Fargo

Director: Joel Coen

Writers: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

18

Crime, Drama, Thriller

These two logos are shown at the beginning of the film as these are the production companies that own the rights to the film.

Non-diegetic music starts playing when this statement appears on screen. The music is very melancholy giving a sad feel to the scene, at this point of the scene it is only being played with a piano but after that writing cuts to a muggy grey screen a violin is added to create more of a creepy feel. It creates tension as nothing is visible in the shot but the music is very loud and melancholy.

The Setting is very foggy and isolated. The fact the only thing you can see is two headlights in the distance shows how the location of the town is very far away from everywhere. The isolation of the setting creates tension as there could be on coming danger anywhere. It could also suggest that things could happen in the town without repercussions. 

There is a long take, and the editing is very slow paced, it takes 1 minute and 25 seconds for the car to be fully in sight and another 14 seconds on top of that for the scene to cut. This creates tension as the audience really have no clue about what’s going on, it intrigues the audience and draws you in to watch more. Something this simple can really draw you in and encourages you to watch the rest of the film.

On screen titles

Polygram Filmed Entertainment presents

In association with Working Title films

Frances McDormand

William H. Macy

Steve Buscemi

Harve Presnell

Peter Stormare

FARGO

 When the names of the actors come up they appear over the scene, and they fade in. They all appear at the bottom of the scene in the centre. The font they have used is sans-serif making the film appear more modern, the first and last names of the actors are separated, and the last name has spaces between each letter. This causes the audience to focus on the names yet still pay attention to the scene.

The title of the movie appears in big bold letters in the centre of the screen, the letters are spaced out to fill as much space as possible, this draws attention to the title. The font is sans-serif like the actor’s names, and it appears over the scene. The background of the writing is the same muggy grey shown throughout, this implies that the town of Fargo is isolated and completely on its own.