The 10 best opening title sequences in cinema history
If there’s one crucial moment in a film to capture the audience’s interest, it’s the opening credits. Here, filmmakers have the opportunity to title and receive credit for the work they and others have put into a movie and get creative with visuals and style.
An opening scene can tell you a lot about a film and set up expectations for what is to come. The use of colour and music choice can be significant tools to build the story world and immerse audiences into the film. If you’re about to watch a horror, you can be made to feel on edge by the opening credits alone.
Furthermore, most movies tend to keep it simple with opening credits, such as a black screen with white text outlining the crucial names and productions that brought the film to fruition. However, those that dare step outside the box and let their imagination run wild can stay in the audience’s minds for the rest of and even after the film.
Here are ten of the greatest opening sequences of all time.
The 10 greatest opening title sequences ever:
10. Se7en (David Fincher, 1995)
This gritty David Fincher thriller depends on its eerie and cold tone to give its audiences the chills, and it does it well. It follows two FBI agents during different times in their careers. We see them try to track down a mysterious and seriously twisted serial killer obsessed with religious themes.
Se7en’s opening credits set its tone and atmosphere right from the get-go, and this is thanks to the title designer Kyle Cooper. The sequence shows us distorted images of mysterious journal entries and newspaper articles while a remix of Nine Inch Nail’s edgy hit Closer plays in the background in true 1990s fashion. Everything feels fuzzy, glitchy and mysterious, so questions are immediately asked. The distortion of everything seen and heard establishes the film’s gritty and chilling tone.
9. Casino Royale (Martin Cambell, 2006)
This 2006 spy film starring Daniel Craig is the 21st James Bond film. We see 007 on assignment to bankrupt terrorist financier Le Chiffre in a high-stakes poker game at the Casino Royale in Montenegro.
As shown in the title, this film’s setting and its connotations are rather significant. A casino exerts class, sophistication and witty intelligence. The film’s beautiful opening credits convey just this. We see a set of stylised animated images of the new Bond with bold colours and sharp lines as he loads his signature gun and fights against enemy spies. ‘You Know My Name’ by the dearly missed Chris Cornell accompanies these images and the credits, helping bring one of Bond’s most popular eras.
8. Do The Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
Spike Lee explores racial tensions in a Brooklyn neighbourhood between its black residents and the Italian-American owners of a local pizzeria. Despite initial controversies over the influence its representation of race may have, the film is considered culturally and aesthetically significant and still holds relevance 33 years later.
Do The Right Thing’s opening communicates black culture in America and the film’s tone. We hear a subtle jazz instrumental welcome us into the scene, and this eventually builds into some classic hip-hop, ‘Fight the Power’ by Public Enemy. A woman dances in front of a dimly lit apartment with a precise balance of charisma and elegance in her movement. Essentially, we begin slow and relaxed before being met with some intense yet insightful energy.
7. The Pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1963)
This classic 1960s comedy was directed by Blake Edwards and written by Maurice Richlin. It follows inspector Jacques Clouseau as he travels from Rome to Cortina d’Ampezzo to catch a notorious jewel thief known as ‘The Phantom’ before he is able to steal a priceless diamond known as ‘The Pink Panther’.
The Pink Panther’s opening titles introduced one of cinema’s most iconic and recognisable theme tunes, one that sticks in your head the moment you hear it. We see some abstract and satisfying animated antics involving the cartoon character Pink Panther as he interacts with the written credits. This opening credit scene flows so well that audiences returned to the theatre just to see them again.
6. Climax (Gaspar Noe, 2018)
This psychological horror film about a group of dancers plays with sound, light, and movement to elevate its story world. When a French dance troupe holding a days-long rehearsal in an abandoned school are spiked with LSD, a nightmarish downfall follows that has disastrous consequences.
Climax is rather innovative and experimental, with not just its opening credits but its overall style. Director Gaspar Noe steps outside the box by not playing the opening credits in the exact opening, but instead 30 minutes into the film after an extensive full-blown dance sequence. Every credit has a different font, style and colour, there’s barely enough time to read each one fully, and they follow the last in a pattern set against instrumental house music. This establishes the wild and uncontrollable feel of the film.
5. Delicatessen (Jean Pierre Jeunet, 1991)
This ’90s French black comedy follows a butcher who owns a run-down apartment building in post-apocalyptic France. The apartment is in bad condition because the handymen keep disappearing after being hired, and it may have something to do with the butcher’s need for supplies.
The opening sequence makes fantastic use of both colour and camera movement. The audience gets a POV shot of all the butcher’s equipment and work, that’s lit with a stark yet grisly yellow, as the camera gracefully moves all over and around them. A classical French instrumental plays in the background, lacing the sequence with a theatrical tone.
4. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1981)
In Stanley Kubrick’s influential adaptation of Stephen King’s classic horror novel, a family move into an old hotel for the winter so the father can work on his latest novel. However, the hotel holds a sinister and unsettling secret that threatens their family bond.
The Shining is a great horror because it is non-stop with its eerie tone that makes you immediately uncomfortable. This is set up in a simple yet effective opening sequence using both camera movement and score. We watch the family drive up snowy deserted mountain roads to the hotel in a very high-angle shot that feels voyeuristic. The score accompanying the imagery is unsettling due to its low tone and unfamiliar composition, thus, creating a disturbing atmosphere that we will not be able to shake off for a while.
3. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
Alfred Hitchock’s classic film Vertigo is a staple in both film noir and mystery. It focuses on a former police detective who has retired because an incident in the line of duty has caused him to develop acrophobia and vertigo. He is soon hired as a private investigator to keep watch of a misbehaving wife.
The film’s opening credits were designed by Saul Bass and comprised harmony between human faces and colourful graphics. The camera remains fixed on numerous features of the two protagonists’ faces, with the swirling animations following after. The colour is bold and deep, with an instrumental score that elevates the uncertainty of the film as a whole.
2. Enter the Void (Gaspar Noe, 2009)
Gaspar Noe’s 2009 experimental art film is a story of addiction that pulls no punches in both narrative and style. A young American drug dealer gets fatally shot by the police after being set up but continues to watch subsequent events during an out-of-body experience.
Noe attacks his audience’s senses consistently during Enter the Void, and this is no surprise when first watching the opening titles. The title sequence is fast-paced and hyperactive, with flashing lights, bold text that goes as quickly as it arrives and a nightclub-inspired dance mix score. It’s definitely not for visually sensitive audiences as it violates several norms of comfortable filmmaking and techniques.
1. Catch Me If You Can (Steven Spielberg, 2002)
In this American biographical crime drama, we meet Frank Abagnale, who claims that before his 19th birthday, he successfully performed cons worth millions of dollars. He argues he was able to do this by using fraudulent identities.
The film’s opening sequence is simple, stylish and stimulating. It makes great use of its colour as contrasted against a bold black by having animated events play alongside a terrific instrumental score by John Williams. The text and animations blend well on screen; everything just complements one another perfectly.
