'Through a close examination of the opening sequences of "Much Ado About Nothing," analyse how effectively Kenneth Branagh uses a variety of film techniques to introduce to the audience, the themes, plots and characters of Shakespeare's play.

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'Through a close examination of the opening sequences of "Much Ado About

Nothing," analyse how effectively Kenneth Branagh uses a variety of film techniques to introduce to the audience, the themes, plots and characters of Shakespeare's play.

 

Kenneth Branagh uses many film techniques to good effect in the opening sequences of the film "Much Ado About Nothing". He uses these techniques very effectively to introduce the themes, plots and characters of Shakespeare's play, in an interesting way, which draws the viewer into the film.

The film opens with some white words on a black background. These words are from a song in the middle of the play, and Branagh has brought this forward to the beginning, as the song sums up the themes and plots of Shakespeare’s play. The lines: "sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, men were deceivers ever," speak of love and deceit- women being deceived by men - and is a good summation of the play's plot and themes. This is a somewhat bold move, as it contrasts greatly with the conventional openings of films - a colourful or atmospheric scene which draws the audience in. However" I think that the white words appearing on the black background captures the audience's attention and the impact of the meaning of the song will be conveyed to the audience much more clearly, allowing the viewers to better understand the film.

The scene then opens on a sunny, grassy hill, with the camera focussing for a short time on a painter's picture of perfect Italian countryside, the camera then slowly pans, showing an idealistic countryside, in which the play takes place - which again helps to introduce the story. The camera then pans slowly, and rests for a short, while on some happy picnickers, who are laughing relaxed, which seems to indicate that this film is going to be happy, and a comedy. The camera, once again, starts to track and pans up to give us a view of Beatrice perched in a tree. This gives the viewers an opportunity to see that she is suntanned and sitting in a tree in a very unmaidenly manner. This first image of Beatrice may cause the audience to sub-consciously think of her as a lively, forward and rather bold young lady, whose character is not like the usual rather reserved and demure temperament women were supposed to have in Shakespeare's time, I think Branagh has used all these things to good effect to introduce Beatrice's character.

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There is a change in the music to a fast paced, rather sinister type of music that usually stirs up excitement and anticipation in people. These feelings are represented by the picnickers, as they hear, and then see a horse come thundering into view, only to have its rider leap melodramatically from its back and proclaim to the picnickers that he has an important message for Leonato. As Leonato reads the message there is some suspense as the music stops and people hold their breath to see what has happened in the battle. This suspense is quickly dissolved as Don ...

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