The first 10 minutes of Edward Scissorhands are a perfect capsule delivering the film's visual concerns, its musical motifs and its comic style.

The very first sequence also introduces the film's disconcerting, fairytale vagueness about time. An elderly Kim starts to tell her granddaughter a story in an old-fashioned bedroom, then flashes back by 50 years - to a thoroughly modern suburb! Then we meet Peg, the lovable, ineffectual Avon Lady, trying her make-up sales patter on her jaded neighbours. "My changing look, Peg?" a hassled housewife sneers.

In her car mirror - mirrors are important later in the film - Peg spots the old mansion and decides to visit it. So we are quickly introduced to this beautiful, mythic setting - where suburban Peg is amusingly upbeat: "This is some huge house. Thank goodness for those aerobic classes."

Chirpy, bright Peg stands in contrast to her dark surroundings and the increasingly foreboding music on the soundtrack. Then Peg meets the hiding Edward, and the scene's tone shifts into pathos and an emphasis on Peg's maternal hands. Her optimism returns as she reaches for some make-up for Edward's cuts and determines to take him home.