The opening scene of Scarlet Street establishes the dark, rainy setting and plays non-diegetic carnival music. It shows a group of formally dressed men smoking at a black tie event, then cuts to a man beating a woman in the street before another man intervenes. Finally, it depicts the man and woman entering a shady bar.

1. Individual Analysis
Scarlet street (1945) – 14:45
Opening scene
Establishing shot - dark street, rain, night-time. Major key non-diegetic
carnival style music.
Asynchronous sound of men singing.
Group of men – formally dressed, black tie event., all smoking
Man beating woman in street, man intervenes runs for police.
Man and woman in shady bar.
The opening shot after the title sequence shows a darks street, there is minimal
light and the weather is dull. These are common conventions of film noir due to
its original themes of oppression and German expressionism. There is major key,
non-diegetic carnival style background music; this is used to set an initial good
mood for the film. The next shot shows the inside of a building in which there is
the asynchronous sound of men singing. This shows that there is some sort of
party or formal event happening. The following pan shot then shows a party in
which all f the men are dressed quite smart. This shows that they may be quite
wealthy. They are all also smoking which is a common convention in film noir
and adds to the overall atmosphere. It is later shown in the scene that the party
is being thrown in someone’s honour. After leaving the party one of the men
comes across a man beating a woman in the street. This kind of action can also
be quite common in film noir as many have strong links to oppression and
violence. The street is dark at this point which is used to signify the darkness of
the action that was taking place. The man that left the party intervenes and
attacks the man who is attacking the woman. This also displays another common
convention of film noir which shows women being weaker and needing to the
ones that are rescued.