Honestly, the opening sequence from Stripes where Bill Murray drives the old lady in his cab while Harold Ramis attempts to teach English to immigrants does it for me.
Obviously Touch of Evil’s opening sequence is wonderful, the Godfather, but Stripes’ is the one that I can conjure up without even thinking about it.
‘Written In The Wind’: the mad drunken sports car racing through Texas oil fields at dawn.
Total melodrama, visually gorgeous as only Sirk can do.
It’s a truly beautiful shot. So many compelling films start with a oving vehicle of some sort. The train in “Bad Day at Black Rock” is another example.
The opening tracking shot in Touch of Evil…absolutely perfect in every way.
I think the opening montage of “Ali”, with the Sam Cooke montage is my favorite opening. Heavenly.
JAWS
Saving Private Ryan’s opening sequence is incredible!
Finding Forester
the kid rapping and the different shots of New York
I thought it was really great
Off the top of my head, without thinking too far back in my cinematic memory, Once Upon a Time in the West. Not only is it a great opening sequence, but it also perfectly sums up Sergio Leone as a filmmaker in terms of pacing, cinematography and use of violence.
His original plan was for Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef to play the three gunmen, wanting to fool the audience into thinking that he was making another movie with the three of them as the main characters, only to have them all shot down by Charles Bronson in the first scene. Unfortunately, none of them wanted to be in a movie where they die almost immediately.
Blue Velvet springs to mind. The sunny idyll of lumberton, the waving fireman, the song “blue velvet” until we get to the insects under the grass. Absolutely perfesct opening. And i’ve always liked the opening to Vertigo.
These are all really brilliant. I have to agree that David Lynch really excels in creating a mood about his opening sequences that shifts you into his cinematic world with ease, something he will later unpack with a shocking depth and disturbance. Maybe someone in the Andrei Tarkovsky thread wants to comment on the opening prologue of ‘Andrei Rublev’, which is unique in that its an opening that seems unjointed to the rest of his film, a sort of stand-alone short, which might have thematic impact on the rest of the work.
How do you feel title sequences work to introduce the viewer into the cinema world? There are some movies start without title sequences, and others where the sequence is essential to introduce the mise-en-scene.
Do opening titles make the movie, or are things better introduced with the story itself?
“Citizen Kane” has a masterful opening, that ominous “No Trespassing” sign on the road to Xanadu. There’s quite a puzzling pre-credit sequence in Preston Sturges’ “The Palm Beach Story” that merits a look, as well. (It all makes sense in the end, but only then.)
Mister Lonely. One continuous shot that begins with the mysterious top of a yellow helmet slowly maneuvering through unseen obstacles, the reveal, the bouncing monkey kite, the slow lean into the camera so close that you can see the lane reflected in the mirror sunglasses, Bobby Vinton singing ‘Mister Lonely’ the entire time…it appears like Bobby Vinton has made two appearances in this forum (Blue Velvet- another great opener)
Aaron, interesting query about the title sequence vs. cold openings. I think of Fight Club for a title sequence that is essential for contextualizing what you are about to witness. On the other end of the spectrum is Contempt, a truly great title sequence placing the viewer into what we are about to see—even the pre-“credit” sequence of Bardot, though Godard didn’t want to shoot it, speaks to the rest of the film beautifully. Ironically, the only “cold open” credit-less film that I can think of right now is Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, though the opening of that, while credit-less, does stand apart as a pre-credit sequence, showing a possible historic birth of Freddy Kreugar’s evil.
I think that a lot can be told in an opening that either stands seemingly apart from the film proper—be it in a title sequence or a pre-credit sequence—that can’t be told in the narrative itself.
I remember being confused by the Andrei Rublev opening when I first saw it, I initially thought that it was the wrong film (!), but it seems to amplify the rest of the movie. It is as out of time as, seemingly, Rublev is, wandering, expecting to go someplace specific, but ending up elsewhere completely. Pasolini’s Oedipus Rex, I also find has this sense of timelessness—a lot of Pasolini and Fellini, too, especially Satyricon and 8 1/2.
Brendan…good one! That opening scene in Once Upon a Time In the West is exquisite! In fact, it’s so well done the rest of the movie has a hard time living up to the promise of that initial scene. Thanks for pointing that one out…
“The Searchers”… a poem!
“Rebecca”… a nightmare!
“Manhattan”… a love letter for the greatest place in the world.
“Philadelphia Story”… Well, battle of sexes!
“Written in the Wind”… God… all the movie in the first scene!
“La Dolce Vita”… Jesuschrist flying down to Roma!
“Belle de jour”… Another nightmare, this time about sex, bondage, humilliation!
I feel like I’m showing my age. The movie I immediately thought of was “Lawrence of Arabia,” the opening sequence with the match igniting and fading (or cutting?) into the desert. I saw it as a child on a wide screen, and I still remember it vividly. The other opening sequence — to my mind — which I recall often (especially when driving) is the one in 8 1/2, when the main character is stuck in a traffic jam. The opening of La Dolce Vita is also brilliant, but it’s one I remember because of its intellectual and visual depth, as the statue of Christ passes over the ancient Roman aqueduct, summing up Fellini’s theme of Christianity vs./and paganism in Italy.
Two prologues so good the movies themselves have a hard time living up: Raising Arizona & Magnolia
GoodFellas and A Clockwork Orange.
On a less “serious film” note
Office Space
when he’s stuck in traffic and the guy on the walker passes him
But yeah I forgot about Magnolia’s opening
amazing
just amazing
trainspotting,
magnolia,
le samurai
trainspotting,
magnolia,
le samurai
Original,not the directors cut of Donnie Darko.
But,Saving Private Ryan takes my breath away
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Diving bell and the Butterfly
Hold Me While I’m Naked – George Kuchar
Days of Being Wild – Wong Kar-Wai (Leslie Cheung is too cool)
RAGING BULL!
Peter already mentioned Manhattan, and how right he is.
Prodigiously iconic. One of my favorites. But I have to ask.
Am I the only one to percieve it as a visual metaphor for sex?
Booooooooooooooogie Nights.
I’ve always loved the openings of Scorsese’s Casino, almost anything with a Saul Bass montage. Seconds(frankenheimer), Cape Fear(scorsese), Grand Prix(frankenheimer). Seven(fincher), Fight Club(fincher), Magnolia(pt).
Aaron
I was humming the tune to ‘The Third Man’ and thought, ‘what a great opening sequence that is. It sets the mood for the whole thing, and that first line ’I never knew the old Vienna before the war…’ Spectacular.
Any other amazing opening sequences that need pondering or pointing out?
I thought the opening to ‘The Flowers of St. Francis’ did an excellent job making you feel wet and miserable with the friars, then discovering their joy when the give up the hut. Really touching.