Film Opening Deconstruction - 'Love Actually'

The film opens with the 'Universal' logo accompanied with the sound you would expect from the company, this is followed by a black screen from which the 'studio canal' logo appears - it starts with a small letterbox shape which expands to reveal the logo, there is also the company signature sound to go with this. Then, the 'Working Title' logo appears at 0:43, with no sound. This goes to black and we have our first shot, a tracking shot following a man, there is also light music at this point which reflects the expected happy, romantic comedy of which you would expect from a Richard Curtis film. 'Universal Picture and Studio canal present' is then displayed on screen (during the shot of the man). At 0:54 'a working title production' appears as a man goes up and hugs his, assumed, friend or family. This is followed by 'In Association with DNA Films' and it becomes clear to us that this scene is in a busy place, perhaps arrivals at an airport since it is so crowded and there are many people greeting one another.

At 1:05 it cuts to a mother carrying her bags who greets and hugs her children, which then cuts to two old women also hugging and then another mother lifting her child, this shot has been slowed down to perhaps emphasise the love in their relationship, and this being a moment that she has been dreaming of since she went away, in this way, slowing it down perhaps creates the feeling of her finally having that dream come true. Also at this point there is a non-diegetic narrator who confirms our expectations of these touching scenes being in an airport, 'Whenever I get gloomy about the state of the world, I think about the arrival bay at Heathrow Airport', meanwhile we are shown a mother and her child hugging and another lady running up and embracing. During this narration we are shown, repeatedly, people happily greeting and embracing each other, 'It seems to me that love is everywhere', it is clear to see from all this embracing that this is reflected. The narrator then goes on to say that 'often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there' as we see father and son, mother and daughter and two old guys hugging as he says 'old friends'. The constant repetition of people's touching moments captured, emphasises the fact that this film is about love. 

This continues at 1:38 where we are shown a man and a women kissing as they greet each other, while the narrator goes on to say 'when the planes hit the twin towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls were messages hate or revenge' in this way, we are already given the ideas that the film will perhaps be in search for this love and although we are not shown the main characters or protagonist in the first scene, we already have ideas about what the film is about and perhaps creates some enigma as we wish to know who the person narrating it is and how will they find love? At 1:50 the narrator says 'If you look for it you'll find that love actually is all around' while these words are being spoken, they appear on screen in a white typeface, apart from 'is' which is in red, connoting love. We then see a group of the three hugging which fades to black, leaving the words 'love actually', 'love' being now in red', actually then fades and 'love' is left alone at 2:00 minutes.