What Is Your Favorite Movie Opening?- Page 2

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 6:36pm

SUSPIRIA

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 6:40pm

I love everything about SUSPIRIA. Strange film that it is. Saw that on the big screen in 1977, with my 8 1/2 month pregnant wife.

[Wildcard]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 6:44pm

The line art illustrations at the beginning of "The Others" sets the mood nicely for me. I also like the opening titles for "Panic Room". "Seven" also garnered some notices for the opening titles.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 6:47pm

Are we talking opening credits or opening scene of a film? Because my opening scene selection is THE SOUND OF MUSIC, but opening credit, is SUPERMAN, THE MOVIE.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 8:04pm

What about the entire opening scene of GANGS OF NEW YORK?

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 8:45pm

I think one of the best openings ever would be for the Jodie Foster Movie

Contact

That opening shot was breathtaking.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 8:47pm

I instantly thought of Contact myself!!!! Takes my breath away is also what I thought! lol Great minds...

So many films have great openings, but that is by far my favorite. I find it profound.

[EmieMarie]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 8:50pm

i liked the begining of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Just eating a croissant and looking in the windows....Simple yet so becaustiful and the music (moon river) just made it better. Definatly a classic. It shows you don't have to try hard to make a good movie

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 9:21pm

I love the opening credits of Catch Me If You Can. They set up the entire story of the film with those great retro animations, set to John Williams superb, jazzy scoring (In my opinion he was robbed of the original score Oscar that year).

Posted: 7/18/06 at 10:00pm

Rocky Horror Picture Show.

You can tell it's my favorite movie, can't you?

[singingwendy]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 10:13pm

My first thought was "Catch Me if You Can"...LOVE it!

Second thought was "Beauty and the Beast"....those great stained glass panels that tell the entire backstory of the Prince turned Beast. Along with that great music (although it's a complete rip off of Saint-Saens's "Aquarium" ) Sets the tone for the whole movie!

[iHeartMyGeek]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 10:20pm

Oooh, you're right about Catch Me If You Can. I absolutely adore the score for that film.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 10:35pm

both the Sound of Music and West Side Story have VERY similar openings. Aerial environmental shots that eventually close in on the opening musical sequences and characters of each story. Go Robert Wise for continuity in style!

Technically, it would be go Ernest Lehman for continuity in style, as he wrote the screenplay to both, and opened both films with similar shots. Wise, in fact, felt that everyone was going to complain that they were copying themselves; but he could never come up with a better idea. In fact, TSOM's opening ended up being even more famous than WSS's. Considered the most recognized opening of any film, ever made.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/18/06 at 11:11pm

Catch Me If You Can DID have an excellent score but, personally, I thought the best score of 2002 was Carter Burwell's for ADAPTATION.

[dirty rotten guy]

Posted: 7/19/06 at 4:20am

Oo another personal favorite I just thought of is Batman Returns, when the Penguin is born and they dump his basket into the sewer. That whole opening is visually stunning.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/19/06 at 10:13am

SUNSET BOULEVARD (Joe Gillis is floating in the pool dead, with his voice over). CLASSIC!

[Craig]

Posted: 7/19/06 at 10:25am

Just remembered that the opening to InnerSpace was very cool with the ice cubes...

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 7/19/06 at 10:40am

Ooooo . . . HALLOWEEN and SCREAM. I think those are 2 of the best horror movie openings.

[Pippin]

Posted: 7/19/06 at 11:05am

The royal tenenbaums
Goldeneye

[beacon1]

Posted: 7/19/06 at 12:16pm

Rocky Horror Picture Show (LIPS!)

Contact (that was an incredible way to introduce that film. A powerful way to express an important concept that is essential to the premise of the film.)

9 to 5 (the music does it!) and Working Girl (in the same vain)

Ferris Beuller's Day Off (and instant hook)

The graphics for Sneakers (the changing encryption)

Hard Candy's (on-line flirting with eerie, eerie music)

The opening sequence of Angels in America with the flight over the US with Thomas Newman's score. Tingling! :o)

[luvliza89]

Posted: 7/19/06 at 12:37pm

Closer - the "Hello Stranger" part gets me every time

And I agree with Adventures in Babysitting. Who amoung us has never listened to and danced around to "And Then He Kissed Me" before going out on a date? I know I have :)

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 7/19/06 at 1:45pm

Cruel_Sandwich: The fact that I have seen Adaptation multiple times and can't remember a note of the score leads me to believe that I must not have liked it very much.

I like the opening of Almost Famous. I like the grainy, almost handheld camcorder phtography. Having the credits being handwritten on William's yellow post-its set amongst the mountains of vintage rock and roll memorablia really set up the tone for the movie. Simple, but fabulous.

[iHeartMyGeek]

Posted: 7/19/06 at 2:12pm

i'm watching Reality Bites and I just remembered how much I love the opening of this film. With Winona Ryder's speech at graduation and the subsequent scene on the rooftop with the four friends. One of my favorites.

[Guido Contini]

Posted: 7/19/06 at 2:18pm

I agree with iHMG, American Beauty is probably one of the most powerful beginnings I can recall. In case you don't remember the spoken part, it goes as follows:

"My name is Lester Burnham, this is my neighborhood. This is my street. This is my life. I'm 42 years old, in less than a year I'll be dead. Of course, I don't know that yet and in a way I'm dead already. Look at me, jerking off in the shower. This will be the high point of my day, it's all downhill from here. That's my wife, Carolyn. See the way the handle on those pruning shears matches her gardening clogs, that's not an accident. That's our next door neighbor, Jim..and that's his lover, Jim. Man, I get exhausted just watching her. She wasn't always like this, she used to be happy...we used to be happy. My daughter Jane, only child. Jane is a pretty typical teenager...angry, insecure, confused. I wish I could tell her that's all going to pass, but I don't want to lie to her. Both my wife and daughter think I'm this gigantic loser and they're right. I have lost something. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I know I didn't always feel this...sedated. But you know what? It's never too late to get it back."

Updated On: 7/19/06 at 02:18 PM

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 7/19/06 at 2:21pm

What about the opening scene of Waking Life? Two little kids are playing with a "cootie-catcher" paper toy until they open it up to say DREAM IS DESTINY. Cut to the boy walking through his yard, grabbing a car handle as he begins to float towards the sky, and then finally letting go as the magnificient Tosca String Quartet begins to play.

And thus begins one of the most original, engaging, and most entertaining movies of 2001.