Textual Analysis for Se7en, directed by David Fincher starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman for Tupton Sixth Form, year 12. Within my piece I talk about editing and mise-en-scene whilst giving a 3-frame analysis about Se7en of the opening.

1. Se7en:
- Textual Analysis
- Three Frame Analysis

2.  This is the initial shot of the title sequence, being enigmatic as the audience ask
questions about the book, it is flickering which makes it polysemous as we don’t
understand what it contains, nor what is making it flicker.
 Books are a prominent symbolisation of intelligence implying that the villain will be
clever, devious. This is an extremely intriguing enigma which makes the audience
ask questions such as what does it contain and who’s is it?
 The colours are low-key, a dark tone which implies an inability to see, a human
instinct which dictates a sense of fear. The fear of darkness is common within
people, this initial shot could play with their inhibitions.
 The titles are jagged and unorganised which could make the audience
uncomfortable.

3.  In this image we are introduced to a cryptic pair of hands, one black and one
white showing the fight between binary opposites, justice and injustice, good and
evil, the black shadows juxtapose the white paper. The contrast of these two
create a sense of good and evil using chiaroscuro lighting.
 The pair of hands, especially finger tips are crooked, we find this abnormality
uncomfortable and this could comply to Hunt’s theory that disabled people can be
portrayed as the villain.
 The shadows overlapping the lighter side of the page could symbolise darkness
overpowering the innocent, evil winning. The whiter parts of the page have been
purposefully put next to the dark shadows as a representation of the yin & yang,
the good within the bad and the bad within the good.

4.  This camera shot is a close up of The Man’s hands (identity
still hidden), it shows him cutting skin off of his hands with a
blade, the audience could find this downright disturbing. I
believe this could portray the man as a ‘snake’ shedding his
skin, alluding to The Bible where the snake tricks Eve into
eating the Forbidden Fruit and sinning, symbolising him as
The Devil.
 This also conforms to Hunt’s stereotype in 1991 of the
disabled, sinister villain. The villain is always disabled, for
example; Frankenstein and Freddy Krueger.

5. Sound in Se7en Opening
 Initially there is the diegetic sound of alarms and horns, typical sounds of a
busy city with car screeches and shouting throughout the opening, he
doesn’t react to any of this implying that he is unnerved and very apathetic to
these noises showing that he is all too used to crime in this city signifying the
city is crime-ridden. Later on, there is metronomic beat to when the male
protagonist is trying to sleep, the metronome is relaxing however it could
symbolise time ticking away for his career (as he is retiring) and his life.
There is diegetic sound of rainfall over the two male protagonists talking
could allow the theory of Pathetic Fallacies to imply the tone of the film.
When the opening scene ends and cuts to the title sequence, there is a drop
in music. The parallel and discordant music of screeches and creaks shows
a very sinister action, we realise that it is the serial killer due to the
ambiguous and uncomfortable sounds. There is then a drop in music and the
title sequence gets more violent coinciding with the colour red.
 At the end the diegetic dialogue with the song states “get me closer to God”
connoting a religious aspect to the film which could be in relation to the
Seven Deadly Sins which is a key theme throughout the film.

6. Mise-en-scene
 When Se7en begins we are taken to Somerset’s apartment, his clean and
organised apartment shows that Somerset is methodical, reserved and
cares about appearance, he is older aged which could be the reason for his
relaxed approach on life.
 Later on when the metronome is ticking, there is a longshot of Somerset’s
bedroom. The longshot is used to highlight Somerset’s loneliness and
isolation. Even though he has the entire bed to himself, he sleeps to the
right of the bed, which shows he is used to having somebody sleep next to
him, he is in the habit of sleeping next to someone or desires it to a degree
that he pretends he does, allowing us to feel sympathy for him. This is
contrasted by the binary opposite of Brad Pitt’s character, a young, reckless
amateur who wears a shirt with a loose tie, top button undone.
 Low-key lighting is used a plethora of times in Se7en’s opening to set the
theme of crime and homicide, the darkness is a symbolism of the sinister
register of the film.

7. Editing
 Within the opening, it uses a montage of graphic imagery.
Red, black and white colours reinforced with disturbing
images not giving us any actual information but suggesting a
lot of evil themes.
The text in the opening is jittery, white text on a black
background whilst being jarred, cutting and stopping, this
could symbolise the villain being unnerving and volatile.
 In the opening scene, the use of an insert and an eye-line
match connotes how important these objects are to
Somerset’s life, proving that he’s very organised.