Opening of 'Three Colours: Blue'

Denotation - 

The first thing we see as the film opens is an extreme close up of the back of a car wheel as it drives along a busy road. The light dulls and then brightens as the car travels through tunnels, similarly the sound gets distorted each time the light dulls. As a female hand then holds a circular sheet of foil outside of an open car window, we hear it flapping in the wind and as it turns one side appears metallic silver and the other a dull blue colour. 

The car then passes through a longer tunnel; the sound becomes more surreal and distorted. The camera focuses on a young girl gazing out of the rear window, her expression is distant and reflective. Meanwhile, out of focus rows of light in the tunnel are seen in the background and reflected in the window.

Suddenly, the scene changes as the cars stops on the side of a road - it is now lighter, I would take a guess that it is early morning due to the bright, but cold, light. We hear the opening of a car door, as the young girl gets out and wanders away from the car. The view moves to the driver stretching and yawning whilst standing next to the car. The camera then focuses on an extreme close-up of a pipe underneath the car, from which a liquid is slowly dripping. We hear the quiet sound of dripping, which is then overpowered by a woman shouting for Anna to hurry up. I presume that Anna is the young girl, this is her mother calling for her and the driver is her father. At this point, the heavy focus on the pipe throughout the entire scene, even as Anna returns to the car (she is seen as a very blurry, out of focus shape in the background) indicates that it is a significant point in the plot and may be the catalyst of some of the events to come. 

  

The car sets off again and the next thing we see is a close up of somebody's hand playing with a toy. As the camera zooms out, we learn that it is in fact a teenage boy sitting as the side of a road with a skateboard. As with the entire opening so far, there are no non-diagetic sounds in this scene, only the faint sound of traffic and the constant tapping of his toy.  The focus moves to the car driving out of some nearby mist, and then moves back to the boy as we heard a skidding sound followed by a loud crash and an animal screeching. We then see that the car has crashed into a tree, and hear steam hissing and coming out of the windows and doors. This is followed by another shot of the boy picking up his skateboard, then a zoomed out shot of the mist as we hear the fading sound of footsteps walking away. 

Overall the opening for this film is mysterious and atmospheric, it is slow moving, almost dreamlike at times and doesn't give too much of the plot away. I notice that all of the sounds used are diagetic, which I think adds to the rawness and coldness of the scene.  

Connotation -

•  As the dripping pipe underneath the car is shown, the dripping clearly signifies something will go wrong. It could also symbolise their time running out / dripping away and the gradual loss of their lives from this point to the crash.
•  The tempo of the dripping sound matches the tempo of the sound made by the boy's toy, reminding the audience that although the danger isn't currently shown, it is still present. 

•  The change in lighting from the dark tunnel to the cold, bright light of early morning shows that their journey was a long one, which is confirmed when the driver stretches and yawns.