Textual Analysis - The Notebook

We are drawn into the opening shot with a fade in of the bright orange and red colours of sunrise over a lake. We see black silhouettes of the countryside landscape and of a single person in a boat on the lake. He seems to be by himself making it feel quiet, peaceful and tranquil out there. A great amount of time is taken up with various long shots like this establishing the setting of the film as the opening credits come up name by name. We see some white birds fly from the lake towards a big house. The camera follows them in a tracking motion. We see an over the shoulder shot of a woman looking out on the birds and the lake. We receive a reverse shot of this where we see her from the front doing this. The woman looks old in age and frail and seems to be looking out into the distance as if she isn't all there, day dreaming almost. We see the reflection of the glass in the window she is looking out of. The white birds seem to be passing over her face. These birds could symbolise her hopes and dreams or even perhaps her memories passing by, almost fleeing from her. Throughout this opening we hear the soft, slow tune of a piano which started playing before the film actually began. This would have drawn the audience in straight away. The slow transitions and editing of this piece seemed to add extra emotion as the audience took in the surroundings and what was going on. I think this was fairly unconventional of a drama films opening, there was no relationships established between any two characters, simply just the old woman, the lake and the slow, elegant piano music playing. link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNJaN3FMUyI