Analysing Opening Scenes and Enigma - 'Carlito's Way'

The first opening scene I will analyse in terms of enigma is from Brian De Palma's 'Carlito's Way'.

The scene begins in silence, immediately unsettling the spectator, before we see a close up of the barrel of a gun and a man being shot at close range. Here, we are seeing an effect and not a cause; something we see only later in the film. At this stage we do not know who the man is, nor why he has been shot.

The slow-motion, the black and white cinematography and the dramatic, melancholic non-diegetic music which begins to play, alongside the pleonastic sounds of gunfire, further unsettle the audience, creating a puzzle for them to solve as the narrative of the film unfolds.

A birds-eye-view shot suggests that events are out of the victim's control, leading the audience to believe that he will die, something which is reinforced by the frantic behaviour of the paramedics (shown from the character's POV and in slow-motion) as they try to save him, leading him down the station platform on a trolley.