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The opening titles were never meant to be just boring text! They can have a life of their own. What are your favorite opening title sequences?
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00:00Before the film comes the titles.
00:02Born of a simple requirement, let the audience know the movie's starting,
00:05titles have developed into an art form in their own right.
00:07These are our picks for the top ten movie title sequences of all time.
00:20One thing title sequences almost all have in common,
00:23the oldest holdover from the very start, is text.
00:26We love the type of King Kong, and Dr. Strangelove, and Alien, and Spring Breakers,
00:30and to Star Wars count, we love Panic Room, and A Clockwork Orange, and Le Soufflé,
00:34and especially The Forbidden Room.
00:36En Femme et En Femme is an incredible runner up, but for our number ten pick,
00:40we think that Gaspar Noé's modern updating really improves upon the concept in Enter the Void.
00:49Gaspar Noé is a filmmaker known for his visceral, often shocking work.
00:54He is known for the extreme, and so it's fitting that his best title sequence comes
00:58with its own health warning.
00:59The styles are bold, bright, eclectic, even tacky and cliché.
01:03But they're also carefully thought out and deeply personal,
01:06with each individual title designed to evoke its character or crew member.
01:10Combining LFO's pounding track, a flickering strobe, electrophotography,
01:14English, French, and Japanese with an assault of pop art typography,
01:17this sequence is a force.
01:23Eventually, generic title cards gave way to other innovations, and very early on,
01:27these involved filmed imagery.
01:29From montages like Personas, Seconds, and Do the Right Things, moody footage teases like
01:34Saboteurs or The Big Sleep, and we love dearly how designer Brown John combined footage
01:38with type by projecting it over the human body in From Russia with Love.
01:42But it's his second effort that gets this spot with Goldfinger.
01:56James Bond titles are an absolute institution, and this is probably one of our favorites.
02:01Legend has it, Brown John, a famous UK graphic designer and socialite, pitched his original
02:06idea for Goldfinger's prequel by turning down the lights, firing up a projector, and taking off his shirt
02:11to gyrate for the executives declaring, it'll be just like this, except we'll use a pretty girl.
02:16But Goldfinger's titles are more than just gyration and a pretty girl.
02:20They set the perfect tone of sex, mystery, and danger that embodies the Bond brand,
02:25while simultaneously evoking the theme, characters, and overall plot of the film,
02:29and going down as a worthwhile piece of standalone art in the process.
02:35The cameras aren't the only way to get some movement on the screen.
02:38Some iconic title sequences ease the transition from the real world of outside the cinema
02:42to the fantasy space on its screen with a halfway stop at animation.
02:46These are credit sequences like The Pink Panther, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini,
02:51Robin Hood, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines,
02:56Grease, and The Parent Trap.
02:57However, for our number eight pick, we think that Catch Me If You Can takes the old with the new
03:01in the best possible way.
03:22In the same way that Pink Panther's title sequence mines a chase for comedic effect,
03:26Catch Me If You Can does so for tension and drama.
03:29Telling a microcosm animated story version of the cat and mouse pursuit that makes up the film.
03:34But what's even more special than the content of this animation is the style.
03:37Dripping with 60's flair and color, it was actually hand animated with hand carved stamps on paper,
03:43and then composited onto the computerized design of the symbolic landscape.
03:47It harkens back to an older, more classical style of title design.
03:50One that lies at the heart of the art form.
03:52And as we proceed through our list, pay attention to some of our older entries,
03:55to see if you can spot some of the visual influences that color this look.
04:00And speaking of visual influences, for our number seven,
04:03somewhere between typography and animation lies graphic design.
04:07Brilliant, simple, iconic, expressive, and symbolic.
04:10It was the advent of the bold graphic design title that had Otto Preminger write a letter to
04:15the projectionist instructing them to pull curtain before titles, ushering in a new era of relevance.
04:20Where before, they might not have.
04:22Think Auntie Mame, Fahrenheit 451, Boys Night Out, Thank You for Smoking, The Good,
04:26The Bad, and The Ugly, The Thomas Crown Affair, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,
04:30and its ancestor, Funny Face.
04:31But for this slot, we're giving it to probably the second most important title designer of all time,
04:37Maurice Binder.
04:38And while we love The Mouse That Roared, Damn Yankees, and Charade,
04:41we're going back to the Bond sequence that started it all with Dr. No.
04:59Binder is really the godfather of the Bond sequence, designing 14 in all.
05:03From this first one, through License to Kill, with only one brief gap for
05:07Brown John's two film foray.
05:09And good lord, is Dr. No incredible.
05:11From the advent of the now unforgettable gun barrel sequence, to the classic 60s graphic
05:15minimalism of the colored dots, Binder pioneered a slick, smooth, attractive,
05:19credit styling, whose influence persists to this day.
05:22And what we love most is that he seems to have somehow captured the suave, hip, calm,
05:26uber-cool, hyper-masculine, metropolitan-ness of the character of Bond,
05:31with nothing more than a grid of colorful circles.
05:33That's graphic design at its finest.
05:39As we continue our journey through opening titles, one of the questions we have to ask ourselves
05:43after what makes the title sequence look good, is what makes a title sequence work good?
05:48Sure, they can list some names and announce the beginning, but that's a missed opportunity if
05:52that's all that screen time and space is being used for.
05:55So for our number six, we're looking at those credit sequences that waste no time and get the
05:59story started, contributing themselves to the plot.
06:02This is Godzilla, The Warriors, Watchmen, and Serenity, sequences that tell the story that
06:07incites the story.
06:08But for our number six slot, we've got to give it to a title sequence that sets it all up
06:12in a
06:12with a brilliantly coordinated, long take of epic proportions.
06:16And no, that's not the player, although we love that one too.
06:19It's Orson Welles' The Touch of Evil.
06:42Largely considered one of the best long takes in the history of cinema,
06:45especially by those in the know, it's certainly the most classic.
06:49It's formally brilliant, the long shot represents a border town cohesiveness that's
06:53shattered into cuts by an explosion, much like the plot.
06:56But it's also virtuosic, displaying Welles' absolutely meticulous control over his
07:01craft, even in the twilight of his career.
07:03Clocking in at exactly three and a half minutes from danger close to soaring wide,
07:07with just enough narrative lull to make space to read the titles, yet also an ever-present
07:12ticking time bomb tension to keep it interesting?
07:14This sequence is pure cinema gold.
07:19Now sometimes title sequences can pretty much give the plot away without us even knowing it.
07:24This is the foreshadowing title sequence, the filmmaker toying with us, waiting for us to
07:28come around on a second viewing like holy , how could it be so obvious?
07:31This is Gattaca, and The Fall, and The Palm Beach Story, and a little bit of Lawrence of Arabia in
07:36a way.
07:36It's Don Camillo in Moscow.
07:38Most recently, Deadpool did this brilliantly, exploring a frozen moment, alternating between
07:42titles that were funny enough to actually read, and inexplicable slices of time that the film
07:47promised to go back and explic.
07:49But more than anything, it's our number five pick of Fight Club.
07:56People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden.
08:01Conceived of by David Fincher as a three quarters of a million dollar tour of fear happening in the brain,
08:07it's almost accidental how fittingly it gives away the twist.
08:11But in a film about a conflict that is entirely mental, it can be no coincidence.
08:15But what we love most is that it doesn't only hint at the big macro reveal at the end of
08:20the film,
08:20but the micro reveal too.
08:22With glimpses of sweat and bruising, and a strange metal shape that only hints at a hostage and a gun.
08:27We begin to suspect the shape of the truth before we know its specifics.
08:31And that kind of uncertainty is perhaps even more worthwhile to the viewing experience,
08:35than David Fincher thumbing his nose at the viewer with hints about what will shortly blow their minds.
08:44Title sequences can also contextualize a story, conveying actual information that might otherwise
08:50improve the viewing experience.
08:52Think The Kingdom, which spins its title sequence as an oil industry history primer.
08:56Or LA Confidential, that has Danny DeVito prologues down into the seedy underbelly of the City of Angels.
09:01Or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's old-timey introduction to the bank robbers of yore.
09:06However, for our number 4 pick, we think that Lord of War's tour through the life of a bullet
09:10is a brilliant, if imperfect, source of context.
09:14There's something happening here, but what it is ain't exactly clear.
09:23There's a man with a gun over there, telling me I've got to wear.
09:33From factory stamp to final destination, Lord of War's title sequence serves as a reminder of the
09:39vast consequences involved in the weapons trade.
09:41Truthful or not, far from a sterile object, this title sequence equates bullets with a real
09:46potential for death.
09:47Familiar in perspective to Maurice Binder's famous gun barrel opening, the tone is entirely its own.
09:52And while we wish for slightly more photoreal CG, we admire the scope, ambition, and role that this
09:58title sequence serves in feeling the emotional weight of what it means to sell arms.
10:07With very little exception, title sequences take place either at the very beginning of the film,
10:11or after a short teaser sequence.
10:13They're either easing the audience into the seats, or contextualizing the previous snippet.
10:17In this way, title sequences set the stage, and one of the main ways they do this is by
10:21establishing the world, familiarizing us with the landscape.
10:25Conveying to us the kind of backdrop against which the story takes place.
10:28Consider Zombieland's bloody rock opera, Nashville's faux compilation album,
10:32and Superman's tour through the universe.
10:34There's the setup and Raging Bull, introducing us to each of their different worlds of boxing.
10:39Moonrise Kingdom, The Shining, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Grand Prix, and
10:42its modern-day equivalent Days of Thunder, Rear Window, and Delicatessen.
10:46We love Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter's hilarious infomercial vignettes, but for
10:51our number three pick, we're actually giving it to a little movie called Taxi Driver.
11:19So many films have placed us in New York, and it almost seems like an unwritten rule that
11:23they use their title sequences to do so.
11:26From Manhattan to My Man Godfrey, each has presented a slightly different city in which
11:30the film lives, but Taxi Driver's steamy, grimy, rain-smeared tour of its nighttime
11:35underbelly is perhaps the most enduring.
11:37Set to the same brilliant Herman Jazz score you might expect of a sequence that
11:41romanticizes NYC, Taxi Driver instead builds a contrast.
11:45And right from the jump, we're transported into the world of Travis Bickle,
11:48peering solitarily through the distorted lens at the scum with which we're surrounded.
11:52Living in his world, which is exactly what we're meant to do.
11:57And then there's the characters.
11:59Title sequences can prepare us for the human landscape as well.
12:02Introducing us to a hero, a villain, a key character, or a relationship.
12:05We meet hijinxing Beatles in A Hard Day's Night, the childhood Amelie in Amelie,
12:10a sleepwalking Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate, and
12:12Doc Brown in Back to the Future without even seeing him.
12:15We meet all the Tenenbaums, Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, and
12:18the terrifying John Doe in Seven.
12:20However, for our number two pick, we think there's something so
12:22wickedly genius about the way we meet the titular character from Stanley Kubrick's Lolita.
12:47It's just this one simple shot.
12:49There's nothing more, but God, does it speak volumes.
12:52It invokes the full sense of the immense taboo without delving into the pornographic.
12:56It is simultaneously utterly innocent and utterly profane.
13:00It captures the audience's expectations of the film perfectly, and
13:03turns them right against them in such a way that we're forced to recognize that the
13:07sexuality is at least partially in how we're looking and perceiving it.
13:11And in an instant, we understand Lolita, Hum, and their transgressively conflicted
13:15relationship, and we're ready to accept the darkest of plots that comes next.
13:21And finally, finishing up at number one, more than the characters, the world,
13:25the background story, or the plot, a great title sequence must simply establish one thing,
13:30the tone.
13:30Emotionally preparing the audience for what's to come is the ultimate function of
13:34the effective opening title sequence.
13:36And while Natural Born Killers, Halloween, Reservoir Dogs, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,
13:40Napoleon Dynamite, and even the incredibly hilarious runner-up of The Naked Gun do this
13:45with aplomb, and of course we haven't forgotten him.
13:48There is no one in the world better at this than Saul Bass.
13:51This was the man who revolutionized titling again and again.
13:54The man who made Otto Preminger famously insist that the curtains be drawn,
13:58that convinced the world of cinema that titles were meant to be paid attention to, not discarded.
14:02And it is perhaps entirely because of his pitch-perfect ability to capture the essence
14:06of a film in simple, clear design and execution that he is and always will be one of the greats.
14:12So, what to honor?
14:13To which sequence do we give this top slot?
14:15From his earliest Carmen Jones to his latest Casino,
14:19from his graphic hits of Psycho in Ocean's Eleven,
14:21to his footage in Seconds, The Cardinal, and Walk on the Wild Side,
14:24and his animation from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,
14:28how he evokes zany comedy from a series of rectangles with the seven-year itch,
14:32tension, balance, and then serenity with the simple pendulums in St.
14:35Joan, an entire plot with spinning spirographs in Vertigo.
14:39No, we can't do it.
14:40We won't pick.
14:41It's a 50-way tie between everything.
14:43A top slot for his entire body of work.
14:46We'll leave you with to revel in his titular glory.
14:54So, what do you think?
14:55Do we leave out any of your favorite titles?
14:57Did you disagree with any of our picks?
14:59Think that last one was a cop-out?
15:00You can right off.
15:01You try picking one of Saul Bass' best.
15:03Let us know in the comments below and be sure to subscribe for more Cinefix movie lists.
15:07All right.
15:09I'll tell you before.
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