The Darkness

The Darkness

INT. DETECTIVE'S OFFICE - DAY
Medium shot
The detective smokes, and works with some papers.
The noise of a beautiful woman (Viveka) knocking the door catches the attention of the detective Charles, who reacts looking at the door, and shouting
DETECTIVE Come in!
Long shot
The woman, looking desperate, enters the room, and says
WOMAN I need you, detective.
DETECTIVE How can I help you?
He turns off the cigarette, and starts filling two glasses with whiskey.
WOMAN There's a man following me all the time. When I'm in my house, when I go to the shop, when I go the cinema. It's very awkward. I don't know what he wants from me. He scares me.
DETECTIVE Since when?
WOMAN Last week... Thursday, I think.
The detective gives one of the glasses to the woman, who replies saying
WOMAN Oh, no! Thank you!
He leaves it in the desk, starts to drink from the other glass, and grabs a paper, and a pen, and starts to write in it.
DETECTIVE How is he?
WOMAN Young, tall, black hair… I don’t know.
DETECTIVE Do you see a familiar face?
WOMAN I don’t think so.
DETECTIVE And who do you think he can be?
WOMAN Really, I don’t have any idea.
DETECTIVE I’m gonna get him, and I will know all about what he’s doing, my lady.
WOMAN Oh! Thank you, Detective!
Silence.
Oh!
She gets some cash from his briefcase. Is this okay?
DETECTIVE He grabs the money.
Perfect.
He accompanies her to the door, and they say goodbye.

Representation of characters: 'Detective Mills'/Brad Pitt

The modern masculinity of Brad Pitt differ from the traditional/old one of the 'Marlboro Man', who looks like a hard-working man, while Pitt is much more attractive because, apart from being good looking, he has a new fashion style: he's a cool man that, for example, in the 1990 advertisement that made him famous, he takes photos and taunts of a kind of 'Marlboro Man' while he hangs out with a beautiful woman.

This is also seen in the 'Seven' scene, with 'Somerset' (Morgan Freeman) visiting Pitt's house, and playing the roll of the 'Marlboro Man', due to that he has a gun, he's alone when talking, etc..

Noir Conventions in Seven

Elements

- colorless (dark ambient/atmosphere because of the city decay) lighting, which suggests the technological environment, but also the cold and unfeeling reality.
- part of police office (building) Dutch angle, long (establishing) and low shot.
- crime in urban place: world full of evil.
- non-diagetic sounds.
- library stands out by green lamps.
- also, the violin music produces these effects mentioned before.
- jump cuts from the two detectives to show what they were doing.
- the rain is heard but not seen.