The opening sequence for the film 'Bridget Jones's Diary' creates this image of a sympathetic and pitiful woman who is alone after the Christmas festivities are over, and this can be clearly explained in many ways.
Firstly, we see Bridget as one of the very small handful of 'younger' people in contrast to the number of elderly people who all are celebrating Christmas festivities. This already creates a feeling of sympathy towards Bridget, as she is surrounded by a large number of elderly people, who are believed by modern society to be nostalgic, dull, often forgetful and not the ideal company that someone of Bridget's age would be craving for.
Then, the focus of the camera shifts from the celebration of Christmas to panning outside Bridget's house on a cold winter night. This creates a more depressing atmosphere from the viewer, as the camera changes from filming a warm and festive celebration filled with people to panning outside a lonely woman's house in the freezing cold.
Through this transition, the narrator of the film (Bridget Jones, who is also the main heroine of the film) is clearly upset by being alone on such a festive and jolly occasion. Despite trying to implement some humor into her narration, Bridget still shows signs of sadness about her situation she would have to endure with at the time of the scene. "...I was going to live a life where my major relationship was with a bottle of wine, and I'd finally die fat and alone and be found three weeks later, half-eaten by Alsatians .." This quotation shows that whilst it is clearly exaggerated and something that Bridget would make light of, she (and also the viewer by the end of the scene) would acknowledge that unless something happened, Bridget would remain a single woman for the rest of her life, not getting to enjoy the wonders of a romantic relationship, thus garnering compassion from the audience as a result.
As the framing of the camera now displays Bridget's living room to the viewing audience, they can see Bridget alone on her sofa, watching an episode of 'Frasier'. Again, this is rather a depressing piece of visual imagery to conjure up, as she is sitting alone at such a festive time of year, watching a comedy programme which involves frequent uses of dry humour, in contrast to the blatant and obvious humour used in 'Bridget Jones's Diary'.
The editing also manages to rustle up a level of pity shown from the audience for Bridget, as the cross-dissolve in her living room shows the camera being positioned in one place, yet Bridget appears in more than one location in the living room, which shows that she is so bored with being alone that she is desperate to find something that will ease her mind from thinking about how unsuccessful she is at love.
Throughout this editing process, the song 'All by Myself', sung by Jamie O'Neal, can be heard by the viewer as they see Bridget eventually start to mime the words to the song. It starts off non-diegetic, as Bridget initially doesn't take any notice of the song. However, as the scene progresses, Bridget slowly but surely starts to mime along to the words that are being sung by O'Neal, giving the music elements of being diegetic as well as non-diegetic. While this scene may feature a level of humour that the viewer can find themselves easily laughing along with, it is also quite ironic since Bridget literally is all by herself, which is related to the title of the song.
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