Casino Royale Opening Analysis ☮ ☮ ☮

"Casino Royale"(2006) the twenty second instalment of the James Bond series focuses on our protagonist, agent 007, sets out to bring down a suspected financial support to a terrorist organisation, by going against the fiend in a high stakes poker game.

The scene opens on a low angled wide shot of a tall multi-storey building with a black fancy car pulling up outside, the colour is in black and white giving off the effect of a past event, the low angle shot of the building gives an eerie and sceptical effect, also making the camera look up the the building puts it in a high position, also making the audience think that something important will or does occur here.It also appears to be night, this explains the emptiness of the streets, also causing the audience to ask why there is a car approaching at this time of night. It is then revealed with white text fading onto the screen that this scene is being set in Prague,Czech Republic.

A man steps out of the car, showing a low angled close up of the mans face, which appears to be anxious as he looks around him to possibly see if anyone is around, but also due to the camera looking up to him makes the audience see him as a powerful character. We start to hear light, murky sound in the background, setting a creepy and mysterious tone. We then see an elevator rise up, again from a low angle, giving the impression that this a powerful scene and or place. The man is shown at a high angle to be in the elevator alone, suggesting a deserted building or that the man is not supposed to be there, He is then shown staring impatiently at the screen that shows the floor of which elevator is on.

We then see the man walking along a clear corridor, the building appears to have a lot o windows and makes the audience draw their attention to around the man as to see if there is anything unusual standing or lurking around the mysterious gentleman. We then presumably see the mans shadow as he enters the room, it is a very dark setting with barely any light being scene, making the audience feel on edge as they are partly blind to the situation. From a low angles shot of the man entering the room, the camera then pans around to behind a chair still showing the back of the man as he approaches the opposite side of the room. The effect of the camera being so close to the head of the chair as it faces the man makes the audience wonder if there is anyone seated in it due to the eerie dark mood.

The man then is now shown in a high angled close up, now seemingly putting him at a lower position within the building than outside,showing that someone or something overpowers him. The now expressionless man is then seen focusing on the mirror where a distressed face appears on him as if he has seen something odd in the background. The man's face suddenly turns and we see another man sitting in the chair, with a light striking his face but almost complete blackness around him, putting him in the spotlight and in an important role. He then says "M really doesn't mind you making a little money on the side Dryden, but preferred if it wasn't selling secrets", identifying the man in the lift as Dryden , it seems to put him in a less powerful position by using his assumed last name, also introducing the name of a new character "M" to the audience, making them wonder whether they are the boss and if they are male or female. Also showing that this man must have done something wrong to them as he has been accused of "selling secrets" making the audience believe that "M" is part of something that is a secret, also making them wonder whether the man sitting in the chair is on Dryden's side or M's, making them think is it advice or a warning.

We see the two in a wide shot, showing the accused in a bright light with the other man in more darkness hard to be seen, suggesting an interrogation setting. Dryden opens a draw sneakily revealing a gun, suggesting to the audience that he is the antagonist of the situation. As Dryden continues to speak cockily and sarcastically, the audience becomes more and more opposed to the man. Dryden then asks the shady gentleman if he is "a fan of cricket?", and flashes the audience back to a brighter setting still in black and white but in the day, at a high angled shot showing a crowd of seated people watching a game of cricket, also stating that it is being set in Lahore,Pakistan. going along with action genre convention of being set in luxurious exotic countries.

We see a low angled straight shot of the bowler on the field running to throw the ball. which is hit, and then caught by a member of the crowd and hear a loud cheer, within that section of the crowd we focus on a man who was smiling but then looks concerned when he see's what appears to be the mysterious man in the office chair, the lighting of his face is still shaded with barely bing able to make out his facial expressions, in contrast to those around him who all all in the light. This suggests to the audience that his character is a dark and alone role with always staying away from society, hidden away. The man in crowd looks panicked and starts to run away, with the mysterious shaded man calm sliding out of view, suggesting to the audience he is after him.

An up beat violin played song sets an upbeat and fast paced mood showing the tenseness of the chase. The camera follows in an unsteady medium close up shot of the back of the panicked man, as he rushes around the inside of the building, darting down corridors, and we see him pull out a gun also suggesting he is a criminal and a villain. As he darts up a stairway, we see an over the shoulder high angled shot showing the blurred, obscured man, again calm walking through a doorway at the bottom, suggesting that the man sees no competition in chasing this man. The armed gunman continues to rush around ending up in a bathroom, where he aims his gun at a frightened man who runs out of the toilet, making the audience side against him. The suited now clearly visible man bursts into the room, brawling with the villain, until suddenly we flash back to the office back in Prague, where now Dryden has pulled his gun onto the gentlemen opposite him, pulls the trigger attempting to kill him, but is shown to have failed, due to the man removing the amo from the gun before hand, showing the audience that the gentleman is intelligent and makes the wonder who he is as we haven't heard any information about him.

The suited man then states that the man he was brawling with in Pakistan was Dryden's "contact" revealing for the two of the villains to be in cahoots, and flashes us back to the brawl where the fiend is now disarmed and being strangled and then attempted to be drown in a sick, then seeming dead he falls to the floor. Again flashing back to Prague Dryden seems unfazed that his contact dies, showing a lack of compassion in his character, The apparent protagonist killer then shoots Dryden mid sentence, sending him flying off his chair seeming dead, with the shooter seeming equally as unfazed about the murder as Dryden was about his contact.

We are then flashed back for a final time to Pakistan where the suited man walks away from the body being down to pick up a black object, when suddenly the apparent drowned man quickly picks up the guns lying next with him and aims it at the oppositional gentleman but when our protagonist reveals the black object to also be a gun he shoots the gun, showing a circular object apparently the bullet or perhaps the bullet wound, zooming out showing the gentleman gun held in the position of him after firing the gun the white circle white blood sliding down covering the screen, with The James bond theme tune, revealing this to be our main character, James Bond, and shows the audience that this is where after the credits the film is going to set off from. Setting a violent and dark theme.