film noir opening idea

The scene opens with a man sitting alone in a small living room of a house, its early evening and the room is dark with blurry shadows and tones of grey there are no lights on in the room. Man1 has the TV on and is sitting on the sofa in front of it, but he’s not watching the TV, he does not react to the program in any way or focuses his eyes on the screen in a way that suggests that he is only sitting there with the TV on because he wants someone to believe he is innocently watching TV.

Man1’s eyes shift to the living room window as a tall shadow crosses the thin fabric of the half shut curtains and the doorbell rings, man1 gets up to answer it, he opens the door, its man2. They exchange monosyllabic greetings as man1 lets man2 in, as man two closes the front door he caches man2’s eye and flicks his eyes to the smoke alarm in the ceiling and back at man2 again, he responds by blinking slowly and lowing his eyes. Man2 is wearing a big coat but does not take it off once inside and his hands are in his pockets. The men go into the living room and stand opposite each other awkwardly, man1 offers man2 a drink.

Now we see a small dark space, a single desk light shines in the darkness revealing a man sitting at a worktop with his back to the camera, in front of him is an old fashion film reel runner slowly turning and clicking softly. The man is holding one cup of a headphone set to his right ear and we hear man1’s voice, it sounds like its coming from a in a poor quality speaker.

Would he prefer Strong Bow or Guinness man1 asks, man2 chooses Strong Bow. Man1 takes a can out of the fridge opens it and hands it to man2 who takes it but does not drink it. They sit together on opposite sides of the sofa and watch a football match together, man2 does not touch his drink, it is slightly out of sight on a side table beside the sofa you cannot see the label. Man1 tunes his head to man2 and comments on a player’s passing technique in a strange tone of voice, man2 nods in agreement and pats one of his pockets.

We see the dark room and the eavesdropper again this time in a tighter shot, there’s just the man’s head and his headphones and the sound of the tape recording the conversation.

the men watch the football mach quietly and when it ends the both get up and face each other again man1 tells man2 to come again soon and man2 sais he enjoyed the mach complains his TV doesn’t get the sports channel, as man2 exits the living room he pulls a small envelope out of a pocket and slips it behind a cushion of the sofa, man1 sees him do it and watches him leave through the front door.