Film Opening Analysis- Quadrophenia

 

•  Genre- Coming of Age/ Drama/ Youth

•  The film takes place in 1965, Britain.

• The first shot is a lone figure standing on a cliff by the coast as the sun sets, he then walks towards us, his face a shadow silhouette. As he approaches us, the camera cuts to another scene in a completely different setting on a road. Here the same character is riding a scooter, this time we can see his face clearly. He is smiling and having a good time, then a group of rockers on motorbikes surround him and mock his scooter. The sequence ends with him pulling off the main road down a street into what looks like a car park.

• The main two scenes in the sequence- the cliff scene and road scene, are distinctly unconnected events. However this is very purposeful to the story telling of the film as a whole. An opinion on the film could be the opening scene is connected to the ambiguous ending on the film, set also on the cliffs of Brighton. The effect of having such an inconclusive opening scene creates a sense of curiosity- the audience want to know why and how he ended up there. The second scene then dives straight into the telling of the story, telling it from the beginning if you like- providing the explanation.  

•  The opening sequence is focused on the character Jimmy, we can tell he is the main character of the film as there is emphasise in the opening shot of him being alone. Also the lyrics to the music playing in the background- The Real Me, could suggest a film about self- discovery, hence emphasis on one character in particular.

•  The opening scene leaves no answers to how the character got there, what he is doing, or why he is there, everything is deliberately withheld. However the second shot, where Jimmy is confronted by the rockers, is a key element of the story line and conflict to come. The stark contrast between these two scenes could in hindsight be seen as representative to the difference between the character before and after events that take place in the film.  

• The start of films should establish either character, setting or genre, to give the audience a sense of grounding and expectations for the rest of the film.