7 Inscuziflagejandable Opening Scenes that had me pumped
When I had to write a post in a hurry with a nailgun pointed at my temple, I decided to do away with analysis, or insights and resorted to the tried and tested solution of the intellectually bankrupt. The List post.
We all know that the beginning sets the tone for the film, letting the audience know what to expect etc., and some even use it as a bookmark and mirror it in the last scene of the film to make some kinda statement. For my list, I shall use shots (single camera setup), scenes (single location/time with multiple shots), and sequences (scenes united by causality of action or theme) interchangeably freewilly without justification so that I may shoehorn some favorite moments in film that happen somewhere in the first 10 minutes of a movie.
But before that, a public service wank.
I am often amused when people compare their spontaneous experience with films and life during adolescence with the studied approach to living and cinema they have in adulthood. We were easily impressionable in our younger years and it is only natural that what appealed to us at 13 fails to appeal at 30 unless your name is Subrat. Yet, we think there is something wrong or right with the film itself and not our perception.
Case in point is all the hullabaloo about Jaane Tu. The same factors that made QSQT and MainePK a smash in the 80s, DDLJ a smash in the 90s, has made JTYJN a smash in the 00s. Only difference is the generation that made the previous films hits are in their 30s now, and can’t fathom what is so fresh or unique about Jaane.
The films in my list were experienced at different points in my life (year I watched the film indicated in parenthesis). I have also decided to go a step further and rank them. If you choose to add to my list in the comments, I retain the right to veto or ridicule any suggestion if it does not fit my criteria.
Oh, and I won’t tell you my criteria.
#7 2001: A Space Odyssey (2001, age 23)
You know the scene I’m talking about. The extended Chimpu Kapoor scene running nearly 10 minutes showing early man in the paleolithic era fighting over bones or whatever followed by the cut that bridges 20 millenia aka Dawn of Man set to Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra. One shot, you have Cromagnon man tossing a bone in the air, the bone rises, rises, then a cut to a bone shaped satellite plunging through the depths of space.
You may be thinking, dude, you put Kubrick and 2001 at the bottom of your list? Yes. The reason? I knew about the shot before I even watched the movie. It is such an iconic moment in film, that I had been hearing about it for years, so that took away some of the impact. But, it still made my list. Stop whining.
#6 Andhaa Kanoon (1983, age 5)
Rajnikant and Amitabh in the same film? Enough said! This film was part of the southern invasion of Bollywood when producers and directors from Andhra made a bunch of movies with Amitabh and those that could not afford Big B, made Jumping Jack Aerobics videos.
Andhaa Kanoon was the first film that I saw portraying violence in negative images (when the silver is still on the celluloid or however that chemistry stuff works), usually with a lot of red somewhere to the accompaniment of a score loud enough to raise the dead. The titles play over the negative images of Rajnikant’s parents being murdered or raped or both by Badmen. I remember being excited. I watched this film recently, and realized that director Rama Rao did something else in addition.
Right after the titles, there’s a bunch of inserts. CU of motorbike’s exhaust pipe, tire, leather boots kicking the starter, and the bike speeding down with the camera on the motorcycle and you see the handle bars and the bike swallowing the road. This scene must have been sped up in post because it has this sort of choppy quality like some frames have been dropped or something, all of which set to a nerve jangling score that makes the whole opening very kinetic. Sorry, but I can’t find the clip on youtube. If someone has it, please oblige.
#5 Apoorva Sahodarangal/Appu Raja (1989, age 11)
Before the era of cable TV and excessive marketing, the only glimpse you had of the movies was from magazines and Chitrageet. Since, I did not watch telly and could barely read, I usually knew nothing about the movies I was watching, other than word of mouth.
Having spent the better part of the 80s wallowing in shite movies, I had developed the ability to call out plot points before they happened. Not that it took any special talent if you know the 80s Bolly movies I am talking about. Even a drunk mongoloid will tell you that the sister is going to get raped, the 2 heroes are brothers, and there will be a family photo in the end.
In this environment, a Kamal Haasan movie was always keenly anticipated because, like, you know, he used to, like Bring It, and shit.
So I am all pumped up, and the film opens with a ground level wide shot in front of a hut and there’s some pigeons or goats running around in the frame. I thought, shit, this is some fucking depressing village movie, and my mood plumetted. It was like, hey kiddo, it’s your birthday and we have a surprise. You are a bastard we adopted.
Just Kidding, we love you. In under a minute of the opening shot of the hut, you hear a faint mechanical noise that gets louder, and just when you recognize that it is a vehicle, or more specifically a motorbike, flying through the air, crashing the thatched roof is Kamal in a cop uniform. If that weren’t enough, Kamal’s uniform is Khaki Shorts, inspiration for Abercrombie Designers a decade later.
You did not see adult heroes wearing shorts, and definitely didn’t see cops in shorts, so it hinted vaguely at the period. Not that I knew any of this. Alls I knew was that some funky shit was gonna happen in this movie, and IT DID.
#4 Pulp Fiction (1999, age 21)
The world had gotten a taste of Tarantino 7 years earlier with Reservoir Dogs and I attempted to watch Pulp Fiction in ‘94 when it released. Unfortunately, my friendly neighborhood pirate had serendipitously invented what would go on to become the Blair Witch style. The tape was super grainy and jumped around a lot. Even the magic “tracking” button on our Sansuni (Sansui’s bastard cousin) that fixed the most intransigent tapes didn’t help. Needless to say, I didn’t watch it until several years later, and what an opening!
I had never heard dialogue this crackling. It started off cute and almost pedestrian but there was an underlying tension to the way Tim Roth and Honey Bunny played it. There was that element of something about to happen, and they decide to rob the diner, and HB gets all psycho. And, then the titles roll with that kickass retro score, and I knew I was in for a ride.
#3 OldBoy (2003, age 25)
One shot. If you can set your audience on edge with a single opening shot, you are staking your claim right there. You are saying, this is going to be one hell of a cinematic experience and I know what I am doing. Surrender.
The shot in question is the protagonist holding a guy by his tie at the edge of a rooftop at a 45 degree incline in almost blinding daylight so what you see is really only a silhouette. It is very obvious why Park did this. He has a slow start, so he took a scene from the middle of the film which is very cinematic and leaves you asking questions, and wanting to know more.
#2 Dead or Alive (2002, age 24)
Takeshi Miike is known to give his editors the title sequences to direct and cut as they wish, which may explain his high octane openings. I didn’t know much about Japanese cinema when i watched Dead or Alive. I had watched Audition, and I heard that it was a sedate Miike film. I was at a phase when I watched every film of a new director I discovered but I just couldn’t keep up with Miike. The sumbitch made movies faster than I could watch them.
DoA is the first film I watched after Audition, and man what a montage of decadence. No dialogue, just a throbbing rock track, and every vice known to man squeezed into 5.2 minutes of cinematic ecstasy.
#1 There Will Be Blood (2007, age 29)
The extended dialogue-less opening that goes on for nearly 10 minutes is bliss. It conveys the hardships and loneliness of the oil drilling business, and the danger. It even shows the passing of some 5-6 years, before Day Lewis finally hits black gold and sets up the rest of the film.
You see him struggling and working hard, so when he is rewarded, you’re happy, and when he gets greedy, you don’t mind as much, and it is only in the end that you realize that he is a monster and you have been witnessing his transformation while rooting for him all along. Take away the opening sequence, and it will change the colouring of the film and your perception of Lewis’ character.
There is a similarity to #7, Kubrick’s Dawn of Man sequence. Both sequences take their time, building it up, and ratcheting up the tension for an excruciatingly long time before offering release; Confident in their mastery of the medium.
In an anachronistically fitting way, Kubrick uses classical music to bridge the transition from primitive man to modern space traveler, whereas PT Anderson uses an electronic discordant score in a period setting.
And #1, because after all these years watching all these movies, this sequence still made me marvel, forget everything else, and really get into a film.
Tags: Bollywood, Hollywood, Kubrick, Miike, montage, opening, P.T.Anderson, score, sequences, World Cinema
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
my list of the best first and last shots in no particular order..
Last shot of Antonioni’s ‘Blow up’ and ‘Passenger’.
First shot of Bella Tarr’s ‘Damnation’
First and Last shot of Bella Tarr’s ‘Satantango’.
First shot of ‘Irrevresible’ by Gaspar Noe.
Last shot of Tarkovsky’s ‘Sacrifice’.
Opening Sequence of Fernando Meirelles ‘City of God’
Opening sequence of Fellini’s ‘8 1/2′the last scene of the same film.
final shot of Tsai Ming Liang’s ‘I dont want to sleep alone’ and ‘The Skywalk is gone’
Last shot of Herzog’s ‘Aguirre the Wrath of God’
End sequence of Truffaut’s ‘400 blows’
and of course many more..
Each one is a completely different experience of cinema and needs to be watched, can’t be described, or else it will end up being hyped like now too famous ‘2001: Space odyssey’ legendary cut.
Also its unfair to just select the opening or closing sequences from these films, cause all the above shots/scenes gain from what preceds it or what follows it. can’t have a promo approach to it.
Omkara: “Chutiya aur…”
Inscuziflagejandable: does this word have any meaning? checked but drew a blank..
“Haan bahen****, main hi hoon Phoolan Devi”
to add, in order of my preference:
No Smoking (awesome opening sequence)
Fight Club
Perfume
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
very well made point about Jtyjn..
my own faves are Omkara’s and maqbool’s opening sequences…
company’s famous “bird eye” sequence.
City of God. Yes, that SHOT has inspired a thousand fimmakers. It was incredible. Thanks for rolling me back there, Deemelinda.
Nice post.
My fav opening sequences:
>> Black Friday
>> Jhankar Beats
>> Satya
>> Shabd
>> Main Hoon Na
Roja
The Dark Knight
Most of 007
Good post dabba…when is saw 2001 Space..I was wondering if my screen had gone blank..only later did i realise the scene..Stanley Kubrick had some audacity and defiance that era.
Openig shot in Mission Kashmir. A beautiful scenary with mountains and a boat. All of a sudden the boat blasts into pieces. Established the situation in Kasmir perfectly, ie beautiful place, but volatile atmosphere.
sholay and omkara
good inclusions. the age does matter like you rightly included the how’s and a few divine exceptions.
Suspiria
Johnny Gaddar
All About My Mother
…and many many more…
Last Tango In Paris
Dabba: 5 on 5 for including me in your post. My defence is my tastes have evolved from 13 to 30, so has the world. So, what appealed to me at 13 appeals to me at 30 as well.
That apart, 2001 will remain my favorite opening sequence. As I read somewhere, the entire arc of human evolution shown in a single scene!! that’s genius.
A few more that have remained with me:
1. I have mentioned in one of my previous posts (about cities in movies) – Manhattan with Gershwin in the background
2. Reservoir Dogs
3. Several Hitchcock including Vertigo (one of the best), Rebecca and Rope
Bladerunner for one…
And DOA is the shit man…awesome.
My List
1) Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels
2) Pulp Fiction
3) 2001: A Space Odyssey
4) City of God
5) Sexy Beast
6) The Dark Knight
7) Once Upon a Time in the West
8) Trainspotting
9) Natural Born Killers
10) Touch of Evil, The Player
11) Three Kings
I cannot remember some others.
I’m going to assume that you fuckers have not seen TOUCH OF EVIL.
goodfellas
unfortunately, i have to reject all other submissions because the only criterion was it had to be 7. all of you added more or less. sorry.
But, while we’re at it, if people could talk a little about even one from your list. when u read the post, what was the first film that popped in ur head, and what circumstances made the opening memorable?
did it defy expectations, live up to it, or maybe you had just receoived some good news in ther eal world…it could have been anything.
@ Arthi V, it means whatever you ascribe to it.
Mainak,
http://madness-of-madras.blogspot.com/2008/02/on-right-track.html
I couldn’t agree with you better!
Jab We Met
I don’t have a beginning for you at the moment, but “how do we forgive our fathers?” scene in Smoke Signals is one of my favorite endings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QutfN2wb1wc
It always makes me tear up a little. Crank up the volume for full impact.
The symbolic editing at the beginning of the sequence flows nicely into the movie’s literal meaning, too.
Paprika
Silent Light
Chariots of Fire
Star Wars
Wall-E
Children of Men
Apocalypse Now
Patton
In no particular order:
City of God
Apocalypse Now
Infernal Affairs
The Godfather
The Thomas Crown Affair (remake)
Enter the dragon
Omkara
That DEAD or ALIVE opening just blew me away.
I’ll add my reasons tommorow.
The Lives of Others
The Dead or Live opening scene is mind boggling!!rest of the movie is normal cop gangtsa stuff but seems to play in slow motion after that. and the ending.pure mindfuck..i still don know why miike did that..
jus saw a movie WAZ yesterday.first shot u see the hero in the car.sittingn smoking. bleak dark opening..wonder which was the last indian movie i saw without a voiceover/history of characters/sunrise/overhead shot of mumbai/a shot of hero’s back,/heroine’s legs.. saale hero ka entry scene to slow mo mein karna hi hai..
@ praneet,
the two leads in DoA are huge TV stars in Japan, and this was the first movie they were coming together in. Miike thought that the climax and their confrontation needs to be out of this world, so that outrageous climax. agreed with the rest of ur comment, first 5 minutes and last 10 minutes are just fukking gold. rest of the film, average.
OKay going my Dabba’s “RULES” of 7 films only. I will cut it down to the following.
TOUCH OF EVIL – One of the greatest shots of cinema ever. It just blows my mind how Orson choreographed that shot. Check comment 20 for the video.
TRAINSPOTTING – My fav opening scene from my fav film. CHOOSE LIFE
LOCK STOCK & 2 SMOKING BARRELS – I know this will probably not in most people’s list. But for me the opening of this film matters because unlike other films with great openings(Miike for example) rest of the film fizzles out. But not this film it just kept better & better. The opening just sets the perfect tone & mood for rest of the ride. The Slow Mo Editing with the music & the voice over. The song is “Hundred Mile High City” by Ocean Colour Scene.
CITY OF GOD – Chasing chicken was never so fun & dangerous. Another film where the rest of the film keeps up with the great opening.
NATURAL BORN KILLERS – One of the best things about this opening is the use of the Leonard COhen song WAITING for The MIRACLE. Man that song blew me away so much. This opening introduced me to Leonard Cohen’s music. I seen this opening stoned 50 times just for that song.
“Are you Flirting with me?”
SEXY BEAST – One of the best feature debuts by a Music Video great in recent years. The way Jonathon mixed the music of The Stranglers song PEACHES with the images of Ray Winstone’s retired life in spain is when one feel assured that Glazer has not sold out. That opening scene means a lot just for that reason. Unfortunately there’s no video of that opening.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST – This was the scene that changed my dislike for Westerns completely. Sergei does know how to start a film. His long opening sequence of Once Upon a Time in America is really mindblowing. I just hated rest of that film. But not West. This has to be my fav Western ever.
@ mainak –
u too with Cohen! i had the same experience when i watched NBK. the song just transported me, and i fell in love with Leonard and shortly thereafter discovered Johnny Cash.
And, Once Upon was the film that got me into westerns too.
In this scene from Touch of Evil, this is a single continuous camera shot? Amazing? And it just moves keeps moving from one track to the other aprallel one – the couple walking and the couple in the car…I though something is going to happen to the couple walking too…Very good sequence….Tx Mainak…
Arthi V
Yes that scene is mindblowing
Watch the opening scene from Altman’s great film THE PLAYER. Its a tribute to the opening of TOUCH OF EVIL. 2 of the characters in this shot are discussing the opening of Touch of Evil.
Sorry i’m unable to embed anymore videos
So i’ll just post the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmSGZvf617k
Does anyone know from where I can get Robert Altman’s film – The Company *ing Neve Campbell. Dvd rentals here have no clue what I’m talking about and neither could I find an online version so that I cud download….Plz help me out…rally wanna see this movie…
D.A. Pennebaker’s opening music video for Don’t Look Back:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=PedxiosPF8U&&fmt=18
It may not blow you away, but it’ll make you smile and perhaps inspire an idea or two.
The Youtube video says it’s the trailer, but this is also the start of the movie, at least on DVD. Bob Dylan is so young here, you almost can’t recognize him. The movie also features super-young Joan Baez and a baby Donovan.
I think a terrific opening sequence everyone missed was
Scorsese’s Casino.
How can you not get goose bumps when silently De Niro walks into the car beat beat and booooom the car explodes, cut to openign credits.
Great opening sequences:
mouchette
Fellini’s 8 1/2
Bergman’s wild strawberries
wim wender’s wings of desire
Polanski’s knife in the river