Best intro to a movie or character

Jay42 said:
the opening of Rope which sets the mood for the whole movie
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Loved Rope. I also love how Hitchcock filmed it in a few takes and managed to make it very seamless. I wonder if he would have done one take as if it were a stage play if he had today's digital technology. The film canisters only allowed him a maximum of 10 minutes at a time.

IMDB trivia
Filmed January 12 to February 21, 1948. There are ten shots within this movie overall, running 9:34, 7:51, 7:18, 7:09, 9:59, 8:35, 7:50, 10:06, 4:37, and 5:40 minutes and seconds each.
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Since the filming times were so long, everybody on the set tried their best to avoid any mistakes. At one point in the movie, the camera dolly ran over and broke a cameraman's foot, but to keep filming, he was gagged and dragged off. Another time, a woman puts her glass down but misses the table. A stagehand had to rush up and catch it before the glass hit the ground. Both parts are used in the final cut.
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Screenwriter Arthur Laurents assures that in the original play, the character of Cadell (played by James Stewart) allegedly had an affair with one of the two murderers while in school.
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VGThuy said:
Especially after all the whole “Think Pink” segment, when everything is pink at the office, her assistant questions why she isn’t wearing pink and Kay Thompson goes “I wouldn’t be caught dead.”
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Thinking about that scene in Funny Face made me want to watch it so that's what I'm doing tonight lol.

Wyliefan said:
Rope is so underrated.
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Rope definitely doesn't get the attention it deserves. I know it's not a flashy as some of Hitchcock's other movies and it came out at an awkward time in Jimmy Stewart's career but it's such an excellent movie. I love it so much. I'm going to have to watch it again sometime soon.
 
mpal2 said:
Loved Rope. I also love how Hitchcock filmed it in a few takes and managed to make it very seamless. I wonder if he would have done one take as if it were a stage play if he had today's digital technology. The film canisters only allowed him a maximum of 10 minutes at a time.

IMDB trivia
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Well you might find my favorite Hitchcock film Rear Window with too much saturation but I do love the opening when we see a seemingly private world in each apartment that isn't so private any longer. And now think about an individual's privacy in the digital age....
 
I don't remember Frenzy if I've seen it. I know I haven't seen all Hitchcock movies. I do want to go through and rewatch some now though. Rear Window was one of my favorites.
 
mpal2 said:
I don't remember Frenzy if I've seen it. I know I haven't seen all Hitchcock movies. I do want to go through and rewatch some now though. Rear Window was one of my favorites.
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Frenzy was one of his very last films and was set in London iirc and involved a serial killer who strangled women. I definitely don't want to see it again. I've rewatched Rear Window and many other Hitchcock films, including a number of his early ones (The 39 Steps, Foreign Correspondent, Shadow of a Doubt, etc.).
 
skatingfan5 said:
Frenzy was one of his very last films and was set in London iirc and involved a serial killer who strangled women. I definitely don't want to see it again. I've rewatched Rear Window and many other Hitchcock films, including a number of his early ones (The 39 Steps, Foreign Correspondent, Shadow of a Doubt, etc.).
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The 39 Steps was one of the first suspenseful heart-pounding movies I have ever seen.
 
My favorite film intro:

www.youtube.com

Tunnel

Millennium Mambo (2001) — Hou Hsiao-hsien
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Seeing this movie as a younger movie watcher, it was like my first experience with film really touching upon the senses beyond sight. Hou Hsiao-Hsien really does things with the camera not many can do.

Also, although I'm not a fan of the movie as a whole, I truly believe the opening sequence of Chariots of Fire won that movie the Oscar. I would have actually been ok if the movie won Best Picture if it was just that first running scene, :lol:. Watching that movie as a whole and comparing it to its competition, especially against Reds, well...:shuffle:
 
MsZem said:
Oh - Working Girl! I love the visuals of the Statue of Liberty and NYC (World Trade Center ?) and then zooming in to the Staten Island Ferry and Tess and Cyn. The contrasts! The 80s hair! And it's clear that Tess has ambitions beyond riding the ferry to her blah job.
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Working Girl - opening credits

"Working Girl" (1988) - starring: Harrison Ford, Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver, Philip Bosco, Joan Cusack, Alec Baldwin Music: "Let The River Run" by Ca...
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The ending is just as good.
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Truly one of the best openings ever and a brilliant shot of New York. The helicopter shots really capture it as you can see it all: Manhattan, Staten Island, Brooklyn, New Jersey, etc. I've actually only ridden the Staten Island Ferry once. A friend of mine lives there now and he keeps trying to get us to visit him more often, but we've just never had the time.

Personal anecdote: One of the first times I hung out with my now husband, we were still new NYC transplants and totally green. We were already downtown and were going to Jersey for an Asian-American Pacific Islander Bar Association event as student volunteers, and we didn't even think about using the ferry, which would have taken us to Liberty House quickly. We took the WTC PATH all the way there and then took a cab from the PATH stop to Liberty House. We were early, so hung out by the Hudson River and my now husband goes "look, it's a replica of the Statue of Liberty...oh wait, I think that's the real one." And my green self actually at first didn't believe him until I saw it and was like "Oh yeah...we live near the Statute of Liberty." It's just one of those things you don't even think about until you take a breath and soak it all in.
 
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VGThuy said:
Personal anecdote: One of the first times I hung out with my now husband, we were still new NYC transplants and totally green. We were already downtown and were going to Jersey for an Asian-American Pacific Islander Bar Association event as student volunteers, and we didn't even think about using the ferry, which would have taken us to Liberty House quickly. We took the WTC PATH all the way there and then took a cab from the PATH stop to Liberty House. We were early, so hung out by the Hudson River and my now husband goes "look, it's a replica of the Statue of Liberty...oh wait, I think that's the real one." And my green self actually at first didn't believe him until I saw it and was like "Oh yeah...we live near the Statute of Liberty." It's just one of those things you don't even think about until you take a breath and soak it all in.
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It was the same for me when I was living in Paris - sometimes I'd be walking down whatever random street and realize that yes, I actually live here.

Working Girl is extremely of its time, but in a good way.
 
Watching Working Girl is like turning back time for me. :D I started working in NYC two years after the movie came out and moved there a year later. Never lived on Staten Island, but I knew a number of people who did, including an ex of mine from college. IMO, the movie is pretty real with its portrayal of the city at that time. Tess, as a character, is one of my favorites in movies.
 
mpal2 said:
Which movie or character introductions felt perfect to you?
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The first few minutes of "Saving Mr. Banks." First, there's the haunting, pensive mood of "Chim Chim Cheree" being played on an old rehearsal piano. You can hear the piano mechanism. Then, comes the voice of Colin Farrell (who I hadn't known, first viewing, was even going to be in the movie!). He says the little piece from Mary Poppins, "Wind's in the east, mist comin' in .... something is brewin', about to begin ... and I think what's to happen, all happened before."

We see a little girl of about seven, playing alone in a garden and making a whimsical little house from leaves and such. It's 1906. We immediately know that this movie is about someone with creative impulses, a talent for quiet solitude, and perhaps a longing for a kind of stability and security she lacks and craves.

The little girl is in the middle of the shot. The camera moves directly above her and slowly zooms out (or in?). Anyway, the shot changes to a shot of Emma Thompson as PL Travers, at her desk with a small typewriter, in 1962. Emma's holding her arms around herself in exactly the same way the little girl is in 1906. So we know that the story is about how the distant childhood past informs and affects this writer. A little later, in the next flashback to 1906, we see Colin Farrell, playing the little girl's father, coming to fetch her from the garden and giving full attention to the relationship they have of imaginative play and delight in each other. So we know the movie's about him and how he formed (and may have deformed) her as an artist.

Okay, I have chills. I may have to go dig out my copy of the dvd and re-watch it later today.
 
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The introduction of Gandalf and Frodo in the Shire in LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring.

Also, since it just came on TCM - the opening bank robbery of the original Thomas Crown Affair. The introduction of Faye Dunaway is pretty cool too. Mostly, I think it's because of the very cool music.
 
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I've always believed Spielberg was very good at setting the stage for drama that is to follow in his movies. I love how he takes his time and gives us a bit of mystery to capture our attention. I absolutely loved the mystery and wonder he provides with the opening scenes of "Close Encounters of Third Kind" --

Mexican Surprise:
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Discovery Of A WWII Plane (Opening Scene) | Close Encounter of the Third Kind | Voyage

Claude Lacombe shares his discovery of a WWII airplane with government scientific researchers. #CloseEnounters #Spielberg #Opening Watch on Google Play! - ht...
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Air Traffic Controllers:
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Air Traffic Control scene HD

Intense scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Very "simple" setup that delivers a great moment thanks to the actors, the camera movements, the light...
youtu.be youtu.be

Gobi Desert:
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Close Encounters of The Third Kind - Ship In The Dessert

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Not a movie but a character... Best introduction I've ever seen, immediately hooked, was Jack Bristow in "Alias." His first scene is just brilliant and sets the tone for his character through the entire series.
 
I was thinking about the beginning of "Four Weddings and A Funeral" when Hugh Grant and Charlotte Coleman (RIP) were late and constantly using versions of the work "f**k. I thought it was one of the funnier openings. And as much as I loved that I might have enjoyed Hugh Grant's Golden Globe acceptance speech even more:
 
For me.....Sound of Music ...hands down.

I have heard her talk about filming that shot. She said that every time the helicopter got close enough for the shot, they blew her right to the ground.

I also like the opening of The Monuments Men.
 
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