Oscar History
Film Bitch History
Welcome

The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)

Follow TFE on Substackd

Powered by Squarespace
COMMENTS

 

Keep TFE Strong

We're looking for 500... no 390 SubscribersIf you read us daily, please be one.  

I ♥ The Film Experience

THANKS IN ADVANCE

What'cha Looking For?
Subscribe
« 20 Years of TV History | Main | Barbra Streisand Returning to The Tonys after 46 Years »
Thursday
Jun022016

"There is trouble until the robins come..."

After catching a restored, 30th anniversary rerelease of David Lynch’s psycho-suburban nightmare on the big screen last night, Blue Velvet has once again invaded my waking life with huffing menace, casting sinister shadows and nasty neon onto the innocuous surfaces of everyday existence. And it starts from the opening credits. Every time I see this curtain shimmer, I can feel my vision start to go soft as it flickers me into a dream state. The image hypnotically blurs the line between its politely decorative titles and the mysteriously unnerving surface breathing behind them. The strings of the score shimmy with sharp elegance and ironic doom. I’m already huddling inside the closet, unsettled and voyeuristic. Seeing candles dance in the dark. Coiling myself against the danger hiding in plain sight. Soaked in curdling Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Which of your favorite opening credits sequences instantly place you inside the mind and mood of the movie?

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments (28)

Doctor Strangelove's opening credits do an excellent job at that. The gentle music, the font and the two planes in phallic refuelling? Yep, that'll do it.

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterVolvagia

Edward Scissorhands!! Snow. Inventions. Ghostly chorus.

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered Commentercatbaskets

Schwarzenegger in the 90's: Total Recall and Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered Commenter/3rtful

North by Northwest. The chase music and falling skyscraper lines are brilliant tease of what's to come.

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMarsha Mason

Se7en. The opening credits definitely set the tone. Chilling.

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterJB

Enter the Void

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered Commenterken s

JAWS!

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered Commenterhaajen

Cries and Whispers. Names over red.

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered Commentercal roth

Nashville!

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterCorey

Chinatown

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered Commenterzig

Psycho, with the violins immediately catching you off guard and driving you into the movie.
Also, Vertigo. It's so bizarre, beautiful and dreamlike, like the film.

I just REALLY love Bernard Herrmann.

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered Commenterchasm301

P A N I C R O O M

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterDAVID

Rosemary's Baby

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMM in DC

Kill Bill volume 1, with Nancy Sinatra singing Bang Bang while you see Uma Thurman's profile in the hospital, is awesome.

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterFlickah

Moulin Rouge!

but also agree on some of these other suggestions particularly Edward Scissorhands & Panic Room

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterNATHANIEL R

My Best Friend's Wedding and Clue

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterTravis

I gotta rep for Double Indemnity - the haunting silhouette of a man on crutches lurching closer and closer to the camera - and the cemetery sweeping tracking shot from Volver. And love these mentions of Cries and Whispers and Nashville!

June 2, 2016 | Registered CommenterDaniel Crooke

Travis - I'll have the theme to Clue stuck in my head the rest of the day...

June 2, 2016 | Registered CommenterDaniel Crooke

The opening of Mulholland Drive and the opening credits in The Royal Tenenbaums are the first things that came to mind, but I love Marsha Mason's answer of North by Northwest - spot on.

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterScottC

Travis -- my best friend's wedding! yes. a hundred times, yes.

June 2, 2016 | Registered CommenterNATHANIEL R

Scorsese's Cape Fear. Sets up the incredibly tense, slightly ridiculous tone and style incredibly well with those strange visuals and its intense score.

Maybe his credits are never that stylistic or expressive, but I think Todd Haynes' movies always start off on a fantastic note (pun slightly intended) and just run with it every time.

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterNick T

Nathaniel: I'm not sure I'd count Moulin Rouge! It's a great opening, but is it an opening credits sequence?

A few that set the scene for me: Chinatown, Psycho, any James Bond film, Where Eagles Dare (the red lettering as the aeroplane flies over the snowy mountains to Ron Goodwin's music), The Pink Panther movies (an animated Clouseau bumbling along after the panther), and of course the first Superman film - majestic!

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterEdward L.

Howards End, because Vanessa Redgrave is the best reason there is.

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterCraver

The Naked Kiss! I've loved Connie Towers (and Sam Fuller) ever since.

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterPaul Outlaw

Clue with its jarring 80s music is awesome. Attention: this isn't the board game!

June 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMarsha Mason

Amélie, with every credited profession matching a child's game.

June 3, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterCharlie

Batman (1989), with the ominous music slowly leading up to the Bat logo. Batman Returns, with the baby penguin on his way to the sewers that raise him, is good, too.

June 3, 2016 | Unregistered Commenterjakey

Basic Instinct....the wonderfully distorted sex scene and that hypnotic score by Jerry Goldsmith (one of the most memorable ever). It sets us up for the erotic mystery to come.

June 5, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterM. Hallnan
Member Account Required
You must have a member account to comment. It's free so register here.. IF YOU ARE ALREADY REGISTERED, JUST LOGIN.