Analsis of the Intro of 'Withnail and I'

The Film opens with a slow crescendo of mellow yet melancholic saxophone followed by an establishing mid shot of one of the main protagonists ('I' or Marwood). He is sitting in a dully lit and drab room and is in the midst's of a comedown, he seems encompassed by fear and paranoia and his expressions and actions are tired and uneasy. He is pensively smoking a cigarette as if in an attempt to relax as the camera zooms in slowly to his face, showing his anxious and troubled expression as he apprehensively looks around the room as the shot then changes.
The non diagetic music also perfectly fits the atmosphere and moody grey surroundings of Marwood, the bluesy nature of it also sets the era to the audience, instantly letting the audience know, they are watching a film set in the 60s. They can then start to relate to the mood and the atmosphere with what is going on.
The next shot shows the squalid and drab London flat that Marwood is actually living in. The camera pans round from the left revealing dull greys and browns of tarnished and old furniture, books and ornaments. The camera continues to pan round (about 180 degrees in total) past some various empty spirit bottles, this immediately starts to imply the state of the characters and their possible lack of money.
The books scattered around and the Globe suggests they are quite highly educated and intellectuals - though the mess and grubbiness of the flat shows their lack of glamour in the once middle class London and the loneliness of the characters.
The state of the kitchen is not dissimilar from the rest of the flat and Marwood walks past the camera and away from it as he lights the stove. There is then a close up and he again walks away from the camera to the centre of the shot, it is now a long shot of him and we can see Marwood hunching over a chair and breathing uncomfortably, again showing trepidation.
This makes the audience question why he is in this position and what could be wrong with him.
The shot also invites the audience in, looking at the character from your own point of view, this is helped by the static camera in the kitchen with the kettle and the door frame in the foreground. This frames the character and shows how alone and trapped he seems to be.
The audience can also see behind him that the curtains are closed though it is light outside - highlighting that they are trapped and maybe out of sync with reality.
Still in a long shot he staggers out of the shot and pulls on his coat, the camera follows him out of the room mid shot then he comes in from the right starting to aggressively bang on the door of the other character. He then addresses him as 'Withnail' - the camera then following Marwood as he walks away. This is an important part of the characterization as we find out that all the events and narration are from Marwood's Point of view, and we only hear of Withnail's feelings and point of view at the end of the film in a monologue, where we still don't hear things from his mind but through Shakespeare - once he has nothing and no-one left in his life.

The next scene shows a close up of a man frying eggs in a cheap and dirty cafe, he throws them into a sandwich and literally drops it in front of a woman (an over shoulder shot from Marwood who is sitting in the foreground). This shows the lower social class and vulgarity of London and the sordidness that underlies the city.
It again shows how uncomfortable and trapped Marwood is within the city and the lack of hope he has being in such a place.
The camera then zooms in purely onto his eyes as he skims the headlines of the newspaper he is reading, there is then a shot reverse shot twice onto the paper and his eyes.
The headlines are showing the ridiculousness of humanity and the extremes of life in London as the camera zooms out slightly and he looks over at the vulgar woman eating - the camera from his observation (an over shoulder shot from the man in front).
The camera then shows a close up of Marwood with his disgusted expression, as his eyes then focus on a paper opposite him as he stares at the outlandish article in front of him (shot reverse shot twice).
His voice then narrates non diagetically as if he is thinking, about the 'murder and all bran and rape' that Londoners have to wake up to - the camera slowly zooming in on his worried expression as he contemplates going home to discuss the issues he has with Withnail 'immediately'.
He also says he must be out of his mind, which is also reflected in the majority of his body language from the beginning, suggesting his state of health at the moment is quite unstable - we then come to learn that he has been tripping from speed as the scene goes on.