Enigma

Generic conventions of enigma

The use of an ‘enigma’ will be present in nearly every thriller film you watch. It is a common convention which is extremely effective in drawing in the audience’s attention and also great amounts of suspicion. The definition of ‘enigma’ is “One that is puzzling, ambiguous, or inexplicable.” There are two different forms of ‘enigma’.

1)    Personal- This is when someone’s face may be hidden, yet many other personal objects may be shown which create assumptions of a character. An example of this is in Kill Bill where Bills face is never in shot, yet the camera focuses on his large rings and egotistical napkin with his own name on it which shows Bill thinks a lot of himself.

1.5) Personal Enigma is also created in the Danish T.V thriller ‘The killing’. During the program you are always second guessing who the killer is. The director Patty Jenkins made sure that 20 day long series would keep the audience on there toes, and this was achieved by the subtle clues and red herrings which were left for the audience to decipher after each episode. Many characters were purposely portrayed as villains by creating ‘enigma’ where they were just a mask to cover the true villain.

2)    Objects- this is when an object causes assumptions of even suspicion. Common objects are white vans in Essex Boys (Terry Winsor), car boots used in Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino) and also the notorious brief case in Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino). Throughout pulp fiction there is always an element of suspicion of what is inside the black brief case, and this is built by the characters reactions on screen.