Sound in our favourite movie - The Illusionist.

Blurb:
Vienna 1900: Eisenheim (Edward Norton) is a brilliant stage magician, the greatest illusionist Vienna has ever seen. When is childhood friendship with the Duchess Sophie von Teschen (Jessica Biel), now betrothed to the power-hungry Brown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell), is rekindled he finds himself a target for the Prince's anger. As the clandestine romance continues, Leopold orders the shrewd Chief Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti), the head of the secret police, to close down the theatre and make Eisenheim vanish. But as the net tightens around him and tragedy strikes, Eisenheim prepares to execute his greatest illusion yet.

Sound - The first 3 minutes:
The sound in the film starts with a non-diegetic, grand piece of string music over the top of the titles. The music suddenly rises in tempo then come to a sudden halt- the black screen fades out and we see a shot of 'the illusionist' sitting on stage, on a chair. It is silent, all we hear are the coughs and shuffling of the audience and the flickering of the candle. We hear violent whispers which seem to be non-diegenic for the audience but diegenic for the illusionist as we see his face turn stern and his eyes widen. The tempo rises again as we see a figure behind the illusionist appears. A woman from the crowd breaks the music and it quietens to concentrate on her voice. The music keeps up it's eerie tempo as police start to surround the outer walls of the theatre hall and the stage. The scene cuts to the chief of police walking down a cramp hallway made cramp by the stag antlers protruding from the wall. The rhythm of the music matches his footsteps. The tempo slows and fades out quickly as the chief of police enters an office and walks towards a desk- this makes the audience expect a conversation. Under the conversation, we hear the ticking of a desk clock, most likely dubbed on top later. Music then cuts in when the shot changes to an informative secret - a flash back. The music is soft yet medium pace and we hear the police officer's voice continue as a voice over. Through the flashback, the music rises in tempo as the key points of the story progress. Light flute music and dubded over horse shoe klonking play over as he meets a girl riding on a horse.

NT. This movie also good for examples of trick camera shots (deception of the audience)

This film has a good use of eerie music which matches the scene well. I want to use this technique in my own film opening. Also, the use of other diegetic sound on top of the non diegetic music was very effective and something to consider.