Layer Cake starts with a voice over introduction from Daniel Craig the film’s protagonist, however this is not revealed yet. He opens with the line: “When I was born, the world was a much simpler place; it was all just cops and robbers”. This immediately hints towards the films genre of crime and gives indication as to when the film is set as the style of the cars in the scene give an indication to the time period.
A reverse zoom is used on a set on van doors as they are blown apart. As it continues to zoom out several masked men holding shotguns are shown shouting at everyone to get down. This imagery of a robbery links with what the narrator has just said and further supports the genre of the film. The camera then focuses on a woman crouched behind a car and pans across her hair. A graphic match is used as a smooth transition between her hair and the hair of a hippie. This transition marks the changing of time period. This is also shown by a slight variation in music and a change of lighting. IN this scene a new breed of criminal is introduced in the way of a hippie smoking and presumably selling drugs. This emphasis on drugs gives further hints towards the overall plot of the film.
As the camera pans across the room another graphic match is used to match the wall of the hippie’s room to that of a wall inside a prison. Here the criminals from the robbery and the hippies are shown talking about the money they made and the amount of time they got in prison. The narration explains that the robbers got 12 years for trying to rob around 10 thousand pounds whereas the hippies received 12 months for shifting around 2 million pounds worth of drugs. The narrator voices over one of the robbers saying “We’re in the wrong fucking game”. This once again gives an indication that the plot of the film involves the selling of drugs.
The camera is then on a track looking at various brands types of drugs each of them being labelled with the FCUK brand. This may show the audience that the drugs are quite stylish and slick – this also may reflect the traits of the protagonist. The narrator is finally revealed by the voice over saying “They won’t leave it to people like me” as he walks onto the screen. The audience then associates the voiceover with the character and links them together showing that they are the same person.
The drugs on the shelves then suddenly start to change into products sold at a pharmacy – this change has a sweeping effect. It may represent the buying of products (drugs) and how it is normality for him.
The scene changes to that of a darkened room where him and a colleague are separating and weighing the drugs. The dark lighting represents the shady business the characters are partaking in. His colleague also has slicked back hair – this gives connotations of a shady and corrupt kind of character. An action match is used with a police car in London transforming into a police car in Amsterdam. Here the protagonist says to stay away from “loud attention seeking wannabe gangsters” as a character called Duke is shown on the screen. Just like with the protagonist the audience links the narrative with the character on screen. The fact that this character is being shown and the narrator has said this shows that he will become part of the plot.
The perspectives then switch between what the protagonist is doing in London and the actions of the Duke in Amsterdam. This cross-cutting shows that the two characters’ lives will become interlinked somehow.
The scene then skips to a meeting where the protagonist hands over the money he has made to his bosses “right hand man”. The narration says that you should never screw over your boss – the fact that he has a boss but also “only deals with kilos” shows that he not at the top nor the bottom of the chain. This links with the film’s title “Layer cake” by showing that there are different levels of business.
The protagonist is instructed that he has a meeting with his boss the following day – this however is shown to always be a bad thing. This acts as the hook for the opening of the film which makes the audience want to watch the rest of it. The protagonist tells us that he also owns a share in a rather successful estate agents. This is how he earns 2honest money” this is important to tell us as it puts the audience on his side. Drug dealers are usually the bad guys and the audience dislike them. To be a successful film the audience need to like the main character and by making him a trustworthy and honest drug dealer it puts us on his side.
The opening segment ends with him saying “quit when you’re ahead” showing that he wants to get out of the drug dealing business however this acts as another hook as the audience knows that he will not be able to leave.
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