My comments on 'Fargo'

Sound/Music

• Non-digetic sounds - (opening shot) solo piano shows emotion, but as the car approaches becomes louder (this gives a heroic impression?). Other non-digetic sounds include the dripping noise as the police officer walks towards the car after the two men are pulled over. I feel that this noise was added to create tension - pressure is building up and the outcome was going to be unpredictable.
• Another key moment where non-digetic sound is used is during the kidnapping scene. as soon as the window is broken, all we hear is a very dissonant noise - This is good as it makes the viewer feel disturbed and uncomfortable. Also, after the police officer has been shot, the next thing we hear is complete silence. This is because the viewer has been shocked and the silence represents this.
  

Editing - many shot/reverse shots are used to display two or more people in conversation with each other. Examples of this include the first scene in the bar, any car shot with two people and in the car dealership office. Another interesting key point with editing is hoe some shots fade to black before showing a new scene or location, rather than simple going straight into them. This creates the feeling that quite a bit of time has passed since the previous scene.

Mise-on-scene - A lot of the lighting in the bar areas is very dim - it appears there is no extra light from the studio provided, which helps in creating realism. Also, we get another realistic feel when in the house as we can the outdoor light e.g. if it is dark outside or not. Off-screen space is well used through including hallways and offices (we know that there is something going on in them as character have just been seen in/coming from there) and phone calls (we know that a character is there, we just can't see them).

Setting - The film is set in the past and based on real events - we know this as it is the thing shown in the film. This further expressed by the use of props - older tv sets, older car radios ect. which help in giving a feel for the time period (late 1980's). It is also set during the winter. We can see this as there is snow in a lot of outdoors scenes and by the choice of costume during these scenes (big coats, gloves, hats ect.).

My own thoughts
I feel that I have not watched too many films that are in the style of 'Fargo' so watching it was defiantly a refreshing experience. I liked the fact that whenever something tragic happened (e.g. the kidnapping, shooting) dissonant music was used very suddenly. This is because I feel it adds tension to the scene - we have no idea what the outcome will be. Also, when the police officer was shot, it was followed by complete silence - I found this to be very effective as the gunshot made me feel very alert and the silence represented my reaction (shocked). However, whilst the scene of a person being cut up through a machine did prove to be gory, I felt that the moments leading up to this (walking with music in the background gradually getting louder) did make the outcome a bit too predictable.

On the whole, I enjoyed viewing 'Fargo' and look forward to watching more films like it in the near future.