Textual Analysis

Kill Bill Vol. 2

This whole scene is in black and white and that gives me the sense that this is ether a dream or a flashback. However, the first shot is a medium close up and the camera is tracking backwards to we can she her face. As she is walking therefore the camera is tracking backwards at a walking pace. She soon turns and as she does this the audience can see that she is happy. Also as she continues to walk more of the background is revealed and it shows that she’s walking out of a church.

The next shot is a doorway, as the outside is brighter than inside the church, it gives us a sense of she’s passed away and this is her last memory as the doorway could signify ‘going into the light’. This shot is a ‘Point of View’ shot (POV), and as she looks at the doorway she can hear music.

The third shot is a reaction shot as her facial expression changes from happiness to concern. This shows that whoever is playing the music causes her to be irritated. To shows her uneasiness she turns to look over her right shoulder. Then she looks back at the doorway as she wants to see whoever it is. The camera shot uses a static camera but as she breathes more and more heavily, the camera slightly zooms in to show the audience that it gives the character something to be concerned about.

After a couple of shots go by there is a low-angle shot and there’s lots of distance between the two characters. Her back is to him which shows she doesn’t want to look at him and something has happened in their past for her too unfriendly to him. This shot also obeys the rule of thirds as when the camera is on her, she is on the far left leaving a lot of negative space, this could represent the past they have had together, but when the camera is on him he is on the far right. This gives them distance and makes the audience feel more immersed as the space would be filled by the viewer. Therefore, giving whoever is watching a sense of that they’re there.

After this the next shot is a close up as she turns to face him. The director would’ve used a close up for this shot as you can see her facial expressions and how she reacts to his presence. This shot is also a low angle shot as it seems to be taken from where he is sitting. This also shows dominance.

When he speaks the camera is shot from her point of view and therefore is shot at a higher angle as she is standing and he is sitting… these shots are repeated as he is playing and she is looking at him over her shoulder, but the screen time of each shot is shortened to give tension. More tension is added by non-diegetic music in the background and gets louder until he stands up. By him doing so, he knocks out her dominance as they’re now at the same level. These shots remind me of ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ which is a film featuring Clint Eastwood, this reminds me of that as switches back and forth between a few shots with non-diegetic music, which builds tension and the shots are close ups on the eyes to see each other looking at on another.

There is a shot that goes from a close up to a mid-shot, by him standing up the camera: tilts, pans and zooms out in order so that the audience can see what he is wearing and so you can see his body language and how he holds himself. In the next few shots of the male character, you can see that he is quite relaxed as he leans against a post that holds up the shelter. While he does this the female character leans with her hands on another post, this could show they have something in common as they are standing in the same way.  

As he leans on the pole this shot ends up obeying the rule of thirds as well as it splits up the screen perfectly into thirds as the pole is meant to represent one third and the other third is shown as a background pylon. However, this shot is filmed for a very long time compared to ones just before it. this is because the characters begin to talk but still the camera shows him to be on the far left side of the image and when it cuts to her she is placed on the far right. Which shows they have distance. This makes me feel concerned as I want to know what happened to them, they’re acting as though they were close at some point but as something bad happened, they could’ve fallen out?

Soon after and as the conversation continues, the director starts to use some shoulder shots to fill up the entirety of the screen and to give us a look at what it’s like for us to be standing with them, helping us feel more immersed. Another idea the director did this is because he can give a look at what it’ like to be seeing it from their perspective.

They start to take one step at a time closer to each other as they talk, they take one step each, and to show this the director chooses to use low angle shots of their feet and these shots also obey the rule of thirds as the porch which they are standing on creates a line and the road that the church is in front of creates the other line. They continue to take a step closer to each other until they’re very close. This shows that as time goes on in their past they got more friendly and closer together. And as they’re talking, there is an eye-level shot which last for the next couple of minutes.

Once again it switches back and forth to shoulder shots which fill the screen. Overall this scene makes me feel curious as I want to know what has happened in the past and what is going to happen next.