Your favorite title sequence
HEAT. Tones of mood and tones of info established before the “movie proper” even starts.
Fight Club, Catch me if you can, Seconds, Sisters, The Untouchables.
Fight Club, Sisters,The Untouchables, Catch me if you can, Seconds, Casino. I guess anything by Saul Bass.
Whoops!
That should read “tons of mood and tons of info…”
What type of olde English crappe was I smoking when I typed this? (Actually, then I would have typed “tonnes”, but you get my point…)
Sunset Blvd.
HARAKIRI
The perfect symetrical framing of every title against the walls of the castle. It plays like an analysis of the cene of the crime in a metaphisical procedural.
Just a few from this decade:
Undertow
Ginger Snaps
Catch Me If You Can
Watchmen
Also the Alien opening sequence, very cryptic at first and always hypnotizing
fight club
2001: a space odyssey
dr.strange love
reservoir dogs
Pink Panther (original of coarse)
The Wild Bunch (including best signature shot ever)
Tetsuo The Iron Man has the best opening sequence. Must be seen to be believed.
Don’t Look Now
Haven’t scanned all eight pages of this thread, but I played this title sequence (as an appetizer) for a friend last night…
Lina Wertmuller’s “Seven Beauties”….that music, those archival images, that poem, that voice….oh, yeah!
I’m a sucker for a good title sequence…
Aliens, and Heat – simple but effective.
Snatch, Fight Club, Seven – flashy but also set the tone perfectly
Swingers – nostalgic, familiar, fun!
“Le Deuxieme Souffle” by Melville. The simplicity of the credits flashing over the natural sounds does something for me every time.
I just watched that this morning, Brian. yes, I liked the credits too, now that you mention it!
I also like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly titles!
When the cartoon canon blows up the cartoon horse. Classic.
The Godfather may not have a title sequence, but the first few minutes are amazing. It’s just great when you see the guy (can’t remember the character’s name) saying: “I believe in America…” Besides, when he comes closer to Don Vito and whispers something inaudible to his ear is like Francis F. Coppola saying: there are a lot of secrets in the mafia, and no matter how close you may feel to a character, you will never fully understand.
Whether you like it or not, Watchmen does have a great titles sequence. It sort of explains how the world works like when there are super heroes around.
As for cartoons, The Lion King has a great beginning. Just watching it, while “The circle of life” is playing rises your spirits up.
The same goes for Bertolucci’s “The Dreamers”. The title sequence feels friendly…
Sorry, almost double post…
Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar with the brief braying of titular donkey followed by Shubert playing as brief credits unroll on the screen—for simplicity it simply is not be surpassed in cinema as I know it,
Woody Allen title sequences…
short simple and to the point…
and none of that hollywood starpower nonsense…
I miss main titles. I wish more filmmakers used them today.
Speed- down the elevator shaft with Mark Mancina’s great score
Sphere- titles under foggy water with the letters refracted through spheres
Hulk- comic book pulp genesis
Total Recall- striking red echo effect on the letters with Jerry Goldsmith’s thumping score
Alien- the dead of space
seven- killer’s journal
Goldfinger- gilded bodies
To Kill a Mockingbird- Scout’s trinkets and Bernstein’s lovely music
Vertigo- saul bass, of course
Lost Highway- flying titles at the screen on an endless strip or road
Mulholland Dr.- badalamenti’s creepy synth score over the limousine
Batman- probably the first main title I ever took notice of
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly- animated painted titles
Gattaca- human remnants fall to Michael Nyman’s score
Memento- polaroid fades backwards
Insomnia (2002)- blood seeps into fabric
The New World- maps
Days of Heaven- carnival of the animals playing over faded photos
Other Titles, not necessarily sequences
Heat- from the WB logo with Elliot Goldenthal with the Kronos Quartet humming in the background to that mysterious shot of a train, it sets great atmosphere
Batman Begins/ The Dark Knight- no title, but evocative use of the bat symbols
X-Men- Patrick Stewart narration, then flying through a cell to the x-men logo
The X-Files- slippery black oil
And someone mentioned The Wire which is the benchmark for great TV titles. The motifs alone in the shots each season are worth mentioning.
I am strangely taken with the title sequence from Casino Royale also. Interesting blends between past and present and introduces Craig is the new Bond quite well, I say!
Atom Egoyan´s Ararat and Coen´s Big Lebowski
Atom Egoyan´s Ararat and Coen´s Big Lebowski
Does anyone else get a little shiver up the spine when the score or the soundtrack of the film begins before the production company logo fades? Even if the film turns out to be shit? Gets me every time.
LoL not all the time but some of the times James Bond movies are pretty sweet for title sequences.
Hmm, I really like the artwork in the title sequence for Spider-Man 2 by Alex Ross.
Mayukh
Nashville
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Barbarella