Children of men opening

Children of Men

In the opening of the film 'Children of Men', the first scene was located in the cafe where the man walks in without any interest in the news that everyone was so invested in. There was sounds of sobbing and crying in the background about the news that "baby" Diago died, however he was 18 they called him baby which was very odd when I first heard it. He was the youngest person on Earth, no babies were born since the year 2009-2027. Although, the man wasn't at least a bit interested in what had happened,  his facial expression was still, emotionless with no care in the world around him. At one point he did look up but only because he was waiting for the coffee and it was only for about a couple of seconds.

After getting his coffee he walks of against the crowd that is watching the TV, just like how he was different from other people by not caring and everyone else, cares (He's the black sheep in the herd of white sheep). As he walks further away from the TV the voice in the TV distorted in a robotic sound before fading out, indicating that this is in the future. In this whole opening there was only two editing cuts, which is when the man looks up for a moment at the TV and when he looks back down. It is as if we suddenly appeared into his life behind him following him around. As he walks out of the Cafe the camera didn't follow him and instead was distracted by the surroundings.(Panning shot) There were alot of three-wheels motorbike that looks like 'tuk-tuk' in Thai, it is rusty and produce a lot of pollution. Although this was in London it does not look like the 'typical' London as we know right now, there are mixture of cultures in one place. On the side of the street a pile garbage can be seen, meaning that no one has collected it in a while now. There was a lack of employment for this kind of job or there was no money put into paying anyone to clean it.

When the camera attention was back to the man he walks to a stand near the street, setting it down and pouring liquor into his coffee. This might suggest that he his an alcoholic or that the world is very messed up to the point you need to forget about what is really happening. (Throughout the whole opening the camera was handheld) The whole opening the atmosphere was really quiet and heavy at the same time with the death of Baby Diago everyone seemed to be devastated, when the explosion happens out of the blue,  after the man put liquor into his coffee it was really unexpected and always seems to get me every time I watch it. The sound effects also add to the sudden change, the diegetic sound of screaming/shrieking and a fire alarm sound that was really high pitched.