Layer Cake

The opening shots and mise-en-scene of Layer Cake starts of with an explosion from the back of the car, which straight away captures the audience's attention. Plenty of zooming and medium shots are used, and the mise-en-scene at the beginning switches regularly, mostly between scenes of a prison and the city. The scenes all contain a very clinical feel about them, as we learn the narrative mostly revolves around drug use. This has quite an effect on the opening of the film, as for starters the explosion immediately makes the film exciting, therefore the audience are dragged into the action themselves. The quick camera angle shots give the film an exciting fast paced effect, which is perfect for a thriller.
The opening credits are in white, which again connote quite a simple, yet colourless, clinical feel. The credits are presented at the bottom corners of the screen, and the title "Layer Cake," appears on a door as it slams. The mise-en-scene while the credits are rolling is of the countryside, and watching an expensive car being driven around the windy roads. The typography is overall small and quite subtle, so you hardly see them turn up. The music in the background is quite up-tempo and pop.
The overall mise-en-scene is a short Montonarge of History, as it goes through right from the beginning while the drug dealers are in prison, to the 60's and present day. Therefore the shots are very fast paced, and moves from scene to scene. It's almost covering a dozen story lines at once.
As the film continues on, there are plenty more thriller signifiers included in the film. For example, in one certain mise-en-scene there's a fan included in the background, with the colours dimmed down. The effect of this is that it almost gives the feel of being in a detectives office. You can also hear the heart of Danielle Craig pounding, showing how scared he is, which increases the intensity. There's also scenes such as black mailing over the phone and plenty of chase scenes. This all adds into the fact that this film is very fast paced editing. The music is also effective, as when something bad is happening, the music tends to grow louder, giving the audience an indication that something is about to happen. Then the music calms down when the situation has reserved itself.
There's also plenty of effective shots involved. This includes vanishing points, shots taken at ground level, tracking shots, over the head shots and extreme close ups. The effect of this is that it makes the film more interesting to watch, as its always moving around and something going on.
However, despite Layer Cake being a good film, the one thing that annoys me is the ending. This is because I don't like the fact that Danielle Craig dies, when the audience are lead to believe he's got away with everything. Although this does serve his character right, as towards the end he becomes very full of himself, therefore he was almost asking to be shot. It's also clever that we're never told his name throughout the film, which is probably a way to increase the intensity and mystery.