Opening Credits Sequence Theater: Dead Ringers

(Why is there still no soundtrack album goddamnit.)

Closing Credits Theatre: Dune

Opening Credits Sequence Theatre: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

I always wondered why those llamas never directed any other movies.

Opening Credits Sequence Theatre: Flash Gordon (1980)

I have to get up early tomorrow, so while I've got a couple of pieces cooking, enjoy the perfect blend of sound and image.

Opening Credits Sequence Theater: Spider-Man 2

Been too long since I did one of these, and writing time has been a little pinched, so here's the opening to one of the best superhero epics of the last decade. There's not a lot to say about this one, it's a variation on the opening for the first movie, but the addition of Alex Ross's art as a recap of the first film is a nice touch (and something movie sequels don't actually do that often these days.) Enjoy!

Opening Credits Sequence Theatre: Mean Streets (1973)

(A better, non-embeddable version is here.)

Martin Scorsese's breakthrough film starts in a big way. On the surface, the scene establishes a character in isolation, wrapped up in himself, escaping into nostalgia to escape- well, we don't know yet, but that follows quickly. It's a small, intimate scene. But the music elevates it to another plane; the classic Spector "wall of sound" effect is used as a call to attention, making damn sure we're awake as the old filmstrip shows us the protagonist and his world. This was still a relatively new, uncommon approach to music in film, so it was also a signal that this was not going to be your average sleazy gangster picture. This is one of my favorites, because it sets the energy and intensity level of the film so very high, and the picture actually sustains that. Plus it's a really good song.

Opening Credits Sequence Theatre, Snubbed by the Oscars edition: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

It's that time again! This month I've decided to focus on a film that, despite being lost in the shuffle of awards and critics' lists, was one of the more entertaining, energetic, and spirited of last year, and is pretty much a lock for my "Opening Credits Sequence of the Year" award when I finally do my Top 10.



The sound is a little off, but that may be how it's supposed to sound. (Sex Bob-omb are not actually that good.) One nice touch: all the actors' backgrounds have little visual references to their characters, including a pair of knives for Ellen Wong (as Knives Chau) and black censor bars for the oft-censored Aubrey Plaza. It's a very frenetic sequence which sets the pace for the movie as a whole, and the low-fi charm is endearing.

I am going to have to find a way to make Youtube windows fit my blog layout.

Opening Credits Sequence Theatre, John Barry Memorial Edition

Yes, this is normally a space killer, and yes, it is the end of the month, but the passing of composer John Barry, for whom the James Bond series was but one of many notches in a long career, makes this a good time to celebrate some of his work.

Opening Credits Sequence Theatre: Nosferatu (1979)

So, because I was at the National Audio Theatre Workshop in West Plains last week, posting for the month's pretty light, so here we go.

WARNING: This one contains footage of the Guanajuato mummies in Mexico, and so you might find it pretty icky. May not be work safe.



The music and visuals are perfectly matched here- unnerving, but with an almost sacred undertone, conveying the stark gravity of, well, death. Which is what most horror films are about, but this particular one focuses on the titular vampire's unlife and detachment from the living world to a greater extreme than other entries in the genre, so it's an appropriate start. And that music is awesome.

The Club Parnassus Halloween Shindig

I love Halloween, and each year I try to do something nice and Halloween-y here at the club. Honestly, I got caught unprepared this year, so what you'll be seeing now is the result of some random scrambling for material. Hope you enjoy it.

To start things off, let's have another entry in opening credits sequence theater, with the simple but powerful start to John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN. This one's mostly about the music; the swift pace of the theme song sets up a momentum that carries through the film's first scenes.



And for those in our audience who are planning to complete major Jewish rites of passage on this day, a word on what you can expect, from Tracy Jordan and an intrepid Sims 2 player:



A good scary story is always appropriate, and Kevin Church and Paul Horn are offering us a particularly spooky webcomic for the holiday, known as Copy Protection.

For something text-only, pretty much all of the works of H.P. Lovecraft have been made available for free online. One of his best stories is Dreams in the Witch House, at least in my opinion, and you can go from there to everywhere on HPLovecraft.com, and wade through all his material, losing sanity as you go.

And finally, for audiophiles wanting to take a listen to probably the most famous radio drama ever, Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre production of The War of the Worlds is frequently revived by local public radio stations, and if you want to listen to it now, head on over to the Internet Archive for a free and legal download.

Hope this is all enough to make your Halloween a teeny bit more awesome. Have fun out there!

Opening Credits Sequence Theater: Crash (1996)

Yes, it's that time again.



David Cronenberg's always had some interesting stuff done with credits sequences- he once described them as a vestibule into the movie, and this is a great example. This strange car-crash-sex drama from a J. G. Ballard novel came with plenty of controversy and repulsion attached, and the opening helps amplify a feeling of dread- we're in alien territory, with Howard Shore's brilliantly orchestrated score and a cold steel title treatment which reflects the film's overall visual style. The vague discomfort sits for pretty much the entire picture.

Opening Credits Sequence Theatre: Superman Returns

I'm a big fan of Bryan Singer's SUPERMAN RETURNS; it's a controversial film at the very least, and the number of people who utterly despise it is kind of disheartening. I gave it a glowing review at the time, of course, and I still hold out the vain hope that he'll be given another go and that Warner Bros. won't hand the franchise off to a hack. As a way of continued tribute then, the film's wonderful opening, which needs little commentary:



Yes, I'm well aware it's the end of the month, what's your point?

Opening Credits Sequence Theatre: Watchmen

Been meaning to do this one for a while, and perhaps I should have done so before Warner Bros. and/or Paramount started taking it down wherever it popped up. Whatever, it's worth seeing (though Not Safe For Work):



Since one of the things that was cut from the film version of WATCHMEN was Hollis Mason's memoir "Under The Hood", which details the heyday of the costumed crimefighters, it's good that the information is conveyed in such a creative fashion. A fun sequence done by a firm called Yu+Co which conveys how these characters have subtly altered history (the twist on the famous V-J day photograph, for example), and though the song choice is a little on the nose, the use of a protest anthem does bring in the political element of the story as well. Also, it's a good song (though I suspect it's the reason the lawyers are so adamant about taking down a video that would have been good publicity otherwise.)

This one might get taken down, so see it while you can.

Opening Credits Sequence Theatre: Fahrenheit 451

In honor of Banned Books Week and the fact that I've not managed that many posts this month, I bring you the opening of the Francois Truffaut adaptation of Ray Bradbury's oft-challenged FAHRENHEIT 451.

In Caxtillan. Because that's the only version anyone posted. (Universal, you have Hulu. Just sayin'.)



It's an approach that in retrospect seems obvious- the movie takes place in a world where books are banned, so instead of text credits, let's have them be spoken. But it was no doubt a bit of a shock at the time, and probably hard to arrange with the unions. And Truffaut kept to the "textless world" approach pretty consistently.

Me, I've been reading MOBY DICK- I can't find it on any list but I'm sure it's been banned somewhere. Really, just read a book this week. Anything that gets read widely enough gets challenged at some point, it's the Circle of Censorship.

Opening Credits Sequence Theatre: Pulp Fiction

Okay, after that I owe all of you a REAL opening credits sequence (and possibly money), so while I'm working on a couple of things, have a look at the brilliant opening titles to PULP FICTION:



So simple, yet so ostentatious- here the music's the thing, with Miserlou's ferocious surf riff telling us that things can only get wilder after the opening. Of course, the great title design helps- the way the title itself is used, almost filling the screen, implies a largeness to the entire project. This may be a low-budget film, but it's going to be a bit epic as well. And then, of course, we change stations, throwing us a bit off and transitioning into the next scene, without losing any energy.

Opening Credits Sequence Theatre: Star Godzilla

This one is interesting, as it's the credits to a film I haven't been able to see. STAR GODZILLA was an unauthorized entry in the franchise made by a Hong Kong studio in 1980, and was quickly buried by Toho. The good folks over at Stomp Tokyo were able to provide a review, but now someone has finally gone and unearthed the opening sequence to this low-budget obscurity. Even though the actual credits are of course in Mandarin, the glowing backgrounds and haunting music hint at a very heavily stylized picture in the vein of GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER, and there's a remarkable sense of tension from the outset. Enjoy.

The owner of the video disabled embedding, so click here.


I'm so sorry.

Opening Credits Sequence Theatre: A Fistful of Dollars

I've complained in the past that more and more films these days are skipping completely over opening credits sequences, and the trend continues. It's not that I think these should be mandatory, but the way they set mood and help transition the viewer into the film's world makes them a useful tool and I'd like to just call attention to that now and again. So, without any regularity whatsoever, I induct this new feature, calling attention to good opening credits sequences as I find them on various video-sharing sites.

First up, Sergio Leone's groundbreaking FISTFUL OF DOLLARS:



The cartoon shilouettes have an iconic quality to them, adding a weird postmodern quality- this is not the real American west, but the Wild West as filtered through old movies, fumetti, and pulp novels. It's crude and it's violent and it's fast, as emphasized by the driving nature of Ennio Morricone's score (accented with gunshots and gibberish vocals.) This really sets the theme for the whole "Dollars" trilogy and arguably all of Leone's westerns; the reality didn't interest him nearly as much as the abstraction.

I'll post more of these depending on how easy it is to find them- some studios are quicker to call copyright infringement than others, so I'll see what I can get away with.