Johnny English

James Hunter

Johnny English is a 2003 British action comedy film parodying the James Bond secret agent genre. The film stars Ben Miller, John Malkovich and Rowan Atkinson (who, two decades earlier, appeared in an unofficial James Bond film — Never Say Never Again). The screenplay was written by Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, with William Davies, and the film was directed by Peter Howitt.

Mise-en-scene

Costume – the costume in the first couple of munites of the film is dark which may connote mystery or secrecy. It also works well with the low key lighting helping Johnny blend into the back ground (lighting comes later). When he has entered the room, there is a young woman wearing a short, black dress which connotes corruption.

Mise-en-scene

Lighting - the lighting for the majority of the opening is low key as it is dark. This is because it is night-time and it is the best time for Johnny to break into the house. The darkness signifies mystery as to why he is there. Near the end of the opening there is high key lighting where the woman turns on the light to reveal herself holding a gun.

Mise-en-scene

Actors – the main actors in the opening are a woman and Johnny himself. The facial expression on Johnny’s face when he has just entered the building shows knowledge of weapons and firearms. Whereas the expression on his face when the mysterious woman reveals herself is an element of surprise. On the woman, however, the expression on her face seems to be an element of annoyance. The way they communicate with each other is in a flirty, but formal way. The body language on Johnny is relaxed showing he is calm, but the woman’s body language is tense.

Mise-en-scene

Make-up – in the opening to Johnny English, the only make-up worn is by the woman, black eye shadow and pink lipstick which tells us that she’s not that innocent, but she’s not that slutty either.

Mise-en-scene

Props – the props used in the opening couple of minutes are 3 guns with one being held by a woman which challenges the stereotype of a woman because we wouldn’t usually think of a woman holding a gun. The other 2 are being held by guards which meets the male stereotype. In the room there is a sofa which the woman is sitting on to make herself look as powerful as she can be.

Enigma

The enigma in the opening of the film is:Who is the woman?Why is Johnny breaking in?What does he need?What is that piece of paper?

Genre

The genre of the film is an action/adventure/comedy

Audience

The audience that this film is made for, is for those who like the action/adventure movies with a bit of comedy in it. This film has a lot of comedy in it. This was made for the teenage/young adult age range as is has a lot of comedic scenes.

Film Opening Conventions Met?

In the opening, we get introduced to one of the key characters (Johnny)and we see the studio and production company names. What we don’t get which challenges the conventions are the actors’ names. There’s non-diegetic music for almost the whole opening 2 minutes. We get enigma but we don’t get the title of the film. There’s not much action in the first 2 minutes but we find out that the opening was just a dream that Johnny was having.

What I Think

Overall I think that this is a good film opening as there are plenty of questions to keep the audience wondering what is going to happen in the film. It has a little bit of comedy and a bit of action which the average action lover will like.