Casino Royale - Textual Analysis

Casino Royale 2006 directed by Martin Campbell




The scene opens with a long shot of a car pulling up to an office building at night time, with the on screen colours all in black and white. The setting of night time immediately has connotations of mystery and danger, as no one would work at late hours or through the night. Diegetic and non diegetic sound is used as a man is shown stepping out of the car, looking around, to again emphasise the sense of mystery surrounding this character. The director also uses a match cut of the man looking up in the elevator and the signal in the lift of the floors rising.
As the man enters his office, there is a low angle pan of him walking towards his safe, which is shown to be broken into. This heightens the audience’s feelings as they now suspect danger and the heightened and tenser soundtrack reflects this. As James Bond comes into shot, the man opens his desk drawer with a gun insider, typical iconography for an action thriller film. As the scene progresses, there is a flashback to a fight taking place between Bond and an unknown man, still in black and white.
The non verbal communication that takes place between Bond and Dryden when talking about the kill shows that Dryden knows he is in danger, especially after Bond reveals he has disarmed his gun. This fits in with the narrative of the James Bond films, as the antagonist is shown to have the upper hand, only for Bond to usurp him and emerge victorious. The audience’s expectations are fulfilled when Bond murders Dryden with efficient ease, as this is the opening to a bond film and so the narrative is short to entertain and entice the audience to watch the rest of the film.
From this opening clip, we drew inspiration on using black and white to show flashbacks in our opening, as well as possibly ending the opening with the titles of the piece.


Laurence Ruthven