Film Analysis: V for Vendetta

Taking into consideration the amount of time which my production shall be (3-5 minutes) I have decided it would be better to "properly" analyse the opening to both of my selected films, and make points and notes referring to conventional information I feel I should include in my research.

V for Vendetta

The film begins with a dramatic speech being given from a television, the man appears passionate and gives key points which the films characters both oppose and defend. We are given two different settings - One is an apartment room with an attractive woman getting dressed. Because she puts on a black dress and looks as though she is going to somewhere fancy, we assume that (aided by the harsh tone of the speech on the television) she is going to come to harm. The camera then switches to an extravagant, almost theatrical setting in which we see a man put on the iconic mask. We never see his face due to the camera's angle. This is encoded to make the audience feel as though they shouldn't know who he is, and that he should be feared as he does not have a true identity, and that he wishes to remain anonymous. This man is listening to the same speech as the woman in the apartment which implies a relationship right from the start, even though they are unaware of each others existence.

As the speech is about to end, the speaker becomes more and more enraged until finally the woman switches off the television and vocally expresses her defiance to what the man says. We are then shown shots of the streets of London at night, with close-ups on what appear to be speaker systems on lamp posts. This implies control of the populace, and the fact that she is the only one in the street only amplifies the desired effect. We are then made aware of the silhouette of a man walking down the street towards her, this long shot implies distance between the two, but the close-up of her face shortly after displays fear. She the ducks into an alleyway and is met by two untoward looking men. The use of high angle shots in this seen makes her look small and helpless and sets her up perfectly to be the damsel of the text.  She then tries to mace one of the men, showing that she has fight in her, she is then disarmed. The man in the mask then steps into frame and gives us a quote from the bible - connoting purity despite our immediate impressions of him being someone to be feared. He proceeds to show heroic qualities as he beats up the rapists and helps the woman to her feet. The two shots used then make the couple seem close although they have only just met, and also connote that this is the first time that the two main characters have met.

Extra information
The protagonists mask and costume implies both nobility and mystery. Although he is dressed as Guys Fawkes - he had a decorum about him that gives little away to the audience of his past. The mask implies that he is something to be weary of, and that he wishes to remain anonymous to everyone, even to his counter-part whom he falls in love with throughout the course of the film.