wife Carole says, there's no place like home". Bruce, who is now smoking a cigarette, joins a cue for an ATM machine. In front of him in the cue is a mother, who is busy on her phone, and her son (of about 5 or 6 years old) holding a yellow, smiley-faced balloon, the child frowns and sticks his middle finger up at Bruce, Bruce then retaliates by taking the balloon - letting it go and sticking both of his middle fingers up at the child. All of these short events, acts and comments show Bruce's contradictory, miserable side and skewed, dark sense of humour.  It then becomes apparent to the audience that Bruce is a police detective as he walks into a Police station, after flicking a coin towards a newspaper seller who hands him a copy of the Evening News with the headline 'JAPANESE STUDENT MURDERED' on the front. This is the end of the opening as the screen cuts to Bruce sat, unsatisfied, in a meeting with other detectives.