Opening to Kill Bill volume 1

Director: 

Quentin Tarantino

Stars:

 Uma Thurman, David Carradine and Daryl Hannah

The opening starts off with "The Bride" breathing heavily, while the screen is black, already making the scene seem dark and mysterious, this also grabs our attention as the heavy breathing makes us think something violent has occurred. 

We then see the Bride, on the left side of the screen, keeping to the rule of thirds, the camera angle is above her, looking down. She has blood and cuts on her face, adding to the sense of danger. She is still breathing heavy and whimpering. The scene is shot in black and white, maybe to connote something anachronistic or to stand out from the rest of the films, but it makes the audience of unsure of what will happen next, as it being in black and white may make it hard to see the textures and colours of certain objects. 

While she is still breathing heavily, foot steps can be heard off screen, we can see the Brides body tenses up and her breathing starts to turn into a cry, her eyes start darting around looking for the person. 

The camera then cuts to a worms eye view of the man's shoes, keeping up with the shoes,  the noise of the shoes on the wooden floor, suggests no urgency or anger, but the footsteps are slow and rhythmic, getting closer to the Bride. 

The footsteps stop, and the camera goes back to the Bride, there is a few seconds of silence, adding to the sense of danger, increasing the suspense, drawing the audience in further. Until the man says "Do you find me sadistic?", the Bride looks to her bottom left, either keeping her eyes from meetings the man, or staring at him. Then he brings his hand into shot, with a handkerchief and wipes some blood off her face, showing his affection towards her, on it, it says "Bill", revealing to us who he is. He continues to wipe blood of her face while he says "I bet I could fry an egg on your head right now...".

Still the Bride is crying with fear, Bill mutters some more, about not being sadistic, we don't know if he is or not, but we feel more for the Bride, as she seems to be afraid of Bill, and that she's in a vulnerably state. He seems very affectionate towards the Bride, possible revealing their past together, maybe suggesting they were once a couple or knew each other very well. 

He continues to talk and wipe blood from her face, slowly he stops and says he wouldn't hurt her, add gently strokes her on her cheek with his finger, yet again, showing his affection towards her.

Throughout the time while Bill is talking he always refers to her as "kiddo", at first it seems patronising, and a term often considered an endearment to a loved one, but we later find out he's calling her by her second name, her name is Beatrix Kiddo. 

Bill steps back and we hear him using something mechanical and the Brides eyes dart towards Bill and open wider than we have seen before, revealing that whatever Bill is doing its going to hurt the Bride in some way. 

After Bill talking some more, the Bride speaks for the first time and say "Bill its your bab...." She uses his name, possible showing the Bride knows Bill well and were on the same level as each other, Bill wasn't above the Bride in terms of hierarchy. But before she gets to end her sentence, there is a bang from the gun and the scene ends. We don't know whether he killed himself or the Bride, or something else. But what we do know is that they both don't see eye to eye any more.