Sexy Beast (Dir. Jonathan Glazer UK 2000)

The film opens with a shot of a clear blue sky and the sound of caecadas in the background; the sound dub of these creatures make it clear that despite this being a British gangster title; it is not set in Britain. The sky is meant to represent Gary’s lack of care and his idyllic retired lifestyle; there are no clouds = no problems. The titles appear in pink and are almost comical due to Ray Winstone being an alpha and ugly male, the pink titles are very girly and pretty. The first words we hear are from a voiceover of Gary saying “oh yeah, bloody hell, I’m sweatin’ ‘ere” the character is rather grotesque, unsophisticated and vulgar; especially combined with his vonnaccular voice. The voiceover ceases as we notice that Gary's lips begin to move, making the sound diegetic. The shot is from above to connote the laziness and freedom of Gary's retired life. In terms of rule of thirds we see the protagonist is in the center to show his importance and also his introduction in terms of the main character to the audience. cigarettes and alcohol are also to the right of the character to connote his laziness and relaxed state.

The mise-en-scene here is Ray Winstone looking unnaturally brown on a tacky sun lounger next to life’s vices. The objects next to him have the a connotation similar to weapons; they all could kill him; but Gary is too relaxed and enjoying his life too much to care, this is the equilibrium. The titles are meant to look glamorous and they juxtapose with Gary because he looks anything but. They are also unconventional of the genre as they appear on screen while Gary is in shot; unlike for example 'Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels' when the titles are white against a black background. In 'Sexy Beast' the titles are an unorthodox pink which is not conventional at all of the gangster genre, this is probably to connote the love element of the film but may also just be because of Jonathan Glazer's background in advertising and him not being a traditional director. The mise-en-scene changes when instead of hearing Gary’s voice as a voice-over, we see him physically speaking to the camera this is rather surreal and the technique of surrealism is also used later in the film when there is a talking man-bunny however this is more likely to draw attention from the audience through an almost direct adress; the bridge is broken between audience and character making them feel more involved with the film. The shot is a medium shot to show the objects in the background. It’s shot from a high-angle to represent the viewer looking in at someone’s idyllic life. Furthermore Gary's tanned body and bright yellow swim shorts stick out from the plain and pale colours of the background; thus bringing Ray Winstone's character to the forefront and making the background become less important in this shot. The composition of the shot is static as the camera does not move or track; it only hangs which again connotes that the retired gangster really has nothing to do and no worries.

Ray says to the camera “Who will give this up?” he is happy with his perfect life which sets the equilibrium, ready for Don Logan to break that equilibrium later in the film (Todorov’s theory). This also supports binary opposition by facing the relaxed retired gangster of Gary off against the madman soldier of Don Logan. It is a man in love and content with his life against Don Logan who has no love in his life and is seemingly full of hate.

as seen in the mise-en-scene here ; Gary is clearly rich with the villa in the background; it does not go with his voice or vocabulary which is very working class which represents that this is not money acquired legitemately.

This is where the soundtrack is dubbed in to the film, The music starts slow but is cut to ‘drop’ when Gary sits up thus combining the score with a sense of purpose and awarding the music with a sense of music and giving it more dimensions. The camera pans along with Gary sitting up, connoting that it is a struggle for him to awake from such a relaxed state.

This shot is similar to an establishing shot, it’s the first shot of Gary with anything clearly in the background; the shot connotes his wealth as he is in a hot place with a pool and a pool cleaner he can afford to pay. The shots are highly saturated with colour, again representing how happy Gary’s life is at

the beginning of the film. The cuts between the man and the boy are very quick and sudden to create a sense of conflict.

This medium close up of the boy shows he is almost disgusted with Gary after he tells him to “put his back into it” Gary is seen as vulgar by other characters; possibly connoting he is a bad person but Gary does not care.

The mise-en-scene is Gary applying a hot towel to his genital area, re-enforcing the connotation that Gary is a somewhat obscene character who probably did not obtain his money fairly. The camera pans down from Ray's body to the towel in a sudden manner which connotes the rashness and suddenness of Gary as a character.

This medium-longshot is important as it represents a key theme for the movie ;Ray’s love for his wife. The pool is also a key part of the movie as it ends up being where the equilibrium is re-stored by Propp’s law when antagonist Don Logan (the disturbance to the equilibrium) is buried beneath the pool.

The movie cuts from the calm to a speeding car with a glamorous woman driving it; the shot is an Over-The-Shoulder one, leaving her to remain mysterious. The scene continues to have Gary and the woman cross-cut a technique used to represent their restlessness to see eachother, it is also a technique used in the. The woman in the vehicle represents Todorov’s equilibrium for Ray and is the focal point of one of the themes of love in the film.

There is a freeze-frame of Gary in a less than favourable position; his foot is blurred and the shot is chaotic again to show Gary's lack of sophistication. The main title is introduced and this code is used for comedic effect and show Gary’s lack of sophistication. Although this shot is a freeze-frame the soundtrack does not stop and the singer says “Oh, shit” this may be used to represent how the audience could be shocked by the freeze-frame; it is also humorous. This soundtrack was showing as the singer is very lax with his lyrics and somewhat vonaccular; representing what Gary is like as a person.

This is the first stereotypical establishing shot of the movie; it is an over-shoulder angle and a medium close up. For the first time we see more than the confides of the villa and the audience is revealed something more of the story this runs on the theory of the enigma code; the audience has the narrative slowly unravelled to them, not all at once. The mise-en-scene is that Gary lives in somewhere such as Spain in a villa complex. He is far too comfortable with his surroundings to be on holiday. The over shoulder used to represent that Gary does not know what is behind him; a code that shows even his past can come back to haunt him.

This is a point-of-view shot, shot from the boulder. The camera tracks the boulder and moves like it is strapped to the boulder. The boulder is a code to show that Gary does not know what is “behind” him e.g his past. The shot is from a high angle to show that the boulder is a rampaging force, Gary is in the shot but looks small and powerless due to the high-angle/longshot. The boulder is a code for his past coming back from behind him(the villain of Propp's law, Don Logan).

Gary is too relaxed and oblivious to what is behind him in his retired life, symbolically the boulder misses him, but it does not leave everything unscathed, the boulder crushes the pool floor with the love hearts in it; a code for the strain that the problem of Don Logan will put on Gary’s relationship. Gary is wearing sunglasses and a gold chain because these are conventions of a working class man who has become noveau-riche when speaking within the British Gangster genre.

Symbolically the soundtrack is cut to stop in time with the boulder hitting the pool, leaving Gary disturbed; foreshadowing what is to come; the suddeness of the cut represents how easily Gary's life will change with the arrival of Don Logan. The music restarts again showing that the equilibrium will be restored but the singer is growling; nothing will be the same after Don Logan.

The characters are forced in to the water to investigate the boulder; code for how Don Logan forces Ray to do an underwater bank heist.

The film appeals to its audience because it uses Ray Winston who is something of a national treasure and the target audience remember him fondly from films he was in when they (and him) were younger for example quadrophenia. This is reinforced by the choice of soundtrack in peaches by the stranglers, which is full of British attitude and cockney accents and straight from the London gritty pub rock scene. The London regional accents and use of a hierachy leading to a Mr.Big (similar to The Italian Job) are typical of the British gangster and Ray Winstone has become something of a convention for the genre as well. However this is not typical of The British gangster genre due to it's setting of spain and loathing of Britain as a place it's almost like a British gangster movie on tour. The main theme of love is not a typical convention of the British gangster movie genre and not a typical one of gangster movies as a wider genre; neither is the films use of strong female characters.

The cutting between each frame is always very sudden, there is no fading or anything of the sort; this represents Gary as a no-nonsense character. The genre is also represented in a similar way to Gary; gritty and at times no frills which is seen suring the cuts between frames although Glazer uses impressive camera shots to separate Sexy Beast from a basic movie.