Next, I like opening credits. I don't appreciate the modern tendency in films to have no opening to the film and instead give all the credits (including the film's title) at the end. OK, it obviously worked in Apocalypse Now, but exceptions prove the rules, don't they?...
So, to the point - I was thinking, is there any better film opening with opening credits than that lovely bird and lazy river of Twin Peaks, accompanied by the music that so many say was crucial to their initial fascination with the series? It's so simple, isn't it? Taken how weird and how technically complicated some of the openings are, the simplicity of Twin Peaks is striking. Yet it works - perfectly.
OK, but what could beat Lynch and Frost in this aspect? (by the way, do you know which one of them was behind these opening credtis?) I hope it's not a shame for anyone here to admit that there is anything in the world that we dare to like more than Twin Peaks. I mean - if this anything really exists
Below comes my list:
10. Lord of the Rings - it's not really opening credits, just the title of the film. But I love these bronze (golden?) letters as they emerge from the dark with the beautiful music, forged like the three rings... Beautiful.
9. Rocky Horror Picture Show - a bit different from Tolkien, well
But letters, too! Can't help loving this trashy blood dripping from everywhere! There you go!8. Cowboy Bebop - it's actually the music that makes it... I might not even like these images without the music. But as it is - GREAT!
7. Vertigo - a smasher!
6. Edward Scissorhands - a marvellous opening to a marvellous movie!
5. Hair - now that's an amazing thing. You know the film, brightly coloured, flower power, wild, dynamic and so on. Yet the very beginning - completely opposite! A bus stop in the middle of nowhere, a road, a fence, greyness... two guys saying goodbye in a way which is all but wild and dynamic. It is filmed simply BRILLIANT and what atmosphere, wow. I like Hair as it is but this beginning is what I truly love about American cinema of the 70s. These shots would do very well in Scarecrow, for instance! (can't find a link, sorry)
4. Starwars - sorry for being obvious but that's how I feel it, what can you do?
3. A Fistful of Dollars - and the others, too, by Sergio Leone, but let's take this as it was first. Bang, bang! Absolutely love both the visual of it and the sounds...
2. so there comes the lazy river...
Twin Peaks1. But here is my total favourite. It's quite different from all the rest, too, because the opening credits are interwined with actual scenes. And it all makes a whole which for me is pure perfection. The rest of the film may feel somewhat awkward or even pretensious. I could say something against all other films that Peter Greenaway made afterwards, too. But this opening is by far one of the best pieces of filmmaking I have ever been lucky to see!
The Draughtsman's Contract
warning: it's ten minutes long!
recommendation: do watch it!!
