Rock 'N' Rolla Opening Scene Analysis

The film starts with a non - diagetic narrative from Archie, Mark Strong's character. He speaks to the audience in a informal, friendly slang way. He tells us what a 'RockNRolla' is, a person wants who wants everything - sex, drugs, money, fame and glamour. As the narrator continues talking theres a tracking shot of an old dark warehouse. We see a long shot of a character with his back to us, swaying slowly back and forth, in some dingy den, in time to the non diagetic song 'I'm a man' by Black Strobe of the genre, garage rock, by thissong and the title of the film the audience understand that the film will be about sex, drugs and Rock 'n' Roll. We see the man, from a medium shot, Johnny Quid - who is the same character behind the titles of 'Rock N Rolla', telling us that this is probably the man that Archie is referring to in his narration - take out a pistol lighter from his back pocket to light a bong. There are then flashbacks of this Johnny downing shots, having sex in a toilet and then pulling out two guns and pointing them out in front of him, this picture freezs and then turn into a cartoon, (shown in the picture above) where the film title comes onto the screen. For the opening credits, they stay in the theme of cartoon, introducting all the stars of the film.

After the opening credits, we see a man zooming in and as the the voice over continues, it tells us as an audience, that it's him who had been giving us the narrative before. He introduces himself as Archie introduces himself as Second-in-Command to Lenny Cole (Tom Wilkinson) who appears to be the gangster of the film, Archie introduces him and how he opperates, Archie then continues to introduce the rest og the character for us and we then see One Two (Gerard Butler) and Mumbles (Idris Elba) trying to seal a property deal then getting scammed by Lenny, and end up owing him. This opening sequence gives us the idea that the film will be following One Two and Mumbles and them trying to get their money for Lenny.

When watching the opening credits you get the sense the film is going to violent. The opening sequence is stylish with its animations, so it sets you up to think the rest of the film will be like-wise. The narrative develops a lot in the first five minutes, showing the viewer what the film is going to be about.