James Bond-From Russia with love textual analysis

The sequence begins with an establishing shot of a dock with the diegetic sounds of ship horns blaring this connotes that the scene is set in an exotic location which is the case for most espionage thrillers, in this case it is set in Turkey, Istanbul. The lighting is in hard high key to show the gritty reality of the scene and portray the tension in the scene through the following of the woman. The scene cuts to a rather commotion filled area with a mosque in the background, from this we can denote that it is set in a middle-eastern country. We see in the centre of the location a female dressed in white, and standing out from among the rest, in a long shot with her walking up the stairs.

The scene fades using a transition effect to suggest a passing in time. As we see the woman  walking once again we can see the Hagia Sophia in the background from which we can connote that the sequence is set in Turkey, Istanbul. As the female is entering the Hagia Sophia we see hiding in the background is a rather indigenous looking man following her. From this we can denote that she is a femme fatale as she has clear danger following her and is of utter importance to the scene. The audience then sees a medium 2 close-up of the native follower. This is a form of dramatic irony because the audience knows that the man is following her but she doesn’t know.

The scene then cuts quickly to the inside of the Hagia Sophia in which the lighting has been changed to low key to portray the espionage aspect of the film and to further elaborate on the tension going on in the scene. We are introduced then to a new character wearing sunglasses and we can denote from his suit and rather formal appearance that he is a key protagonist in this sequence. We also hear the on and off diegetic dialogue of a tour guide, guiding tourists around the museum. James Bond we can see tries to communicate with the femme fatale indicated via cross cutting and he uses his sunglasses as the means of communicating as he directs her to do something. We see cross cutting used as Bond discovers the follower of the woman.

The scene cuts and we see the close-up of the femme fatale placing down a locket looking object on the floor and as she does this an eerie sounding score begins to create the tension and suspense in the scene this sound is synchronised with the actions taking place. A tilt shot is used to show the woman standing back up after putting the locket on the floor. We see the woman begin walking away and leaves the scene. The follower then exploits this opportunity and tries to pick up the locket placed on the floor, but as he tries to do so he is attacked and killed, by a big, bulky and blonde man, due to the fact that he did this with his bare hands we can denote that he is a specialist mercenary/ assassin.

  A tilt shot then shows us the face of the murderer and this creates suspense and a lack of power through a low angle shot which further emphasises the suspense and tension of the scene as the score reaches a climax note. We see a shot-reverse-shot between the killer and James Bond, the specialist quickly leaves the scene before he is compromised/seen by Bond. We then see Bond in a panning shot as he circles the body of the deceased follower. Bond grabs his hand and we see the close-up of the

locket once again and a tilt shot to show Bonds expression which is wary as he looks around and analyses his surroundings. We then see the extreme close-up of Bond's hands opening the locket to which there is a piece of paper inside which contains a map. The sequence then ends via a graphic match shot until the next scene.