Opening Sequence Analysis - The Holiday

The Holiday (2006)

The Holiday is a romantic comedy about two women that are troubled with guy-problems that swap homes in each other's countries where they both meet a local guy and fall in love. The movie is directed by Nancy Meyers and stars Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz and Jude Law.

 The movie begins with an extreme close up of some tree's which zooms out onto a couple, kissing. The natural lighting can demonstrate the mood that the characters may be feeling such as happiness and joy. However the opening scene of 'The Holiday' is very different to most.

The audience begin to realise that this is not part of the actual movie 'The Holiday', in fact it is of one of the characters, watching a movie.

This is made evident from the zoom out, which highlights to the shot that the character is a music composer as he is playing the music for the film. The music is soft and relaxing which portrays a romantic, cheerful mood, reflecting the movie genre.

The music then changes, to a much slower, quieter piece and a female voice is introduced over the music which is non-diegetic. She first states 'I have found, almost everything ever written about love, to be true'. At this moment, there is a close up shot of one of the male characters. This introduces the audience to the character and highlights the emotion by his facial expression.

 The shot then switches to another close up but of a female character, on the phone smiling. This can convey to the audience ho content she may be feeling.




After this, there is a shot of the male character kissing the female characters hand. The view of the shot makes it look as if we are the female character, looking down onto the male character. This can make the audience feel included.

The credits of the actors and actresses appear at the bottom of the screen in capitals in a white font. This makes them stand out and they change as each shot changes between characters, highlighting the different characters to the audience. 

Once the non-diegetic sound of the female voice stops, fast pace music with a  high pitch starts and then the female voice starts again over the changed music.

The audience are then presented with a long shot of the street during the evening with many cars driving through, highlighting how busy it is. The lights on the trees can symbolise that it is around the Christmas season.

The shot then changes to an old man looking at a picture of a woman in a wedding dress. During this shot the female voice over says 'For others, love is simply lost'. This can display to the audience how the character of the old man may have lost his wife due to death.

The music pace then speeds up and the volume increases, producing a more positive tone. The female speaker follows this by saying 'But then of course, love can also be found, even if just for the night'. During this the audience see two close up shots. One of a different