Great opening scenes / title sequences

[Dark Poet]

Hopefully this thread can serve two purposes - as an homage and also as an introduction for the uninitiated since, unlike a trailer, these scenes can't act as spoilers.

The Player:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0epB5Z6ijpk

Along with Rear Window and Touch of Evil, this is pretty infamous and it's all in one take.

Jackie Brown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BWA1T78WpI

Again, routes in the past - The Graduate this time.

Life is Sweet (first 2 1/2 mins or so):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYeBmo3fId8

The girls apparently thought Alison Steadman was just another teacher.

There's plenty more I could have posted and many aren't on youtube - Hitchcock's glorious saunter down the Thames in Frenzy for instance.

[holyzombiejesus]

Enter The Void's title sequence is my favourite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPxgi-PiNFE

I also enjoyed Zombieland's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uUHamXmUAI&feature=related

and the remake of Dawn Of The Dead's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwBigliX1Bo

[Harpo Speaks]

I also enjoyed Zombieland's

Yeah I liked that one too. As I've said a few times, Watchmen has brilliant opening titles, it's the best part of the film.

[holyzombiejesus]

Yeah I liked that one too. As I've said a few times, Watchmen has brilliant opening titles, it's the best part of the film.

Forgot about that. Yeah, they are good.

Does 'title sequences' include closing credits? If so, can I nominate the end titles to Dogville...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHqerPJG-dI

I grinned my face off when the film ended like this. The whole of the film was so sedate and measured - no set or props and 3 hours long - and it felt like at the end, LVT just thought 'fuck it! I'll hammer the point home a bit!'

I also liked Von Trier's little sign languaged ending to episodes of The Kingdom, although they doesn't really count for this.

[Johnny Townmouse]

Great openings. Here are some no-brainers:

Blue Velvet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM975_Ld9S0

Irreversible
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXaDWo_YRnA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VALefjQCww

Naked
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG2dkTUPzPI

Oh yeah, we shouldn't just post youtube videos. OK, Blue Velvet is a fabulously creepy opening, setting up the pastoral suburban setting, to give a heightened threat of death and underlying violence. Irreversible has a very Kubrickian opening titles that portents so much drama and doom, it then becomes fantastically whoozy with characters that do no reappear (although Noe fans will be familar with one of them). Splendid. Naked sets up the main character in the space of about 90secs, although it holds back from showing how charming and funny he is until later. The use of the hand-held camera gives it a Peeping Tom quality, something that Leigh ultimately confounds (though it is a narrative reference point).

I agree that the Touch of Evil opening is one of the best - I would also say that the opening few minutes of The Shining are pretty much unbeatable.

[Jemble Fred]

Without question the greatest movie opening I've ever beheld is Trading Places, with the montage of New York high and low life set to the Overture from the Marriage of Figaro, perfectly culminating in Denholm Elliot's timely serving of breakfast. Every milisecond is perfect. In fact, John Landis is the opening king.

So it's fucking annoying I can't find a video of it online anywhere.

[Ignatius_S]

Can't find it online, but the opening sequence of The Magnificent Ambersons is charming and has a deserved high reputation. In it, the years are dealt with in seconds as a montage of scenes depicting changes in fashion and society (chiefly with Joseph Cotton) as Orson Welles narrates. Brilliant.

I've also always like the opening titles and first scene from Repo Man:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDRrJvNfKsM

The titles are simple and effective. The shots of a map vigiously edited to an equally vigiorous song by Iggy Pop. The garish, glowing hue of the map fits the brash style of the film brilliantly (and reflects a crucial element of the plot).

I'm not show what I was expecting from the first scene in a film called Repo Man, but it certainly wasn't the one that hooked me completely.

[phantom_power]

that start of do the right thing is fantastic and really throws you into the style of the film and the world of the characters. the film is so stylised and hyper-real to start with it needs something like that to set you up

[Johnny Townmouse]

I always adored Petit's opening for Radio On.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agLjt5wtSeA

It's filmed in such a compellingly unsettling way, with Bowie rocking out in German. It feels other-worldy, and out of time, like La Jetee and Stalker.

[Ignatius_S]

I always adored Petit's opening for Radio On.....

That is great - the sign on the Hippodrome sadly long gone.

[Gulftastic]

The Royal Tenebaums

Builds up the characters and relationships wonderfully.

[momatt]

Wall-E's opening sequence is breath-taking.

[Gulftastic]

And speaking of Pixar, Up's opening section reduced me to a sobbing mess. I'm glad I didn't see it in the cinema.

[Johnny Townmouse]

I keep watching those Enter the Void opening credits and have become more and more annoyed that I did not find the time to see it in the cinema.

[Serge]

'Se7en's opening titles were so gobsmacking that they've been ripped off too many times to count by many, many inferior films (and probably quite a few music videos). When you watch the film again, you realise that they are showing John Doe writing in his notebooks - I remember Fincher saying in an interview that they're to give a hint to anybody watching the film that 'this isn't going to be 'A River Runs Through It''!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY

Although there is a scene establishing the characters of William Somerset and David Mills before they kick in.

A few years later, Fincher did it again with the astonishing opening titles to 'Fight Club', which start at the fear centre of the Narrator's brain and end up coming out of his mouth and along the gun that Tyler Durden is holding in it. Apparently they cost so much to make that they had to be budgeted separately from the film. Fincher remarked that if they hadn't been able to secure the money, the film would have started with a white screen with 'Fight Club' in black letters!

http://vimeo.com/7695947

Oh, and I knew from the opening minute of 'Kick-Ass' that I was going to love the film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEsNvObIwQg

[Desi Rascal]

  Leonard Bernstein's opening score to West Side Story,giving way to an overhead establishing shot of New York,the streets getting gradually getting more and more claustrophobic as the Ariel shots close in on the story setting.

Then Bam! straight to some guy clicking his fingers, what's going on? no idea me mam taped Basketball Heads[nb]natch[/nb] over the rest of it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krhqiyGwJyM

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Great idea for a thread, DP.  The opening scene is usually the most important scene in the movie, and if done right, is often the best.  I'm going to go for one people perhaps might not have considered as a great opening scene because it's so new, but mostly because it's Harry Potter.  I make no bones of the fact that I really like the HP franchise, but the introduction of the latest one is absolutely fantastic, for two reasons; firstly, it starts with a monologue from one of Britain's greatest living actors, a man who could read your shopping list and have you on tenterhooks.  It's then followed on by the most heartbreaking scene in the entire series, where Hermione makes an extraordinary sacrifice - and in so doing telling us that they really are preparing for war.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGtms4B1pO8

[lipsink]

'Se7en's opening titles were so gobsmacking that they've been ripped off too many times to count by many, many inferior films (and probably quite a few music videos).

I remember being terrified by the opening credits to that the first time I saw it. The opening to The Collector was clearly influenced by it (It's still quite effective):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3U72EqhOuM&NR=1

[madhair60]

Had no idea what Enter the Void was before today, and based solely on those credits, I must see it NOW.

[Cambrian Times]

I see your Wall-E and raise you The Lion King

[Gulftastic]

And I shall trump the Lion King with the marvellous light-operatic opening to Disney's true masterpeice 'Beauty & The Beast'.

[Johnny Townmouse]

If I may be so bold Mr Torrance - here is the full opening for Enter the Void, featuring epilpepsia inducing flashes and proper logos for Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Delia Derbyshire and others....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL0lNGXoP8E

Fuck me.

The final bit reminds me a great deal of this Justice video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xTBJBRG96E

[Gulftastic]

Nightcrawler attacking the White House in X Men 2 was a fantastic way to open the film, and possibly the best ever representation of super powers and their use ever put on film.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

The Enter the Void opening credits have put me off more than anything I think!  If I couldn't sit through the opening credits I'm not sure it bodes well for the film...

Here are two more of my favourites:

Spike Lee's Inside Man, a wonderful opening hook spoken directly to camera by Clive Owen, followed by shots of New York and a stonking bollywood soundtrack:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy81dVuS6oU

(epic fail with the aspect ratio on that one!)


Followed by Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite), a film which caused such controversy that many in Brazil tried to ban the film outright, and only failed in doing so because it had been so widely pirated it became the most watched homegrown movie in Brazil, making a ban a moot point.  The film follows the elite police force, the only ones trained to go into the Rio Favelas, and squarely points the finger both at the police and at its own audience for being responsible for the violence that takes place there.  (Originally the film-maker wanted to make a documentary about the squad, but realised there was a good chance they wouldn't survive making it.)  It's also a notable film for having been shot places nobody had been able to film before because of safety concerns.  (Even City of God isn't filmed in the real location.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWn-uWEas9s

It has subtitles but you have to switch them on.  Oh yeah, and skip to 1:20 to avoid all the logos.  A lot of people put little bits into this film!

[Blumf]

The opening to The Conversation sets the film up brilliantly whilst also drawing you in, what is going on, what are those strange sounds?

Opening park scene from The Conversation

Too understated? Try the opening to Heavy Metal instead, pure awesomeness

heavy metal 1

[Blumf]

Nightcrawler attacking the White House in X Men 2 was a fantastic way to open the film, and possibly the best ever representation of super powers and their use ever put on film.

+1

[Famous Mortimer]

Good call on X-Men 2. Saying that, the concentration camp scene in the first X-Men is also awesome.

Re: Touch of Evil, there's a fantastic Orson Welles documentary that shows the outtakes from that opening scene- in one instance, it got right to the very end and the guy whose line triggers the first cut, and that guy fluffed his line.

[bitesize]

yes, Nightcrawler in XMen2 was amazing, i been waiting since i was 12 to see that! absolutely perfect.

the opening 10 mins or so of 28 Weeks Later are pretty fucking intense, doesn't let up at all - quite a brilliant start.

[Serge]

Re: Touch of Evil, there's a fantastic Orson Welles documentary that shows the outtakes from that opening scene- in one instance, it got right to the very end and the guy whose line triggers the first cut, and that guy fluffed his line.

I think in that instance, Orson Welles would have been perfectly justified in attacking him with a car jack.

[Johnny Townmouse]

I suppose it seems like an easy choice to go with the continious take, particularly one that is as complex as Touch of Evil. But really, it is quite breath-taking how they managed to pull it off so naturally. What's most interesting for me is that I have showm that opening to students and they haven't even noticed that it is one take. I think this is because of the business of the scene, the music and credits, and the shifting dialogue.

I don't know if I can be that judgemental about this, when I saw Rope during a TV marathon of his films when I was a teenager, I didn't notice that it was made up of extended shots.