Analysis of Opening Title Sequence: The Talented Mr Ripley

The Narrative, Theme & Characterisation Short Narrative The protagonist, Tom Ripley is a young adult who lives in New York in the 1950’s working at a Manhattan hotel as a restroom attendant. One day he is approached by a shipyard owner; Herbert Greenleaf. He wants Tom to travel to Europe and convince his son Dickie to return to the USA. Tom has always thought of having the luxurious lifestyle of the Greenleafs’. When Tom first meets Dickie he is attracted and jealous of his girlfriend, Marge Sherwood. Marge ignores Tom further by suggesting to Dickie that Tom is homosexual, and trying separate them. Dickie becomes cold and anxious, so Dickie tries to come up with a plan and Tom’s dreams of living in luxury are limited. Theme Characterisation The different themes/genres in The Talented Mr Ripley are psychological thriller, romance, drama, crime thriller and mystery. Tom Ripley, the main character was raised by his Aunt Dottie, a woman of comfortable means didn’t treat him to good use. She used to belittle him, constantly telling him he is a "sissy," just like his father. In the uncomfortable environment Tom had grew up in, he matures into a young man who is incapable of feeling empathy for anyone else around him. He doesn’t understand right from wrong but clearly knows when he’s in some sort of trouble and being caught.

Mise En Scene The first shot of the opening title sequence starts off with a black still foreground shot while strips of the background reveal a cinematic shot of Tom Ripley just sitting still while the camera rotates around him. The lighting in this opening sequence is low key which may seem to indicates Tom’s emotional state. The camera focuses on the side of Tom’s face to show his silhouette. The location he’s in looks like a hotel room or a waiting room with the wooden wall behind him, this also creates the atmosphere to being serious. The first strip that appears shows the side of Tom’s face of his eyes, nose and mouth facing down. The strips start to appear more leaving a different sized black gap between one another then fades off. The strips are like a metaphor of Tom’s last name ‘Ripley’ as they are almost similar to being ripped off the screen in strips.

Sound The dialogue in the music is a woman singing in a soft, high pitch voice that can make some people feel calm or uncomfortable. The music is not cheerful and doesn’t make you feel happy, it makes you think of no emotion other than to just listen and make you feel unemotional. The woman’s singing stops when the strips fade out and the title of the film fades in. The music starts when the Paramount shot comes up and goes on through out the opening title sequence. The instruments that are heard are a harp and a piano that are played in a soft non diegetic tune.

Cinematography/Editing As the back strips appear more they are moving from top to bottom. As this is happening it also moves the titles along with them as if the strips are pushing them out the way. The uses of cinematography in this title sequence is the black still foreground that slowly reveals elements of the cinematic background which is the rotational shot of Tom in a room.

Titles The font of the titles are a style which you might see from an old fashioned typewriter. The colour is white so it stands out from the black background. The size of the titles are quite small which may lead to some people not being able to read it properly, but as they move slowly it may vary for some people. As the title for the film fades in, the word ‘talented’ doesn’t appear first, instead there are a load of other adjective words that zoom in fast. This could mean Tom has never been called these and the title tries to find the right word to describe him, but in the end he is referred to as talented. The ‘talented’ stays on screen till the screen fades black and the ‘The_Mr.Ripley’ has disappeared.